Week 3 — Build
The pieces exist. Now you make them into a product. Week 3 is the most intense week: soldering, firmware integration, 3D printing, and relentless user testing. By Friday you should have a working robot in an enclosure.
Learning Objectives
By the end of Week 3 you will be able to:
- Integrate all hardware components (sensors, display, motor/speaker) into a unified system
- Print and assemble a 3D-modeled enclosure
- Run structured user tests and incorporate feedback into the product
- Use Claude Code, Codex, or other AI tools to accelerate firmware development
- Prepare a working demo for Week 4
Sessions
→ View period-by-period schedule
Session 5 — Monday · Integration, User Testing & Prof. Zhou
Guest lecture in the morning, then the hardest technical work of the course.
Agenda: - Guest lecture: Prof. Zhou — Entrepreneurship, the startup ecosystem, and how to pitch to VCs & stakeholders (2 periods) - Full system integration lab: all components running together · Shimon + Daniel - Debugging & stress-testing: run continuously for 10 minutes — what breaks? · Shimon + Daniel - User testing: live sessions with people outside the class · Shimon + Daniel - 3D printing: finalize enclosure design & submit print job · Daniel
Most teams hit a wall here — something that worked separately breaks when combined. This is normal. Budget 50% of this session for debugging. The debugging is the learning.
Common integration issues to watch for:
| Symptom | Likely cause |
|---|---|
| Device crashes on startup | Power rail can’t supply enough current |
| Display garbled | I2C address conflict |
| LLM calls time out | Wi-Fi and heavy compute conflict |
| Motor causes resets | Motor driver needs separate power |
Session 6 — Wednesday · Assembly, Iteration & Demo Rehearsal
Your robot gets a body. User feedback gets turned into fixes.
The best enclosure is the one that actually prints. Design with 0.2mm layer height in mind, avoid overhangs greater than 45°, and add clearance for USB ports and cables.
Agenda: - 3D print assembly & fit check · hardware mounting · Daniel - Enclosure refinement · cable routing · Daniel - User test debrief: what confused people? What delighted them? · Shimon + Daniel - Rapid iteration: top-3 fixes from user testing · Shimon + Daniel - Demo rehearsal: 2-minute run-through × 3, rotate presenters · Shimon + Daniel - Open lab: last build time · Daniel
A good user test takes 15 minutes per person. Give them a task, watch silently, take notes. Don’t explain or defend — just observe.
What to test: - Can a new user figure out how to interact with the robot without explanation? - Does the robot’s personality come through clearly? - Is the physical form coherent with the personality? - Does it work reliably for 5 minutes straight?
✓ Week 3 Deliverables
Resources for Week 3
Hardware Integration & Debugging
- ESP-Claw hardware integration guide — multi-component examples and wiring reference
- ESP32 Troubleshooting Guide — Random Nerd Tutorials — the most comprehensive community reference for upload errors, brownouts, and boot issues
- Troubleshooting — Arduino ESP32 (Espressif official) — official troubleshooting for the Arduino-ESP32 framework
AI Coding Tools
- Claude Code Overview — Anthropic — official Claude Code documentation
- GitHub Copilot Quickstart — set up Copilot in VS Code in minutes
- Get Started with GitHub Copilot in VS Code — Microsoft’s official VS Code + Copilot tutorial
User Testing
- Usability Testing 101 — Nielsen Norman Group — how to structure and run a usability test session
- Qualitative Usability Testing: Study Guide — NNGroup — full lifecycle: planning, facilitation, synthesis