2021 NAU HPVC Capstone Exhibition
Trent Todd
A compact portfolio exhibiting Trent's past project work and professional experience can be found below.
trent2todd@gmail.com
tmt262@nau.edu
My name is Trent Todd I am in my final semester of completing my BS in Mechanical Engineering at Northern Arizona University. I chose to pursue engineering as I have always considered myself a problem solver and a creative thinker. From early on I really got into automotive and powersports mechanics, doing things like rebuilding my jet-ski, working on my dirtbike, or fixing our families vehicles. This along with my desire to develop new products and ideas, engineering became a clear choice. I have been fortunate to work with a variety of disciplines and backgrounds through my peers, and coworkers helping to expand my knowledge on a variety of topics and providing valuable experience.
Through my time at college, I was able to work on a variety of projects and work on new skills, a few notable projects their corresponding classes are listed below.
Engineering Design II - This class was focused on team projects and the process of engineering design, the project seen below was my teams remote controlled solution to pick up and dispose of trash into the corresponding bin in a class competition. I enjoyed this project as it let me combine different elements, provided lots of creative freedom, 3D printing parts for the first time, and just gave me experience collaborating on a project with my peers.
Engineering Design III - My third engineering design class focused on the methods of engineering design, project planning, and professional writing. In this class I had a partner project where we had to design a overhead highway sign cleaning device capable of quicky and efficiently cleaning a range of roadsides, that adhered to a long list of constraints such as no material can fall onto traffic below. This class taught me an important lesson in project management, which is things don’t always go as expected, I started off as a team of four but two of my teammates quit the class, leaving me and my partner to really step up and complete the project together. Our final preposed design was a large robotic arm mounted to a 30’ flatbed truck that can reach up and over traffic lanes to reach overhead signs, then uses a dry ice blaster to remove debris from the sign.
Computer-Aided Design (ME 180) - This class taught the fundamentals of computer-aided graphic design using Solidworks, going over parts, assemblies, and drawings. I completed several projects, the most complex was my final project seen below. Which is a conceptual prototype of an opposed piston 2-stroke engine I came up with.
Heat Transfer - In heat transfer I was taught the theory of heat transfer through conduction, convection, and radiation. The final large project we were assigned was to create a MATLAB code to evaluated heat transfer across a given flat plate with various boundary condition. I utilized two different methods to validate my results, in this code I utilized many different functions and techniques, such as matrices, meshgrids, surfplots, subplots and more. This class provided a much-needed refresher on MATLAB, which expanded greatly on the introduction class I was taught freshman year. Seen below is my final temperature plot and a short snip of my code.
Sculpture I & III - I’m including sculpture as I see it as a very underrated class on campus, this was without a doubt the most fun class I’ve ever taken. Sculpture introduced me to many applicable skills that carried over into my engineering class, such as Material Science, and Manufacturing Processes providing me with a head start with manufacturing skills. I enjoyed the creative freedom and artistic design in this class which helped me really excel and build a great relationship with my instructor. In this class I was taught how to oxyacetylene weld, metal working techniques, different metal castings such as sand and investment casting, different mold making processes, and much more. Seen below are some of my favorite projects I completed in this class, I especially enjoy the turtle seen in figure 7, the students responsible for pouring the molten aluminum went to slow so it cooled too quickly in the sprues. However, I’m glad this happened because it let me come up with the wheelchair solution which made my piece really stand out as creative and stole the show.
Manufacturing Processes (ME 467) - The manufacturing processes class and lab was beneficial to further improve my manufacturing skills, and I enjoyed the hands-on aspect of the class, along with all the lectures which when in-depth over many manufacturing processes. I was able to gain basic training on manual equipment such as mills, lathes, various saws, drill presses, grinders, and their safe operation. I specifically requested lessons on G-code and CAM processes, which I was able to practice the basics with G-code, Fusion 360 for CAM, and practice on a Tormach CNC mill. Seen below in figure 12 are some of the completed assignments for the lab.
