During my Junior Fall at MIT, I applied to the infamously strenuous 6.943 class,  most commonly known as "How To Make (Almost) Anything". This popular class is taught every Fall by Professor Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, a sister lab to the MIT Media Lab.

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This course provides a hands-on introduction to the resources for designing and fabricating smart systems, including CAD/CAM/CAE; NC machining, 3-D printing, injection molding, laser cutting; PCB layout and fabrication; sensors and actuators; analog instrumentation; embedded digital processing; wired and wireless communications. This course also puts emphasis on learning how to use the tools as well as understand how they work, and although it has stolen so many hours of my sleeping time, I don't regret taking this incredible class.

 

We are required to commit our progress to the class repository every week. Feel free to look at my project on the following website:

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http://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/863.19/EECS/people/amasini/index.html

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This class means a lot to me and so for my final project, I did something that would have an impact on my community. I have realized that even though most of the people here at MIT seem to be super welcoming with international students, a lot of people don't really know much about other countries' cultures. It was only thanks to living in an international fraternity that I got a whole new perspective of the world.

For my final project, I made an interactive trivia game table to raise cultural awareness in the MIT community. Being an international student is so hard, so this would be a really nice addition to the MIT environment.

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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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