ANIMALS AND SUPERHEROES INSPIRE THE LATEST PROJECT DESIGNS FOR MECHANICAL ENGINEERING STUDENTS
W FACULTY NEWS
hat do a snake jaw, fish robot, thresher shark backpack and Captain America shield have in common? They are among the design projects developed by students working with Dr. Deeksha Seth, an assistant teaching professor in Mechanical Engineering.
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Mechanical Snake Jaw: Originally created for the Academy of Natural Sciences, this dynamic model of a snake’s biting motion made its way to the museum floor where it was used to demonstrate how a snake can digest its prey. Today, Dr. Seth is advising Mechanical Engineering seniors Lauren Garofalo and Karlee Koswick in scaling down the original design to develop a plug and play device that schoolteachers can assemble themselves with instructions that Dr. Seth will provide online. Multi-Fin Fish Robot: Juniors Felicity Evans and Cameron Hunter are working with Dr. Seth to conceptualize the design of a fish fin device on which the fin’s stiffness can be changed to study how the response to a vortex perturbation varies as a function of that stiffness and how multiple fins are used to stabilize against perturbations. Such knowledge can be applied to autonomous underwater robots that need to work in varying conditions for search and rescue, detecting and repairing leaks, and more. Porcupines, Sharks, Cockroaches, Superheroes and More: Famous for its Beetlebot competition, Dr. Seth added a second project to ME 2505, the sophomore Analysis and Design course. Teams were given a customer—including professors in the M. Louise Fitzpatrick
College of Nursing, parents of young children, and educators with the Academy of Natural Sciences and Adventure Aquarium—and were randomly assigned related topics for which they were to manufacture a physical, dynamic device that would teach children something about that topic. Among the team designs were: • A porcupine that demonstrates how its quills respond to threats, both to the animal’s benefit and detriment. • A thresher shark backpack that has a swishing tail and trigger that allows the wearer to whip the tail over their head to “attack prey.” The team is pursuing further development of their design for the Adventure Aquarium. • Superhero inspired projects that used superpowers to teach young children about engineering, including Captain America’s shield on which each ring could be removed to illustrate different material properties. Other designs included Thor’s hammer and Wolverine’s claw. • An obstacle course for hissing cockroaches that demonstrated the insects’ ability to traverse diverse terrains. Dr. Seth explains that part of the goal in this assignment was to challenge students “to educate themselves about subjects that were not strictly engineering related.” A strong advocate for integrated learning, she says, “The experience teaches them that, in the real world, you won’t only work on fully technical mechanical engineering projects. An understanding of topics outside your own area of expertise will always provide you with an advantage.”
