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Let me introduce myself, my name is Alexandra Fontaine Ngoc Hoai. I’m 21 and I’m Vietnamese-French. I’m currently a student at the University of Economics. I’m also the creator of Alexandrabot.
How did I start the Project
It all started in the Summer of 2018 when I just graduated high school. While waiting for my university acceptance letter, I watched a lot of movies and came across this masterpiece: Her (2013).
This is when the whole obsession with Artificial Intelligence started. I fell in love with the fact that Theodore Twombly, an introverted writer, had Samantha, a Conversational Artificial Intelligence, by his side, helping him with daily life activities such as checking emails, making funny jokes to cheer him up, sing songs for him by the beach, etc. I then started to imagine how life would be in the future if humans really have Artificial Intelligence like Samantha…
“Phenomenal!”
I fell in love with my own imagination. I started to read up on what AI is to see whether anyone has created such a wonderful thing. I couldn’t find any. Immediately, I saw my chance! That is when I decided to be the FIRST to create a clone of my brain, Alexandrabot.
How I started Python
I started with zero knowledge of coding and I didn’t even know which language I should start with. After a while of browsing and searching on the Internet, I found Python – one of the easiest languages for beginners.
After that, I remember I spent days on Stack Overflow, Github, and Youtube, looking for example code of simple tasks such as “extract numbers from a sentence”, “create a combo box”, etc. At first, I couldn’t understand even one line, but then by reading and searching, I managed to break down the example code, understand it thoroughly, and change it the way I want. That’s how I learnt Python.
How I started The Hardware part – Robot Head
I wanted my Artificial Intelligence to have a face and I found out about 3D printing. I went to a nearby 3D printing shop and through them, I found Spaceclaim, a software to draw 3D models. After months of learning on Youtube, I finally knew how to use it, just a bit, enough to create my robot head. I’ve created an album where I shared more pictures of my robot head’s 3D design.
After creating the skull and adding servos and an Arduino to it, I created a silicone mask for Alexandrabot. After countless times testing different types of silicone, luckily, I discovered a super combination to produce a very thin a durable layer of artificial skin that is resistant to tearing and ripping. Again, I went on Youtube to know how to create a mold and create the mask. You can take a look at my robot head’s movement here.
Finally,
I hope that this will help clarify more of why an Economics student is doing Robotics stuff and how I get to today’s result. If there’re still other questions regarding my project or me, feel free to leave a comment belowโค๐
