Saratoga InvenTeam

Wooden Puzzle Fundraising

noreply@blogger.com (Celia D'Agostino) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:08:00 +0000

We expect to have the website for our online store running this week! You will be able to see the work students have been doing in order to design wooden puzzles for fundraising purposes. Using these puzzles as a fundraiser allows us to be creative and make unique objects to sell. We hope that you will support our InvenTeam and check it out very soon!

EDD Students Visit Middle School

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Hrebenach) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:40:00 +0000

Today, Engineering Design and Development members Celia D'Agostino, Casey Kerr, and Emma Rocco accompanied Digital Electronics students Sarah and Deirdre in visiting the middle school to inspire young technology students to pursue the path of engineering. Our people brought them various projects they've worked on throughout their high school years, such as a breadboard wired to be a "birthday circuit", and a marble sorter programmed using RoboPro. In return, the eighth graders showed them the "battle bots" they've been working on. Overall, it was a very successful trip. Hopefully the number of students who choose to follow the Project Lead the Way path will skyrocket in the coming years!

Mock Middle School Presentation

noreply@blogger.com (Paige Waechter) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:31:00 +0000

Today in class EDD members Casey, Celia, and Emma, along with Sarah and Deirdre, sophomores in the Digital Electronics course, gave a mock presentation for their visit to Maple Avenue Middle School on Wednesday.

The presentation highlighted all the fun and interesting projects completed during Introduction to Engineering Design, Digital Electronics, Principles of Engineering, Computer Integration and Manufacturing, Biotechnical Engineering, and a quick overview of EDD. The group plans on bringing a variety of completed model projects: puzzle cubes, a breadboarded birthday circuit, a ballistic device, a marble sorter, a laser cut dragon, milled marble mazes, and chocolate molds.

Through the presentation, we are trying to get more entering freshman excited about the opportunities Project Lead the Way offers. Hopefully with girls outnumbering the boys attending, we will encourage more girls to explore the fields of engineering and science!

Skype Meeting with Fifth Graders

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:35:00 +0000

Last Thursday, our class met with students from a local elementary school via Skype. We briefly explained our projects and answered lots of questions about both our class and the Project Lead the Way program in general. The elementary school students also told us about their own invention projects. Overall, the meeting was a successful and edifying experience for all involved. We hope to see as many students from that class as possible in a future EDD class!

Saratoga Inventeam Store to be running soon

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Gailor) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:52:00 +0000

We will be selling laptop stands and 3d puzzles at our store. All profits will be used to fund student projects. The 3d puzzles are designed to be sold to other project lead the way classes across the country, in order to provide schools with out laser cutters, a resource that they wouldn't normally have. We will also offer a custom order function for project lead the way schools, where they can send us there designs, and we could send them the finished part. More details, and a link to the store will be available soon.

Project Evolution

noreply@blogger.com (Casey Kerr) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:15:00 +0000

Only three weeks have passed since we returned from holiday break and every group is making progress!

The Campus Security group had a skype session with Tom Hayes, former member of the Aegis campus security group, and learned a lot. He gave us the name of a Java text book and we have since ordered and received it from amazon.

The 3-D printer group finished a majority of hardware assembly except for the electrical hookups. THey are making progress every day.

Last but certainly not least, the computer cooling group. This group works non-stop every block on their project. Extreme passion has paid off and they just received a 3-D printed, metal part that they designed from a company over seas.

Step 1 of Makerbot Assembly Completed!

noreply@blogger.com (Celia D'Agostino) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 22:54:00 +0000

After weeks of taking inventory of parts and troubleshooting the best way to assemble, the Makerbot Thing-O-Matic group has successfully completed the construction of their automated build platform! This exciting news has jump-started the journey in building the 3D Printer. They are now on their way to full completion and hope to have the Makerbot ready to go and printing parts within the next few weeks!

MIT Presentation

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Hrebenach) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 03:26:00 +0000

Yesterday, we delivered a presentation to Mrs. Eastabrooks (who represented the Lemelson-MIT Foundation) which summarized what we've been working on since the beginning of the year. The presentation, which was delivered by Kelley Florence, Allie Lehane, Josh Nixon, Sam Hyatt, Liam Casey and Casey Kerr, was carried out very professionally. Mrs. Eastabrooks was very helpful in critiquing the presenters, and offering insight as to how to keep our engineering careers on the right track. We are looking forward to speaking with her more in the future.

