Mechanical design

Having a vision for a project, designing it, and then building it, in my opinion, is one of the most gratifying parts of engineering. The following projects highlight some of my favourite design projects where my vision became a reality!

Design of a working cnc mill

As a central component of my mechanical design course in second year, my team and I utilized Solidworks to create a CNC Mill that would theoretically function if built. Our design had no model to base our design from and was to be tailored towards hobbyists. My role primarily dealt with identifying the technical specifics of our chosen mechanisms and making their 3D CAD models. To lower the manufacturing costs, I also researched the industry standards on components like lead screws, motors, and drills so our machine would be as realistic as possible. As our final product, we created a detailed 40 page report that highlighted each of our design choices, the evidence behind them, and our overall cost to manufacture ($1590). This report was easily understood by both technical and non-technical audiences. Our design was voted by our classmates as the 3rd place design in the class.

First Place – U of T Engineering Competition: wreckage recovery

In my second year, I chose to participate in my first design competition in the Junior Design category. With my small team of two compared to over 20 teams of four, we were tasked with developing a prototype of a scalable system that would help recover wreckage from a truck spill, using only household materials. Our design was centered around being both cost effective and feasible. We also gave a presentation to a panel of judges explaining each of our design choices as well as how these may be applied to a real-world scenario. For our innovative design, we were awarded the first place prize and moved on to compete at the Provincial Finals.

MODELING AND RENDERING OF MACBOOK PRO

Over the past summer, I participated in a virtual design competition where the goal was to fully model a 15-inch 2019 MacBook Pro with every physical dimension accurate to that of the manufacturer. Over the course of 7 days, I fully designed each aspect specified in the provided blueprints/drawings. I also added further details to improve the overall authenticity such as the letters on the keyboard, the apple logo, the textures of each material, and the final rendering of the image.