Our Team
Team Growth
Just as much as our technical skills were tested through this project, our ability to work as a team was equally tested. Each team member came into this project with different physical and personal skills meaning that we had to build upon our weaknesses and express our strengths. As well, there were skills that we were all new to that required us to adapt as a team. This was also exacerbated by the switch to online learning which required us all to shift our way of interaction and teamwork. While we had all originally decided the action items that we would partake in to make each of our skill sets more whole, we again had to pivot from this original plan. Although we had to change what we were all going to do in order to improve our engineering skills, we were all tested in new ways. Specifically, the use of CAD and TinkerCAD was new to all of us besides Jacob who had previous experience with various CAD software. Using OnShape as our CAD software we were all challenged to take parts of the design we had developed in the beginning, build them individually, and then assemble the final model. While we were not able to physically create the build, the use of CAD is a skill that will aid us throughout our engineering careers. Secondly, we all had to create the electronic systems of the boat with the use of TinkerCAD. While we all had previous experience with the Arduino systems within TinkerCAD, what provided the challenge was creating individual components that would effectively show their use in the final design. Speaking for the team as a whole, we all bettered our abilities to not just create using online software, but being able to implement individual components into a team design.
Conclusion
This transportation project provided a challenge for our team to innovate something that involves transportation. While we thought of many different projects and designs that we could have built, we ultimately built a project that we believe to be unique, innovative, and overall something that we are all proud of. This project challenged us to find a solution to an issue that we were passionate about and that is what we found tackling the issue of ocean plastic, even if on a small scale. The design we created, dubbed the Trashamaran, was exactly what we had envisioned as a user-controlled boat that can collect ten pounds of ocean garbage from low-swell ocean shores. Using the remote tools CAD and TinkerCAD we successfully created a two-foot-long catamaran-style boat that is powered by a 9V battery. Using TinkerCAD we created a system that simulates the control of the boat using two buttons and a potentiometer. While we would have preferred to control the design using wireless control with an XBee module, this is the best we could simulate while not being able to build the design. With that being said, we also wish we could have built the physical boat. While we were able to begin the build while in Colorado, we were unable to continue due to COVID-19. While we are very confident in the final design to move and collect waste, we would have appreciated the process of creating the design and making sure that it works to its best ability through testing and further iterations. Thus, if we were to take this design further, we would first start with the physical build and iterate based on the results of testing. While the situation was less than ideal throughout this semester, we as a team created a design that we are proud to associate with the name WEJMM.