Engineering fields

Class Period: 4A

Home Campus: Centennial High School

Project Objective:

The project objective for this assignment was to research one field of engineering that I found interesting. I then had to create an electronic poster of that chosen engineering field. In it, I had to include information about what that engineer does on a daily basis, their starting salary, educational requirements, and why I would want to pursue a career in that specific field of engineering.

Design Process and Learning Target:

The Electronic poster had to capture important information that would increase the audience's understanding of my chosen engineering field. The graphics in the poster also had to relate to the topic and the text itself had to be well organized with proper subtitles and subheadings. Finally, I had to source all the external websites that I used to gather information on my chosen engineering field. The learning target for this project was for me to become aware of all the different types of engineering fields that exist in the world and that I don't have to be confined to just one specific field of engineering.

Personal Reflection:

For me, this project really helped me identify what specific field of engineering that I might potentially want to go into. During this project, I went through a lot of self reflection of where I wanted to be in the next 20 years. I really do feel like Becoming a Navy Civil Engineer is the right career path for me. For the longest time in my life, I've had this feeling inside of me that I am capable of doing so much more than I think. I've always felt like i've been taking from this world and never giving back something meaningful. When I came across a specific field of Navy Civil Engineering, Expeditionary Engineering, It felt like something had finally clicked inside me. These engineers, as part of the United States Navy, helped in humanitarian efforts, disaster relief, and contingency construction across the entire globe. Like I said already, Expeditionary Engineers are part of the U.S. Navy, which means I have serve at least 5 years of active military service, something that I look forward to. However, I still believe that receiving a proper education is the key to a successful career, which is why I am going to apply to the United States Naval Academy, known to have a 9% acceptance rate. I know that this won't be easy; it's going to be a long, painful, and arduous journey; i'm probably going to want to quit several times along the way, but I won't let that stop me. If I stay persistent, if I don't give up in the face of failure, and if I continue to push through, the rewards will be great.

Professional Interview

Class Period: 4A

Home Campus: Centennial High School

Project Objective:

After having completed creating an electronic poster of the field of engineering that we found interesting, we were then told to find a professional engineer in that similar field. All this was to done on our own time, with as little teacher assistance as possible to encourage us to act more independently.

Design Process and Learning Target:

I first had to find a professional engineer to interview, this was the hardest part. Once I found someone to interview, I had to document my findings from the interview in my engineering notebook. Then I have to polish them into a google slide that I would then share with the rest of my class. My presentation had to include accurate and complete information from my transcript, I had to make sure that I answered all the questions and answers to each question. I had to make sure that I acted professionally when giving my speech, keeping eye contact with my audience, and projecting my voice loud enough for people in the back to hear me. The learning target was to allow me to gain a deeper insight into the specific field that I would want to possibly pursue as a potential career.

Personal Reflection:

During this project, I gained valuable first time experience in conducting a professional interview without the relative assistance of a teacher or my parents. Mr. Mcelroy, a Construction Executive with a degree in Civil Engineering, was kind enough to allow me to interview him. When interviewing him, one of the most insightful pieces of information that I received was to take advantage of all the student internships that exist when in college. Multiple times throughout this interview, Mr.Mcelroy emphasized to continually try to gain actual experience in the workforce. By taking an internship early on in college, I can gain some practical experience and determine if that specific field is truly right for me. After going through the interview, I do feel like this has strengthened my feelings towards wanting to become a Navy Civil Engineer, Although Mr. Mcelroy was not specifically a Navy Engineer, he was in the same relative field of engineering, Civil.

1.1.6 Compound machine design

Group Member: Sneha Maram

Class Period: 4A

Home Campus: Centennial High School

Project Objective:

The Project Objective for this assignment was to be able to learn about how simple machines can interact with each other to produce a mechanical advantage greater than 1 to carry a load of 500 or 1000kg. Another objective of this assignment was to get us familiar with all the different parts of the VEX Kits and how to create "simple machines" out of them.

