About Me
Mikayla Terrana
Hello! I am Mikayla, a freshman engineering student at the University of Pittsburgh. I grew up in a small town on Long Island, New York where my close proximity to New York City exposed me to incredible technological innovations at a young age. While I may have decided to pursue engineering as a career rather than a hobby later than others, I made sure to get my feet wet early. My first real project started with my high school robotics team, where my love for design and building really formed.
My Projects
Low-Rider
Fondly named after the song by War, Low-Rider was my high school's robot built to compete in FIRST Robotics competitons. This is where I first learned to work as a team to both create a functioning product and how to overcome setbacks that occur along the way. Keeping Low-Rider running for a whole season was no easy feat, but it took us all the way to the regional finals.
Design and Entrepreneurship- Reducing Water Use at Pitt
In my first-year engineering class, each team was tasked to find a solution to the excessive water use at Pitt. We were told to go around campus and observe how water was used unnecessarily. The place that caught my eye the most was the lawn and gardens around the Cathedral of Learning. I could only imagine all the water that was wasted in oversaturating the plants and grass. We decided that we would focus our project on this aspect of water use. The main concept for our product was an automated sprinkler that turns on when a moisture probe detects that the moisture levels are too low. It would then turn off when the water levels are good enough. This would prevent unnecessary oversaturation. The top right is my prototype, which is just the simple concept. The bottom right is the final concept that separates a lawn into zones since moisture levels would be different in different spots.
The Final Prototype
This is the final manifestation of our concept. While it is simply a low-resolution final prototype, it visually shows what the product would look like for the most part. We also decided that, from feedback from out classmates, would add new aspects such as a control center where you can select the type of plant being watered to change the range of moisture levels. We also would incorporate a system that would manage the sprinklers based on weather as well.
