It is important to strike a good balance between work and play. Near the end of my first semester at Auburn Career Center I was permitted to build a custom dance pad. I’ve always loved the Dance Dance Revolution series of games, but the standard foam pads made it difficult to play well. I decided my best option would be to create a custom solid pad. I started with some research and found a thriving online community of people that have been creating dance pads for years. After checking through some guides we decided on a design to follow. My class got in touch with a few other programs at Auburn to help with the construction of the pad. I then went straight to work on learning how to program and wire an Arduino board. After a few different designs, we found a reliable wiring setup that worked well for the dance pad and the dance software. A few other classmates assisted me in the building of the sensors and painting of the board. The whole project took about half a year to complete, but we finally got everything working. The pad is plenty of fun to use and a great way for teachers to talk about what’s possible at Auburn.

One of the best ways to learn about something is by getting hands-on with it. As a high school freshman, I decided I wanted to build my own computer. I took the initiative to get a job, research, and save up to put it all together. After a few missteps, I got everything working. I love to create things, and this computer was going to provide the horsepower for me to do much more intensive projects. I got to learn about computers, project management, and design all by building a computer. I’ve now taken my knowledge to build another computer, help some friends, and also put together some computers for the Auburn Career Center lab. Computers are amazing devices, and I try to make sure I know everything about them, inside and out.