MechGen Poster for NSF
This is the poster describing MechGen that Kaustubh and Mark prepared for the NSF CMMI Conference in Boston, MA. It was very well received.
Design Exchange and HCD Connect
Interesting examples of web-sites designed to share information about project engineering methods and practice can be found at the two following sites:
Design Exchange
1. The Design Exchange site managed by Celeste Roschuni of the Berkeley Expert Systems Technologies Laboratory under the direction of Prof. Alice Agogino.
IDEO’s HCDconnect
2. The company IDEO, whose principal Dave Kelly is associated with Stanford’s d.School, has established a non-profit effort funded by Bill and Melinda Gates called IDEO.org which has built HCDConnect.
The d.School and Design Thinking
In this Freudenstein Memorial Lecture, Bernard Roth presents an overview of the work at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, known as the d.School. Pierre Larochelle, one of my former students, has a cameo at the beginning.
Kinetic Art
This is is an example of the kinetic art of Volkert van der Wijk. He has designed the linkage so that it is statically balanced, which allows the observer to position the acrobat in a wide range of positions.
This is an installation of one of Volkert’s pieces which is a linkage balanced so that when the observer provides a small upward push the sculpture lifts and extends, and then slowly collapses when the force is removed.
I was pleased to meet Volkert at the 2012 Advances in Robot Kinematics conference in Innsbruck, where he presented the mathematical theory for static balancing the Acrobat. His other work can be seen at his web page: Kinetic Art
2012 UCI Energy Invitational Video
Here is a rough cut of a video of the 2012 UCI Energy Invitational.
The 2012 UCI Energy Invitational was held at Adams Motorsports Park in Riverside, CA. The competition included collegiate teams from UCI, CSULA, UCLA, and Cal Poly Pomona, together with High School race teams from Tustin, Foothill, Esperanza, Pacifica, Los Alamitos and Huntington Beach High Schools as well as two inventor vehicles. The event is a time trial using $1.00 of energy to go a maximum distance in one hour.
UCI Vehicle Test Run for EI3
Andre Aranez prepared this video showing the test runs of UCI’s three race cars that are to compete at the 2012 Energy Invitational. Gamma is an all-electric race car with motors at each wheel driven by Litium-ion batteries. Delta is a CNG race car designed for high performance. Epsilon is an FSAE gasoline powered car that won first place in fuel efficiency at the 2011 FSAE California competition.
UCI’s CNG racecar “Delta” is preparing for EI3
Delta CNG vehicle
UCI’s CNG racecar “Delta” is being readied for competition at the 2012 Energy Invitational. An on-board video of the first run of this race car can be seen at on the web-page: UCI Racecar Engineering.
UCI’s FSAE racecar “Epsilon” to compete at EI3
Epsilon FSAE vehicle
UCI’s race team will field its gasoline powered FSAE vehicle “Epsilon” at the 2012 Energy invitational. This vehicle won 1st place in fuel efficiency at the 2011 FSAE West competition. Some of the team leads who guide UCI’s race car engineering program are show below with Epsilon.
UCI Team leads
UCI’s Electric racecar to compete at EI3
UCI Electric racecar
UCI’s electric racecar “Gamma” has an electric motor at each wheel driven by a pack of Lithium-ion batteries. It just completed a test run and is being prepared for the 2012 Energy Invitational at Adams Motorsports Park on May 20th.
Cal Poly Pomona to compete at EI3
Cal Poly Pomona vehicle
The hybrid race team from California State Polytechnic University Pomona will compete at the 2012 Energy Invitational on May 20th at Adams Motorsports Park in Riverside, CA.