Design Process and Learning Target:

Me and my partner Sneha M were given a VEX POE kit, which we then had to quickly familiarize ourselves with in order to begin construction of our compound machine. Their were some design constraints put in place; the applied effort force could only be provided by a single input, the final design had to include at least 4 simple machines, and the mechanical advantage also had to be greater than one. For the design process, me and Sneha decided to incorporate a wheel and axle with a compound gear train at the bottom of the machine. At the end of the gear train, a spindle attached to an axle would have a piece of rope that would go through a block and tackle pulley system and tie off at the end of a 1st class lever. With our compound machine, we were able successfully move the 1000kg weight with a total mechanical advantage of 4.

Personal Reflection:

During this project, I was able to become familiar with the VEX POE kits. While creating my compound machine, this class reminded me of when I was in robotics back 7th and 8th grade. I felt right at home with the kit; I liked the feeling of being able to physically interact with the different pieces and build something out of them. I would sat the design process of determining what our compound machine would look like was the hardest part if this entire project. At the beginning, me and Sneha couldn't determine how we wanted the simple machines to interact with each other. We mostly debated on how the pulley system would interact with the lever. Concerning the math involved, I was responsible for determining the separate and total mechanical advantage for our compound machine, which was relatively easy for me to find. During the entire project, I feel like me and Sneha were able to work very well together as a team! We were able to convey to each other our ideas without any fighting, and collaboratively work together when working on our build. When making our class presentation, we jumped on a zoom call and were able to collaboratively work on determining what we would say in advance.

1.3.1 Hydrogen fuel cell and solar panel car

Group Member: Sneha Maram

Class Period: 4A

Home Campus: Centennial High School

Project Objective:

The Project objective for this assignment was to be able to be able to determine how we could assemble a car that relies on inexhaustible energy sources such as solar and hydrogen. We were given a solar panel and a hydrogen fuel cell with which we had to determine how to create energy from them. Another project objective was also to give us hands on experience on how electrical circuits factor into when trying to create our car.

Design Process and Learning Target:

Again, me and Sneha were partnered up and given a VEX POE kit; now that were more familiarized with our kit, we were able to assemble our car within one day. We were given access to an instruction guide when building our car. To get our car to move, we attached the motor to a rotating axle which be connected to a driver wheel. The motor would gets its power from the series circuit that was created in the breadboard. The motor could receive its power either from the solar panel or from the hydrogen fuel cell, but not from both a the same time. In order to receive power from the solar panel, all we had to do was simply attach the alligator clippers to the exposed positive and negative outlets to complete the series circuit. To use the hydrogen fuel cell, we first had to charge it. We placed the alligator clippers to the exposed ends of the solar panel and to those of the hydrogen fuel cell. negative to negative and positive to positive. Finally, with a multimeter, we had to measure the current and voltage that ran though the machine and how they compared between opposing energy sources.

Personal Reflection:

During this project, I was able to better familiarize myself with my VEX POE kit; this time however, we incorporated electricity and energy sources into our build. I was fascinated with how the series circuit was able to distribute the energy directly from the energy source to the motor which in turn caused the ccar to move. For me, the hardest part of this entire project was determining the current of our build for both the solar panel an the hydrogen fuel cell. In order to measure the current, we had to incorporate the multimeter into our series circuit, something that my POE teacher had to watch us do so we didn't fry any internal parts of the multimeter. Apart from measuring current, finding the voltage was relatively easy to determine. After seeing what a hydrogen fuel cell is capable of, although they are still relatively new, I firmly believe that they will become the energy of the future. Concerning my partner, me and Sneha worked very well with each other. We were able to collaboratively work together to finish our build in one day as well as help each other in determining the current and the voltage of our car.

1.3.4 Renewable Insulation

Group Member: Edward Song

Class Period: 4A

Home Campus: Centennial High School

Project Objective:

The project objective for this assignment was to design and create a renewable composite insulation material. We were to use our knowledge of thermodynamics to determine the Q energy lost and gained from our insulation and determine whether it could be used on a large scale. We were then tasked with learning how to gather information through a program called logger pro.

