Another Geek Moment – Summer Break Edition – Noah and Grace are Back to School!

It’s hard to believe that just two months ago, we were launching the Summer Break Edition with Noah and Grace. Since that time, the two engineering students have had the opportunity to work on three different projects each and document their successes and failures in weekly videos. They’re both back at school now, but before they left, we asked them each for a quick summary of their summer break experience.

Grace – The internet is a crazy thing. I went from depending on instruction to building and debugging in Madison on my own in a matter of a couple of months thanks to a few internet gurus: DigiKey, Adafruit and SparkFun. I was able to not only choose projects that were beneficial to my learning, but also played at my interests due to the sheer amount of resources available. There is an intense versatility in DigiKey’s product line that allowed me to tap into the massive amounts of project tutorials available. DigiKey allows for not only a wide variety of products for shipment, but small quantities which was key to using these tutorials for learning. Choosing a project was no doubt intimidating for someone who is used to having curriculum and mentors decide which project would be best to supplement my education, but this is where the intimidation stopped. DigiKey was ready at the other side of the decision-making for me to order parts for whichever project I chose.

I would highly encourage all curious/budding makers to explore all that these companies make available. I learned a lot, but more importantly, I am excited to know more after being introduced. This process has solidified a confidence in my engineering competence, and I hope others feel it in them to experience that for themselves!

Noah – DigiKey’s Another Geek Moment - Summer Break Edition was an incredible opportunity and an amazing experience. My passion for electronics is what drove me to choose Electrical Engineering to study and DigiKey allowed to me expand on that interest. With resources such as SparkFun, Adafruit, DigiKey, the maker-spaces TechShop, and Nordeast Makers, I was able to build projects that not only played to my own interests but also expanded my overall knowledge of electronics. This process surprised me because of sheer amount of projects that were provided from various websites and how accessible DigiKey made the parts that I needed to take the projects to the next level. I also had an absolute blast while getting ready for filming. By working out the kinks in my projects and learning about the components in them, this then allowed me to continue my journey and growth concerning electronics. Debugging is a large part of being an engineer, and my projects definitely gave me challenges along the way, but I embraced everything about the experience because it was so much more rewarding when I finally figured out a solution to a problem that was hindering the project. When it came time to filming, I was fully prepared and knew the ins and outs of all of my projects. Being in front of a camera definitely took some getting used to, but it was fun to show off what I built and talk about the components I learned so much about.

DigiKey not only made me feel like a superstar, but they also empowered me to dive deeper into my passions and learn even more about them. Together, it made for an experience that I will never forget. An experience that has inspired me to not only learn more, but improve my engineering skills.

Well, let’s just say that DigiKey had a blast working with Noah and Grace as well. As a seasoned engineer, we sometimes forget how we got our start, but seeing these college kids and the energy they bring to everything rejuvenated my excitement in building projects and continuing to learn. We wish these two, and all the other future engineers that just returned to school, the best in their education. Thanks for a great summer!