Presentation with MIT

noreply@blogger.com (Allie Lehane) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:13:00 +0000

Tomorrow we will be giving a presentation with Mrs. Eastabrooks of the Lemelson-MIT Foundation to go over our current projects. We will be discussing our progress thus far as well as our goals for the future. Each group will be represented by a member of their team so we will hear from the 3D Printer group, the Self-Contained Submersion Cooling group, and the Campus Security App group. We will also be speaking about our fundraising efforts and community outreach that we have accomplished and have planned for the rest of the year. Stay posted to hear how about Mrs. Eastabrooks comments and suggestions for us!

Progess Reports Due soon

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Gailor) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:39:00 +0000

All of our classes progress reports will be finished by the 20th of this month. Goals set last progress report meeting will be evaluated and goals for the next progress report will be set.

Kan Jam Tournament Success

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Hrebenach) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:19:00 +0000

The Kan Jam tournament, which raised money for our EDD project fund, was a huge success. With around 40 participants, the tournament raised well over $200! Everybody there had a great time.

There will likely be similar events in the future.

Kan Jam Tournament!

noreply@blogger.com (Celia D'Agostino) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:49:00 +0000

The Saratoga InvenTeam will be holding a Kan Jam Tournament this Tuesday, December 20th. We are hoping to have a lot of students come and play! It's only $10 dollars per team of two and there will be free pizza for the players! It should be a good time so make sure you sign up and come play!

Cupcake CNC under construction

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Gailor) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:27:00 +0000

This week, we will continue assembly of our new 3D-printer. This printer will be used to make specialty parts for our class's 3D printer and used as a benchmark against our custom made 3D printer. These 3d printers will benefit our school for several years, as some students will be able to bring their 3D models to life.

From Drawing Board to Workbench: SCC's parts have arrived!

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 01:50:00 +0000

Last week, the Self-Contained Cooling group received most of the parts necessary to build a prototype. Now with a pump, a radiator, tubing, coolant, and a competing product against which to test, we are ready to send our base designs out to be manufactured. While we wait for our part to be printed, we will work on assembling all other parts to fit standard computer cases.

EDD Giving Back to the Community

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Hrebenach) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 02:55:00 +0000

Recently, all of the EDD students have been greatly helping out the community; with an emphasis on aiding the younger PLTW students in their engineering problems. Volunteering is not only a great way to say thanks to the community for their support, but also lets the EDD students communicate with the younger PLTW students, bringing the whole program together. There is a deadline for each student to have 5 hours of volunteer work completed by Friday. Not only is everyone on track to reach this goal, but some students have far surpassed the requirement. For example, Brad Collyer has already completed 18 hours!

Puzzled, Inc.

noreply@blogger.com (Celia D'Agostino) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 03:19:00 +0000

In addition to the other fundraising activities we are currently working on, a new one is in progress. Yesterday, after school a couple of students met and discussed this new project with Mr. Gallagher. The idea is to order small wooden puzzles like the one shown above from the company Puzzled, Inc. After we receive the puzzles we plan to reverse engineer them on AutoDesk Inventor and sell the pieces of the puzzles to other schools around the country who are not able to print out their own pieces on laser printers. With these pieces, schools will then be able to modify the puzzles and create their own on Inventor. We also plan to create a website on Shopify.com where we can market our products and sell them to other participating project lead the way schools.

Individual Progress Report Soon

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Gailor) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:23:00 +0000

In the upcoming weeks, EDD students will be presenting their work to Mr. Gallagher. This work includes all the research that they have done, any drawings or model's they've made, and what they have made for presentations. This information should be kept in the student's engineering notebook, which will be examined during the meeting. Students will also have a list of goals that they want to complete by the next progress meeting. These meetings will be one-on-one with Mr.Gallagher, and scheduled by the students.

Presentation to Bechtel

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:38:00 +0000

On Tuesday November 22, Allie Lehane, Aaron Batker Pritzker, Sam Hyatt, and Casey Kerr presented the purpose of Project Lead the Way, our school's past achievements, our current projects, and our contribution to the community of Saratoga Springs to a group of four engineers from Bechtel Corporation. Part of an effort to raise money for the class, the presentation prompted many questions from the audience about our design process, what we have learned, and where we plan to go from here. A tremendous success, this experience gave us a taste of professional fundraising presentations, and a generous investment of $500 from Bechtel as well.

