Mucho gusto! My name is Arturo and I’m from the island of Puerto Rico. You can find me wandering the campus grounds looking for the right classroom, stealthily reading a book somewhere, or nerding out about some idea that just came to mind. I love biking, surfing, snowboarding, and recently started rock climbing. Back home I’m known for always being prepared with tools, gadgets, and solutions to problems (much like my droid counterpart). My favorite part of working on a project is the CAD drawing stage after having made all the calculations and theoretical validation. I chose this class to enhance my designing skills and learn new manufacturing techniques that will be useful for a self-run business, my belief is that if you can’t find it, we can make it.

Most times it is difficult to find a product someone truly needs. They are either too expensive, too unreliable, or simply don’t even exist. With a little ingenuity and well-focused work it is possible to acquire these products, so goes the maker mentality. Makers are well known for their creativity and passion into the things they create. It is a very entrepreneurial style of thinking, where you focus on an idea, willing it to existence through hours of testing and iterations.

As a maker, taking a course that can polish my skills while providing an opportunity to learn new manufacturing and design techniques is invaluable. For this reason I decided to take ENGI 210 (as an added plus, my university does not have a decent manufacturing lab). It will also be a social experience to connect with like minded students from Rice.

Disclaimer: That is not me in the picture…my hair is longer.