Press-fit Skyvan

MEAM 101: Into to Mechanical Design

This project was one of the first projects for MEAM 101, Intro to Mechanical Design Lab. All parts were modeled in Solidworks using parametric modeling techniques. The assembly was press-fit together and incorporated some moving parts based on the design of a Short SC-7 Skyvan, an airplane commonly used in skydiving operations.

Check out a photograph of a real-life Short SC-7 Skyvan here.

Da Vinci Crossbow

MEAM 101: Intro to Mechanical Design

This small-scale model of a Da Vinci-style crossbow was created for MEAM 101, Intro to Mechanical Design Lab. All parts were modeled in SolidWorks as accurately as possible given Da Vinci's primitive sketches, and the final product was laser-cut out of sheets of MDF and Acrylic. The crossbow was fully functional and capable of shooting a pencil projectile up to 15 feet.

Click here to see the Da Vinci sketch that I used to model the crossbow to the (approximately) correct relative dimensions in SolidWorks.

Stirling Heat Engine

MEAM 201: Machining and Mechanical Design Lab

This butane torch-powered Stirling Heat Engine was created for MEAM 201, Machining and Mechanical Design Lab. Each part was machined either manually or through CNC programming on provided mills and lathes. Some of the parts were provided in the form of engineering drawings while others I designed personally in SolidWorks. During the final testing event at the end of the semester, my engine achieved a maximum rotational speed of 1100 RPM.

Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT)

MEAM 347: Junior Year Mechanical Engineering Design Lab

For my semesterly MEAM design lab, I teamed up with three other students to design and construct a vertical axis wind turbine. The main goal of the project was to maximize the power generation of our turbine while pushing it on a rolling cart at a constant speed. By choosing appropriate values for turbine size, motor resistance, and gearbox ratio, we could optimize the transfer of rotational energy of the shaft into the motor through a gearbox.

At first, we built some small-scale prototypes of different turbine designs, including a Savonius turbine (beige in the pictures) and a version of our final Lenz design (pink in the pictures). We performed wind tunnel testing of our scale model in combination with analytical calculations for Lenz turbine performance, and then we used dimensional analysis methods to scale the design up to the final full-size version. We constructed the turbine out of MDF, Acrylic, poster paper, and some steel wire rope, and on testing day, our group achieved a power output of 11.34 Watts, the 4th highest power generation of 27 teams in the class.

Floating Arm Trebuchet

MEAM 348: Junior Year Mechanical Engineering Design Lab

The final project for my 2nd semester Junior MEAM design lab required me to join eight other students to build a mechanical device of our choice. Each team was split into 3 sub-groups that were responsible for creating separate interfaceable components of the device, with each sub-group only meeting in person with other members of that sub-group (i.e., to simulate working as part of a supply chain). Our team chose to build a floating arm trebuchet (see here to see one in action). Specifically, my 3-person sub-group was in charge of constructing the winding mechanism and gearbox, ensuring that it would interface well with the other sub-groups' components.

We utilized SolidWorks during the design process, and we combined the results from SolidWorks stress analysis with similar COMSOL computations to determine the loads at which our gearbox would fail. On testing day, we interfaced all 3 sub-groups' components for the first time and successfully tested our trebuchet at a nominal load case and then a failure load case, in which the gears broke at the expected location given a heavier counterweight.

Modular Concert Stage

Ripe Concert

My friend Noah and I organized a philanthropy concert in our house in Fall 2015. We handled all logistics for the show, including providing sound equipment for the band, Ripe, and constructing a stable, removable stage.

I designed the stage to be built in 6 modular components, each consisting of an 8'x4' plywood sheet and several 2"x4" planks that we cut to size. Before finalizing the design, I did some basic stress analysis in SolidWorks to ensure that it would be able to withstand the weight of 7 people plus all of their equipment. Once built, the stage proved to be very sturdy and made for an awesome show.

I had the fortune of being able to test it firsthand when I played an opening set for the band with my friend Pierson on bass, which was followed up by Ripe's energetic, jumping-heavy show. In spite of the abuse that it withstood, the stage held together and was later disassembled and stored for future use.

