Unfortunately, I didn't see this post until just recently. I suppose it's too late to enter?
Edit: I might as well put my entry in here and give it a shot anyways.
I am Fadi, a recent high school graduate getting ready to study electrical and computer engineering at Cal Poly. Though I've been interested in electronics since the eighth grade when I built up my first ever circuit, a solar-powered USB charger, my electronics life had taken a pause until recently due to my high school life getting so busy (life's tough as a high school student founding a programming club at his school while taking community college courses... not to brag or anything
). During my senior year and especially now during the summer, I've finally been able to get back into working on what I love, even going as far as to teach a friend of mine about basic electronics, being that he has recently taken a shift in interest from mechanical to electrical engineering.
As my senior project, I job-shadowed an electronics engineer and built a dance pad, like one from the popular arcade game DanceDanceRevolution (which I love). The player steps on a part of the pad (usually marked with arrows, but I was too lazy to get those printed, and this looks cooler to me anyways) as a corresponding arrow approaches a part of the screen, indicating when it is to be stepped on, with all of that going along to the beat of music. A fun way for me to get some exercise, as these "dance" sessions can get pretty intensive.
Another project I recently worked on with a team (including that friend I mentioned earlier—this is actually where he started to gain an interest in electronics himself) was a prosthetic arm for a MESA competition. Though the actual prosthesis part of the arm is incredibly basic, simply consisting of two 3D printed fingers, it was still a fun project with its own other challenges. Despite the simplicity, it was still a stressful-yet-enjoyable experience of staying up with the team to complete the physical build, work on documentation, and other not-so-electrical aspects. In the end, we were at least able to manage 2nd place on the technical paper
Finally, my most recent project is an AVR development board, largely inspired by a similar project from The Ben Heck Show. Being that I've gotten annoyed with either using a full Arduino board (which isn't necessary for most situations) or with programming a microcontroller by wiring things up on breadboard and constantly having to look up the pinouts to rebuild the programming circuit, and dealing with swapping the chip between a programming breadboard and a project breadboard, I decided to make things a bit more professional and easy on myself. This circuit is designed to work with a 6 pin AVR programming interface (for which I am using the USBTinyISP) and will be wired to allow for programming of 28-pin and 8-pin AVRs, which can easily be swapped in and out with with a ZIF socket, rather than previously prying it out of the breadboard.
Enough with rambling on about my projects, and onto the workbench!.... or, well, makeshift workbench. Being that I don't actually have the space for another table in my room to act as a workbench (not do I have an extra table for that matter), I simply move aside my PC peripherals when I wish to work on electronics, and let the majority of tools and such live on the side of my desk for the time otherwise. Being that I'll be heading off to university with its cramped dorms, I'll be prepared for a small work environment. My tools consist of the basics, most notably a soldering iron and multimeter. I originally had a cheap RadioShack plug-into-the-wall iron and my dad's old meter, but was able to upgrade to more reliable and much less headache-inducing models with some money I made off tutoring.
You may have noticed something about all my projects—they all, from an electronics perspective, are relatively simple, and in fact, most have a component count in the single digits. Though I have been interested in electronics for quite some time now, I haven't really advanced incredibly far from the basics. Though going to university will surely expand my knowledge and lead to bigger and better things, I still need the tools to succeed. Being that my family is lower-class and going through problems with money right now, I am left to pay for my own university expenses, which will definitely not be cheap. Being able to start off with one less expense to worry about, such as this oscilloscope (not that I wouldn't love the DMM or counter either!) will be a huge help, that I would appreciate immensely.
Lastly, thank you for those who donated the tools to be given away in this contest! Whoever wins, I'm sure these tools will go to someone who is in need of them!