A list of projects completed for various
courses taken at the University of Delaware.
Aug 2020 - May 2024
Project Gallery
Below is a list of the major projects completed across my undergraduate academic studies, listed in chronological order from most recent to oldest. These projects cover a wide range of course material and concentrations, including engineering design projects, data science analyses, software development, novel research, design competitions, and more. A diverse set of skillsets were therefore developed in creating these projects, which led to them being featured as shown below.
Autonomous Firefighting Mechatronic Vehicle
Design of a Transformable Robotic Independent Device for Extinguishing and Navigating Terrain (TRIDENT) to navigate an unknown grid environment and detect and extinguish simulated fires using on-board sensors, navigation control, and procedural pathfinding algorithms. Software development, hardware implementation, and mechatronic designs were lead by myself and featured using PID controllers for vehicle positioning, a custom implementation of the A* algorithm, and a compact, modular vehicle design.
Three-Stage Launch Vehicle Trajectory Simulation
The creation of numerical vehicle trajectory simulation software written in Python performed with myself as the sole software developer. This software provides the projected window of the maximum achieved, sub-orbital flight altitudes across a range of design stage mass fractions as well as the transcient vehicle dynamics and external Mach profiles for a fixed vehicle design. Both scenarios consider changing gravitational and atmospheric conditions as well as Mach-dependent drag forces.
Variable Speed Round Baler Pickup
A Senior Design Capstone project for a novel agricultural device to allow the pickup system of a round baler model from New Holland to be operated at variable speeds. This design allows for more consistent and dense hay bales to be formed and has also been shown to have reduced fuel consumption compared to current round baler models and can more easily remove plugs from the pickup.
Glider Design Competition
The design and analysis of an aerodynamic glider used in a class-wide competition for the maximum endurance, altitude, and range glider designs. Analysis was performed using XFoil for airfoil performance, VSPAero for preliminary aerodynamic force calculations, and SimScale for complete flight performance calculations.
Automated Monoblock Pill Filling Station
A yearlong project for Junior Design featuring the design of a fully automated system to be used for a small batch vitamin distributor. This 10 person design project earned the 2022 Fall Design Showcase People's Choice Award and features an integrated Arduino computer and five subsystem components housed in an 80/20 extruded aluminum frame.
Pinewood Derby Challenge
Award-winning vehicle design for a class-wide Pinewood Derby competition. The theoretical performance of the design was computed using computational fluid dynamics simulations and custom-written software to calculate the race time based on the unique vehicle dynamics.
Machine Learning Projects
Multiple projects were completed using machine learning to explore large data sets and develop meaningful conclusions as part of a Data Science course. These projects include exploring the relationship between weather forecasts and motor vehicle accidents, predicting the rate of college tuition at various universities in the US, and questioning the validity of rural-urban polarization in the US.
Numercial Heat Transfer Simulation
A thermal simulation software is developed to theoretically estimate the steady-state temperature distribution occuring on a thin plate of aluminum subject to various boundary conditions at each of the edges. This software employs an explicit finite difference method model for all calculations.
Vehicle Speed Controller
A speed trajectory controller is developed for a scaled robotic car (1:25 scale) in the Information and Decision Science Laboratory's Scaled Smart City (IDS3C) at the University of Delaware. The PID gains of the controller are calculated using desired time domain specifications, simulated step responses, and experimental data.
CFD Case Studies
A set of geometric models were used for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation analysis. These simulations were performed with mesh-independent k-omega SST turbulence models and included the design of a pipe diffuser and drag analysis of various geometric bodies.
Phone Case Material Analysis
A comprehensive design study to determine and analyze the best material to use for a phone case subject to expected damaging and loading. Several constraints were identified for the case which allowed for a multi-staged material selection process to occur by creating a material index, filtering by practicability, then filtering by manufacturing processes required.
Adjustable Corrugated Interface for Buoyancy Alteration
Research project funded by the NASA Delaware Space Grant to study the theoretical design and review of an Adjustable Corrugated Interface for Buoyancy Alteration (ACIBA). This research was completed by myself with advising from Professor Zubaer Hossain from May 2022 - August 2022.
Experimental Femur Fracture Plate
A compressive fracture plate was created in order to aid in bone repair of a broken adult femur bone subject to extensive compressive loading. This plate was designed as a low-contact, dynamic fracture plate and was theoretically evaluated using FEA before sucessfully withstanding the applied load when attached to a femur bone surrogate in a hydraulic press testing chamber.
Football Trajectory Simulation
The dynamics of a football were studied by creating a simulation to model the effects of realistic air resistance on the total range of a football in flight. Dimensionless variables were used to model the dynamics as a system of ODE which could be solved using a fourth-order Runge-Kutta method.
Wooden Bike Design Challenge
This class-wide competition involved the creation of a wooden push bike from a single sheet of plywood (4'x4'x1/2"), PVC pipe, hardware, and two bicycle tires. In addition to satisfying all desired project target values, the final design was sucessfully raced against other designs and was able to withstand the loads applied.
Pattern Puzzle Toy
Melissa and Doug® sponsored project to create a novel toy for children ages 10 to 20 months old. Key objectives of this toy were to make an educational design while building on association and critical thinking skills. The final design was compliant with ASTM 963-11 standards and features a wooden block design of various scenes and cut patterns.
Hardwood Floors Life Cycle Analysis
This cradle-to-grave life cycle inventory was carried out to study the life cycle processes and their respective component features for two products: hardwood and linoleum flooring. In evaluating these inputs and outputs for each life cycle stage of the products, a brief evaluation of the environmental risks posed was prepared for the University of Delaware's Office of Sustainability to weigh the environmental impacts of hardwood and linoleum flooring.
Desktop Mechanical Toy
A wooden mechanical truck toy was created from a single laser cut piece of pinewood and features several mechanical motion elements such as a door swinging mechanism and a rotating light piece. The final design is composed of 24 unique pieces and was marketed towards college students as a stress relief fidget toy with a fun and challenging assembly process.
Additional Projects
Check out some of the other projects I have worked on over the years using the links below.
Do you have any questions, comments, or are interested in the projects shown? Fill out the form below or use the contact information provided and I would love to discuss!