Fundraising

noreply@blogger.com (Celia D'Agostino) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:44:00 +0000

This past week, we gave presentations in class addressing the estimated final costs of our projects. Based on what was presented, we need to continue to raise money so we have sufficient funds to complete everything by the end of the year.

The EDD Class recently recieved a grant from Youth2 for $500. We also held a bake sale in school yesterday where we were able to raise $134.60. In addition, we are holding a Kan-Jam tournament in December. We hope to accumulate donations from local businesses and use this tournament as a fundraiser to bring in more money for our class.

Former EDD student meeting with current EDD students

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Gailor) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 04:28:00 +0000

Tom Corona, the lead programmer in the campus security project 2 years ago, is meeting with the current students working of the campus security project, over the upcoming break. Tom will help the students understand how the code works, and help them organize it. Tom, being a self taught programmer, will also share some of his experience and advice to further inform this year's EDD students.

MakerBot Versus Reprap

noreply@blogger.com (Paige Waechter) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 01:07:00 +0000

The 3-D printer group gave a presentation in class about the positives and negatives of buying a complete kit or starting from scratch. The decision was narrowed down in deciding between the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic and the Reprap Mendel.

A second presentation will be given next class in further detail of each model's printing specifications, tolerance and quality of printing, and of consumer reviews.

An Update on Computer Cooling

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 01:37:00 +0000

When last you heard about the Self-Contained Submersion Cooling project, it was a fantasy existing only in my own mind. Now two months into the class, team leader Joshua Nixon and members Aaron Batker Pritzker, Alex Gailor, John Howe, and George Kaplan are making that dream a reality. With two main objectives in mind, to minimize turbulence in the flowing liquid and to maximize the area of contact between the processor and coolant, we created two sketches of possible base designs. We used information on the physics of fluid flow, obtained from textbooks, high school teachers, and a professor from Harvey Mudd College, to create a model in Inventor. This model, pictured below, is a basic template for a system that will accept standardized input and output tubes, fit over all modern processor heat spreaders, and guide liquid with minimal turbulence. Several dimensions including tube diameters, overall part length and widths, and the angle at which the tubes enter the block were left flexible to accommodate changes in the design.

In addition, we have a design for a system to mount the block onto a computer's motherboard and a gasket to prevent leakage underway. The next step in our design process is to generate a list of parts to purchase for a complete system, such as tubes, a pump, a radiator, and coolant. Our team has split into smaller groups to research these challenges in parallel, and we look forward to prototyping and testing our designs in the months ahead.

Students Present to PLTW Representatives

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Hrebenach) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 22:51:00 +0000

Today, a group of representatives from Project Lead The Way came in for an overview of what we've been working on over the past two months. A small group of students; composed of Allie Lehane, Aaron Batker Pritzker, Sam Hyatt, and Casey Kerr, presented to them. They showed a PowerPoint which summarized some our school's past EDD projects, our current projects, and what extra things our group is planning on doing to help the community.

The presentation was carried out very nicely, and was followed up by questions.

Lastly, the representatives stayed for a while to observe our class in work, and to speak with some students individually about their projects.

Fine-tuning

noreply@blogger.com (Casey Kerr) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 23:29:00 +0000

With the final group members picked for each project, everyone is excited to start working with their new teams! As a class we decided to narrow down our projects to just three. The three projects we chose are the 3D printer, the computer cooling and the campus security app formerly known as "Aegis."

Today, we were proud to come up with the official name for the campus security app. It will now be called, "Ally Campus Security." While it would seem an easy task to rename the app, it proved to be a nuisance of a task. With many good ideas taken for other security products, our team spent a few classes coming up with the new name.

Also, myself and three other classmates fine-tuned and presented a powerpoint to our class. This presentation will be given to board members from project lead the way on Wednesday, November 9th. With groups chosen and great progress being made, it is very easy to tell we will have great success this year

The Future of Printing

noreply@blogger.com (Celia D'Agostino) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 01:33:00 +0000

Yesterday, we were presented with a new and fresh idea in class. The idea would be to create our own 3D printer. After researching and finding out what is already out there on the market, we found all kinds of 3D printers ranging from highly intricate designs at $20,000 to basic DIY 3D printers at $1,500.

One specific 3D printer, on the more affordable side, that interested us was called the MakerBot. It is essentially a machine that can produce a tangible exact replica of something from a digital image on a computer. If you would like to learn more on the MakerBot, go to www.makerbot.com.

I don't know about you, but I would love to have one of these to play with!