Summer STEM Manufacturing Internship
This program is designed to teach critical STEM-based problem solving skills to both a team of high school students as well as younger-aged students from all over the world. In this 5-week internship, a team of students are tasked with creating a kit of robotic parts that can be acquired for under $55. This ensures that as many schools as possible have access to this educational resource. Everything must be in the kit, including mechanical structures and various electrical components. In addition to that, the team must assemble a manual or instructional videos that explain the basics of programming and robotics to a younger audience. After the team has assembled their kit and confirmed it works as expected, it is field-tested with a group of middle school students, and then manufactured to be used by schools from around the world.
WEEK ONE
This week in CPEP - Star Rise New Haven Ventures, we established four essential teams to partake in the innovation of (Yo)unity bot 2.0: Programming, Public Relations, Electrical, and Mechanical. Throughout the course of this week, the programming team finalized their software and programming language choices. They are studying the languages of Arduino Software and MIT App Inventor which uses block code and has the ability to be uploaded to an Android device. The Public Relations group kept busy this week, by establishing the group’s online presence. They also collected pictures and formed relationships with their group members. They took daily notes and finalized cost analysis for the electrical and mechanical teams. The electrical team re-familiarized themselves with the previous Bot’s electrical system. This helped them to determine what batteries and Bluetooth device system would be used in the new robot. The mechanical team finalized the blueprint of the robot, which includes material choices to build the body, placement for hole drilling, developed a manufacturing process, and finalized packaging for the robot. Now we are ready to begin developing a prototype!
WEEK TWO
Week two came with a lot of learning on the job to create prototypes. All three teams: Mechanical, Electrical, and programming were able to create a visible representation of their ideas. The mechanical team got acquainted with heavy machinery including a band saw and a perspective drill to make holes and cut pieces from the PVC boards. They then tested and evaluated these boards to ensure that they would be used accurately. Towards the end of the week, the mechanical team began working on a second design cycle for the (Yo)unity bot 3.0. The programming team played their role after their research by creating a working beta for the mobile app design. The electrical team began with making wire diagrams and the creation of an LED stand in for motors to test the program. While testing they determined the need for a new motor controller. Public Relations continued capturing pictures and videos of these processes and created a presentation. This presentation, along with a physical mini prototype, was presented to the customers.
WEEK THREE
The third week was our pre production week. The mechanical team finished their strenuous torture testing for material reliability. Now they are ready to build their full-scale prototype. After creating their LED stand in, the electrical team is now waiting for a new motor controller to run motors for circuit boards. The programming team is working to refine their mobile app prototype. Both electrical and programming teams are at a stand still waiting for the motor controller. When this is part arrives they will run a collaborative prototype using the app and circuit boards with motors. The Public Relations team gained new skills in videography. They learned camera basics, techniques on filming, and video editing on a new software. With this new skill set, they will be able to create videos with a higher production value
WEEK FOUR
Week Five
The fifth and final week of New Haven Venture Manufacturing Summer Internship was dubbed “PR week” because the Public Relations team had the most essential jobs this week. They were tasked with printing, laminating, and binding all three instruction manuals, holding interviews of each person who participated in the program and created a video, put the link to the app on the website, packaging parts, and created another presentation of steps 8 through 12 from the design process that was presented on the final day of the program. The other teams continued their mass production. In the end there was a completion of 4 robot kits.
Our First Prototype
Our four teams started week four by setting goals that we aimed to accomplish by the end of the week. The mechanical team hoped to complete twenty prototypes of the Yo(unity) bot 3.0. However, they misjudged the amount of material and adjusted their goal to eight fully programmed and working prototypes. To achieve their goal by the end of the week, they spent the majority of their time cutting and drilling holes in blanks to be placed on the prototype. Throughout the week the electrical team managed to achieve their goals of finalizing their revised parts list and programming their motor controller, which controls the motors speed and the wheels’ direction. Eventually, they finished constructing the electrical system and taught people from other teams how to configure the system and the science behind it. The programming team finished working on their app, which now allows the operation of two coding programs instead of one. They published the final version of the app on the website and are striving to release it on google play store. Public relations used their newfound skills in video editing on Adobe Premiere to create week video three and four and recreate week videos one and two. The public relations team cross trained with electrical and programming teams. They learned how to wire a breadboard and use blank code. Public relations started on a new task of interviewing all of the interns on their learning experiences throughout this five-week summer course. This video will soon be published.
