To further develop my Arduino and electronics skills, I decided to design and build a 4 DOF robotic arm. I used Solidworks to model the arm, iterating through several ideas until landing on the final design for the first prototype:

Probing a laptop motherboard is a difficult and tedious task, requiring a steady hand and a lot of patience. This is especially true when probing a motherboard to flash a new BIOS, a process that can take up to 5 minutes where the operator must keep their hand perfectly still. This process was a large pain point for my team at Lenovo, so I set out to build a solution.

A mechanical probing fixture had to have several key characteristics. It had to be: highly stable with minimal play and vibration, very precise (step size of 0.2mm or smaller), simple to control, and easy to assemble/reproduce. I wanted to use as many off-the-shelf components/systems as possible to allow this system to be easily recreated if the need for another arose. With this in mind, I began researching different options for how to move in the probe in the XYZ directions. I settled on a desktop CNC router as it met the needed criteria well, while also being inexpensive ($160).

Using SOLIDWORKS, I designed and 3D printed an adapter that would allow the probe to be mounted to the motor mount of the CNC machine, as seen below. 

I designed and fabricated a machine in a group with 3 other students to compete in Georgia Tech's ME 2110 design competition. The machine had to complete tasks such as: retrieving a Baby Yoda plush toy, sweeping model ATST walkers out of a specified zone, and depositing Proton Torpedoes (squash balls) into specific compartments. 

This project was a unique and fun challenge. Without a doubt, my favorite part of this project was working with my team to brainstorm unique approaches to each task. While many of the mechanisms we proposed ended up failing, it was still an excellent exercise in thinking outside of the box!

This was a cross-functional project, where interns from all different backgrounds and specialties were grouped to create a product and marketing strategy.  Our group collaborated with to create an accessibility-based product: the Port Identification Tool Kit. This kit consists of stickers and cable clips with matching colors and tactile bumps that can be used by someone who is visually impaired to help identify the location of ports on their laptop.

On the team, my responsibilities included: 

• Product ideation/design

•  CAD modeling of initial prototype using SOLIDWORKS

• Product visualization/renders using Blender