Mia Farina

My

Portfolio

About me

Motivation

Teamwork

Accountability

Creativity

Hello! I am a sophomore mechanical engineering student at Villanova University. For my entire life, I have been inspired to build and innovate. Whether it was constructing Hogwarts out of Legos or a mouse trap car for my first physics class, a passion for science and problem solving blossomed. My analytical, practical, and technical skills developed from my internship this past summer and they continue to grow through my coursework. However, I believe my other interests such as film making, playing the piano, and mental health awareness contribute to my unique skill set as an engineer.

Homeplate: Fall 2022

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.

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 abandoned the blade idea and used a 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.

Hydrogen Piping Diagram Series:

Summer 2022

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.

Reach Out

RESUME