Student Feature - Up & Coming Engineer
Meet Micah Kim By Harold Clark
Micah Kim, a rising homeschooled 11th grader from Rochester, has the heart of an engineer - he loves to solve problems. Be it increasing the range of his family’s home wi-fi by building a parabolic reflector (his first science project) or building his own DC-DC Buck-Boost Voltage Regulator for his soldering air filter (his 2021 Terra Rochester Finger Lakes Science & Engineering Fair project), Micah enjoys both the challenge and the learning. He could certainly have purchased a buck-booster regulator, but decided that, by building his own, he would really learn how the device works and continue to build his skills in electronics and circuit design. After researching components, Micah began designing the circuit to power his two 12V fans, which require different currents, to enable any output from 0 to 25V from any input between 7 and 25V and then building the device on a breadboard. The hardest part was programming the chip set from his computer through an Arduino. Then came optimizing the device, which included at least one incident of
14 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER OCTOBER 2021
the “magic purple smoke” which told him a component had been inserted incorrectly. He managed to improve the efficiency from 25 to 68%. Once he was satisfied with the performance, he designed and had built for him a printed circuit board from which he has created a compact version that he can now use for soldering and to power other equipment used in his
up and coming engineer
