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  • Q’s Flex First Corse Porfolio

    Samir Milligan

    12/1/2025

    As I wrote above, my name is Samir Milligan. I am currently 18 years old, and I am in my first year of college, also my first semester.

    I am a Manufacturing and Automated Robotics Dual major(thinking about a minor in theater). This post is meant, as the title suggests, to give you a review of my course portfolio.

     

    I wish to stay physically fit during my time at Millersville University so that I do not feel out of shape when I am older and need to do physical work.  

    To make sure that I am doing so, I plan to have a checkup every 6 months. 

    To start, I will have to review my schedule for opening times. Next, I must decide how many times I want to work out a week and how long I want to work out, and plan accordingly. Then, I will create a workout plan that works with the times I want. Lastly, I just started going to the Millersville University gym. 

    Potential obstacles for my goal can be a change in schedule or emergencies. Resources/supports that are available, and the healthy body image organizations that exist on campus. Who can help me? I know quite a few people who already work out. I can ask them for help when necessary and use them as moral support. 

    My goal will be completed when I graduate from Millersville University. 

    Moving on, I will be telling you about the assignment we have done as a class.

    Typography

    Material Processing

    Construction

    Electrical Decoration

    3d Model & Print

    Safety Engineering

  • Q: Safety Engineering

    This is the first time I have done something like this event. I have had to build stuff with materials given to meet requirements, but it is the first time I had a story line behind the assignment. It was fun to have a setting a role-play for the assignment.

    For this assignment we had to make a device to pick up a container filled with “radioactive material”(popcorn kernels), poor it into a safe container, then place the original container back in it’s place without dropping/spilling anything with the added the  without entering the area of radiation. My group decided to make a device that would go around the “dangerous” container, tighten, lift, dump, place back and then lessen. It took a bit of workshopping but we were able to make it work.

    Overall I learned graphing from this assignment as we had to  make designs for all our ideas to be able to convey them to out teammates. I had fun and I think it was a educational experience to see what kind of ways other people were able to solve the same problem.

     

    Safety Engineering T

    Uploaded by donnampainter on 2025-12-03.

  • Q: Typography

    Before this assignment, I had very little knowledge of typography. I only knew enough to ensure that I would submit my assignments in MLA format, and even then, I had to constantly recheck the requirements. I knew even less about metal typography. I knew that they used metal type machines. I also knew that the machine had some type of spring that would send the typewriter back to the left after it reached the right. I also know that the buttons would get jammed often and would need to be greased. But I have never had a class that talked about typography.

    During the ‘Learning by Doing’ Typography assignment, it could be said that we had different sections. These sections were printed, and I watched two videos (meant to give us a better idea of typography). The last section was reading the sections, where I had to read the paragraphs and then answer questions using the information given in them.  It took me longer than the rest. While they were moving on, I was still on letter stamping.

    During the ‘Learning by Doing’ Typography assignment, the part of the assignment that connected with me the most was the name stamping. It was fun searching for the letters and  getting to stamp my name on the page. I did mess up by putting the letters in the opposite direction needed for it to be readable. I fixed it, but it took a while.

    The second part that I connected with was the point system that the letters are based on from the paragraphs of information. I understood the point system by separating the letter by its 72/100, using the basis that 72 is an inch and that an inch can be divided by 9. So in my head, I understood that each lowercase letter had eight sections of nine. This system ended up being flawed, and so it did not help my group much; this is how I understand it.

    The last assignment is one that, while I did not mind, I would not have liked on its own. It was the video linked through the QR codes on the page. I do not particularly like reliance on technology, though that is a personal opinion. There were two videos linked on the page, one video was a video that talked about the history of letters, and the other was about setting the type so that you can use it. I did not connect with this, as while it was informative, it just felt like excessive information instead of information that I could use as a foundation for what typography is. At least the type-setting video. The other video was about the history of how letters came to be. Although I do not remember the entirety of the video, I remember that the letters were based on the shape of a body part, which I think is interesting, but not enough on its own. I need my peers to expand on the information given.

    To summarize, I found my peers to fill in for information or perspectives that I did not see. Besides that, I found myself being best suited for primary hands-on learning, secondary in visual learning, and last with auditory learning. This is information I was already aware of, but it is nice to have it reinforced. That is all, thank you for listening. Have a lovely day, goodbye.

  • Q: 3D Modeling and Printing

    Before this assignment I did have some experience with 3D modeling, though it was only in CAD. Because of this experience I at the same time had a good foundation to start that this assignment, and a worse one then if I started fresh. This is due to the heavy difference in the layout. I don’t know if CAD is different now, but when I was in high school it felt counter intuitive. To be taught to use something like that and then move on to something with much more detail when it comes to options, was a little dizzying.

