How To Make (Almost) Anything: Interactive Trivia Game Table

During my time at at MIT, I enrolled in the infamously challenging course How To Make (Almost) Anything, taught by Professor Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms. The class is known for pushing students to master a wide range of fabrication tools –from CAD and 3D printing to PCB design, sensors, and embedded programming, while also requiring weekly deliverables to track progress.

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For me, the challenge was not just learning the tools, but scoping and executing a project that would have real impact. For my final, I decided to build an interactive trivia game table to raise cultural awareness in the MIT community. As an international student, I knew how isolating it could feel when people lacked exposure to other cultures, and I wanted my project to spark curiosity and connection.

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This experience taught me how to define a problem, prioritize features, and deliver a working prototype under tight deadlines. It also reminded me that technology is most meaningful when it addresses human needs, a mindset I carry into every project, whether I’m building software, managing a product roadmap, or coordinating across teams.

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View my weekly progress and final project here

 

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• SolidWorks,

• Fusion 360,

• CNC machining,

• 3D printing,

• PCB design + fabrication,

• Arduino,

• laser cutting,

• C/C++ for embedded programming.​

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If you are still a bit confused about what do international students feel, read the following poem. I wrote it one day while I was feeling nostalgic. I hope that it helps.

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Centimeters to Inches

 

Peering out of the plane’s window,

a shy, tanned girl arrived

looking from left to right

trying to find something she’d recognize.

 

But the “hola”s from home, the kisses on the cheek,

they were all gone.

Replaced by grey handshakes and “how are you doing”s

lacking response.

 

The shy, tanned girl stepped down from the plane and learned how to laugh

Typing “h”s instead of “j”s so that they could finally understand.*

She spoke in centimeters but got used to the imperial inches

and screwed up a recipe or two…

How could she know what an ounce of milk was supposed to look?

 

But as days passed, the shy tanned girl learned

that measurements mean much more than that.

“The amount of space between two points” was not enough to describe

the excruciating pain that she felt in her heart.

 

Distance is much more than being far away,

It is to know how a welcome hug tastes,

Turning it into your favorite flavor

And doing the impossible to not forget.

 

Distance is learning not to say goodbye

Because it tastes so bitter and sad,

So instead you mutter a “see you later”,

Grab your bags and try not to look back.

 

Distance is to have your brain in one country

and leave your heart kilometers behind.

It is to acknowledge that you’ll be that friend that’s never there,

And that now you are the invisible daughter for your mom.

 

Distance is to gradually lose your accent,

And those words that you used to love.

Replacing them by “lol”s and “omg”s,

That’s what kids say nowadays, no?

 

Distance is the birthdays through Skype,

The long voice notes through WhatsApp,

The one million “I miss you” through texts,

And the longing for that eternal summer you left.

 

Distance is to learn how to live on your own,

To become stronger and independent.

It is to have some incredible days, and some really bad ones too, that’s also okay.

 

It is to feel completely lonely but to suddenly realize

That your people are still there, only a few texts apart.

Which means that you will never be alone,

Because sometimes the heart can travel where your voice can’t go.

 

Because distance separates bodies, it doesn’t separate hearts.

Because for a few weeks a year

the now-not-so-tanned girl will return,

And with tears in her eyes she’ll say:

I’m home.

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* In Spanish the way that you type a laugh is “jajaja” instead of “hahaha”

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