Overview of Projects

GEEN 1400 - Freshman Projects

Our idea was to create a sleek and comfortable vest that detects increased levels of anxiety and automatically begins compressing the wearer to provide comfort and reduce anxiety. We found similar products on the market, but none that would detect and respond to elevated heart rate (a common side effect of heightened anxiety). Our goal was for the vest to have three air pockets that would inflate and compress the wearer when their heart rate reached a certain level. The air bladders were placed over three pressure points on the body connected to stress relief: one on the chest and two off center on the ribcage. 

GEEN 2400 - Engineering Projects for the Community

We designed an affordable and durable device to be used for communication while rock climbing outdoors. The Belay Buddy features quick and hands-free communication of a potential fall, multi-sensory communication: lights & haptics, and a simple design that can be used by all climber levels. We used a strip of neo-pixel RGB lights so that our device could have three different light and vibration pairs that correspond to different messages between the climber and belayer.  The devices communicate via radio so the rock-climbers do not have to worry about being on the grid to use the Belay Buddy. The belay buddy comes with two devices, one with a harness attachment style for the climber, and one with an arm band style attachment for the belayer.

GEEN 3400 - Invention and Innovation

In GEEN 3400, my team created a model business called The Bridge Designers LLC (TBD LLC). This class focuses on the intersection between business and engineering, so we develop a business model as well as a product. Our goal with TBD LLC was to help young children gain an intuition of the internal forces in bridges and to foster curiosity and interest in STEM. The company was positioned to address a problem identified in market research: while parents and educators value hands-on, educational play, children are often drawn to more engaging digital entertainment. TBD LLC's Bridge design Kit was designed to resolve this conflict. We created a truss building kit that allowed kids to build the trusses themselves, then when they applied force to the joints, each beam lit up in blue or red depending on if the member was in tension or compression. The brightness of the lights corresponded to the magnitude of the force measured. 

GEEN 2851 - Statics and Structures

One key topic of statics is the Truss. Trusses are everywhere in the world of engineering, so our class designed and tested trusses we built in small groups. My team, the Moment Makers, designed and built a truss that held 1294 lb. The class design constraints for the truss were: a maximum height of 9 inches tall,  a width between 22 and 23 inches, and a gusset coverage of  30% of the total beam surface area. In addition, the beams could not touch, the truss had to hold at least 800 lb, and the strength to weight ratio had to be between 800 and 3000 lbf/lb.

GEEN 3852 - Thermodynamics

For the final project in GEEN 3852, our team designed and built a model home and analyzed its thermal performance when placed outside for 24 hours. Our goal was to maintain the internal temperature of the model home at a near constant temperature of 68°F, or 20°C, over the entire 24 hour period. To do this, our team used thermal storage and active heating elements to keep the house warm in the cold winter weather. We measured the energy inputs and outputs for our house, including solar radiation, outside ambient heat transfer, internal home temperature, and the power for our heating elements in order to conduct a proper thermodynamic analysis of our home. After conducting our thermodynamic analysis, we discovered the energy inputs and outputs, the change energy, the change in entropy generated, and the equilibrium temperature the house was kept at over the 24 hours.

GEEN 3010 - Circuits

In circuits, my team designed an electronically enhanced version of the classic Hungry Hungry Hippos board game, we called it Hungrier Hungrier Hippos. It was designed to build upon the existing mechanical engagement by adding automatic score-keeping and a marble return system, along with more engaging gameplay via audio-visual feedback. The final design tracked each player’s marble captures using laser sensor modules, displayed live scores on an LCD screen, and provided feedback through LED light strips and a speaker that played a sound with every successful capture. Marbles were continuously recirculated by a centrally located solenoid that returned them to gameplay until the target score was reached. The housing for the electronics was laser cut out of pine eighth inch thick pine sheets, engraved with flowers to add to the jungle aesthetic of the game, and had slots for the LED lights to peek out of to keep a clean look and hide the strips. We also engraved the name of the game on the front of the box.