January – December 2016
UMASS LOWELL ADVANCED ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CENTER: SOLAR-POWERED VEHICLES
The Advanced Electronics Technology Center is an interdisciplinary center at UMass Lowell where I worked part-time under the supervision of Professor S. Mil'shtein on creating solar-powered vehicles.
During my time at the AETC, I led a team of Mechanical Engineering students collaborating with a team of Electrical Engineering students on designing and manufacturing several solar-powered vehicles.
Solar Golf Cart:
This was the first project I started working on in the center during my Junior year.
For my first task , I was handed the responsibility to investigate a weakness in the front suspension system and attempt to solve the problem with the least possible modification to the current system.
I successfully improved the suspension system by creating and implementing a more efficient design inspired by the MacPherson strut suspension system eliminating malfunctions and providing better support to the front end.
Moving forward in my second semester working in AETC , I was assigned by Professor Mil'shtein to lead the team of Mechanical Engineering students and help recruit more students for our projects. We moved forward with our work on the car , modifying the steering system and installing a braking system.
We also worked with students at Nashoba Valley Technical high school mentoring them with creating their own solar powered vehicles. Leaving room for students to create their own designs and assisting with weaknesses in the final product.
Solar Lawn Mower Vehicle:
For example the students impressively built their own solar-powered lawn mower yet the front end of the vehicle was very rigid and as a result both front wheels would lift off the ground with the attached lawn mower. To assist the students and make a minimal change onto their initial design , I designed a simple linkage to provide more degrees of freedom at the front end of the lawn mower which successfully eliminated the problem.