GEMS Program Meeting

By Fernando, David, Anda, Elm, and Nalin

This Wednesday, we had our first meeting with the GEMS organization this season! We decided to teach the girls fundamental CAD skills to expose them to an essential engineering tool that we use daily in our robotics work. The session focused on hands-on learning, culminating in each participant designing and 3D printing their own custom keychain to take home.

We began the session by introducing the girls to SketchUp, a user-friendly CAD platform perfect for beginners. We jumped straight into practical exercises that would build their confidence and fundamental skills.

We covered basic shape creation, starting with circles and rectangles. We demonstrated how these simple 2D shapes form the foundation of virtually any 3D design. One of the most memorable learning moments came when we explained that everything in SketchUp is scaled to a human figure and that measurements are in millimeters. When we asked them to create circles with specific millimeter dimensions, they were shocked at how small the shapes appeared on screen. This surprise turned into a valuable teaching opportunity about precision in engineering, understanding that a difference of just a few millimeters can determine whether parts fit together properly or a design functions as intended. Once the girls became comfortable creating these basic forms and understanding scale, we introduced the extrude function, allowing them to make their key chains look more like key chains.

One of the most critical skills in CAD is learning to navigate the 3D workspace effectively. We spent dedicated time helping the girls understand how to switch between different functions to rotate their view, pan across the design plane, and zoom in for detailed work. We also introduced the concept of the X, Y, and Z axes, explaining how these three dimensions allow us to precisely position and measure objects in 3D space. Understanding this coordinate system is fundamental not just for CAD, but for spatial reasoning in engineering and design more broadly.

To connect their CAD learning to real-world applications, we transitioned into teaching the basics of 3D printing. We explained the different types of filament available and how different filaments have different purposes. While their keychains were printing, we demonstrated how the same skills they were learning on their keychains scale up to more complex engineering projects. Seeing how we use CAD to design, test, and iterate on robot components helped them understand the practical power of 3D design.