DrumPad

ESE 190: Silicon Garage

For my final project in ESE 190, a course focused on Arduino projects and hardware "hacking," my teammate and I created a portable drumbeat recording device. The intention was to prove the concept of a device that would allow a drummer to record an interesting beat on the go and send it to an online server for future listening. To operate, the user would press the red push-button switch to start recording, tap on the pads to create a drumbeat, and press the switch again to stop recording. Once recording was complete, the microcontroller within the casing would process each tap as either a "soft" or "hard" hit and then send the recorded beat to a local server where it could be played back and listened to by the user.

The electronics of the device consisted of an Arduino microcontroller, two rectangular pressure sensors, and a push-button switch, all housed within several layers of lasercut material. The pressure sensors were used to measure the intensity of each hit, whereafter the Arduino code would process these values and map each tap to the sound corresponding to either the low or high option (2 per pad). By the time the project was complete, we had created a device capable of recording simple drum beats with 4 different sounds (i.e., bass drum, snare drum, hi-hat, tom drum) and playing them back in real time. My main responsibilities involved the physical design of the casing and the electronics and Arduino code, while my computer scientist teammate worked on the signal processing, online server, and real-time playback.

STORM: Smart Stormwater Management

Senior Design Project

For my senior design project, I worked together with five other engineering students to create STORM, a 3G-connected storm drain insert device capable of catching and sensing trash in stormwater run-off. Inspired by news of record levels of plastic and other solid trash in the world's oceans, we wanted to create a device that could potentially prevent trash from entering waterways in the first place. Our solution was an insertable metal structure that would act like a regular waste basket, catching all trash that flowed into the storm drain. However, by utilizing the Internet-of-Things-style capabilities of the Particle Electron microcontroller, the device was also able to sense trash levels and send an alert via SMS to workers responsible for cleaning out the drains.

We used infrared sensors as tripwires in order to determine when trash levels in the receptacle had accumulated significantly. Upon sensing a full bin, the system would activate a webhook through cloud communications company Twilio, and a text message would be sent out with the bin status (i.e., "full") and storm drain location. The mesh-walled inner bin could then be removed from the electronics and remaining metal structure via easily reached handles, allowing for quick and easy clearing of storm drain trash. Given the cleaning system currently in place, which requires the use of expensive sump pumps, the success of our device showed that such technology could increase the efficiency of storm drain clean-ups while simultaneously attacking the issue of trash in the oceans.

With more time, we would have attempted to design a hypothetical procedure for how clean-up crews could optimize their work days assuming large-scale implementation of STORM devices. Additionally, working on refining the sensing system to be even more precise in detecting individual trash articles would ensure a low rate of "false alarm" text alerts, which we found to be an occasional (but rare) problem. In spite of these shortcomings, our device achieved our goals of catching all trash larger than cigarettes and reporting full bins with 90% accuracy.

Aerodynamics and Flight Performance of Sport Skydiving Parachutes

MEAM 599: Independent Study

During my final semester of study for my Masters, I decided to enroll in an independent study course about parachute flight. The idea came from a desire to combine my academic pursuits with my passion for skydiving and love of flight. My main assignment was to write a paper showcasing everything that I learned through the course of the semester, as well as any insights for those looking to study parachute flight in the future. Beginning with a section with background information about skydiving parachutes for my professor, I wrote a full academic report including aerodynamic theory for flying wings as well as flight dynamics of a full parachute system. Following the theory outlined by Steven Lingard, an expert in the ram-air parachute industry, I derived aerodynamic force expressions and dynamic equations of motion for the six degrees of freedom in a flying canopy (i.e., X, Y, Z, and roll, pitch, yaw).

I used my theory equations to create a dynamic model in the MATLAB program Simulink (see 3rd image below), which was able to compute and output data for transient parachute behavior over an arbitrary time interval. By the end of the semester, I had a fully functional parachute model that could create 3D plots (see 4th image below) of parachute flight behavior for variable wind conditions, parachute parameters like line length and wing-loading, and user inputs (i.e., symmetric input like a landing flare or asymmetric input for a turn). Creating the final product and learning about my favorite activity in the process was a highly rewarding experience, and the knowledge I gained has helped me become a better canopy pilot. To see a copy of my report, go to this Scribd link: http://goo.gl/bkbtBX