About Me + This Class

Who is Akash?

My name is Akash Badshah and I am a 3rd year undergraduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where I study Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Through my time at MIT I've fallen in love with startups and the power that technology has afforded engineers like myself to make change in the world. I am currently working on a startup called Socedo which builds lead generation and marketing automation tools for the social web. I've also done several research projects in the world of human-computer interaction where I developed a love for electronics and hardware. I am taking this class because I hope to develop my rapid prototyping skills. Ideally, having learned these skills here, I would be able to rapidly prototype any hardware ideas I might have, and expedite the road to a potential hardware startup

In my freetime I love snowboarding and listening to a ton of music: (check out my favorite tracks on The Hype Machine). I'm also the President of my fraternity (Phi Sigma Kappa) and a huge fan of green tea.

What is this class?

This course is taught once a year by Neil Gershenfeld the Director of the Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT. He teaches this class in order to instruct students in a variety of fabrication methods. Part of his research focuses on the science behind machines that make and the hope is through teaching use of these machines, he can also teach the strengths, weakenesses, and theory behind them.

In practice this course is a set of one week challenges, culminating in a final defining project. Each week we are shown how to use a new machine or process and given an open ended task like "make something big" to utlize what we learned. Some weeks its more straightforward, and others the bounds on creativity are endless. The most common thread is that the majority of learning in the class comes from trial and error. We are not taught how to use any one specific design tool, rather encouraged to try many and see what we learn. Through the process of trying and failing to use these machines and design tools, the hope is that we learn "how to make" at a high level, so we can adapt and move with the times.

So far this class has been a defining experience in my MIT career and I would highly recommend that anyone who can should take the class. Hopefully, the skills and problem solving I learn in this class will stay with me for years.