Air Motor

Before coming to UCSB, I had no "real" experience in engineering. In fact, I had no idea why I signed up to be an engineer. At the time, my thought was just "I don't really enjoy humanities, and among the sciences physics is the coolest." This air motor is what made me start to love engineering.

When I first stepped into the machine shop, I did not know how to operate any of the machines. My first time operating the tree mill resulted in the end mill making the most ear shattering noise I have ever experienced. I quickly learned to pay attention to every detail in setting up the machine before even thinking about cutting metal. Through repeated use of every machine, I honed my skills every day and it culminated in an assembled air motor that was created from nothing but stock materials.

To this day, the air motor has been my favorite project. Every time I run into a challenging problem, I think about the struggle of operating each machine and the immense reward of overcoming the challenge. Ultimately, every problem can be broken down into simple components. After taking baby steps towards solving the simple components, the path towards the solution becomes more defined. By looking at what’s blocking our way, with an open mind, a wall can be turned into a wide-open door.