Fab Academy 2014
Jeff Opichka


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                   Course Outline
Project Management
Project proposal
Computer-aided design
Computer-controlled cutting
Electronic production
3D scanning and printing
Electronics design
Computer-controlled machining
Embedded programming
Molding and casting
Input devices
Composites
Interface and application programming
Mechanical design & machine design
Output devices
Networking and communications
Applications and implications
Invention, intellectual property, & income
Project development
Project Presentation


Project Management

Our first week's assignment of the Fab Academy class was to develop our own website to document our progress through out the semester.  There are many options to choose from when web developing.  Being a novice to developing, I chose to start with basic HTML code.  Before writing I needed get a little background on code writing.  Our school offers a basic web design class through our  I gained some useful information that high school students learn.   Also helpful were the websites w3schools.com and htmltutorial.com.  Both of these sites offered in depth tutorials on everything HTML.   Writing code takes a lot of time and patience.  Repetition is the key to learning HTML code.  W3schools provided useful information need to build complex websites but still after a couple of hours I still found myself with little progress.
 
Luckily, information technology has come a long way since HTML code was introduced in  the 40's and first used in the late 1980's.  The Internet offers many free downloadable web developmental software packages.  I chose to work with the program called SeaMonkey.  Unlike writing code, software such as SeaMonkey designs websites through cascading style sheets.  This allows you to design and input your information as you were preparing a word document.  This type of designing allows you to design and view your pages as you would see it if it were a finished product.  Just like learning HTML code, learning SeaMonkey requires practice and more  practice.  I still found it time consuming design even though you could preview your work as you proceed.  Writing code or using programs as SeaMonkey is technical, still designing websites requires an artistic touch.