1. State of the art, project management and documentation

Artistic Storytelling

I see Fabricademy as a space for exploring concepts from the past, in the present, and preparing for the future. I believe storytelling is the best way to thread these concepts together. Storytelling has always been a main fixture in my life. I grew up in Southeastern USA. I spent most of my childhood in church and the community.

At Howard University in Washington ,DC, I chose to study maternity and community health where I learned how to explore the lived stories of individuals to understand how best to serve their needs. After a friend created a popular magazine, STARVED, I spent years as a photographer, filmmaker, and script writer capturing moments. Simultaneously I began to explore fashion design, and found another avenue of expression through garment making.

I then gained the opportunity to become the manager of a a warehouse that manufactures the uniforms for the army, navy, and JROTC. I loved working in manufacturing and being able to see a product go from a roll of fabric on monday and being labled and signed off for shipping by Ms.Linda by friday. During COVID I decided to stay home with my daughter, and reentered the workforce after as the director of a economic ecosystem builder. The biggest lesson I learned during my time as Director was how every town and community is fuled by its community and what challenges exist in maintaining or building that ecosystem.

Currently, as the Director of the Fort Valley State University Fab Lab, I serve the community by teaching real world problem solving through the use of machines and software. Machines from CNC wood cutting and laser engraving to embroidery, 3d printing, and robotics. I'm greatful to have a job that truly allows me to work with passion. I love community focused work, I love building and creating any and everything, and I love inspiring others to do the same.

Storytelling through the weeks of Fabricademy is what I am most excited for. For this week, I will explore storytelling techniques that inspire me and begin envisioning how to do the same with my documentation. I hope to learn the process of documenting and storytelling from the perspective of an innovator. I belive Fabricademy can help me accomplish that.

Research and Ideation

My topic of interest is researching ways to introduce concepts in agricultural innovation to students and farmers across the state of Georgia, USA. I hope to research this through initiatives I create through my job as the Director of the Fort Valley State University Fab Lab.

Fort Valley State University (FVSU), is a public historically Black university (HBCU) located in Fort Valley, Georgia, and part of the University System of Georgia, known for its strong programs in agriculture, engineering technology, business, and the sciences. Founded in 1895, FVSU is also a land-grant institution, which means it is part of a group of universities established through federal laws like the Morrill Acts to focus on practical education in agriculture, mechanical arts, and related fields while providing research and community outreach (called extension services) to support economic and workforce development. As a land-grant university, FVSU combines teaching, research, and public service to serve students and communities across Georgia, especially in rural and underserved areas.

While traditionally rural students have faced barriers in accessing these learning opportunities, the integration of STEM into agricultural practice provides several key benefits for agricultural economies. STEM-based educational programs have historically been a primary vehicle for moving farmers from subsistence to modernized, high-yield production.

Economic Welfare and Productivity

• Yield Improvement: Scientific research in plant breeding and genetics allows farmers to select varieties of staple crops that are more resistant to disease and yield higher outputs per unit of land
• Cost Reduction: Information-oriented education, such as training in soil nitrogen testing, empowers farmers to identify exactly when a field is overfertilized. This leads to direct cost savings and reduces the external environmental impact of runoff.
• Technological Literacy: Modern industrial agriculture relies on sophisticated equipment and infrastructure that require technical proficiency. Farmers with STEM training are better positioned to adopt and maintain these technologies, which can improve overall production efficiency.

Market Empowerment and Knowledge Connectivity

In a globalized economy, farmers require more than just manual skill; they need a specialized "knowledge revolution" to remain competitive

• Functional Literacy: Farmers today benefit from "trade literacy," "legal literacy," and "genetic literacy". This education helps them understand international food safety standards, intellectual property rights regarding seeds, and the nuances of genetically modified crops.
• Information Communication Technologies (ICT): Programs like Village Knowledge Centres empower farmers by providing demand-driven, location-specific data on market prices and entitlements. This connectivity improves the timeliness and efficiency of farm operations.
• Public Health and Animal Safety: Early educational outreach (such as university-run radio programs) has a long history of teaching farmers about animal health issues, like tuberculosis testing, which improves the safety of the food supply and the health of their livestock.

Climate Resilience and Sustainability

STEM education is a cornerstone for helping farmers adapt to the issue of climate change.

• Adaptive Strategies: Investing in farmers' human capital allows them to implement sophisticated adaptation strategies, such as advanced water management, improved irrigation, and the use of computer simulation models to mitigate the impact of variations in precipitation.
• Climate-Smart Practices: Education in the science of soil health—including cover cropping, no-till farming, and rotational planting—allows farmers to transform their land into a carbon sink, reducing greenhouse gas emissions while building long-term resilience against extreme weather events like floods and wildfires

Addressing the Rural Educational Gap

Despite these benefits, recent research identifies a significant underrepresentation of rural and small-town students in postsecondary STEM degree programs. Rural schools often have lower teaching capacity in math and science and offer fewer advanced courses. Addressing this "opportunity-to-learn" gap is essential because rural economies rely heavily on STEM-heavy fields like agriculture to sustain their livelihoods. by adding courses like Fabricademy, Fabacademy, and Fab Learning Academy to Fort Valley State University's Fab Lab, rural communities across GA gain access to advanced education in agricultural innovation.

