I love showing off my students’ achievements! These are some of them:

Blanca Xian

Blanca started learning Arduino in 2016, in a group class with elementary school kids at Fábrica Digital makerspace when she was in 4th grade. She was progressing so fast that a year later she joined a group with middle-school students, only to join my group the following year with the adults, while she was just in 6th grade.

Blanca has finished two projects. A 100% 3D printed robotic car powered by Arduino and controlled with an app, and a weather station also 3D printed and Arduino-powered.

Photos of Blanca Xian and her projects

Blanca is starting middle school in 2019 and she already got a project portfolio that sure will be praised by her teachers at the new school.

Pablo García Jaén

Pablo was my very first student at Fábrica Digital makerspace. He started learning Arduino, becoming fluent in programming in just a few months. He does not hesitate taking on extremely ambitious projects, and anyone could tell the great amount of time he spends on working them just by seeing his creations. Pablo can program on Arduino very fluently, he is capable of designing in 3D complex mechanic systems, build mobile apps and even design and make his own electronic circuit boards.

His project Moais’Pider, a robotic spider powered by Arduino that he could control using a mobile app and a pair of sensing gloves built by himself, was awarded a 2nd prize in the regional contest “Feria Andaluza de Tecnología 2016”. He has been featured on different newspapers and has been a lecturer during Arduino Day at University of Cadiz. All of this at the age of 16. His project STEVE (Artilithecus Ramidus), a robot capable of feeling touch, was awarded a Bifrutas grant competing at national level.

Photos of Pablo García Jaén and his projects

In highschool Pablo experienced how useful learning 3D design using FreeCAD is, making his technical drawing assignments much easier because of the tools he already knew. He was also chosen to participate in Jerez Science Fair 2016 by his school.

Today (2020), Pablo is an undergrad student at University of Sevilla, pursuing studies of Electronics, Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering. He has not stopped tinkering and inventing things. His current project, QBots, is a set of robots that autonomously are capable of coordinate and position themselves to make different shapes. He was very protective of his ideas at the beginning, but he learnt the benefits of sharing, documenting his work and making it accessible to others. Today he is proud of having a 4-year portfolio of projects he can use to showcase his skills when applying for scholarships and programs.

Miguel Azores

Miguel attended his first workshop with me in September 2015, to join us regularly shortly after. Like most of my students, he started learning Arduino, using it to build a scale model house equipped with all kinds of sensors, automation and alarms. He got interviewed by the local TV about his project while displaying it during Jerez Science Fair 2016.

Photo of Miguel Azores being interviewed by the local TV channel

During his senior year in highschool, he helped building the 3D printer of his school. He also leveraged his 3D design skills using FreeCAD for a class assignment that was praised by his teacher.

Today (2020), Miguel is an undergrad student at University Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, studying Software Robotics Engineering. He signs up for all activities, workshops and trainings he can find. Learning Arduino programming at an early age made learning Python and Micro:Bit easier in college, and Miguel points out how from the very beginning he has been following the good programming practices he learnt with me regarding clean code and documentation. He has a big advantage in comparison to his classmates.

Marcos Lope

Marcos joined my class in January 2016 when he was 15, a really good age to learn programming using a prototyping platform like Arduino. At that age they are capable of taking on relatively complex projects that keeps them engaged. Soon he started using the 3D printer and designing his own parts using OpenSCAD.

During the year and a half that he was my student for, his most ambitious project was a GoPro camera-equipped robot controlled from his phone. To build it he had to learn about Bluetooth and Android app development. His robot moves using a chain system designed and 3D printed by himself, for which he also learnt mechatronics.

Photo of Marcos Lope's project

Today (2020), Marcos is an undergrad student of Construction Engineering at University of Sevilla. He attends the same school hosting Sevilla Fablab, a digital fabrication lab equipped with 3D printers, laser cutting machines and CNCs. For college he uses tools such as AutoCAD and Revit, and he told me how his classmates and teachers praise his ability working on a 3D plane. Countless hours learning 3D design in OpenSCAD definitely paid off.