CHS Computer Lab

During my senior year, I led the complete design and construction of a new computer lab for my high school transforming a room that once had only Chromebooks into a fully functional programming environment. I planned and assembled 26 Windows 11 Pro workstations, each equipped for coursework in AP Computer Science, Game Development, Cybersecurity, and Project Lead the Way (PLTW) engineering programs. The build included a Wi-Fi 6 network and standardized software installations to support everything from Java and Python development to data analysis and simulation.

The project involved researching hardware configurations, imaging and provisioning systems, and building a unified environment that could handle both introductory and advanced computing workloads. Each station was tuned for consistent performance and classroom reliability, providing students with access to full-featured IDEs, compilers, and learning tools that simply weren’t possible on Chromebooks. I also worked with staff to integrate the systems into existing school networks and ensure long-term maintainability.

Before this project, there were no true computers for writing or running code anywhere in the building. The completion of the lab changed that giving hundreds of students their first experience with real development environments and enabling new technical courses that had been impossible to offer before. What began as a personal initiative ultimately became a cornerstone of the school’s STEM and computer-science education, and it remains one of my proudest early engineering projects.