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INTRODUCTION

At the UCSD COSMOS Summer Program, Cluster 2: Design and Control of Kinetic Sculptures is a cluster that provides students, ranging from grades 8-12, with an introduction to the analysis, design, construction and control of moving mechanical systems. This is done so through the use of the many facilities at the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) department at UCSD. Through this four week program, students are expected to not only work individually but also with one another, typically in teams of two to four. This webpage was made by a team of four, their team name being “HR.” Over the course of the UCSD COSMOS Summer Program, these students pushed themselves beyond their limits and made breakthroughs/achievements that might not have seemed fathomable before entering this intense program. Students not only learned to design and simulate using programs such as AutoCAD and Working Model 2D (WM2D), but they also learned to understand the applied mathematics and physics in everything that they did. Most importantly, students learned how to adapt and maintain communication when working with others, whether that was in a group of two, three or four. A student’s experience at UCSD COSMOS will vary from student to student; however, the one thing that remains the same is the fact that every student learned something new. Whether good or bad, easy or hard, with others or without others, each and every student in Cluster 2: Design and Control of Kinetic Sculptures, walked away from this experience having learned at least one thing that they had not known before.

STORY BEHIND TEAM NAME

Story behind team name → This group’s team name is HR, which stands for “Hope and Resilience” simplified slightly to “Hope&Resilience.” The students ended up going with this name because throughout the process of designing, building, programming and simply doing anything related to every single one of the projects that they’ve done in this cluster, they’ve felt that they’ve lost hope a couple times. There are times when things that they worked on were a little frustrating and didn’t always work out. Thus, they decided to use the name “Hope&Resilience” as a means to push themselves to keep going, to remind them that there is hope and that they must continue to be resilient. Though it might seem like a very simple and not-so-meaningful abbreviation at first, there is much more to it than simply the letters “H” and “R.” This team name is what motivates and pushes the members to continue scaling the steep hill before them.

KINETIC SCULPTURES

Team members learned how to design, analyze, fabricate and control several kinetic sculptures! The kinetic sculptures include individual Pendulum Clocks, a controlled Mini Sculpture and an automated Full Sculpture created by the team. 

• Design was facilitated with Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools implemented in Fusion and AutoCAD.

• Analysis of the dynamics of movement of the sculptures is based on fundamental physics with the mathematical description of motion covered in lectures and simulations facilitated by Working Model 2D (WM2D). 

• Fabrication is done both manually in the Dept. of MAE Design Studio and automated with Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) tools provided by the LaserCAMM and optional 3D printing, initiated by a Clock Project.

• Additional motion control is added to the kinetic sculptures by using Lego NXT sensors, including the specially designed COSMOS ball speed sensor, NXT motors and programming an NXT using RobotC.

This team webpage gives a summary of both individual and team efforts to make the kinetic sculptures work as designed!

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Throughout the time that this team worked together, there were many small and large accomplishments. Although not every accomplishment was thoroughly celebrated, each accomplishment did bring a spark of joy through the team, allowing everyone to feel a little more at ease, before they were hit with the reality that they had to continue trekking forward and striving to accomplish even more. Below are some of the most notable accomplishments that this team felt that they were very proud of.

ACKNOLWEDGEMENTS

While students did a good portion of their projects and assignments alone, truly nothing could have been accomplished without the help, advice and support of the professor, teacher fellow, other teachers and teacher assistants. Below are the people that this team would like to acknowledge as well as the reasons why they would like to acknowledge these people. Any and all help was truly appreciated and Team HR cannot express in words just how thankful they are that these people were there to support them and push them to strive for more and help them throughout the entire process.