LATEST PROJECTS
Individual Project, Professional
Grayhill’s executives wanted a creative means of showcasing our products at trade shows, and as they had also entertained the possibility of adding a handheld drone controller to their military product lineup, I was asked to create a prototype.
I drew inspiration from existing drone controllers as well as video game consoles to create ergonomic housings that would hold some of Grayhill's most popular joysticks, pushbuttons, and LED switches. Over 50 of these prototypes have been fabricated and sent out to Grayhill’s worldwide sales teams, and steps have since been taken to finalize and integrate this drone controller into Grayhill’s standard products.
For details on the methods I used, check out the gallery on the left!
Team Project, Academic
My Role: Lead Software Engineer, Outputs
Snowboarders and winter athletes all share one common issue: they have no easy way of controlling their music. Having to constantly remove their gloves in freezing conditions to access their device proves to be frustrating.
Our team decided to tackle this problem by creating a tangible device that could allow athletes to easily control their music through an interface on their helmets, even while wearing thick gloves.
The user can play, pause, skip a song, go back a song, and adjust the volume simply by swiping or pressing the helmet's surface. The final product incorporated soft potentiometers adhered to the helmet that were raised to be more discoverable and transducers within the helmet itself that provided the user audio and tactile feedback through vibrations.
Bring up the gallery to read more about this process and my contributions, or watch the demo video to see the helmet in action!
Team Project, Academic
My Role: Team Leader, Latch Portion
John Deere was receiving several complaints from farmers that the concaves, or filters within their harvesting vehicles, were too difficult to change out. The heavy concaves (70 pounds each), questionable attachment methods, and tight tolerances made the installation cumbersome, time-consuming, and impossible to be completed by one person.
Our team first underwent the nearly three hour procedure ourselves to get the true human-centered design perspective. We eventually came up with two major solutions, one of which I led, that would significantly reduce the time and effort required from farmers.
See details on the two solutions in the gallery!
If you want to learn more about my past projects, don't be shy, drop me a line!
Team Project, Academic
My Roles: Lead Engineer, Tunnel Portion; Software Engineer
For our class "Designing Product Interactions", we were challenged to create a box that represents an emotion. Our team's assignment: UNEASE.
We strived to bring about this emotion in every sense: using sight, sound, texture, even smell. We drew inspiration from our past unpleasant experiences and even scenes from movies, then combined our ideas to create something truly off-putting!
Our users approached the box, made with shiny black acrylic to resemble a mysterious reflective lake, heard the sound of a clock with ticks out of sync, and were forced to reach their hand all the way through a slimy, scented tunnel to trigger a sensor that would then command a motor to open the box.
For more about our inspirations and the building process, view the gallery, and to see the box in action, watch the video!
Individual Project, Professional
The axle shafts inside Caterpillar’s 795F mining vehicles were shattering at a rate of 40 failures per year, costing the company a quarter of a million dollars per failure.
I was able to trace the cause of these failures to the rotational velocity of the shafts, as the corresponding data revealed that all of the vehicles were traveling at around the same speed at the time of failure.
After running extensive calculations and cost analyses, I determined that the best solution would entail transforming the parts from solid steel to hollow shafts crafted from carbon fiber. This redesign eventually eventually earned me a Green Belt in Six Sigma and entered mass production, as it was indisputable that my long-term manufacturing plan would save the company millions per year.
More details can be viewed in the gallery.
Individual Project, Academic
When I entered my master's program, we spent three weeks in boot camp, where we refined our design skills in areas such as 3D modeling and mechatronics. The immersive program culminates in a short project where the students can show off their newly acquired skills. This year's theme? Hakuna Matata.
For me, a worry-free day starts with a good morning, one with exercise, meditation, a well-balanced breakfast, and enough time to look good and feel ready for anything. In reality, the majority of us don't leave enough time for such things, doing the bare minimum and still finding ourselves in a rush to get out the door on time.
With this in mind, I created the "Good Morning", a habit-building button that walks you through your customized morning routine. The button wakes you up gently with the songs of your choice, tells you the date and the weather, walks you through your workout routine, allows you enough time to shower/eat/whatever else, gives cues when time is almost up, and even presents your reminders and train schedule. With each task that is completed, the user is prompted to press the button before moving on to the next task, which provides positive reinforcement in the form of haptic feedback and encourages people to build good habits.
Photos of the device can be viewed in the gallery.
My Role: Mechanical Prop Designer/Constructor
In a dramatic moment during the musical "Into the Woods", a tree falls on one of the main characters, crushing her. The goal was to achieve this effect while seamlessly blending this “special” tree with the other trees onstage. It was crucial that the method chosen was concealed from the audience and did not place the actors in harm’s way.
Click through the gallery to see the completed set and more details on how the effect was achieved!
How might we present Grayhill's products in a fresh and innovative way?
How might we create a box where the act of opening it causes the user to experience a very specific emotion?
What is my "Hakuna Matata",
and how can I create a product that means no worries?
How might we create a
compelling illusion of real peril onstage without placing
the actors in danger?
Stage Prop: Falling Tree
Edge of the Wood Theatre | Spring 2014
Handheld Drone Controller
Grayhill, Inc. | Spring 2014
How might we provide a
better way for winter athletes to control their music?
SHRED: The "Sound Helmet"
Designing Product Interactions Class | Fall 2016
John Deere: Reimagining
of Concave Installation
Senior Design Project | Fall 2013
How might we facilitate farmers in the arduous process of changing out filters in
their harvesting machines?
Emotional Box: "Unease"
Designing Product Interactions Class | Fall 2016
Redesign of Axle Shaft
Caterpilar, Inc.| Fall 2012
My Hakuna Matata:
The "Good Morning"
Engineering Design Innovation Boot Camp | Summer 2016
What modifications are required to stop axle shafts from failing when mining vehicles reach a critical speed?
Skills:
Coding (Arduino + Processing), Mechatronics, Ideating, Physical Prototyping
Skills:
Pro/Engineer, Physical Prototyping, Vibration Testing
Skills:
Pro/Engineer, Rapid Prototyping, Mold Injections, 3D Printing, Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing, Ergonomics
Skills:
Coding (Arduino + Processing), Mechatronics, Ideating, Physical Prototyping
Skills:
Failure Analysis, Vibration Analysis, Microstructure Analysis, Cost Analysis, Custom Equation Derivation
Skills: Solidworks, Programming (Arduino + Processing), Mechatronics, 3D Printing, Wiring, Soldering
Skills: Carpentry, Fabrication, Assembly, Drilling, Woodworking, Sketching
This is just a handful of the cool stuff I've been lucky enough to be a take part in.