Featured Project: Designing a PCB
This project describes my contribution to the Umbilical Project as an Avionics Member of the Yellow Jacket Space Program. It was my first experience designing a printed circuit board, the purpose of which is to actuate an electromagnet to produce a desired range of magnetic field in both directions. I found this so enticing that I also used it as the technical project for my ECE Discovery Studio class.
The PCB was designed using Altium and implemented with N-channel MOSFETs using a full bridge topology. Not only did this project provide an introduction to PCB design, but it also taught me how to source compatible parts for chips, and design a schematic using conventions that make it easy for others to understand.
The Motor Control Panel Project
Marine Robotics Group
The first project I was placed on in the Electrical Team of Marine Robotics Group was the Motor Control Panel Project. The objective of the project is to redesign and implement a functional motor control panel for an autonomous surface vehicle which will perform in competition. My contribution was changing the microcontroller from an Arduino Mega to a Teensy 4.1, which I soon learned was much easier said and done.
This project along with the Electromagnet Project was my first introduction to Altium. In addition, to learning how to use the software, I also learned a lot about the different types of signals which are used in microcontrollers. With the Schematic finished, I am currently working on testing the circuit to ensure that it will work for compeition.
The BMS Project
HyperJackets
As an Electrical Member of HyperJackets, I had the opportunity to contribute to their BMS Project. The objective of the project is to design and implement a functional Battery Management System for a Hyperloop pod which will perform in competition. My contribution was to design the schematic for the 3.3V components, pictured to the left. I am currently working on the design for the 12V components.
This project was my first introduction to Battery Management Systems, and EasyEDA; it taught me a lot about the requirements of a BMS and why it is necessary for electronics to be safe for people as well as the consequences if a BMS system fails.
The Electrical SubTeam
FIRST Robotics Competition Team 7414
Last year I was the Electrical Team Lead of my High School FIRST Robotics Team and had the opportunity to lead the design and implementation of the electrical and pneumatic systems for our FIRST Competition Robot. In addition, I also felt personally responsible for introducing new members to the electrical side of the robot and helping those interested find their love of electrical systems just as the former leaders had helped me find mine.
This was my first time leading an engineering project. My strategy was to have each team member contemplate a design for a specific subsystem; then collaborate together on each design. I found that this process helped us arrive at a functional design that everyone understood and was comfortable with implementing. It was also very educational for new members and helped them understand that engineering is about designing solutions.
Building a State Machine
Digital Design
As part of a class lab in our Digital Design Class, my lab partner and I were tasked with designing and building two state machines using a bread board, multiplexer, d flip-flops, and combinational logic; and we passed signals to the machine using a NI myDaq. We built a four state machine (pictured to the right) and a three state machine.
Through this project, we better understood how data is stored in our devices and why these design choices were made.
Let’s Explain!
Creating an Educational Resource
Last Summer my friend and I decided to create our own educational resource. We chose to start by addressing physics and chose to make our content project based. As part of the project, we designed large scale physics models to demonstrate certain concepts and we built them by lashing together 8 foot 1.5 inch by 1.5 inch beams of wood with rope. I also built a website and YouTube channel for the project to deliver our content to students.
Throughout the project, we heavily relied on engineering processes. Designing the models was iterative: we often implemented our design and realized a flaw, and then repeatedly modified the design and rebuilt it until it worked. Overall, it was a great project and we plan to continue developing it over the winters and summers.
Feel free to give us a visit: https://www.lets-explain.net/
One-to-One Initiative
Summer Technology Internship – 2021
Throughout the summer, I was placed on several projects such as the inventory project and the Genius Bar project; however, it was from my work on the one-to-one initiative that I learned the most. The goal of this project was for my school district to provide one device for every student as well as update the devices for the faculty.
My primary contribution was to work with the hardware and software on the machines to ensure that they were ready to be used. It was through this project that I serviced over 600 computers despite having minimal experience with software management and no experience with computer hardware prior to the internship.
Website Project
Summer Technology Internship – 2020
Over the pandemic my school district sought to redesign their website and assigned a fellow intern and myself to the task. Prior to this project I had no experience with web development or WordPress, and through the project, I not only designed the website, but also was tasked with setting up hosting for the website since the district wished to host the website in-house rather than contract an external hosting service. By the end of the summer, my coworker and I had built a completely new website for the school district and prepared it with content for the following school year.
Since then, I have went on to create more websites for personal projects and the knowledge of the backend processes has proven extremely useful in website optimization.