Year in Review

[ “Year in Review”  is where you should reflect on the past year and show how you have evolved as a person and as a student.  You may want to focus on your growth in a particular area (as a leader, scholar, researcher, etc.) or you may want to talk about your overall experience over the past year.  For more guidance on using your ePortfolio, including questions and prompts that will help you get started, please visit the Honors & Scholars ePortfolio course in Carmen. To get answers to specific questions, please email eportfolio@osu.edu. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

G.O.A.L.S.

  • Global Awareness: I’ve always had a sense of cultural awareness, growing up half Brazilian with a mother who worked for an exchange student company. I enjoy learning about other cultures and staying in tune with my Brazilian roots. I’ve also finally taken an interest in learning Portuguese in my free time so I will be able to communicate with my Brazilian family members better in the future.
  • Original Inquiry: As an engineering student with an interest in sustainability, I’ve had the opportunity to work on some great projects in the past. Most notably is the aquaponics project from my senior year of high school. I had the opportunity to design and build a product that is in the early stages of its own existence. This allowed me to discover how aquaponics truly works for myself.
  • Academic Enrichment: I chose Computer Science and Engineering as my major because I wanted to use my natural knack for computers to benefit the world. I hope to develop skills that will allow me to help develop a more sustainable future for the world. My goal is to work for a company that has an interest in sustainable technology.
  • Leadership Development: I have many opportunities to be a leader throughout my life. As a musician, I acted as a leader in high school for the younger members of the bands I participated in. I was also the owner of a club in high school and I was the leader of my team for the previously mentioned aquaponics project. As a leader for a team in an engineering setting, I tend to be a leader that likes to get things done quickly but with near perfect accuracy as well. I don’t settle for less and I don’t let team members sit around and do nothing.
  • Service Engagement: I’ve participated in a number of community service opportunities, completing 72 hours of community service while in high school. Most of my hours were completed teaching kids safety at a week long camp in the summer called Safety Town. Although not necessarily related to my interests in sustainability, I learned a lot from being a leader for young children. I realized the value of the next generation and I had a lot of fun acting as a mentor for them.

Career

[“Career” is where you can collect information about your experiences and skills that will apply to your future career.  Like your resume, this is information that will evolve over time and should be continually updated.  For more guidance on using your ePortfolio, including questions and prompts that will help you get started, please visit the Honors & Scholars ePortfolio course in Carmen. To get answers to specific questions, please email eportfolio@osu.edu. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

Artifacts

Aquaponics Project

In high school I was the leader of a project team where we designed and built an aquaponic garden and fish tank. The project involved the construction of a system that involved an arduino controlling a water pump, LED lights and a bin for lettuce to grow in. Designing the project and researching the necessary components to keep both the plants and fish healthy in this system took weeks. Building it introduced even more challenges along the way. The lettuce acted as a natural biofilter which took the nitrates and nitrites out of the fish water and returned filtered water to the tank. By the end of the project we had a functioning aquaponic garden that successfully grew lettuce and maintained healthy water for the fish to live in. We presented the project at an event at our school featuring all the engineering, technology and art projects in the school and attracted a lot of interest from the people visiting. Working in a team to pull all this together posed many challenged and I learned a lot about teamwork, engineering and leadership from this project.

About Me

My name is Nick Braun. I am from Cincinnati, Ohio and I graduated from Kings High School in Kings Mills, Ohio. I am a Computer Science and Engineering pre-major in the Green Engineering Scholars program at The Ohio State University. I am also a multi-instrumentalist and unicyclist. I hope to work as a software developer in a setting that allows me to improve the environment by means of sustainable engineering and I am focusing my educational efforts on accomplishing this goal. I developed an interest in the environment and engineering in high school through my engineering classes where I gained experience in creating green technology such as a hydroponic garden and an electric race car. I plan to keep fulfilling my interest in green engineering through the Eco-car project here at OSU. I hope the experience I will have by the end of my college career will allow me to bring my skills into the world in order to improve the sustainability of every day technology.