Outreach

Solidworks 101

As both a TA for an undergraduate design course at CWRU and a course instructor at NextFab, I decided to develop my own introductory lesson to Solidworks. The course is aimed at students of any level of experience and background, and focuses more on the workflow of the program than individual tools in the program. In this way, I hope to teach the theory of modeling in general to get students to conceptualize the process of modeling a particular part before jumping into the details of specific icons. I ended up teaching this course to students of all ages, from high school students to adult hobbyists to art instructors. Many of my students went on to use their knowledge to model and subsequently 3D print, laser cut, or CNC mill their designs in our studio.

Click here to access this course file.

Wooden Whegs

Throughout my time in the Biorobotics lab, I've helped organize and host many STEM advocacy programs to encourage young adults and children to explore the world of science and engineering. Recently, we hosted a group of middle school students that were interested in mobile robotics and wanted to hear more about biological inspiration in robotics. The students constructed rapid-prototyped demonstration kits I designed and manufactured that exhibited the benefit of different modes of locomotion in robots. The kit comes with both whegs and wheels, and the students were encouraged to determine the benefits and weaknesses of each design by experimenting with each wheel set on their rubber-band powered vehicles.

Robot Demos

Be it for prospective students, visiting faculty, or engineering-minded high schoolers, I have become well versed in demonstrating our line and history of robots to those interested in our research. It is a common occurrence that the robots are packed up and transported to schools, museums, and camps so that we can educate and inspire the coming generation of new engineers.