Phonograph style CD player (Part 1) (Part 2)

Using parts found at yard sales, I built a Victrola style CD player complete with working horn speaker.

Designing a Better Guitar Bridge

For my senior capstone design project, I worked on designing a better bridge for an electric guitar. Our group focused on designing a guitar bridge for the hobby guitarist marking, making price and simplicity priorities. Our improved design used a cartridge system to simplify the process of changing strings, and increasing the tuning stability of the guitar. Our design reduces the number of parts, and distributes stress more evenly than the competing Fender tremolo bridge. This allows it to be cast out of aluminum, instead of steel, which makes it much more environmentally friendly. We designed our bridge in Solidworks 2007, and built three prototypes, two early ones by hand, and the third on a CNC Mill. Our full project report is available here.

Update! Our project was featured on the Carnegie Mellon Homepage, including an interview with me. The article is available here. Our project was also selected to be displayed in Washington DC at the National Engineer's Week Conference, representing Carnegie Mellon.

Heat Sink for Military RATLR Robot

The purpose of this design exercise was to create a heat sink the processor of a military robot, given limited space and external environment exposure. The heatsink had to allow the processor to function in the most extreme environmental conditions (130W heat dissipation in the Sahara). Our design uses a solid copper core, and aluminum fins with a U shaped air channel, and two small fans to meet these requirements. Mylar radiation shields protect the components from the sun's rays. Our design met or exceeded every parameter of the design specifications. Our Final Report is available in PDF form here.

Sophomore Design Competition

In 2007, I participated in a team design competition as part of my stress analysis class. The object of the competition was to design a device that could life a 1lb weight at least 2 inches vertically. The device could only touch the surface of the table in a designated 6 inch square mounting area. The device had to thread through several obstacles to reach the location of the weight, and the only source of power to lift the weight came from one small servo. Prizes were to be awarded for the device to lift the weight the highest distance, and the device that weighed the least and still functioned successfully. Our group placed first for building the lightest device, at 12.5 oz. At a 3.25 inch lift, our device was also a serious contender for the highest lift. Our project website can be found here.

Freshman Design Competition

In my Introduction to Mechanical Engineering class, during my freshman year, I participated in a group project to build cars, powered only by mousetraps and rubber bands, that could drive 25 feet, stop, reverse, and drive back to the starting position again as quickly as possible. Our group chose an unusal approach, with a solid aluminum frame, and large front drive wheels. Our car placed in the semi-finals. This project was my first experience with a methodical engineering process, and it was a whole lot of fun. Our project website can be found here.