How an online forum shaped my future.

In 2015, I found a website that changed my life. This website was astromech.net. Although it is rather nerdy and it doesn't seem super 'life-changing', it had a huge impact on me. This website focuses on the building and designing of Astromech droids/robots from Star Wars and is home to the 'R2-D2 Builders Club'. It inspired me to start building my first proper robot, a mouse droid.

During the first year of my degree, I started construction of an R6 Series droid. The website provided all the designs, plans, and 3D models for free. The main part of Astromech.net is the forums. This is where you can post anything, from build logs of droids to asking others for help/support. I’ve posted various threads of this forum asking for help and for specialized 3D models. It has helped me tremendously in refining parts of the build and tips to speed up construction.

Throughout the process of building this and the mouse droid, I found a strong interest in robotics. This newly found passion inspired me to follow a career in robotics, both the building and designing aspects of it. This career path has led me to pursue a degree in mechatronic engineering and it's all because of Astromech.net.