Documentation

Documentation workflow

Tools This Week

- Computer
- Image Resizing : GIMP and TinyJPG
- Google Docs
- Git Hub

I start by considering the week's tasks assigned by Fabricademy instructors. This week our tasks are to introduce ourselves and begin to understand what documentation is all about and how to properly upload to our GitHub repository.

I've chosen to utilize google docs to create a "first draft" making changes with the MKDocs section of my GitHub repository. I hope this will help me to make sure I am completing all of the required tasks before moving into the MKDocs platform.

Step 1

Above I've provided a bit of background on myself.

Step 2

To start, I reviwed our student checklist. This week is about allowing others to get to know you as a peer and to begin learning and understanding how to properly add information to your site and also how to properly navigate your local lab. As the director of a fab lab located at Fort Valley State University, I am pretty much 'at home' when I come into my Fabricademy lab space. Understanding the Github Repository was another thing entirely.

Let's Talk About Git Hub (GitHub?)

Honestly, GitHub has been a learning curve for me. I haven't built out a webpage from HTML since MySpace and especially not one that has a repository and folders already waiting to be adjusted. Long story short, words like "repository" had to be googled and put in a sentence for deeper understanding.

What is GITHub?

GitHub exists on a cloud-based (think iCloud) platform. It is commonly used to host, manage, and colaborate on files and projects using a distributed version control system (also known as "Git"). GitHub is most associated with software development but is also used for documentation, curriculum development, research artifacts, digital fabrication files, data sets, and instructional templates. Git was created back in 2025 by Linus Torvalds, by 2008 GitHub was founded by Tom Preston-Werner, Chris Wanstrath, PJ Hyett, and Scott Shacon to make Git easier to use and more collaborative. From 2012-2017 GitHub became very popular among educators and researches worldwide leading to a Microsoft acquisition by 2018. GitHub is now widely used by educators, makers, and more.

To sum it all up:

Git Hub allows users to...

- Centrally store files
- Track changes over time
- Collaborate with multiple people without overwriting one another
- Revert to earlier versions if/when needed
- Publish publicly or in private

Git Hub functions as both...

- A version controlled file system
- A collaborative space and project management plaform

Key Definitions...

- Repository: AKA "Repo" is a project folder stored on GitHub
- Branch: A parallel version of the repo used for safe changes before officially posting (comitting) them.
- Commit: A saved change with a timestamp AND message (if you write a message. This is really helpful if you have a lot to commit and want to keep track of what has been saved so far).
- Clone: Your own copy of a repository on your computer (local copy)
- Fork: Your own copy of somone else's repository
- Pull Request: A request to merge cahnges into a shared repository (repo)
- README.md: The main docmentationle, shown first

One more time, what is a repository (repo)...

- Repository: AKA "Repo" is a structured project space (folder) that contains:
                                            - Files (documents, images, code, CAD files, etc)
                                            - Folder organization
                                            - Change History
                                            - Contributor Permissions
                                            - Documentation Instructions
-Repositories can be:
                                            - Public (anyone can view)
                                            - Private (restricted access)
- Repositories can serve educational spaces by:
                                            - Storing curriculum templates
                                            - Storing student project logs
                                            - Research documentation
                                            - For Fab Academy, Fabricademy, and Fab Learning academy submissions

I found myself in a repository, now what?

Ok, so you're in a repository that has a template. Here's what to do next:

• Access the Repo

  • Log in to Git Hub
  • Navigate to the repository link provided (if you're coming from the main Git Hub site, otherwise follow the directions for the link you have)
  • REVIEW the ReadMe File. REVIEW it. Yes, review it.
  • Access the Repo

• Create your own copy (that allows connection to the original template. This step is done for you during Fabricademy, Fabacademy, and Fab Learning Academy)

  • Click "Fork" (this step is done for you in Fabricademy, Fabacademy, and Fab Learning Academy)
  • Creates a copy of the original repo and preserves relationship to the source project. (IMPORTANT: This is already done for you for fabacademy, fabricademy and fab learning academy)

Understanding Pre-Created Folders

Why are we using the folders?

The folders exist to:

 - Enforce documentation consistency
 - Make navigation easier over time
 - Support automated publishing
 - Help instructors review work efficiently

• It is very important not to rename or delate folders in a class (Fabricademy, Fabacademy, and Fab Learning Academy) repository that is using a template unless instructed.

Step 3

Begin your journey of documentation.

Currently, I prefer to use the MarkDown (MD) style of documentation over the HTML style of documentation since being introduced (August 2025) this is how I have been navigating my own documentation.

UPDATE:

In January 2026 when I began Fabacademy I learned how to utilize VS Code and HTML to document. I will adjust this page to provide step by step instructions on utilizing both.

If you are using the MKDocs method with WEBIDE through the GITLab.fabcloud template you will start by navigating to your project.

Your project will be listed under the projects section of the "Your Work" section in GitLab

After finding your project, you will access your editing plaform by clicking on Code then choosing TO "OPEN WITH" WebIDE

Once you're in the WebIDE platform you are ready to make edits. Making edits using the WebIDE allows you to also view your edits as you work.

Making commits is how you save your documenation edits.

Resizing and Positioning

The relevency of proper sizing

Documentation is easiest to follow when it is accompanied by images and videos. As participants in the Academany series (Fabacademy, Fabricademy, and Fab Learning Academy) we are provided with a certain amount of space to showcase our documentation. In order for everyone's documentation to be thorough and available for years to come, everyone needs to do their part to keep their site within a certain size.

For the first portion of my journey in all three of the Academany courses, I only utilized TinyJPG.com. Once I began working across all three Academany programs, I needed a workflow that would allow me to process images more quickly and control the image's width and height in one process.

Within the Fab Academy's Tutorials resource page is a tab that describes the use of GIMP. According to that page:

Gimp is a GNU Image Manipulation program. It is free to download and is good for compressing many image files to web size.

Step 1: Create and Resize New File Start Gimp

Press Command N to open a new file and a "Create New Image" window appears.

Choose the image size width and height. For our example, width = 600 and height is 100. This is a header image size I commonly use.

Then Press OK

Resize the window to see more of the gray area.

Note: The white box is the only part of the image you will be able to see and export

Step 2: Import Uncompressed Image Go to the folder you have your uncompressed image stored.

Drag the image to the Gimp window.

If it is like my images it will come in huge and you will only be able to see small portion of it.

Step 3: Scale and Move Image Start at the top left and drag to bottom right, you may need to do this multiple times. Keep doing this unitl you see the top let corner of the image. You can see the boundary of the image is a dashed line.

Choose the scale button on the toolbar to scale the image.

Scale to the desired size. For this example, lock the width and height together by clicking on the broken chain, and choose 750 px.

Note: Gimp will save/export only what you see on the screen.

Move image so you are satisfied with what you see, as seen below.

Step 4: Export Image to jpg Press Command E to export image

Select File Type to ...

For the example select jpeg image

Then click Export on the right botttom side of the window and export the image where you want to.

Step 5 Check Image for resizing Go to Finder or terminal and go to where you exported the image to check size. The size of this image is 22 kB.

Note: an image of a few MB is a image not well optimized for the web.

Original tutorial by: Terence Fegan

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The FVSU Fab Lab

Students participating in the Acadamany courses should feel comfortable in the lab space that they will be utilizing or building.

The following is a description of processes at the FVSU (Fort Valley State University) Fab Lab.

What to Wear (Dress Code)

Proper clothing reduces the risk of injury.

• Required:

• Closed-toe shoes (no sandals or slippers)

• Long pants (avoid shorts when operating machines)

• Fitted clothing (not loose or baggy)

• Safety glasses/goggles in machine areas

• Lab coat or apron (if required)

• Avoid:

• Open footwear

• Loose sleeves

• Scarves

• Dangling accessories

• Hair & Personal Appearance

Loose hair or accessories can get caught in moving parts.

• Tie back long hair securely.

• Remove dangling jewelry (necklaces, bracelets, long earrings).

• Avoid loose ID lanyards.

• Keep beards secured if working near rotating machinery.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Use appropriate PPE depending on the machine:

• Safety goggles – CNC, drilling, cutting

• Heat-resistant gloves – handling hot 3D prints

• Ear protection – CNC routers or loud machinery

• Respirator/mask – sanding or dusty operations

• Nitrile gloves – handling chemicals or resin

• Important: Never wear gloves near rotating tools (like drills or CNC spindles), as they can get caught.

Machine Safety

• Operate machines only after proper training.

• Never bypass safety guards.

• Know the location of emergency stop buttons.

• Never leave a laser cutter unattended.

• Ensure material is properly clamped before machining.

• Keep hands clear of moving parts.

Workspace Safety

• Keep workspace clean and organized.

• Remove scrap materials immediately.

• Clean spills right away.

• Return tools after use.

• Do not block walkways or exits.

Fire and Electrical Safety

• Do not cut prohibited materials (e.g., PVC in laser cutters).

• Keep flammable materials away from heat sources.

• Know where fire extinguishers are located.

• Do not overload power outlets.

• Report exposed wires or damaged cables.

Behavior Contract

• No food or drinks inside the lab.

• No running or horseplay.

• Stay focused while machines are operating.

• Do not distract someone operating equipment.

• Always report accidents immediately.

Safe Exit

• Turn off machines properly.

• Allow machines to cool if necessary.

• Clean your workspace.

• Dispose of waste correctly.

• Log your machine usage if required.

GOLDEN RULE

If you are unsure about anything : STOP and ask the lab supervisor or technician.

Safety comes first. A clean, careful, and alert user prevents most accidents.

For Individuals in the Community

Step 1: Idea & Design

• Identify a problem or project goal.

• Create a digital design using CAD software. If the individual has never used CAD, skip to step 2.

• Export the file in the required format (e.g., STL, DXF, SVG).

Step 2: Consultation

• Discuss your design with a lab technician, volunteer, or the laab manager. If necessary, schedule a education session to begin learning CAD.

• Confirm material choice, purchase any materials required.

• Confirm Machine suitability, and safety requirements.

• Make adjustments if necessary.

Step 3: Booking

• Reserve machine time through the Fab Lab booking system by emailing the lab manager.

Step 4: Fabrication

• Prepare materials.

• Set up the machine.

• Follow operating procedures.

• Supervise the job at all times.

Step 5: Post-Processing

• Remove supports (3D prints).

• Sand, glue, assemble, or finish parts.

• Clean workspace.

Step 6: Documentation

• Save design files.

• Document parameters used.

• Share results if possible.

For Students, Faculty and Staff at FVSU

Step 1: Idea & Design

• Identify a problem or project goal.

• Create a digital design using CAD software. If the individual has never used CAD, skip to step 2.

• Export the file in the required format (e.g., STL, DXF, SVG).

Step 2: Consultation

• Discuss your design with a lab technician, volunteer, or the laab manager. If necessary, schedule a education session to begin learning CAD.

• Confirm material choice, purchase any materials required or access open library of materials (requires managerial approval).

• Confirm Machine suitability, and safety requirements.

• Make adjustments if necessary.

Step 3: Booking

• Reserve machine time through the Fab Lab booking system by emailing the lab manager.

Step 4: Fabrication

• Prepare materials.

• Set up the machine.

• Follow operating procedures.

• Supervise the job at all times.

Step 5: Post-Processing

• Remove supports (3D prints).

• Sand, glue, assemble, or finish parts.

• Clean workspace.

Step 6: Documentation

• Save design files.

• Document parameters used.

• Share results if possible.

For K-12 Students

Step 1: Idea & Design

• Identify a problem or project goal.

• Create a digital design using CAD software. If the individual has never used CAD, skip to step 2.

• Export the file in the required format (e.g., STL, DXF, SVG).

Step 2: Consultation

• Discuss your design by asking a parent or gaurdian to contact a lab technician, volunteer, or the lab manager. If necessary, schedule a education session to begin learning CAD by asking a parent or gaurdian to contact the lab manager.

• Confirm material choice, purchase any materials required or access open library of materials (requires managerial approval).

• Confirm Machine suitability, and safety requirements.

• Make adjustments if necessary.

Step 3: Booking

• Reserve machine time through the Fab Lab booking system by emailing the lab manager.

Step 4: Fabrication

• Prepare materials.

• Set up the machine.

• Follow operating procedures.

• Supervise the job at all times.

Step 5: Post-Processing

• Remove supports (3D prints).

• Sand, glue, assemble, or finish parts.

• Clean workspace.

Step 6: Documentation

• Save design files.

• Document parameters used.

• Share results if possible.

Safety Guidlines

General Safety Rules:

• No food or drinks inside the lab.

• Tie back long hair.

• Avoid loose clothing.

• Wear closed-toe shoes.

• Safety glasses required in machine areas.

Machine Safety:

• Only trained users may operate machines.

• Never bypass emergency stops.

• Keep hands clear of moving parts.

• Always supervise laser cutting.

• Use correct material only (PVC is strictly prohibited in laser cutters due to toxic fumes).

Emergency Procedures:

• Know the location of:

• Fire extinguishers

• First aid kit

• Emergency stop buttons

• Report all injuries immediately.

In case of fire:

• Stop the machine

• Use Fire Blanket

• Use fire extinguisher

• Inform lab supervisor

User Responsibilities

• Respect shared equipment.

• Respect other users’ time.

• Report damaged tools immediately.

• Maintain a clean and safe workspace.

Follow lab policies at all times.

Innovation that Inspires

Please enjoy exploring what I currently find inspirational.

• In Machinery

One of my favorite short films

Please enjoy a short film that does an amazing job of storytelling in a short time frame