Howdy! Welcome to week 2 of my blog (please ignore how out of sync this is lol). This week we got to officially meet with our client, I wrote the first draft of the Design Criteria, and we had amazing workshops in the waterjet and Arduino. Very exciting stuff for SEED 2023!

Seeing the waterjet was fun for me because I had never used it before and it was much easier than I initially thought. I’m working to be less intimidated by the machinery day by day. In the Arduino workshop, Mina and I accidentally killed the Arduino (RIP) by connecting the power from the wall with the power from the Arduino in the same channel so I learned not to do that and that it’s okay to fail. Despite the unfortunate downfall of the Arduino we used, our workshop was a net positive experience because my friendship with Mina grew stronger over the shared tragedy. Additionally, I had a 1:1 conversation with Dr. Holmes about my summer goals and how we can get there! He shared many helpful metaphors with me and he gave the vibes of a wise sage talking to an anxious child. I think I was nervous because of my deep-rooted fear of failure and disappointing others but I’m learning to be more open about failures because failure is the only way to success!

Speaking of failures, we discovered how our KIM K team was coming up short on communication and made plans to rectify our situation with a Communication meeting facilitated by Dr. Holmes next Tuesday — stay tuned to see how that goes. My teammates and I realized we weren’t seeing eye-to-eye on what the best method of communication or teamwork is due to different backgrounds and experiences with design projects.  We think we’re going to lean into more written communication as well since Zoom calls aren’t the most reliable when our international colleagues have internet issues.

Another experience that really stood out to me was a guest presentation by Dr. Robert Read, who demonstrated the PolyVent- an open-source, low-cost ventilator from his nonprofit company, Public Invention. I found Dr. Read’s presentation particularly inspiring because he shared how the age of the lone genius is over when it comes to engineering. I fully agree with that statement because diverse perspectives and collaboration are integral to the best solutions for a wide range of users. Dr. Read put that sentiment to action by developing an open-source platform to share inventions that benefit humanity.

In relation to benefiting humanity, here are some pictures from this week!!!