For my capstone, I did a soccer ball for the Blind. Throughout this project, I’ve had a couple of roadblocks that have made me reflect on if I should be doing the project. Luckily I stuck through it and enjoy making my project. Next, the process of my project was very unique. Throughout the whole project, I was at first coding a buzzer. When coding the buzzer everything was going according to plan. Until all of a sudden, my code starts having issues. It wasn’t detecting what I was trying to do. Kept having error problems with the code. Once I figured out the code another problem started which was the circuit. The code was being verified by the coding of the website so I thought I was good but no the buzzer started to act up. The buzzer was acting up to the point that it wasn’t being recognized and everything was set up perfectly even with its voltages in the correct spot. So when it was time to overcome these obstacles I quickly started to think of other options that could work. That’s when the idea of a speaker since it’s Bluetooth won’t need any wires. To overcome this I got a mini speaker and just put it inside the ball just to see how loud it would be. As I did that it was perfect. The next step was now how to make the soccer ball kickable. I finally ended up painting it and polishing it. Through all, I learned to never get stuck on one idea and essentially there can always be other solutions to your project or anything in general.

For my capstone, I made a modular pinball machine that allows the user to move the obstacles around to create any kind of playing board they want. The point was to do something innovative with the classic pinball design and to add my mark to the pinball world. The first thing I did was I first constructed the flippers using a design that I saw on YouTube and have used before in cardboard pinball designs. I made the frame out of thin 1/8th inch baltic birch and plywood so that it is sturdy yet still light and portable. I also wanted the board to be removable so that in case anything breaks or goes wrong it is easier to fix. I created a ball chute for putting the ball in play using a chopstick, a spring, and some thin baltic birch wood. The positioning of the magnets was the hardest part of my capstone. I went through many different magnet patterns with different spacing for all of them before I came up with the one that is actually in use. If you look at the back of the board, you can still see where I had plans to install the magnets on the other designs. After I super glued the magnets in place, I still had to make the obstacles. I started with some basic ones like some basic curves and some circles, although I would still like to expand on my capstone by making some more complex obstacles like ramps, rails, and some moving parts like a multiball function or something like that.

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TewAN7A2YcahWalgnl-c5SuRyTGK8eBf0vOmGcggvSs/edit?usp=sharing

For my capstone I taught some young students how to code. This was a very rewarding capstone since we were learning together. This felt like a great opportunity to show off skills I already had and pass those skills off to someone that might really enjoy it. My ultimate goal is get more women in STEM fields so the best way to help with that would be to show young girls that anyone can learn how to code and that it can be fun! The research for this project was loaded. I needed to not only refresh my knowledge on coding but also learn how to teach children. I was very happy with the results I saw with the projects. We did mini lessons to lead up to making websites. I will be attaching a very excellent project one of my students made. These are two screenshots of a website with their favorite authors. I was very impressed to see all of their links being functional and leading to different areas of the website.

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TWvf-xuFffp8iuSuupSbjFY6ILizwcGn3Q8ALnB95g4/edit?usp=sharing

The project I chose to do for my Capstone was to improve upon the wind tunnel that is used in CTE Engineering. A wind tunnel is a testing system that can simulate an object in flight that is commonly used in aerospace engineering fields. At the beginning of the year, the wind tunnel was nothing more than a wooden tunnel with a fan at the end and it was my job to improve upon it. This project required a lot of research and also funding from Braskem. My improvements included a system to test lift and drag, a large contractor and diffuser to create a higher wind speed, and a flow visualization system that uses smoke to show how air interacts with the object. This project taught me a lot about wind tunnels and the physics behind them, how to use a 3D modeling software to create what I need, how to use the 3D printer and the laser cutter, and how to work through a massive project over a long period of time. My final product is a functional wind tunnel that will be used in CTE Engineering to help students learn about aerospace engineering.

Link to my annotated bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1S-XmrO7V6_UPeks_sV3KXZGDeXkwOhrh3CQHroRIPmo/edit?usp=sharing

When I first started on my capstone I originally wanted to create my calendar app but also allow it to communicate with Canvas to take assignments from there. I realized that recreating something that big is ridiculously hard and not feasible for me. So I decided that I would need to change what I had for my final plan. This meant not making it an app and instead just purely coding it. I also then decided to limit my calendar to only adding classes and assignments. So after coming up with what seemed to me like a reasonable direction to start working towards, I got started. Most of the time I spent at the beginning was familiarizing myself with the API that Java Script had for date and time because I knew it would be necessary to create a calendar and also re-familiarizing myself with coding in general as it had been quite a while since I had coded anything. I started by creating basic date checkers and after that looking at other calendars online where I noticed that all of them were unable to add events to the calendar so I decided that I would at least be able to do that. As I worked I eventually created the base but I realized that with the time I had spent working on just making the calendar itself, I would have to cut out either the ability to add assignments or classes. I chose assignments over classes because making classes seemed less important but also more difficult. I then kept working and eventually created the calendar I have today.

Capstone: https://github.com/Spumason/SLA-Senior-Capstone

Bibliogrophy: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kuU1sx9l_dlZb1uMRax3_AYxydTyP33Sk5JW8gqQk4A/edit?usp=sharing

My capstone project, First-Aid Cabinetmaking, has multiple inspirations and reasons as to why I chose to pick it. I very much wanted to combine my engineering experience with my passion for Medicine and making an impact on others’ lives. At the same time, I strived to give back to the community I’ve been a part of for 4 years before leaving. The resulting factor led to me choosing to build a first-aid cabinet after also realizing there was no emergency equipment on higher floors. One of the driving factors in choosing a woodworking project was that I wanted to build my skills in the engineering shop with machinery or hand work since covid held me back from that.

To be honest, I was tired of just using traditional screws and drills. I wanted to use my hands more so I won’t have to rely too much on the quality of the wood or machinery like the CNC. This led to the decision to use a router to make mortises/dado joints and rabbet joints to connect all of the shelves and cabinet framing together. This took the most time by far but I think I improved on the most seeing as I had never touched a router beforehand. I hope that others in the future can look at this capstone and be inspired to pursue something which combines their interest. I also hope they can be proud of how much their skills would have improved just like I did.

Annotated Bibliography: