Dan Gielas Section A
39-245
Portfolio
Projects
Exercises
In Class Activities
Project 1
Toy Concepts
I came up with three ideas for fun and educational toys:
Pop
Bottle Rocket
Magnetic-Kinetic
Energy Toy
3D
Puzzle
Working on this project made me think about how easy and how difficult is is to design an educational toy. Initial ideas are easy to come up with, but then you have to analyze them and determine if they are feasible for production and if they will be safe. Also, after thinking about and planning a toy out, sometimes you find the original idea wasn't that great to begin with. In general, this project helped me learn what goes into developing concepts and presenting what you've come up with after only a few days. I feel it was valuable.
I was supposed to miss my presentation because I was going to compete in Grassroots Motorsports' $2001 Challenge, but my car never fully made it back together in time to make the 1500 mile trip down to Florida. There's always next year. And I got to make my presentation!
Project 2
Manufactured Assembly
This project dealt with the process of splitting up an assembly and having different group build different pieces using different methods of manufacturing. The groups then bring their finished pieces to class and fit them together on the first try.
My group was in charge of making one of the shafts of the assembly. We volunteered to look into having it injection molded, but that method proved too difficult to accomplish. We instead went with FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) and our result were good.
Here are two links to the part files we used. These files needed to be saved in .stl format in order to be imported into the software that runs the FDM machine. The actual work involved in this was very easy, but the coordinating of the machines that could access the FDM machine was somewhat difficult.
And here is a picture of our assembled machine:
Our shaft is the white one connected to the propeller.
Manufacturing process reports (Project 2)
My group studied injection molding as a rapid prototype design process. We met with Mike who talked to us about the pros and cons of this process as well as what would be required to actually make our shaft from it. We decided that injection molding would not be a logical choice for our part due to the large size and complex mold needed to produce it. Had we been making something that required many identical pieces, then this process would have been more useful.
Getting your part manufactured
I volunteered to take care of getting our shaft manufactured. I had to convert the drawing we were given to an .STL file and then have Gem Usual help me send the part to the FDM machine. The FDM machine works much like a printer, but it is also quite a bit more complicated. I had trouble finding computers that could both convert my file correctly and send information to the machine. In the end, Gem had to send the file from his computer. The actual production of the part was very simple in that we just said print and the FDM machine made the part. However, the process of getting to the point of saying print was pretty time consuming.
Assembling the parts for Project 2
When it came time to fit all the class' parts together, things went very smoothly. We built in tolerances to all the parts that fit together so that nothing would be too tight to work. Only one part had to be shaved a little bit in order to fit. I thought that was very impressive because before that point, no one had even had two parts in the same room together. All the parts were made individually from drawings and they all turned out perfect. The picture above shows the completed assembly.
First in-class test of Project 3 prototypes (yours and others)
This is when we received feedback on our ideas and got recommendations of what to change to make the project better. We got a recommendation to move from matchbox cars to Darda cars, which are wind up, self powered cars of much higher quality. I think that really helped improve our demonstrations for the kids because it allowed us to be much more flexible with the track layout and let the kids put their hands on the cars and track better.
Sequence of prototypes
Our first prototype was actually very similar to our last. It was basically a section of the Darda track with a loop and a jump. We made revisions on the jump, eventually making an adjustable piece. The main difference between our designs was the content and focus of the instruction. We went from purely talking about how changing the ramp makes the car fly differently to trying to explain how centrifical force keeps the car stuck to the track when its upside down in the loop.
Testing with children (TODTW, Moving 4th, Role Models)
We found that the children really enjoyed playing with the track (surprise). They even understood the concept of how the car stayed on track through the loop. Basically the kids were smarter than we thought they would be. Unfortunately, I was not able to make any of the testing beyond the first day that kids came to class, but it was for a good reason. I was in South Carolina pursuing future career interests. I was track testing my car and being photographed for a magazine article to appear in a fall '01 issue of Grassroots Motorsports. I have had much experience in trying to teach and control children both in babysitting and watching my sister teach her inner-city elementary school class, so I think gained a pretty good grasp as to how the project needed to be improved in the small amount of time I had with the testers.
Making a part on rapid proto process
Our project didn't have an obvious part that could be made using the processes we looked at in class. We ended up "rapidly prototyping" an adjustable ramp section to add to the track. It allowed the track to be set to various angles and stay there over repeated tests. Although the part was made using hardware from Home Depot and a piece of wood left over from our booth, I feel it definitely met the "rapid prototype" requirement. In my internship at the Sony 35" and projection TV plant last summer, many things were made using non-glamorous parts and methods. Sometimes testing with a less precise hand-made prototype is just as good if not better than with a precision made, computer generated prototype.
Final in class presentations
This was just an informal presentation we used to give a brief wrap-up of the changes we had made to the project and to receive any last minute suggestions. The suggestions we got from this and earlier presentations really helped us form a meaningful and educational activity for the children.
Meeting of the Minds
This was only the second time I was able to present our project to people outside of the class. The adults I talked to seemed to approve of and enjoy the idea and the children reacted very positively as well. I was surprised as to how easily the children were able to understand the ideas we tried to show in our project.
Exercises
Role Mole
The role mole exercise had us designing a method for Role Mole to store his glasses in an easily remembered place. The instructions also stated that the device should be nice to look at. Here is a picture of what I came up with:
Garfield
Garfield needed a way to carry six cans of soda with one hand while he skipped to a picnic. He also only wanted to use cardboard, without any tape or glue. And the less cardboard the better. I came up with a design that had a strip running down the middle of the cans supporting them by the triangular base. A tight wrap around the outside kept everything in place. All of my joints used a slot-tab style joint, which proved reliable. I probably could have eliminated more cardboard from the sides to make my total amount used less. As it was, my design had one of the smallest areas of cardboard used in the class.
Green Acres
The goal of this exercise was to design a transport for 3 eggs capable of withstanding a 5ft drop and using only "green" materials. Many interpretations were made on what exactly "green" materials were. I looked through the websites given and came up with the idea of only using paper products and allowing the packaging to be used again once the eggs were delivered. I stuffed 3 eggs in a paper towel roll and padded the end with toilet paper. Then I put some cardboard pieces over the roll to keep the sides from hitting the ground too hard. The result was that the eggs showed no signs of breaking even after repeated drops. Unfortunately the eggs I used to test with were smaller than the ones in class, so I had to bring them with me for the second day of testing and presenting. I learned that green engineering doesn't necessarily mean everything has to be biodegradable. If something is reused in the packaging, either going in or coming out, then the product can be considered green.
In Class Activities
Design games (1st day of class)
I wasn't in class the first day because I had not tried adding it to my schedule yet. I have no idea what this activity was about.
Toy dissection
This was my first class. The activity basically had us hypothesizing about what was inside a simple mechanical toy that made it work. The ideas were interesting and involved, but the real toys were usually much simpler than imagined. We saw many different toys could be made using the same kinds of springs and gearboxes and mechanisms.
MBTI (personality test)
This test helped us form groups for the rest of the semester. I was an INTP which basically labels me as an Introverted Intuitive Thinking Perceiver, the same kind of personality as Albert Einstein, if I remember correctly. I think this activity really helped us form productive groups as it typically spread out the really bossy people and included the quiet people. I think this is a pretty good idea, at least identifying group members personalities before starting so you can assign the roles to the appropriate types.
IronCAD labs
These labs focused on making us become comfortable with a powerful CAD program. This program was unique from previous programs I had used in that it employed deconstructive solid geometry. I found it much easier to make 3-D models than say AutoCAD or ProE.
Newspaper Design/Build
This project had us splitting into teams and figuring out a way to build a free standing structure that could enclose 4 people using only 40 sheets of newspaper and a limited amount of masking tape. The toughest part was that we had to then write out instructions for a different team to read and build from. Unfortunately, our design process got more attention than the instruction set, and our structure wouldn't stand. The project helped us see the importance of clarity and completeness when writing something for someone else to follow.
Here's some pictures of my team's structure:
And here's the structure we built:
Perfect Cardboard Cube
This project had us teaming into pairs to cut and paste cardboard into a perfect 4" cube. It taught us proper methods of carboard cutting and handling.
Silly Consumer Product
Another project we worked on was coming up with a ridiculous product concept and then making a serious and interesting presentation to try and convince the class to "invest" in our idea. This one taught us how to emphasize the positive elements of something, while carefully wording the things that might be considered negative.
You can see my group's product here.
Egg Drop
This activity had each group designing a device that could protect an egg from a three story drop while using the least amount of "money" to build as possible. Our class obviously focused more on the budget than on the design because very few if any of the eggs survived. Our design used a very small fraction of the total money we were given, but it failed to protect the egg. The design could have worked had it not turned on its side during the drop. Perhaps a little more money should have been spent on something to keep it pointed the right way.
Playing with Food
I elected not to attend this optional activity because my fraternity's booth needed a miracle to be finished on time. Well, we didn't get that miracle and I missed what seemed to be a great class from what I heard. Sometimes putting carnival before class is actually less fun.
Design/Build - Take 2
This time we were given half the resources and half the time to do the identical task as before. My group functioned much more efficiently than the last one. We decided on the overall design (a proven winner from last time) very quickly and immediately got to work on the instructions. Unfortunately the group building our design didn't follow these instructions. They shortened the sides and when it came time to get under the structure, it was of course too short.
The structure we built worked pretty darn well:
Making presentations
Over the course of the semester, we had to make many presentations. I have done well with public speaking before, doing lots of oral science competitions in high school. I usually get pretty red and appear nervous (well, I guess I am nervous) but I typically speak clearly and get my point across well. I feel I was pretty good at presentations going into this class. This class has definitely helped me become more relaxed when giving a presentation. I imagine the fact that I felt more comfortable as the group changed from strangers to classmates helped a bit. I definitely felt better at giving brief explanations on the spot. Rather than becoming flustered and nervous as I know I have in the past, I calmly thought about what I needed to say and communicated clearly. I think this class did a good job of improving my public speaking.
Watching classmates' presentations
At first as I watch my classmates' presentations, I was really just thinking about and waiting to do mine. As the semester progressed, however, I started actually listening and learning from their presentations. I saw that the presenters that appeared most comfortable and calm were the most interesting and easiest to listen to. I saw that jokes can be a great aid to a presentation, but can become distracting and undesirable if used improperly or too much.
Viewing your CD
Until this class, I had never seen myself publicly speak. I had no idea how much I could avoid eye contact or appear to completely ignore the audience. At the beginning of the semester, if I was asked a question during or after a presentation, it almost looked like I had no idea what I was talking about. I was much to focused on saying what I wanted to say and not interested enough in what the person was asking about. I think watching the CD made doing the presentations twice as useful for helping me improve.
Self critique of presentations
I don't feel the self critique was as useful as doing the presentation or watching the CD, but it was definitely still worth doing. If anything, it made me sit down and name exactly what it was that I was doing right, and more importantly recognize where I needed to improve.
Doing Jornada experiment
I loved the Jornada. I don't think it helped me learn any better in this or any class, but it sure was cool being able to check my email anywhere on campus. I do think that worthwhile things can be done with it for class, but I don't think that the IdeaLink software is it. I never used it to communicate with my group, we merely emailed or met with each other.
Making web pages
This class has further advanced my experience with web page design. It definitely has made me focus on making a page both visually interesting and printer friendly. Dark or busy backgrounds will not be part of any pages I make in the future. I definitely like having the option of submitting web pages for assignments because it allows links to much greater sources of information to be added with ease.
Working in groups
I think I've worked well in groups before, but this class has further emphasized that. I ended up volunteering to take care of most of the work for the second project (getting the part made) and as a result I found myself working alone for long periods of time. I think that has helped me to offer times that I'm available to work together, rather than just saying I'd do a portion on my own.
Writing exhibit design essay (initial)
This activity helped me identify how I would plan a large scale project. I feel I covered all the bases as far as educational value and conceptual feasability.
Writing exhibit design essay (final)
I wrote that I didn't see any need for drastic changes in my original plan. I would focus on reviewing each part of the exhibit individually rather than waiting to review the entire completed project.
Making the poster for the final presentation
Our poster had all of our information pertaining to how and why we came up with our ideas. It was actually pretty interesting seeing what we had planned out and, I believe, succeeded in teaching little kids about physics.
Looking back and reflecting over your entire portfolio
Typing this portfolio has been somewhat tedious, but it has been a reminder of just how much we did this past semester. I know my experience gained in making presentations and working in groups will pay off. And if I have access to the rapid prototyping processes we learned about, I will feel much more comfortable using them.
Constructed by Dan Gielas, contact me at: