Hello! I’m Milène, a freshman from Jones studying Mechanical Engineering with a  minor in Engineering Design.

Last semester I got introduced to engineering design through FWIS 188. This was my first time working on a real engineering project with a team (we created an exhibit for the Lone Star Flight museum). I had no previous experience with using engineering tools so I certainly learned a lot.

One thing I made that I’m proud of is a dress made of recycled materials for a competition. My goal was to create a dress that is unique and extravagant enough for the judges to remember.

As you can see, it’s not really something you’d wear everyday…

One of my professors in grade 11 introduced us to the competition and I thought it’d be fun to try! I remember working on it for months before reaching the final design. Although I’d say the overall experience was pretty cool, it was extremely frustrating a lot of times. Tiny pieces kept falling apart and I would run out of inspiration for which materials to use quite often. I’m happy with the result though!

There are many projects I want to lead in the future. I actually have a notes page on my phone where I write down many things I want to try making (reading through it again, most of them are absurd and probably can’t be made). One of them is a small car model that has wheels facilitating parallel parking. Basically, when a button is pressed, the wheels turn by 90° and allow you to make the car slide into a parking spot. Another thing I think will be fun to make is a chair that senses you’re about to sit down and approaches you. I don’t really know why these are useful but I thought it would be fun to make.

I really hope I’ll be able to be more familiar with technical engineering tools after taking ENGI 210 so that I can try making one of the things I wrote on my “ideas” notes page!