Engineering Ambassador Brad Wile makes adjustments to an interactional robotic system that can be controlled by students.

By Sabriana Pimental and Vanessa Cardy

The Engineering Ambassadors for the Penn State College of Engineering are educating State College youth on engineering and science through their senior design project — an interactional robotic system that can be controlled by students.

The goal of Engineering Ambassadors is to inspire middle and high school students to challenge conventional ideas about science and engineering through leadership.

The Ambassadors have been focused on creating more interactive projects that resonate better with younger students.

The robotic system was developed as part of a senior design class in mechanical engineering.

“Working with middle and high school students is one of the most enjoyable things about being an Engineering Ambassador, as most students of a young age do not have much exposure to aspects of engineering,” said Mike Coia, one of the Ambassadors. “This allows us the opportunity to show them what engineers can do and what their careers consist of.”

The project originates from enrollment in ME 440W: Mechanical Engineering Senior Design class. Students of the class are partnered with the Learning Factory, an organization dedicated to providing engineering students with practical hands-on experience through industry-sponsored design projects.

“Using the Learning Factory has helped us expand our array of activities and demos to more complicated mechanisms,” said Coia. “Being able to assemble and fabricate parts and systems in the Learning Factory allows us the convenience to continue these types of projects.”

The robotic arms are an idea developed by the Engineering Ambassadors and an activity that can be used in a middle or high school science fair environment. The purpose of the robotic arms is to capitalize on children’s interest in robots and show their use in today’s society.

The robotic arms will use six standard servo motors to allow a person to move the arm to an exact point in 3-D space. The servo motor will be connected to an Arduino motor controller. The arms will have six degrees of ample range of motion and freedom for the given workspace. They will be constructed out of acrylic to provide low-cost manufacturing ease and durability.

“Having access to the Learning Factory helps us make a more robust design,” said Ambassador Brad Wile. “They have tools, such as the laser cutter, that help make our robots easier to manufacture.”

The Ambassadors will utilize the arms to allow students play games and compete with each other. The students will use a PlayStation 2 controller that can be interfaced with the Arduino microcontroller to move each of the servos on the robot.

They will be presenting their project at the College of Engineering Design Showcase on May 1 in the Bryce Jordan Center.

Pimental and Cardy are students in Penn State’s College of Communications and account associates with the student-run Happy Valley Communications.

A major part of Troy Alesi’s work as a teacher at State College Area High School is to introduce his students to the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Learning Factory Supervisor Bill Genet shows State College Area High School students how the facility’s machines can turn a computer design into a 3-D object.

At State High, he serves as the school’s technology education/STEM teacher and teaches courses in computer graphics and design.

To encourage his students to consider a STEM field for college, the 2013-14 Technology and Engineering Education Association of Pennsylvania High School Teacher of the Year brought a group of approximately 20 students to the Learning Factory on Oct. 25.

Learning Factory Supervisor Bill Genet and two teaching assistants gave the State High group a tour of the facilities, highlighting its rapid prototyping, machining, welding, computer-aided design and assembly and testing capabilities.

Students were shown cars built by Penn State’s Formula Society of Automotive Engineers team and Shell Eco-marathon team, as well as a baobab processing machine designed by Engineering Leadership Development students. The State High students also got a glimpse of a new Chevy Camaro that Penn State engineers were re-designing doors for.

I am a nerd at heart. Or is it a geek? I fall somewhere on the spectrum according to this graphic, but in any case…

When I was given the opportunity to be one of the first people to see The Learning Factory’s newest 3-D printer, the Stratasys Objet 260 Connex, I jumped at the chance.

I was not disappointed. Bill Genet, Learning Factory Supervisor, gave me an overview of the machine that was nothing short of WOW!

We all know that 3-D printing is cool and cutting edge. I’m here to tell you that printing with the Objet 260 Connex is even cooler because it brings together different compounds – some rigid and some flexible – to create intricate prototypes, which engineering students can use when working on class projects. When I was an undergraduate student here, I was happy when we switched from 5 ¼” floppy disks to 3 ½” floppies so to see that Penn State students have access to leading edge technology such as this 3-D printer (or rapid prototype machine), is pretty amazing.

Bill explained that students create the pieces they need in a typical computer-aided design program and then the rendering is translated, so to speak, by the printer’s software to take the needed part from concept to reality.

He showed me some things that he and his staff have created with the new machine, including this very cool piece with intricate gears that move seamlessly (check out the video of this piece made by the Stratasys Object 260 Connex) and a hinged sample that integrates all types of motion, materials and flexibility, which was built, layer by layer, as one piece with the new printer.

It’s the first printer of its kind at Penn State University Park. The purchase of this 3-D printer was made possible through the Richard and Marion Leonhard Endowment to Support Entrepreneurship and Manufacturing, with contributions from the Naren and Judith Gursahaney Excellence Fund in Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, the industrial and manufacturing engineering department and the Applied Research Laboratory.

To see a really cool video of the Objet 260 Connex in use, check out this YouTube video.

Dana Marsh, director of marketing and communications for the College of Engineering, freely admits that she’s not an engineer but is fascinated by how the work of engineers impacts every aspect of a human’s day-to-day existence: from the houses we live in and the roads we drive on, to the smartphones and computers we rely upon. She’s now made it her mission to educate non-engineers about the real-world applications of leading-edge engineering initiatives.