2021 Senior Projects Conference

Wind Tunnel Restoration

Team Name: Long Winded

Team Members: Jeremy Dubriske, Johnathan Emerson, Jackson Torrey

Advisor: Dr. William Long

The laboratory wind tunnel housed in Bogard Hall utilized outdated and dysfunctional sensory equipment in tandem with a limited control system. Our project directive was to address these issues. To do so, we reevaluated the mechanical systems in place, analyzing the load cell configurations that read drag and lift values from within the tunnel. We then re-machined the frame in order to balance out outside forces to zero out load cell readings to allow for more accurate data collection. To address the control system, we chose to replace the Windows application-based controller with a custom user interface using a web server running on a Raspberry Pi. This webserver was created using Flask, a Python web framework that utilizes HTML and CSS to create customizable and interactable web pages. Last, we upgraded circuitry components such as load cell amplifiers in order to improve data signals and implemented new instrumentation such as temperature sensors to gather additional experimental data.

Semi-Automatic Acrylic Bender

Team Name: UnderDawgs

Team Members: Kenan Jackson, LaTwann Jenkins, Jose Portillo

Advisor: Mr. Ron Gill

Over the past year, we have seen an increase in safety measures being issued to provide a safe environment for people to continue their daily routines during COVID-19. At Louisiana Tech, a popular acrylic plastic material has been increasingly implemented for these measures and other uses, but the process used to heat then form the acrylic at the desired angle is an arduous task. We wanted to create a machine that will solve this issue by simplifying and speeding up this process. Introducing the Semi-Automatic Acrylic Bender: a machine used to heat and bend acrylic at an increased speed. A programmable logic controller (PLC) is used to control a stepper motor to make it rotate to the required angle input. The desired angle can be selected on the Human Machine Interface (HMI) touchscreen. A heating element is used to heat the acrylic until it is bendable, then manually clamped on a bending panel to begin the bending process, making the machine semi-automatic. This machine will be used in the COES prototype lab to prep acrylic for uses such as plastic barriers for classrooms, freshmen ENGR122 (Engineering Problem Solving 3) trophies, and other student projects.

Small Parts Dispensary

Team Members: Cole Carroll, Logan McDonough, Jacob Shoesmith

Advisor: Mr. Michael Theodos, PE

The Small Parts Dispensary is a vibratory feeding system designed to dispense a required number of individual hardware items such as nuts and bolts to be packaged for freshman engineering kits. Our design consists of multiple 3D printed spiraled bowls, each having its own stepper motor causing a rotational vibration to produce a speedy flow of each part. The parts are moved up and out of the bowl aligned in a single file line. When they reach the brim of the bowl, the part falls through where an infrared sensor is used to count the desired number of parts to be dispensed. The parts are driven to follow a gravity feed path and fall onto a collecting tray. Our design consists of four individual vibrating bowls. Two of the bowls distribute bolts, and two distribute the corresponding nuts. Our design has an interactive human-machine interface that allows the user to input the desired amount of hardware items to be dispensed.