Institution: Oklahoma State University
Class: MAE-4344 Capstone Senior Project
Time Frame: January 2025 - May 2025
This project was a highly valuable and transformative part of my academic experience, providing both enjoyment and practical insight into real-world engineering design and manufacturing processes. Throughout its development, I gained a deeper understanding of the design process and the challenges associated with manufacturing constraints, and many of my initial assumptions about design were challenged as I gained hands-on experience bridging theory and practical implementation. I actively volunteered for tasks and sought to contribute as much as possible, which allowed me to develop strong familiarity with both additive and subtractive manufacturing, as well as further explore programming, electronics, and fabrication techniques. Working alongside a highly knowledgeable and collaborative team was particularly inspiring, and I continuously learned from their expertise while contributing my own inquisitive approach to the project. I took an active role in designing and fabricating components, including overseeing machining processes and making real-time adjustments when tolerances revealed design limitations, which reinforced the importance of manufacturability, assembly considerations, and iterative design improvement. I also gained experience using SolidWorks for part design, technical drawings, assemblies, simulations, and animations, as well as developing exploded views and assembly instructions, Bills of Materials, and Standard Operating Procedures. In addition, I assisted in machining and fabrication of custom components, received training on tools such as the drill press, lathe, mill, grinder, and table saw, contributed to electrical integration using Arduino-based systems, and worked across multiple design iterations involving complex CAD assemblies consisting of multiple subsystems and hundreds of components. Through this process, I strengthened my ability to manage design constraints, collaborate effectively within a multidisciplinary team, maintain communication, present progress updates, and understand that every design decision must be carefully evaluated for functionality, manufacturability, and system integration.
