Excelling in design thinking 

Both students are taking full advantage of the amazing spaces, resources and expertise offered in the Upper School’s Atkins Family Design Lab. 

Pirnia, a Higher Level Music student, took an inoperable electric organ formerly from the chapel and rebuilt it from the ground up as a synthesizer.  

The project, he explains, “was started by design teacher Mr. Bush last year. The organ broke down because the circuit boards are from the 1980s, and by now the components are busted. Mr. Bush started by getting a small microcontroller brain inside it and revamped it. We got some of the keys to work and can do some note switching.”

Pirnia continued to run with the project this year. As it nears completion, he has enabled the instrument to create a traditional organ sound, along with wind and basic electronic sounds. He also has computer files of various instrument sounds that can be imported into the organ. 

His efforts count towards his music class collaborative project. His goal is to create all the necessary instrument sounds to enable Year 11 student Thomas Langlois, a gifted player, to perform for the class. 
    

“The idea is that you can compose on the fly,” Pirnia explains. “You could tap a drum beat off the keys, save it, and then experiment with melody until you find something you like, then save that. Through that process, Thomas will layer sounds until he has a song.”

He received technical support from faculty Joseph Bush, Lynda Yearwood and Paul Miskew, and credits design lab facilitators Erica Charbonneau and Shirina Qureshi for helping him navigate the lab, find what he needs, and instructing on how to use tools safely and properly. Going forward, he wants to make the organ available to any student who wants to play it.   

Meanwhile, Oliver Segal has used the lab to build a wooden logic gate, which consists of 154 parts and can perform mechanical computing. He worked on the project after school hours with help from design lab staff. His creation has two input levers and one output; when a lever is pushed in, it represents the number 1, and when it’s out, it represents 0.

“The output [lever] will be up unless both inputs are up,” he explains. “So, if either input is down, the output will be up.” 

Segal began by working in Autodesk Fusion design/manufacturing software, and then moved on to see if he could build a simple logic gate. He made three versions and did much finessing before arriving at the more complex NOT-AND (NAND) gate he wanted. 

NAND gates are universal building blocks for mechanical computers, often used in environments not conducive to electronic circuitry, such as extreme temperatures.

He adds, “I wanted everything to be made out of wood, except for the acrylic top. I also didn’t want to be reliant on gravity, or springs and elastic bands. It didn’t take long to design in Fusion after designing three others. It took two weeks to build because all the inner bits needed sanding, especially the ones that had to slide with each other.” 

Various faculty provided guidance along the way, including “Ms. Charbonneau and Ms. Qureshi, who took the absurdly large PDF I sent of what needed to be cut, and they sent that to the laser cutter. We managed to get it done with one piece of plywood. I couldn’t have done this without them.”