Design Process and Learning Target:

Me and my partner Edward needed to determine the different types of material that could use for our insulation material. Our composite insulation material had to provide minimum heat loss, had to be less than or equal to 1 inch in thickness, and environmentally friendly and recyclable. We determined that we would use cardboard, cotton, tin foil, and duct tape as our insulation materials. We placed 1 inch of cotton in between the two 8in by 8in cardboard pieces. Then we wrapped the sides in duct tape to keep the cotton from falling out. Finally, we wrapped the entire box with tin foil and one strand of duct tape to keep it all together. To test our insulation, we placed it on a box with a light bulb in it that generated a heat source of 25 watts. we placed a thermometer in the box that gained data of the temperature over a 20 minute period when heating up, and another 20 minute period when cooling down. The data from the thermometer was then displayed in logger pro. With our data set, me and Edward were able to calculate the Q energy gained, 140.996 J, Q energy lost 78.17 J, and the Qnet 61.74J.

Personal Reflection:

During this project, I was able to apply what I had learned about thermodynamics from the previous class periods and determine how different materials as insulation could be used to change to Q energy gained and lost. For me, the hardest part of this project was determining the industrial values of our materials as well as figuring out how much material we had wasted. To determine the industrials values of each material per square inch, me and Edward needed to go to different stock market sites to find the materials current value. When determining the amount of material that we wasted, we had to keep track of how much material we brought to school that day and how much we actually used for our insulation. We had to create a spreadsheet with all this information. During the whole process me and Edward worked very well together. We were able to rely on each other to bring the materials required to for our insulation and collectly collect data in logger pro.

1.4.1 Renewable Electrical Energy Generation and Distribution

Group Members: Edward Song and Jordan Dean

Class period: 4A

Home Campus: Centennial Highschool

Project Objective:

The project objective for this assignment was to design and create a renewable electrical energy generation and distribution system that would utilize wind, solar, and hydrogen fuel cell energy. The system would then have to be able to successfully meet the demands of both residential and industrial consumers through a simulated 24-hour electrical energy demand cycle. Once we finished our testing and collected our data, we were told to create a design brief of this project through google docs.

Design Process and Learning Target:

For the design process of this project, me and my team were given a VEX POE kit and one breadboard. Our restraints were that we were only allowed to use 2 solar panels, 2 hydrogen fuel cells, and one student made hand crank for our voltage power supply to the LED's. On the breadboard, the 5 residential (red) and 2 industrial (amber yellow) LEDs had to be in separate banks both parallel to each other. Me and my team first began our research over the required voltage and current needed to power the LEDs. For the red LEDs, we found that the required voltage was 1.6v and the current 18mA. For the amber yellow LEDs, we found that the required voltage was 1.9v and the current too 18mA. With this simple information we were able to begin finishing all theoretical calculations in our preliminary investigation. After we completed our research, my team and I begun coming up with brainstorm sketches, again all sketches had to follow all restraints set by the teacher in the beginning. Once we selected which sketch we thought was most realistic, we begun construction of our build. I was responsible for configuring the breadboard and making sure that all of our power sources would contribute to lighting our LEDs efficiently throughout the 24-hour simulated cycle. A problem that I ran into when configuring the breadboard was realizing that the solar panels would not be used in the night portion of the 24 hours simulated cycle. At the time, my current setup had the solar panels as part of the circuit as a whole, which meant, if their was no more energy being supplied to the solar panels, their would be no current flowing through the entire system; I had accidently created a series parallel circuit. to Overcome this issue, I decided to make the red LEDs dependent on the student made hand crank, which would be running the full 24-hours. I also added an additional cable between the yellow LED's to that they could receive direct power from the hand crank too, when the solar panels weren't in use. The overall learning target for this project was to allow for use to become more familiar with how electric circuits work and the how to successfully create a power circuit with multiple power supplies.

