Essential Question: How can reverse engineering help me better understand the way certain electronics work?

My original question was how does reverse engineering help me better understand the way devices work, and while it did help me answer that in many ways, I found myself steering more toward my original question of how does reverse engineering help me better understand engineering as a whole. When I thought about the work I did and the research I had done, I often found myself thinking about the similarities between what I did, and what a more experienced group of engineers would do.

I didn’t really have to adjust the expectations of what I would learn or do during Senior Project. I had originally planned to do my senior project at home to avoid wasting time on public transit, so really all I needed were a set of tools from amazon and I was set to work here. However, I had been looking forward to visiting a few museums that were related to the question I was trying to answer.

Overall, I feel like I met my goal for senior project. I was able to take apart the devices I wanted to and really inspect each component and what they do. After taking apart the iPhone, I was able to find many similarities between that and the Samsung, and even between those phones and the ps4. I was also able to partially 3D design a hairdryer, and overall the disassembling and designing was very helpful in learning about the engineering process.

The main challenges I faced throughout my project were finding the motivation to actually do work. I overcame these challenges simply by starting some portion of the task, which was really the hardest part, because after I at least started to do something, I felt motivated to continue.

I took risks with my own personal working electronics such as my playstation and my phone in order to learn more about their components. These risks paid off in the end because when I took apart my phone, I was also able to temporarily replace my screen with a screen for a phone I previously thought was completely broken, but all it needed was a working screen.

This experience has made me more confident in my engineering skills overall as well as allowed me to see how much more I am capable of. It has made me want to continue to gain more understanding of the topic because of how accomplished I felt after completing the tasks I set to do.

I was surprised by the amount of visual resources that I found online for my project. I am not only referring to the resources I used while taking apart the devices, but also other videos I watched outside of that that consisted of people repairing a variety of devices ranging from nerf guns to Macbooks, which I found very interesting.

Having attempted both 3D design as well as physical deconstruction of several devices, I wonder how long it would take for someone to properly master the various skills that go into engineering.

This experience has influenced my future planning. I have been thinking a lot about a potential career in engineering for a while, and my senior project allowed me to confirm that that is in fact what I would like to study for the next few years in college.

I am most proud of the trust I had in myself when taking apart my own personal devices which I use everyday, but I am least proud of my work with Onshape mainly because I was expecting my designs to look a lot more like the actual blow dryer.

If I could do Senior Project again, I would make it more repair based and actually buy replacement parts and things like that in order to fix any broken devices I choose to work with.

The hardest aspect, as previously mentioned, was finding the motivation after working for several weeks. However, after taking apart the phone and going through the whole process of trying to fix it, I was very happy to have fixed it by the end. I ordered a replacement screen, replaced it myself, and it works perfectly fine now.

One thing I want as a result of my presentation on Senior Project Evening is for people to really appreciate the amount of work and thought that goes into creating the devices we use everyday. Even something as simple as a watch has so many components that allows it to work the way it does. Components that would make the watch stop working properly if taken out.

I will demonstrate my learning by continuing to take apart and fix any devices I might still have simply to continue practicing that skill.