NycoleDavila.com

Nycole's aspirations were originally in art design, but, out of necessity, found a place in banking. The collision between aspiration and reality began in college. She attended The Art Institute in Seattle, Washington and earned a degree in Animation Arts and Design, while maintaining a full time position at the local credit union. Upon completion of her degree, Nycole returned home to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she continued her career in finance working for Citi in a competitive sales department. There, she thrived, consistently ranking among the top 25 salespeople on site, receiving national recognition.

In the early days of 2008, the financial crisis started to change the credit industry, Nycole was invited to join Fidelity Investments as they opened a new operational site in Albuquerque. During her tenure with Fidelity she became a subject-matter expert specializing in health and welfare operations and record management for other 3rd party clients. She assisted with systems design as new processing systems were created to streamline operations. In total, Nycole spent over 11 years working at the firm becoming a true expert in her field.

After leaving Fidelity, Nycole decided to embark on a new adventure with a complete career change by joining the first cohort of the Internet of Things Deep Dive Coding Bootcamp provided by CNM Ingenuity, a program at Central New Mexico Community College. This challenging hands-on bootcamp was designed to teach the basics of coding, electrical and mechanical engineering within a 10-week period. However, the camp was modified when the world went into lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Nycole not only took on the challenge but excelled with the changing environment. She spent the next couple of years gaining experience in fabrication, vinyl applications, metal and woodworking. Once that experience was complete she decided to rejoin the Deep Dive Coding community, this time enrolling in the Full Stack Web Development Bootcamp to gain new knowledge and deepen her coding skills.

Full Stack is a development term that incorporates all aspects of the web application creation. It is the developer’s responsibility to take stock of the clients objectives and create an operational package that meet both the front end (viewable and interactive elements) as well as the back end (system databases and server) needs. This entails integrating multiple programs to build the proper solution.

It is important to develop a user profile to determine what type of people will visit the site. This will allow the developer to plan the User Interface and guide the User Experience. If the site does not look appealing or is overly complicated to use, the experience may not to be pleasant and will be a turn-off to the user.

What the user interacts with, otherwise known as the Front End usually incorporates the basic information of the page, HTML, styling or look, CSS and interactive elements JavaScript. Creation tools are used to bring these elements together to make this process easier. A couple of these tools are BootStrap and React.

On the Back End, programs like PostgreSQL, Node and Express are used to build and manage databases, interact with servers, and conduct all the logic needs. Application Program Interfaces encompasses these concepts to solidify an applications structure, system, and data.

Full Stack Pic Grid

3D Printing is the additive manufacturing process that uses un-solidified materials and constructs objects through layer-by-layer applications. Numerous materials can be used including different resins, plastics, wood, and metals. Two different processes are used for non-industrial 3D printing.

Stereo-lithography or SLA printing uses light reactive thermoses materials (resin) to create objects. When the resin is exposed to different light wavelengths, the resin solidifies and thus, the creation process begins. SLA is also the standard for industrial 3D printing.

Fused Deposition Modeling or FDM 3D printing uses an extruder to melt filament then apply to a surface to cool and solidify. FDM printing is generally considered the best way to be introduced to 3D printing since the materials are cheaper and the printers can be purchased for a couple of hundred dollars.

To create an object that is 3D printed, a .STL file is created. These files contain the 3D blueprint that will instruct the printer to make the object in the X, Y, and Z axes. These types of files are commonly used in computer-aided design systems that are used by engineers and 3D designers for the film and gaming industries.

Internet of Things or IoT for short is defined as combination of mechanical and electrical engineering to create smart devices. These devices use sensors, software and other technologies to connect online and exchange data. Currently, there are billions of these “smart” objects and is one of the fastest growing industries to date. It is predicted that by 2025 there will be over 22 billions products in use and in development.

From doorbells to thermostats and cell phones to automobile network devices, IoT is everywhere and impacts us every day. Understanding how these networks operate is the key to becoming a IoT Developer. One device can incorporate hundreds of sensors and could simple connect to each other or even a data hub located across the world.

The main programing language of the sensor components is C++ or the more common derivative language of Python. Once the electrical programming is complete, mechanical engineering is needed to either build a housing unit or elaborate structure that will carry out the needed task. This could very from simple to dispenser machines or portable Wi-Fi trailer designed to bring internet to remote areas. This requires skills which include 3D printing, woodworking and metal fabrication.

In late 2020 the City of Albuquerque contracted the CNM Ingenuity Technology Solutions Lab to develop two Wi-Fi solar trailer prototypes to be deployed to real areas in need of internet connections. The goal was to assist students and workers connect via the internet and return to normal operations.

The product structure included LTE cellular technologies embedded in a portable shell supplied by a third party powered by three solar panels. The energy produced by the solar panels were stored in two heavy-duty batteries inverted than redistributed to the technology hub. The entire device was built on a simple two wheel trailer that could by be pulled by most vehicles which made it ideal for easy relocation.

The units were delivered to the City of Albuquerque’s test grounds for long term service, durability and connection stress evaluations.

In 2021 a local health and cosmetics company contracted the CNM Ingenuity Technology Solutions Lab to develop a product dispenser that was aimed to speed production filling of specialized containers.

The concept idea was to multiply the nozzles on a specially designed handle, calculate the dispensed amount and build a unit that served as a portable dispenser station. A proof of concept unit was created first to illustrate how the unit work be for the larger unit was created. This processed dialed in the timing and dispense amount. Parts were printed using FDM 3D printing technology and the recycled household plastic containers. In addition, a promotion video was created to solicit excitement. It was during the pandemic; things got a little weird.

The production unit was built from a metal basin with an eight nozzle handle, an elaborate pumping system using matching relays and programmed using a Teensy micro-controller. The control board was encased in acrylic and mounted to the side of the unit allowing it to become and all-in-one unit.

The completed unit was delivered to the contracting company on time and on budget. Client ordered metal nozzles to replace SLA resin printed units as they would regrade as a result of production wear.

According to the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), graphic design is defined as “the art and practice of planning and projecting ideas and experiences with visual and textual content.” Graphic design is standard in many industries such as media, branding, product, web and animation.

It is the job of the designer to understand the client or intent of the design, consider the audience and merge the needs to create products on a professional level. At times, the client is the audience but more often the audience is a demographic that is trying to be reached. Knowing what the target demographics are and the attitudes involved. A good designer will find the common elements to create work that is engaging.

There are many tools that could be used to created graphic works. Many are subscription based; however there are many community derived programs that contain the same functionality that are free of charge. Some of the most utilized product groups are the Adobe family of products, Corel and their products, Canva, and Procreate. Choosing the right design products are key for a designer, but being able to transition through different product suites increases a designer’s functionality and productivity.