Personal Reflection:

During this project, I got to better familiarize myself with the components of a breadboard and parallel circuit wiring. I did feel like I was struggling a bit more in this project than previous projects however. It did take me some time for me to fully understand how to successfully create a circuit on the breadboard that could be powered by multiple energy sources. And when I did make the power sources part of the circuit, I had accidently created a series parallel and need to further my original plan and sketches. A program that did use a lot to test my circuit was Tinkercad; this program allowed me to build theoretical breadboard configurations from the comfort of my home. I spent at most, two and a half hours messing around with the online breadboard to create a design that my team and I would eventually use. Overall, I do feel like me and my team were able divide out the work well evenly. Jordan was responsible for the preliminary research, Edward was responsible for concepting the building of the hand crank, and I was responsible for brainstorming and testing the different configurations for the breadboard as well as completing the math for final wiring diagram. Testing out our circuit was my favorite part in the entire project. I enjoyed being challenged when my cricut didn't work out as planned.

2.1.8 truss design

Truss #1 Max Force: 25lbs Efficiency: 10.37 Truss #2 Max Force: 56lbs Efficiency: 14.54

Group Members: Sebastian Ferman and Kendall Johnson

Class Period: 4A

Home Campus: Centennial High School

Project Objective:

The project objective for this assignment was for me and my team to be able to create two separate trusses and figure how much force it could withstand before experiencing structural failure. We were tasked to then, with the knowledge that we learned about trusses, to create a set of tables to determine the efficiency of each truss. We used the the data chart collected by our teacher to aid us in our project.

Design Process and Learning Target:

For the design process of this project, me and my team were given 2 long sticks of balsa wood as well as one elmer's glue bottle. For the first part of the project, we had to visualize and sketch out how our trusses would look like, the length that each beam would be, and where precision cuts would need to be made in order for our truss to be structurally stable. I was mostly in charge of determining the lengths and cuts of the beams for the two trusses. my group members, Kendall and Sebastian, then used my measurements and began cutting out and gluing the beams together to create the two trusses. By the end of the class period, my team and I had finished creating our two trusses, now just waiting for the glue applied on each truss to dry. During the next class period, we began testing our trusses in a stress test machine brought in by our teacher. Our first truss during its stress test was only able to withstand 25 lbs before structural failure; however, our second truss was able to withstand 56 lbs before structural failure, the class best. With the information gathered by our teacher, me and my team were then able to identify the efficiency of each of our trusses. For our first truss, we divided the force applied to the truss (25lbs) by its weight (2.41g) and determined its efficiency to be 10.37. For our second truss we divided the force applied to the truss (56lbs) by its weight (3.85g) and determined its efficiency to be 14.54.

Personal Reflection:

During this project I got to apply what I had been learning about trusses for the past few weeks and actually put my knowledge to the test. Overall, I felt like me and my group all worked well together throughout the project! I did feel like the work was spread out evenly enough, and no arguments really broke out. something that I found particularly challenging throughout the project was creating the measurements for truss two as well as its precision cuts. In the middle of the second truss, their is a diagonal beam which took me a very long time to determine its length and the precision cuts that had to be made in order for it to provide the most structural stability. Other than that issue, everything else was able to be completed rather swiftly. My favorite part during the entire project was testing out our trusses; I just loved seeing how far our truss could continue before its ultimate demise. For our first test, we did underperform compared to the rest of the class. This did cause some slight alarm between our group, but we were able to recuperate and quickly determined that their was just simply not enough glue put in place between the trusses three beams. For our second truss, we couldn't really change too much about it, as its glue had already dried; however, surprisingly, it was able to withstand the most pressure, 56lbs, compared to everyone else in the class, bringing back a small amount of confidence to our group. Overall, I enjoyed this project and I hope to work with my group once again in the near future!

2.1.4 Structural design

Class Period: 4A

Home Campus: Centennial High School

Project Objective:

The project objective for this assignment was to create a bridge using West Point Bridge Designer 2016. The Bridge had to be within certain constraints such as staying within a budget limit of $400,000 and being able to carry the weight of either 2 standard H25 loading trucks or one 480 kN Permit Loading Truck. The other major constraint of the bridge also being that it would have to be at least 24 meters above sea level and no higher than 32.5 meters.

