Portfolio!

Posted by Greg in Work on March 4th, 2009

I’ve finally put my portfolio up, since I’m looking for a team to join after I graduate.

I’ve also been adding more photos, and put up a new theme, too! Fun fun fun (’till my daddy takes my t-bird away)…

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In memoriam of Scout

Posted by Greg in Uncategorized on November 3rd, 2008

Now that my website is back up (again), I uploaded the photos of Scout that I culled from my gallery.

Here’s the whole album In memoriam of Scout. There’s also a really fun video of Dad and Scout playing tug-of-war.

I got to play with another Black Lab this weekend; he reminded me of Scout a lot, but had his own quirks and differences. Throwing a ball for him, and petting him, made me smile.

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My project for ME203

Posted by Greg in Grad School on October 10th, 2008

I put together a short writeup of my project for ME203. Here’s the course description:

Design and Manufacturing
Prototype development techniques as an intrinsic part of the design process. Machining, welding, and casting. Manufacturing processes. Design aspects developed in an individual term project chosen, designed, and fabricated by students. Labs, field trips.

My project is an indoor waterfall with two goals. First and foremost, it should sound like a large waterfall, even though its size should be small. In other words, rather than a gentle “tinkle tinkle” sound, it should make a more Niagra Falls-esque WSSSSSHH sound. Second, it should not splash water everywhere.

If I can nail the sound, then I can worry about controlling the splashing. With that in mind, my prototype focused on creating the sound I’m looking for.

I assumed that the most important factor in the sound would be a combination of water pressure and the height the water fell from (in fact, I think they might be interchangeable). The second most important factor might, I thought, be what the water fell into (in terms of both diameter and water depth). So I began experimenting. I poured water into a medium size vessel (cookware I had in my dorm room) from different heights, and with two different pressures. Pressure didn’t have any effect (probably because I couldn’t control it very well), but height didn’t seem to make nearly as much a difference as I thought it would.

I went on to larger containers, eventually finishing with the largest vessel I could find: a spare trashcan I have. Still, the sound just wasn’t right. I realized that it sounded like turning a faucet on, rather than a waterfall. What do waterfalls have that faucets don’t?

Multiple streams!

So I tried two streams at once, and it worked! I experimented a bit with altering the height, and that did add a bit of volume. But switching between one and two streams, there’s just no comparison: faucet or waterfall.

My next prototype will focus on refining my understanding of why multiple streams makes it sound so much better, and trying to optimize the sound even further. (Are three streams better? Four? Five?)

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