Engineering Classes

Ever since I learned that my high school graduation would include traditional caps and gowns, I knew I wanted to decorate my cap in a way that felt personal. Common approaches like bedazzling or photo collages were not really my style, so I took an engineer’s approach.

Three years before graduation, I watched Mark Rober, as MIT’s commencement speaker, throw his graduation cap into the air and reveal that it could fly like a drone. Inspired by that blend of creativity and engineering, I decided to create an electronic version of a cap decoration using a 64x64 LED matrix. I connected the matrix to a piezo speaker, an IR sensor, and an old IR remote from my sister’s LED strip, then wrote code that allowed the remote to change the design displayed on the cap. The speaker played a notification in my ear whenever a new design appeared.

To mount the display, I designed and 3D printed custom brackets that attached the LED matrix to my graduation cap. Because the portable charger powering the matrix was too heavy to wear comfortably, I kept the power bank in my pocket instead of mounting it on my head.

At graduation, I walked up on stage to grab my diploma with my high school logo on the cap. I turned my back to the crowd and hit a button on my remote. The high school logo slid off the screen and was replaced with my college’s logo (MIT!) and confetti.