Hello, my name is Michael Blaine. I am from Corpus Christi, Texas and grew up living on a sailboat around the world. I have lots of interests including Robotics, Engineering, and the outdoors.
        I love building things. At the age 14 I became fascinated by engineering when my parents bought a 3D printer for me. I made a deal that if they bought me a 3D printer, I would 3D print parts for the boat. I decided to modify my cheap 3D printer to be able to print high-temp, durable plastic suitable for the sun and weather of the boat. I also had to learn CAD modeling because there weren't any 3D models of the boat parts we needed.
        In New Zealand, I met many engineer sailors due to the demand of technical knowledge for sailboats. One great engineer I met was self-taught and didn’t have a degree. He gave me electrical parts (like Raspberry Pi's, Arduinos, and motors) to experiment with. With the raspberry pi, my first computer, I started many programming projects in Python. My first project was a chat bot that you could talk to and get mean responses from. Programming was a valuable skill that I would end up using all of the time.
        During COVID, I first started learning electronic circuits by building lithium battery packs with batteries from discarded electronics. Some were used to charge phones, and some were used for flashlights. My first Arduino project was a radio remote with one of my lithium batteries. I hooked it up to a computer and controlled a character in a game that I programmed.
        In Fiji at 16, I built a remote-control car and remote-control boat with software, electrical, and mechanical engineering skills I developed. They both were designed and 3D printed. They worked great, although the boat capsized twice, ruining two sets of electronics.
        At 17, I started my most ambitious project I have ever completed: a 6-axis robot arm. In my first iteration, I used servo motors and it was a complete failure. Iteration 2, I knew I had to do it right, so I bought stepper motors, did some math, and made a sturdy, full proof design. I designed my own circuit board, my own robot arm simulation software/controller, and my own analytical kinematic method using trigonometry and matrices.
         In addition to my passion for engineering, I have developed an interest in the great outdoors. I will always love fishing, diving, and exploring different places throughout the world. My time on the boat has come to an end, and now I will pursue my career by going to college at Texas A&M Corpus Christi with the intention to go to Texas A&M Galveston and study multidisciplinary engineering. My next personal project will be a smart circuit board to control stepper motors. I will have many more projects in the future and be open to a job opportunity that will give me experience in mechatronics.