Skills: Mechanical Design, CAD modeling, Programming
At Rowan University, as part of my Mechatronics 2019 course, my team and
I were given the creative freedom to choose our own project. This project
was an intersection between two of my interests: environmental
sustainability, and art. The project was inspired by Jiri Praus's 'Ever Blooming
Mechanical Tulip'. My team and I were all really intrigued by this intersection between
engineering and art since the majority of our projects are usually
made to fulfill some sort of function. Rather than using wire
sculpting as our medium, I created a SolidWorks model of a blooming flower and
3D printed each part for simplicity. Overall, I'd have to say this is my favorite project
I've done thus far at Rowan. My future plans for this design are to downsize it in order to reduce
printing time and material costs.
Art Meets Engineering
The team and I could have called it a day after we 3D printed the flower parts... but
what's the fun in that! After assembling the flower, my teammate and good friend Sara had the
brilliant idea of making the flower look life-like by sleeving the 3D printed petals
with fabric petals from JoAnn's Fabrics. We placed the flower in a painted shoebox to mimic
the look of a planter box. The planter box also served the duel purpose of housing all of
our electronic components. Between the electronics and the flower, was a styrofoam layer
that we painted brown to mimic the look of dirt. We also added an additional non-blooming
garden alongside the central flower.
