BlueStamp was a blast.

At first it was a bit daunting being one of the few girls in the class, especially being a minority, but I got over it. No one treated me unfairly because of my race, gender, or anything else.

I'll admit it was intimidating being in a room of students who had more engineering knowledge and experience than I had. Nevertheless, the instructors at BlueStamp were patient, elaborate, and kind, so it didn't take long for me to catch up.

My first project, called the starter project, was the TV-B-Gone. In essence, it's a remote control that only functions as a power button. I spent the rest of the five weeks working on my intensive project. I decided to create a makeshift smartwatch. I ordered an OLED screen with a mini Arduino inside. I programmed a few features such as an animation, a clock, and a ping pong game. What's cool about the watch is that it's controlled by an accelerometer. An accelerometer is a device that measures acceleration, and acceleration is the rate of change of velocity in an object. I used it to control the watch through tilting motion. It is also how I'm able to move the paddles in the pong game.

My last step was designing and 3D printing the watch base. I designed the watch base using a CAD or Computer Aided Design software. I'm glad I was able to learn CAD because it is used a lot in Mechanical Engineering, the field of engineering I want to study.

Something I didn't have time to complete but will continue to work on at home is making my watch solar powered. I'm going to use this solar powered badge that I can walk around with and use to recharge the watch.

Overall, I would give my experience at BlueStamp Engineering an eleven out of ten. Not only did I get to build this cool project on my own, attend lectures on engineering concepts, and take advice form guest speakers, I made a few great friends I hope to stay in touch with throughout the school year.

Thanks to those who donated to and shared my campaign, I'm able to attend BlueStamp Engineering this summer. I will pay it forward by working hard throughout the duration of the program and helping others with their projects along the way. Please continue to donate through Wishbone so other students can receive the similar opportunities.