In my Additive Manufacturing class, two projects stood out the most. For the first one, we used Autodesk ReCap Photo to create a mesh from a photo scan, we then repaired the mesh, converted it to a closed volume, sliced, and 3D printed it. The other project required us to design a bracket that was lighter and stronger than a simple L-bracket using Autodesk Fussion's generative design and/or shape otpimization simulations. We had to estimate cost's, create GD&T drawings, generate supports for SLM printing, and post process our parts.

When my roommate last year moved out he left me his metal shelving unit. I added plywood to one of the shelves to use it as a workbench. I decided that I wanted a way to organize my tools and keep things like wire handy. A neighbor had some scrap peg-board he let me have for the back and side; this was cut to fit and zip-tied to the poles and shelves. As the lighting in my room is very dim, and I often run out of outlets, I purchased a power strip that had rotating LEDs built in and hung it from the upper shelf. I also added a fume extractor made out of a computer fan, carbon filter, and some 3D printed parts. Because I didn't have any pegs for the peg-board but my sister was getting rid of a thread holder, I added it to the side to hold my pliers, solder, tape measure, hot glue gun, and screwdriver kit. My wire strippers and crimpers didn't fit in the thread holder very well, so I designed and 3D printed custom holders for the peg-board. Although I originally had my wire on the thread holder as well, it wasn't very convenient, so I 3D printed a couple clips to hold a dowel and the spools of wire right over where I solder. My 3D printer wouldn't fit on any of the shelves with the filament holder sticking off the top, so I removed it and zip-tied it to the underside of the shelf above. Also, when 3D printing parts, I would often have to use a flashlight to check on them due to the poor lighting in my room. I had some spare LED strips laying around, so I ordered a switch and a strip of stainless steel to make a light bar; I used two strips of bright white for general use and one strip of red in case I need to check it at night and don't want to make my room too bright. I added a USB cable and ran it up the back of the shelving unit to the power strip to power it. I also have places to store PPE, parts, glue, and a few other tools on the other shelves. All-in-all, I'm very pleased with the results, but expect to keep improving it as I use it more and get more tools.

During a summer internship at the Moffett Field Historical Society, I was put on the "K-22 Project" restoring a WWII K-Ship. The K-22 was built in 1943 and crashed in 1944; the museum came into possession of the remnants of the frame structure of the control car several years ago. I was responsible for creating assembly drawings for the missing portion of the frame, creating a BOM, designing assembly tooling, creating a standardized attachment method for the frame joints, and interfacing with the steel supplier. I have also included a picture of the remaining frame and the first replacement frame segment that was welded based on my documentation.

During the last quarter of my junior year, I took a class entitled "Special Problems for Undergraduates," in which I formulated a project and found a professor to sponsor me. My project was designing and building a telemetry flight computer that could be mounted on any autonomous vehicle and accessed remotely from anywhere. The flight computer needed to be able to report GPS position, altitude, and velocity; it also needed to be adaptable so that other sensors or data could be input. For remote access and communication, I used a Particle Boron GSM board with a Adafruit Featherwing GPS module. I also decided to add an accelerometer for vehicle attitude. I spent the next ten weeks sourcing material, writing code, and building the computer. The final product is self-contained, USB-rechargeable, accepts user commands through a web browser, and has indicator LEDs so the status can be checked without a computer. The device has the option to add an external, active GPS antenna and can accept other data inputs through GPI/O pins on the board.

My roommate and I built several custom battery packs to be used in one of his remote control planes because we couldn't find any off-the-shelf batteries with a high-enough energy density to meet his needs. After careful research, we determined that the Panasonic NCR18650PF lithium-ion cell would meet his needs. In order to power his plane, five packs of four cells each were needed; the four cells in each pack were connected in series, and the five packs were connected in parallel in order to achieve both the necessary current and voltage. Nickel interconnects were used to connect cells within each pack. Balance leads were soldered to the interconnects that would join cells together, and power leads were soldered to the nickel strips that would make up the battery terminals. The leads had to be pre-soldered to the nickel to prevent tripping the thermal fuse in each cell. After all the interconnects were fabricated, we used a resistance spot welder specially designed for welding lithium ion cells to secure the interconnects to the cells. Although the welder reaches a higher temperature than the soldering iron, because the heat is applied for less time, the batteries' internals do not heat up as much. After welding, we used a zip-tie to provide strain relief to the leads and then used heat shrink to protect the contacts on each cell from shorting.

For my Aero 303 Gas Dynamics and Heat Transfer class, we built two stage model rockets in small groups. Our goal was to launch a rocket with an apogee around 400 ft and accurately predict the separation and apogee altitudes. I was in charge of modeling the rocket and simulating the flight to ensure we were as close to our predictions as possible; I used a combination of OpenRocket and RockSim to verify our predictions. Once the final design was selected, I was also put in charge of the build process as I had prior experience building model rockets in middle and high school. Pictured along with the completed rocket is the rocket I simulated as well as a fin alignment ring I designed and 3D printed to ensure our fins were attached correctly.

After finding a discarded server in the gutter on trash day in my neighborhood, I decided to salvage what I could from it and build a gaming computer for myself. I diagnosed each piece of the computer and ordered everything that needed to be replaced. I then built the computer and a custom lighting system for the case.

I was a project lead for the Introduction to Quadcopters Project for the Aircraft Design and Construction Club my junior year. We needed more power distribution boards for various projects, but many of the commercially available options were over-specced and over-priced. As I had taken a PCB design class, I decided I could make custom boards for our club at a lower cost. This board was designed to work for the Introduction to Quadcopters Project but to also be robust enough to be used for other projects in the future.

The lab I interned with over the summer had a large Sprinter van with no rear windows. As it was very hard to back up into our designated parking space without rear windows, we decided that a backup-camera system was necessary. I volunteered to do the installation of the aftermarket kit we purchased; this involved removing a large portion of the dashboard and center console as well as headliner and siding. Once I had cut the necessary holes and routed all of the cabling, I reassembled everything. I also designed and 3D printed a mount for the display to angle it more towards the driver and prevent glare.

Here are a variety of projects I have coded in MATLAB both for class assignments and personal projects. You can make the slides full screen in order to see more detail in the images; the arrow keys can be used to scroll through the projects.

Shown here are a variety of projects I modeled in SolidWorks and many of which were then 3D printed. You can make the slides full screen in order to see more detail in the images; the arrow keys can be used to scroll through the projects.