PROJECTS
Some Notable Accomplishments
RC LAWNMOWER DESIGN
BREATH FORCE MEASUREMENT SYSTEM DESIGN
DYNAMICS IN THE REAL WORLD
During my time in Mechanical Design II, I worked with a team of students to propose a preliminary design for a remote-controlled 1:10 scale lawnmower. This project encompassed in-depth design and analyses of shafts, bearings, frames, gear trains and a differential, rack and pinion steering, along with other subsystems. The following link contains a copy of our final summary report with proposed designs and engineering drawings.
As part of the Mechanical Measurements course at Pitt, I worked with a fellow student to design a measurement system to monitor breath force and lung capacity using strain gauges, amplifier & filter circuitry, and data acquisition software. Generally, the deflection of a steel plate is measured using known formulae to relate the observed strain to force and deflection. Our technical report contains further details.
CIRCUITS DESIGN PROJECT
PILE-AND-PLANK RETAINING WALL DESIGN
BALSA WOOD TRUSS DESIGN
The concepts in the Intro to Electrical Circuits taught at the University of Pittsburgh and elsewhere can be difficult to envision in real life. Our team was tasked with designing a project to demonstrate concepts covered in class using a hands-on approach. We ultimately designed a project to teach students about op-amps and iterative design that can be implemented in our Makerspace.
As part of the Statics and Mechanics of Materials II curriculum, I collaborated with a team of mechanical engineers to design the most cost-effective retaining wall out of standard structural timbers that would satisfy given loading requirements. We took an iterative approach using MATLAB to obtain the most cost-effective, safe design followed by a meticulous analysis to verify our results. The project is detailed further in our project report.
As part of the Statics and Mechanics of Materials 1 course, I served in the role of project manager for the design of a balsa wood truss. Given allowable stresses for medium-density balsa wood, our group designed and built a truss with the objective of maximizing the ratio of supported weight to truss weight times cost. The truss held over 240 pounds and had the best performance ratio in the class. You can view a detailed description of the project here:
PLUS3 GERMANY COMPANY ANALYSIS
PERCEPTIVE PATHWAY
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE STEREO VISION SENSOR PACKAGE DESIGN
I traveled to Germany as part of Pitt's Plus3 Abroad program to get an in-depth look at the German automotive industry. In addition to the benefits of experiencing a new culture and lots of sightseeing, I collaborated closely with a team of German and American students to conduct an in-depth analysis of Continental, a German first-tier automotive supplier, from both an engineering and business standpoint. You can view our report by following this link:
As part of the Art of Making course offered at Pitt, I and a group of ambitious engineering students attempted to address the issue of crosswalk safety on Pitt's campus. We ultimately designed a system that could sense oncoming traffic, and warn drivers and pedestrians of each other's presence. We presented our product at the Spring 2019 Design Expo.