Design Process and Learning Target:

For the design process for this project, I was first given the task to begin preliminary research on how changing certain parts of the bridge would affect the total cost of my design. This initial research included me finding the change in cost when adding a pier, arch abutment, and anchorage cable, to my design, as well as changing their height's. In addition to this research, I also determined the differences in the different materials that I could use for my bridge, Carbon steel, and in its high strength, and quenched form. This research would enable me to create a bridge that would be able to successfully stay within my designated budget and meet all the design constants that my teacher listed. However, this did not come instantly, as there was much trial and error. For the first 40 minutes of one of my class periods, I familiarized myself with the program, making mockup bridges that at first were destined to fail. After a while, I finally decided to begin to think of possible bridge designs that I could make. I created a total of four possible designs. I ended up choosing a design with a pier in it mainly due to my problem with structural stability at the center of my bridge. I began to modify my original design to the constraints and I ended up changing my bars to hollow as a way to save money. After about another 20 minutes of making modifications to my original design, I finally created a bridge that was within budget and my teacher's constraints.

Personal Reflection:

During this project, I felt like I got a little glimpse of what a structural engineer goes through on a daily basis. I was introduced to a new engineering program, something that, at first, looked daunting and challenging. However, after only a few minutes of experimenting with all the different possible bridge combinations, I found the software very simple to use. I just loved the freedom and flexibility that the program gave the user. I could create any bridge design that I could think of, and the program would simulate my bridge to its fullest extend. The largest thing that I found challenging about this entire project was the fact that I had to stay within a budget of $400,000, something at first I thought was a lot of money, but found out very quickly just how little it actually was. But at the same time, I found this obstacle as something that inspired me to think creatively and problem solve on my own. I feel like most of my classmates also went through this same process, I just happened to enjoy it. This entire project itself has somewhat caused me to reconsider my stance on structural engineering and it being a possible career for me in the future. Only time will tell.

VEX Test bed (3.1.1-3.1.6)

Class Period: 4A

Home Campus: Centennial High School

Group Members: Drew Pistorious

Project Objective:

The project objective for this assignment was to learn about the different VEX components and sensors that exist within our VEX kits as well as how to learn how to code in ROBOTC. Me and my partner, Drew Pistorius, were then given several class periods to take notes and learn the basics of robotics through a variety of self-guided lessons 3.1.1-3.1.6. We would then apply what we had learned and test our program on our testbed.

Design Process and Learning Target:

For the design process of this project, me and my partner, Drew Pistorius, were given multiple days in class to learn how to code in ROBOTC and analyze the components that existed within our VEX kits. We first started off with a basic introduction given by our teacher over what robotics was and how coding "makes our world go round." We then began to first learn about the VEX sensors and motors in 3.1.1 and what the preliminary functions were. For the next part of our project 3.1.2, me and my partner began introductory lessons in coding and how to use ROBOTC. We were often tasked to create code that would turn a motor for a certain amount of time, or have a light turn off and on. It wasn't until 3.1.3 when we finally began to work on coding outputs and learned how to make motors dependent on sensor values. throughout the rest of the projects, 3.1.4-3.1.6, me and my partner took notes over key coding concepts such as loops, If-Else statements, timers, functions, and closed and open-loop systems.

Personal Reflection:

During this project, I was able to gain a better understanding of coding and how different components of my VEX kit operated. I had an absolute blast learning how to use ROBOTC! Since 7th grade, I have been doing robotics; going through this project just made me feel very excited for other projects that we would be completing later on throughout the semester. Although I was alone and had to work by myself for a full 3 class periods, I was able to quickly learn the coding concepts presented to me without having to ask my teacher too many questions. When my partner, Drew Pistorious, finally arrived, we were able to collaborate very well with each other throughout the rest of the project. One coding concept that did take me a little while to understand was open and closed-loop systems. There were moments when both me and my partner had no idea what to do, but we were always able to find the answer by looking back at the slides that our teacher gave to the class. I cannot wait to start the other robotics projects in this class!

3.1.7 Machine control