Projects
Design and Fabrication of a Fuel Efficient Four Wheeler Automobile
Honda-JICA Ecorun 2015
Under the name of BUET Hephaestus, we have participated in Ecorun 2015 and won the championship in vehicle design category. Our aim was to design and fabricate a low cost fuel efficient four wheeler automobile suitable for urban mobility. As a token of our championship, Honda has gifted us a 110 cc engine, which were later used in our final prototype. I have worked for months diligently in garages, which has helped me to get a clear idea of experimental projects. As the team leader, my prime job was to maintain coordination between the different technical subgroups. To me, the biggest accomplishment from this saga was the discovery of leadership traits within myself. I have realized, a team leader has to take care of a hidden parameter, the ‘human factor’, in order to perfectly coordinate and lead his/her team to the ultimate success point. And this is true for even the most technical endeavors, such as an Automobile fabrication initiative.
Automatic Tea Maker
Being an excessive tea lover, I thought making an automatic tea maker would be the coolest choice for Instrumentation and Measurement course term project. We had designed the whole electro-mechanical system on our own. The whole workflow included primary designs in Solidworks, coding for open-source microcontroller board (Arduino) , complete fabrication process in the workshop using machine tools. Due to the unavailability of necessary parts, sometimes I had to reuse some ordinary day to day tools in devising something completely new. One example- With much modification, an old drill bit was transformed into an Archimedes Screw, connected to a servo motor. This project taught me how to tackle limitations in finding necessary tools and come up with sustainable ideas using everyday objects, that too in an extremely cost effective way.
Stirling Engine
Speaking of using everyday objects, this project could be the perfect example. As a fun project, we wanted to build a Stirling engine out of scratch. Back then, we did not have access to 3D printing in Bangladesh, nor did we had the money to buy tools. The most mundane things were used in this exciting project. As you can see, A Pepsi can was improvised as the cylinder; Bunch of old CD's were used as an alternative to lightweight flywheel, cap of a shaving foam can was used in the diaphragm, as well as some birthday balloons, and an old powder milk canister used as the stand. For heating, we have used some candles. However were the limitations, we overcome that with innovation. Though the efficiency was not satisfactory for this engine, the thrill we felt in observing old CD's rotating at 980 rpm, erased all our sweat and blood.