For my Capstone, I wanted to apply all of the knowledge in various different engineering subjects topics I have gained throughout the entire course of the CTE Engineering program. I wanted to create a project that would demonstrate how anyone could create something for themselves while still being environmentally conscious and economically feasible just by learning engineering skills. I wanted to demonstrate this process by going through all of the steps of theoretically building a tiny house. My deliverable is essentially a “how to” guide on all of the different aspects and components to building a tiny house. This project is geared towards educating people on not just how they can build a tiny house but how they can take this process apply it to almost anything in their life. The goal of this project is for someone with little to no construction experience to follow this guide and actually build anything they wanted. This process of gathering the right materials and constructing by yourself could be for something as small as a birdhouse to something as significant as your own home. In order to complete this project I had to do thorough research on the process of construction a house, how to apply that into process to work in tiny house, and also how to gather so many essential materials that fall under the criteria.

For my Capstone, I 3-D printed a Zen Garden Tray for children who had symptoms of anxiety or showed signs of inattentiveness and impulsivity. since I also wanted to incorporate Psychology and Engineering into my Capstone, I designed my Tray to appeal to 1 of the 5 senses. by appealing to 1 of the 5 senses, my design would teach children how to be calm and mindful.

It would also teach children a grounding technique, and possibly inspire them to do something Engineering-related. on the back of each design would be instructions, showing step-by-step instructions on how to design the product.

For my Capstone, I wanted to use my Arduino skills and knowledge of electrical engineering to create a quadcopter/drone and give it away to some charitable organization. My path, however, was riddled with many roadblocks, I tried reaching out to various toy donation organizations and asked if I would be able to give this project away, and sadly most were not currently accepting any toy donations due to the COVID-19 public health crisis and because of the chance of it becoming a fire hazard. When all hope seemed lost, I found an organization willing to help my cause, the National Public Safety Drone Donation Program, this organization creates and accepts donations for drones that can be used by mainly firefighters and different fire departments to save lives. They told me they would willing to take my drone and I also left a cash donation for their cause. My final product for my Senior Capstone is the images of the steps I took to make my drone/quadcopter and the receipt of my donation to the National Public Safety Drone Donation Program. I hope my donation and project can be used to help fire departments save a family or someone who is in harm’s way.

To be an engineer is to be committed to expressing yourself unapologetically. That is what I believe. Last year, I was worried about what I wanted my capstone to focus on. I was thinking everything engineering, traditional engineering. However, after some meaningful class discussions with Mr. Ugworji, I concluded the best capstone would be something I would do in my own free time.

So I decided to focus my capstone around Fashion. Something I knew very little about when it comes to production and its direct relation to engineering.

After intensive research, I came across Virgil Abloh, a Mechanical Engineer, Founder of Off-White, and Creative Director of Louis Vuitton. Virgil helped me understand how I can use engineering concepts to aid my clothing designs.

I quickly realized that Virgil specializes in Deconstruction, an aesthetic that sheds more spotlight on the materials that make up the final product. Deconstruction is very similar to reconstruction, the aesthetic I emulate, directly influenced by my favorite designer house Sacai.

So why?

Well, we need more engineers in Fashion. Clothes production is one of the leading causes of the climate crisis. To produce one T-Shirt, it takes 40 gallons of water. So during the early stages of my capstone, I decided to work with second-hand clothing. I, alongside my brother, started a collective that focuses on using old materials and creating something new. This leads to a reconstruction aesthetic and a less polluted environment. Although I faced many difficulties while finishing this capstone(such as breaking my sewing machine three times and deciding to just hand stitch), I persevered, and I am glad to say I made something I am proud of.