Without realizing it, I went ahead in the week we were supposed to learn about the basics of asynchronous communication (week 6) and tried to set up a feedback system with two types of serial input (a week 7 concept). With the help of my instructor, I discovered that (unsurprisingly) more work was needed to read feedback from both of my potentiometers, which I intended to use to determine the position of my pong paddles. I found the Arduino code relatively straightforward to program, though I struggled (and still struggle) to animate two elements of a p5 sketch creatively. To realize my vision, I used my Arduino code but interfaced it with a java sketch written in processing, available here.
Though I may not have succeeded in creating the animation I desired in p5, this project was a great entry point into troubleshooting with serial input, and figuring out the complexities of math-based objects in p5. It certainly solidified my capability in integrating serial input into basic objects- however, when I wanted to create objects that relied on serial input but were able to react to the ball element in my sketch, I struggled to make the paddles react to the ball.