The McGill Ice hockey research group is interested in developing and testing alternative hockey skate designs to increase performance through speed, power and acceleration. The aim of this project was to provide a proof-of-concept to recover energy that is dissipated in current rigid hockey skates and to increase foot range of motion.
The idea is a new mechanism at the front of the skate, which allows elastic energy return to the skater, without compromising lateral stability. The selected concept was designed, manufactured and prototyped out of rubber and ABS plastic. Preliminary, qualitative testing of the prototype showed no significant improvement over a regular hockey skate. Further quantitative tests would be necessary for objective results.
The assembled prototype! Purple was not my choice. It was simply what the 3D printing service at McGill gave us. Both the visible purple piece and the hidden insert are made of 3D printed plastic.
Rendering of the prototype assembly. The elastic return material is transparent in this rendering to show the inside of the mechanism.
Exploded view of the design. The slots are clearly visible, and you can see the tip of one fin on the top-most part.
Multiple concepts were explored and sketched. This concept was decided upon using a decision matrix.
I often want to sit on the ground or squat down and still use my laptop. If the laptop is on the floor, it makes it awkward to use. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, a laptop in front forces you to hunch to reach.
This table was designed to be the ideal height for me when I’m seated on the floor. It uses no hardware to assemble the pieces. It was designed using Fusion 360.
After making a rough sketch, I used CAD to come up with a concept, which was reworked a few times, until it looked how I wanted.
I made a foam prototype to get a sense of size and how everything fits. Minor changes were made to the CAD based on this prototype.
Finally, I sent out files to a manufacturer to make the table out of baltic birch using a CNC router.
This project was done at my internship at Cortex-Design. The purpose was to standardize the wireless doorbells used by the tenants of the building. The current doorbells are all different, and are attached to the wall at random seeming locations. The address number currently attached to the wall is made of brass.
The new design would have white plexiglass numbers screwed into a wooden base. All the doorbells would be hacked, attaching a different uniform pushbutton to all of them. The electronics would be mounted on the inside of the enclosure door.
The purpose of this project was as a Solidworks exercise. I would highly recommend reading this article. It’s a very interesting, short article about the origins of the Staunton chess set, which is the ‘standard’ chess set in use today.
The knight was the most time-consuming, involved piece to design. Everything else is mostly made with revolve features. The knight using more varied features, such as lofts and subtract bodies.
