About
I recently attended an engineering technician/mechatronics training program at MiraCosta College Technical Career Institute. To complete my time there I also had to propose and present a final capstone project to my cohort and industry professionals. The project was to solve a problem and adhere to the stipulations that make a mechatronics project truly mechatronic - a mechanical design component, an electronic component, and a programming component. I proposed to create an interactive textile that unweaves as methane emissions data increases as shown by NASA and NOAA: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. It was also supposed to show wind data from a relatively untouched part of Antarctica (data from the Antarctic Meteorological Research and Data Center (AMRDC)). I also ended up making the LEDs on it audio-reactive. Just for fun. This project combined my passions in interactive design, sustainable materials, electronic textiles, computational craft, and data visualization. And to speak to the true compelling power of visuals in science in a time when scientific information is unfortunately highly scrutinized.