Sophomore Year: Intro to Engineering

One of the first projects that we worked on was a model bridge. I remember really enjoying this project because of the challenge it presented, and because I got to see how much I enjoyed making things. The first step in making the bridge was to create a blueprint (Slide 1) and my partner and I agreed on making a suspension bridge. We based our blueprint on the size of the bridge, and what material we wanted to use (wood and wire). This was slightly challenging for me, as I had a somewhat difficult time thinking of things in a 3D sense. From here, we assembeled the bridge (Slide 2) and I found that the assembly wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. We also limit tested the bridge (Slide 3), and found that it could hold about 40 pounds of distributed load, and 30 pounds of point load. Adding the heaviest block of metal in the shop to the point load collapsed our bridge.

The final project that I worked on this year was making a DC (direct current) motor car. Our design had to incorporate both 3d printed and laser cut components, but could be any (school appropriate) theme. I started by drafting my pieces on paper, and afterwards I began modeling pieces in Tinkercad and xTool. I started with the body of my car, basing the sides off the length of the chasis. I then worked on the sides of the car by taking an SVG image of a Battle Cat and cropping it. I also added an extra line at the bottom so the outline would match the rest of the design. After this, I worked on the 3D printed parts of the car (axel/holder and wheels). This part was a bit more challenging for me as I had some difficulties using modeling software such as Fusion 360, so I resorted to using Tinkercad as I was more familiar with it. Finally, after manufacturing all of pieces, I assembled my car.