I walked into Day 1 of my SIWES placement expecting an immediate adrenaline rush. I was ready to be handed a complex robotic chassis, or at least a soldering iron and a mission. Instead, I was handed a desk and a task: source component prices for an IoT-based security system on AliExpress.
It felt like my high hopes had been slightly crushed, but that was just the beginning.
I doubled down to start mapping the architecture. I turned on my laptop, and the screen decided to pull a WhatsApp “view once” on me. Severe pixel misalignment. Text interlacing into an unreadable blur. I consulted AI, which diagnosed it as permanent hardware damage. I refused to believe it surely the AI was hallucinating. But a call to a trusted technician gave me the final, brutal verdict: 180k for a full touch-screen replacement. Perfect. Just perfect.
Depression almost swept me away. But a dead screen doesn’t stop a deadline. I switched to my Android phone and brute-forced the task—juggling between a notes app, Chrome, and Google Docs to finish the system’s Bill of Materials. It was painful, but the architecture was locked.
Before I could fully process the hardware casualty, Day 2 arrived. It was time for foundations: a hands-on introduction to 3D modeling and additive manufacturing. The department recently acquired a brand-new Bambu Lab 3D printer, which operates on a high-speed CoreXY kinematic system. A lot of rapid prototyping is going to happen on that machine during this series. It was strictly an introductory session, mapping out the digital-to-physical pipeline, but it was a solid glimpse into the manufacturing side of things all while I was still mentally mourning my faulty screen.
Day 3? 404 Not Found.
I had to abandon the lab and head to Lagos to find a physical solution for my PC. The journey into the depths of Computer Village, and the story of how I actually got duped while trying to fix this mess… well, that’s a story for another day.
For the rest of the week, I operated in pure survival mode. Despite the hardware setbacks, I pushed through the documentation, finalizing the component lists and BOMs for an Assisted-Intelligence Surveillance Quadcopter and an Autonomous Holonomic base.
I titled part one of this series Foundations because that is truly the first step of any engineering project. Thinking, planning, and then executing like warriors preparing for battle. It’s been a chaotic week (screen 180k kehh, omo), but it is just the beginning.
See you on the next one.
