This is a portable hydroelectric generator, my high school senior engineering project. Made completely from scratch with under fifty dollars, this is one of the larger projects I have had the opportunity to work on. Utilizing a basic circuitry kit, a simple gear rig, a computer fan, and some plastic containers, me and three other guys created a product that could charge anything with a USB port just by putting it in a river. Both my teammates and I learned a lot from this project. One of the most important lessons was that engineering is not easy and if you are not failing, you are not doing the best you can do. Failure was an incredibly important part of this project. Only after numerous scrapped designs, failed tests, and dead-ends were we able to create a final product that charged an iPhone and accomplished the goal we set out to reach.
During the spring of my Freshman year I was a part of a Design Challenge through my Humanitarian Engineering Scholars group. The goal was to design an expandable shoe. The shoe had to grow with its user, be durable, and cheap so that the target audience in third world countries can afford it. After days of hard work, my group of Riley Niekamp, Matt Schiller, and Cole Zemelka came up with the design for the Groe. This picture shows the 3D model we created to demonstrate our work. After designing the shoe, we created a presentation and presented our work to all of the Freshman Humanitarian Engineering Scholars at our weekly meeting. Through all of our hard work we went on to win the Design Challenge and secure a small book scholarship for the following year. This was truly a great experience and definitely the highlight of my Freshman year here at Ohio State. This was a difficult task to accomplish, but I would not trade the experience for anything. I am so thankful to have opportunities such as these so readily available to me at Ohio State and I am especially thankful for the hard work of my incredible group members.