Mia Farina

My

Portfolio

About me

Motivation

Teamwork

Creativity

Hello! I'm a mechanical engineering student at Villanova University, constantly ​fueled by my passion for problem-solving and innovation. As a senior, I've already ​embarked on an exciting journey of learning and growth, driven by my dedication to ​excel in all that I do. I approach challenges with an open mind and a willingness to ​put in the effort needed to overcome them.

One thing that sets me apart is my curiosity-driven approach to my studies. While I'm ​still exploring various industries, what remains constant is my deep-seated desire to ​make a positive impact on people's lives. I believe that engineering is a powerful ​avenue through which I can contribute to society. From designing more efficient ​systems to creating solutions that improve daily lives, I'm excited about the ​potential to create change for the better.

I am confident that my unwavering commitment, coupled with my passion for ​helping others, will guide me towards a fulfilling and impactful career. As I continue ​to learn, grow, and explore, I'm excited to see where my journey in mechanical ​engineering takes me and how I can positively influence the world around me.

An Entrepreneurial Turn: Summer 2024

Traveling in the Spring

An opportunity to go abroad for a semester was ​presented to my class during the fall of last ​year. Something inside of me sparked, and I ​chose to move to Madrid, Spain for the spring ​semester of 2024. Although it was an incredibly ​difficult decision, especially knowing it would ​impact my ability to pursue a traditional ​summer internship, I knew that this was a once ​in a lifetime chance at exploring the world. It ​was absolutely incredible.

The outcome

By the end of the summer, I not only discovered a new ​way of innovating and collaborating, but also built a ​successful business that I continue to grow today. This ​entrepreneurial adventure was exactly what I needed to ​solidify my goals for post-grad, which is to bring my ​diverse skill set into a cross-functional organization!

A new chapter for Summer

This experience pushed me to explore new opportunities for the summer ​and ultimately led to the creation of my own tutoring business. What ​started as a way to stay productive quickly turned into a rewarding ​venture, allowing me to connect with students, strengthen my ​collaboration mindset and time management skills with scheduling.

Inspection Sheets:

Summer 2023 at Tyber Medical

The highlight

The highlight of my internship was undoubtedly the opportunity to attend a cadaver lab. Witnessing the practical application of medical devices in a real-world context solidified my understanding of why various aspects of the devices needed to be considered.

Lessons learned

Collaborating with both the engineering and ​manufacturing teams, I transformed technical details ​into comprehensive inspection sheets. Additionally, ​updating the inspection sheets to reflect changes in ​engineering designs and manufacturing techniques ​showed me what it felt like to work in a fast paced ​work environment.

Throughout the internship, effective communication ​was the cornerstone of my work. My interaction with ​diverse cross-functional teams was pivotal in crafting ​inspection sheets that were not only informative but ​also user-friendly. I grasped the pivotal role of these ​sheets in upholding product quality, regulatory ​compliance, and operational efficiency.

My role

During my internship, my primary responsibility revolved around the creation and continuous improvement of class II device inspection sheets using Excel. They outlined dimensions on engineering drawings and provided clear instructions on how to measure and record them accurately. This task empowered the manufacturing team to seamlessly interpret engineering drawings, accurately gauge dimensions, and record essential measurements.

Homeplate: Fall 2022

How?

Our preliminary design used SolidWorks to outline a physical body for the electrical components like the motors, battery pack, and receiver. For the body, we used aluminum metal where I learned how to use various machines in the shop. DC motors were used as actuators, and I was able to learn basic circuitry to the battery pack and receiver.

Results

Our final design used this defensive strategy. By attaching shovels and a weight on the top, the robot got more traction and prevented people from jamming into our front side. For aesthetics, we created a baseball theme because the shape of the body originally resembled a home plate, and that became its name. Our efficient design accomplished an acceleration / agility competition and battle with other beetle-bots.

What?

In my Mechanical Engineering Analysis and Design Lab, our semester long project was this beetle-bot robot. It uses two motors to rotate each wheel, and its receiver is bounded with a DX5 remote controller.

Hydrogen Piping Diagram Series:

Summer 2022 at DEDC

Getting Started...

At the beginning of my internship, I wasn't aware of how hydrogen piping was drawn on diagrams or how to determine what the client was looking for. However, with a little bit of mentorship and hard work, I was able to understand how to mark up drawings, and learn about air load calculations within buildings through Revit and Trace 700. These diagrams of piping systems of Hydrogen are demonstrations of what I made from scratch, and my understanding of valve sizings for various tools throughout the rooms.

What I learned

Overall, I learned how manual and automatic valves work depending on the utility that was being used, and how various materials of pipes are used in high technology buildings. I organized pathways in the most efficient manner for the client and learned how to work in a new environment where I was initially unfamiliar with a lot of the concepts being dealt with. However, my work ethic and great team helped me progress through the internship and understand what it truly means to learn on the job.

Making progress

I started to design pathways of hydrogen piping and understood how efficiency mattered when I had limited space to work with. With inspiration from the architect's floor plan, I was able to connect all of the utilities that needed gas to the final source of Hydrogen. I calculated the correct pipe sizes for those utilities depending on the inlet / outlet, and began to use various features on AutoCad and Revit.

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