Week 1 – Principles and Practices

Fab Academy – Week 1

Date range: Week of 21st Jan

Instructor: Neil Gershenfeld

Principles and practices

🧠 Learning Objectives

  • Communicate an initial project proposal

📋 Assignments

Individual Assignment

Group Assignment

(If applicable)

🛠️ Tools & Materials

  • Copilot
  • Pen and notepad

🧪 Process & Workflow

Idea & Inspiration

For my final project idea, I've been spending time thinking about creating something that is directly related to health, well being, and personal data tracking, as I'm genuinely interested in finding ways to improve my overall quality of life and daily wellness habits. My first rough idea is to use data from my Whoop and Garmin—like sleep quality, recovery, day strain, stress levels, and recommended bedtime—to create a decorative piece that emits light showing where I'm at with my wellness. I usually spend the last hours of my day watching TV and scrolling aimlessly through social media. If I had a light box next to the TV displaying a wellness summary dashboard for my day, it would remind me to unplug and wind down. When I imagine the device, it's a box with rounded edges—like an old CRT TV but made of wood—with data displayed as diffused light on an acrylic screen.

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The theme and designs will be inspired by Najdi styles which is a traditional design in Riyadh region in Saudi Arabia

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Source

Using GenAI for brainstorming

I asked Copilot to help me refine the idea and generate a rough sketch without describing the design, just to see what it would come up with. Here's the prompt:

“I need to come up with an idea of the final project for fab academy. I have a rough idea that I want to refine. I want to make an aesthetically pleasing, part of decor tech piece. it's used to display some health metrics by connecting it to your google health or ios health apps, it shows a dashboard of some metrics like recovery level recommended bed time etc. (I'm not sure what metrics can be pulled from these apps yet. if not connected to a google health or ios health it should serve as night light or maybe display some tips or weather or any thing else. I want you to help me refine the idea ad define the functionality clearly, but not make it too hard to be implemented as a fab academy course. it should have systems integration by using 3d printing, laser cutting, electronics and may be some more.”

Copilot added features like touch panels and light sensors, but I'm not sure I want those. It also suggested not depending on Google Fit or Apple Health integration, as that might complicate the project. I'll probably need to create a simple app that collects data from these health apps, or lets me manually enter sleep and recovery metrics, then add Google Fit or Apple Health integration later.

The first sketch it gave me was not bad, but not what I had in mind (left), I explained my design, then generated a new one (right):

CALM.png

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The plan

I will be testing and producing some parts of the final project during the next weeks.

  • Computer Aided Design week: 3D design and render a couple of design options. 2D design the side panels with the pattern
  • Computer-Controlled Cutting week: Test creating the rounded edges with a laser cutter
  • Embedded Programming week: Choose the suitable components for the project
  • 3D Scanning and Printing week: To achieve the rounded edges, I will test using a 3D printed corner where I will attach the side panels to.
  • Computer-Controlled Machining week: Test the panels design using a CNC
  • Rest of the plan will be updated after week 4

⚠️ Problems & Solutions

  • Nothing to report yet

🧩 Files

https://gitlab.fabcloud.org/academany/fabacademy/2026/labs/vujade/students/sarah-aldosary

📝 Reflection

  • I still need to figure out how to plot data visually, and what type of data is needed. I like the work of Nadieh so I might be able to use some of her implementations in my project