2008 Courses & Clusters

Cluster 2 - Engineering Design and Control of Kinetic Sculptures

Instructors:
Nathan Delson, Academic Coordinator, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department, UCSD
Raymond De Callafon, Associate Professor, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department, UCSD

Description:
Mechanical Engineering and Computer Control are brought together in many modern products that have moving parts, ranging from an automobile to a hard drive in an iPod. In this cluster, students will analyze, design and build Kinetic Sculptures operated under computer control. Mechanical Engineering methods will be used to design kinetic sculptures using state of the art facilities at the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) department. The facilities include the MAE Design Studio, a LASERcamm Rapid Prototyping machine and advanced computer laboratories for creating computer drawings, running dynamic simulations and programming a Kinetic Sculpture microcontroller. The kinetic sculptures that will be built by the students include a clock mechanism manufactured by a laser cutting machine (LASERcamm) and a reconfigurable lightweight mechanical structure in which balls move along ramps, bounce on trampolines and fall in baskets. The students will learn how to use a modern micro-processor controller to measure and analyze timing and mechanical behavior of their sculptures, integrating engineering design and control principles throughout the curriculum of this cluster. Examples of prior year projects can be seen at: www.maelabs.ucsd.edu/cosmos.

Prerequisite:
Algebra I and 8th-grade general science or equivalent

Recommended:
Algebra II, Trigonometry

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