2025CH71989: Vaatsalya Paliwal

When I joined CMF Lab, the plan was simple — go, do the labs, get grades, bye. But now… well, it’s been only 2 labs and I already have too many stories.

Lab 1 — Intro Day

So first day we went for the intro to the lab. I saw the CMF building and was like — what?! a whole building for processing and manufacturing?! Our TA was giving us a tour and casually goes, “Most of these doors are locked.”

Idk why but that gave me full haunted building vibes. I would love to visit it at night and make a video of it..

Inside, the machines were HUGE.

The words of our professor still afresh, ringing in my mind. "We want all your 20 fingers to be safe.."

Trust me I also want that now.

But then I saw the 3D printer… and yeah, that was love at first sight. Watching the pieces it had made was slow magic.

The GREAT BAG Rescue

Now here’s where it gets fun. My friend, “burdened” with her not-so-heavy bag, just put it inside some random lab and walked off. After the session, she tells me, “Stay back, we’ll go get it.”

Worst decision ever.

We go to the room — locked.

Ask one security guard — he calls another.

Turns out the key is with our head room.

We go tell the story, our TA just laughs and says, “You guys are making me late… who keeps the bag in any room?”

Not angry, just amused. We got the bag.

Lesson learned — don’t leave stuff behind locked doors.

Lab 2 — Skill Learning Lab

This lab is actually gamified. You can learn skills, earn points (max 1000), and use them for your project. Sounds easy? Nope.

We started as a group of 5. Then 9. Now we’re 14. Big happy chaotic family. Group meetings are fun. And every problem is our leader’s fault. New idea from sir at night? Leader’s fault. No lab slot? Leader’s fault.

Also, flexing in front of people who don’t have this course in this sem — priceless.

CAD, Circuit and Chaos

I took CAD and circuit simulation. I thought I’d be designing circuits, writing code…

Reality: Copy-paste the Arduino code whole time. And somehow it still took the entire lab hours.

Lights, Camera, Oops

So end of the lab, me and my friend decide to click pictures. Everyone’s gone, lab’s empty. We set up the camera, adjusted the book light… and then spent a good few minutes trying to get “the perfect shot” like we were shooting for a magazine cover. That’s when we saw the 3D chess board, the car model (no clue which), and other cool stuff. TA walks in, sees us mid-pose, just laughs. We shut it down, walk out all embarrassed… and start clicking again on the stairs like nothing happened.

Two labs in, and I’ve already had spooky doors, bag rescue, a giant group, skill points, and photo sessions. If this is the start… yeah, it’s gonna be fun.