    For this assignment we were told to make a model of a Lego using 3D modeling software. We were given a step-by-step guide for what to do. Even with this step-by-step guide I struggled because the guide chose to skip step that I assume they though were unnecessary, or basic since. As I lacked that basic because it took me longer than I am happy with to continue from some steps. But in the end, I was able to follow the step and submit my assignment by the end of class.

    After the 3D modeling we were given a demonstration on how the printing of our files worked this for the most part was very straightforward. You go to the 3D printing software, import the file containing the Lego and then place it where you want it. After doing so you center the starting point and then start the program. After this we were told about somethings to watch out for, such as melting, improper placement, heat disputation, and piece sticking.

    Overall, I found this assignment to be a good way to introduce students into 3D modeling, though the taunting of the instructions annoys me. I have learned to read in between the lines on instructions and a new frustration with technology.

    P.S.: make sure to read the terms of service.

  • Q: Electrical Decoration

    I have a class on electrical circuits, so I knew quite a few things about electrical systems before the electronics assignment. In my electrical systems class, I have been learning how to understand, read and create circuits. So, I have a basic understanding of electrical systems and how they work. Most recently I have had to put together a robot that travels on a designated trail. I also built an electromagnetic accelerator in the same lab because I had extra time.

    During the Learning by Doing assignment, we were tasked with making a decoration that had a simple circuit with a light embedded into it. I chose to make a stick figure that’s light would turn off or on when the stick figures arms changed positions. This was extremely difficult to accomplish, not because the premise was hard, but because I did not consider the materials I would be allowed to use. The main component we used during this assignment was copper tape. The problem with this material is that it is very unreliable when it comes to properly transmitting power from one place to another. Because of this my light would turn on, turn off, then turn back on. To solve this, I doubled the tape to lessen the chance of a break in the circuit.

     

    From this assignment I have learned two things one: good materials and tools are important, and two: good materials are a crutch. To explain, during the making of my decoration, all I could think about is how much easier it would be if I had a multi-meter to read the circuit, or alligator clips for a more trustworthy connection. But after I was done and I finally finished making my decoration. I realized how stifling those tools were because I had to work with limited resources; I had to be creative on how I could get my circuit to work reliably. But if I had my tools, I would have just kept adding more materials into the project without thinking. In this way, although it was annoying to make, this assignment made me remember just how easily a tool of convivence can become a stifling shackle that we cling to out of familiarity. That is all I have to say for now. Thank you for reading, I hope you’re doing well. Goodbye.

  • Q: Construction

    I have done a few experiment that were similar in high school. We had to build a bridge, and it had to support a certain amount of weight. Me and my partner at the time made a bridge that was a mixture between a suspension and a truss bridge. Although my teammate was not present for majority of the project making, I was able to make a functional bridge and succeed at the goal. This gave me a little experience with applying knowledge I just learned and on the fly ingenuity.

     

    for the assignment we were told to make a support system for a 2-liter bottle(full) out of the materials provided. This was difficult for us as a peg (one of two) on our bottle was Broken and we couldn’t get a replacement. So, to make up for this we tried to use the table a support pillar. This did not work because it did not have enough stability. For out next attempt we tried to fix the problem we saw by adding double-sided tape to the connected pillars, in hopes it would make it more secure. by the time we finished this attempt class was over and so we sadly never succeeded at the goal.

     

    What I learned from this project is that I lack in ingenuity and communication. Not only was I not able to find a method to overcome the limitation that were in place, I also was not able to properly understand and convey our different ideas. I hope that in the future I can better deal with such a situation. Thank you for listening to me. I hope you are doing well. Goodbye.

  • Q: Material Processing

    I have taken a lot of classes in which I have used machinery to make stuff; examples being my woodshop and metal shop classes. This is not the first time I will be using a Lazer engraver, as I have used them a couple of times for some of my passed projects. I have used it when engraving a few of my boxes and when cutting out stuff to fit chess pieces into. Although I have never been required for any of my assignments I like to do so as I believe it gives my projects more personality.

    I decided to do this assignment at the last minute but that does not take away from the final project. At least I do not think so. Being honest this assignment was not one that took a lot of time; I believe I spent more time setting up the file for the engravement than using the engraver, as trying to find something that I wanted to engrave which additionally also fit onto the template was a challenge: to the point that I had to write out text instead  what I wanted instead of the image I originally decided on. But all the same I think it is cool that such a thing exists. I mean, the engraver was able to finish the process so fast, tha tis amazing. Digressing, after setting up the engraver and putting everything in place the entire process of engraving took about a minute to complete. I think the most interesting thing for me was when I got to measure everything to make sure it was calibrated correctly.

    Overall, this assignment, while nothing new to me, was a nice refresher on how an engraver works. I had fun looking over the settings of the engraver. I believe we also had the same model