Projects

Senior Design Capstone

Car Racer prototype

Final table-top prototype of a wheel-chair accessible playground structure where kids of all abilities can power small race car game pieces around a track in the spirit of friendly competition. Specifically, the transmission of power from the user to the cars can be created through the spinning of a wheelchair upon a set of rollers.

Motivation:

I was particularly passionate about this project as it was the result of my strong interest and focus on helping the community. I grew up near an elementary school, and often times, I would see disabled children disengaged and isolated during recess due to the lack of accessible equipment and/or the lack of necessary adult aid that the few accessible options provided.

As a result, I wanted to build something that was not only fostered peer-to-peer interactions by reducing the necessary adult aid, but also empowered kids in wheelchairs to see themselves as strong individuals.

Skill Highlight:

CAD Modeling (SolidWorks), Machining/Manufacturing, FEA Analysis, Part design, transmission design, construction

Front isometric view of rendered Car Racer assembly

Back isometric view of rendered Car Racer assembly

Arcade-Style Button Pressing Linkage Assembly

Concept: Motorized 4-bar linkage system encoded with PID control with the goal of pressing coloured buttons in a randomly assigned sequence as fast as possible.

Motivation: As part of my machine design course, I was tasked with designing and creating a complex linkage assembly that would successfully press a set of buttons on a game board as quickly as possible within a minute.

Skill Highlight: CAD Modeling ( SolidWorks), Electronics, PID Control, Coding, Machining/Manufacturing( Lathe, CNC Mill, 3D printing) , Construction, Troubleshooting, Part design

Implementation of a Cryogenic Camera in a Model Dark Matter Detection Chamber

Motivation :

As a summer REU student working with the XENON Dark Matter Research group at Nevis Laboratories, I was presented with the engineering challenge of implementing a cryogenic camera within a model dark matter detector. I quickly took on the challenge as the only engineer in the lab and within the 10-week program, I not only created a working engineering packet, complete with an assembly, bill of materials, and engineering drawings of hand machined parts, but also successfully constructed my design with enough time to run preliminary trials to test the camera's imaging abilities under cryogenic conditions.

Skill Highlight: CAD Modeling ( SolidWorks), Electronics, Coding, Machining/Manufacturing( Lathe), Construction, Part design, Materials, Heat transfer, Physics

Ski Lift Child Safety Device

Concept: One of the biggest fears parents have when taking their child skiing is that their child could fall from the chair lift, which are often 30-40 ft in the air. Thus, I challenged myself to conceptually design a contraption that would mitigate this issue and assuage the fears of ski-savvy parents. This contraption can be easily attached to the bar of the chair lift, and allows for parents to slide their pole horizontally into a slot to make the space between the chair and bar smaller, such that a child will not be able to slip through.

Motivation: Growing up in Colorado, I remember learning how to ski almost as soon as I could walk. Whenever we rode the ski lift, my dad would always place his pole across my lap, so that I wouldn't slip through the gap as easily. This lead me to research just how common it was for young children to fall from ski lifts and how I might be able to prevent these types of accidents from occurring.

Skill Highlight: Product Design, 3D CAD modelling, Engineering Drawings, Solidworks

To see the full engineering packet for this device, click the "View More" button

Light Tracking Solar Panel

Concept: Light-Sensitive solar panel system designed to detect and position the solar panel to optimize the absorbed sunlight.

Motivation: I was tasked with the design and creation of a "smart" solar panel that could change its position according to the sun's position throughout the day in order to optimize the amount of power stored. In this project, I was mainly responsible for the electrical components and set up, as well as the Arduino coding and trouble-shooting process.

Skill Highlight: Product Design, Coding, Arduino, DC motors, machining/manufacturing (soldering and wiring), optimization

Upper Level Physics Lab- E & M

Concept: I was in charge of designing and an upper level electromagnetism lab. Given a reference lab that was conducted previously, I was tasked with recreating a similar experiment that would be executed by future undergraduate physics students. For this experiment, I designed a charged micro-balance scale connected to a mirror to reflect a laser beam. With the addition of weights, the voltage would be slowly increased in order to keep the scale balanced. A relationship can then be created by measuring the reflected laser point's height fluctuations in accordance to the voltage. Students would then determine the respective dielectric constant between the capacitors. Additionally, for one trial version of my design, I determined the dielectric constant of motor oil, to test the set-up under a different environment.

Skill Highlight: Product Design, machining/manufacturing (3D printing, milling, wiring)

Acoustic Levitator

Concept: Just like Dua Lipa's song "Levitating", this apparatus does just that by levitating small Styrofoam beads and even droplets of water with acoustic sound waves. The apparatus consists of 72 mini transducers on each half (top and bottom). These emit sound waves at variable frequencies, and as the top and bottom waves interfere, the Styrofoam beads or water droplets are suspended in the resulting nodes.

Motivation: This apparatus was self-motivated to fulfill the laboratory component of my Waves and Relativity course I had taken during my university career. I was most interested in the physics behind the wave interference and wanted to create something that could allow one to physically visualize a sound wave and how frequencies affect the node locations.

Skill Highlight: Product Design, machining/manufacturing (3D printing, soldering, electronic wiring and configuration)

Automatic Bike Locking Mechanism

Concept: Automated bike-lock designed to fit over the braking system of the bike and would engage the brakes while in the locked position. To unlock, the lock could be commanded to disengage ( as shown in the video )

Motivation: This design in particular is one of my very first "innovations" as a fledgling engineer. I came up with the idea upon seeing the massive amounts of bikes that would occupy the bike racks where I lived. Thus, I came up with the idea of an automatic bike lock that would allow for one to lock his or her bike in place without the need of a bike rack.

Skill Highlight: Product Design, Coding, Arduino, Linear actuation, machining/manufacturing (3D printing and wiring)