Hogwarts
Spectro-photometer
Skills Used
Project Management, Design, Communication, Project scheduling, SolidWorks, Time Management, Manufacturing, Product Development, MATLAB, Presentation, Prototyping
The Hogwarts Spectrophotometer was a project that was meant to test my and my group’s ability to design and manufacture a spectrophotometer that was accurate enough to measure concentrations at the micromolar level. An optional component of the project was to create a casing to house the spectrophotometer.
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The Mission
Create a spectrophotometer that had a creative and well-developed casing while ensuring that the spectrophotometer has a high accuracy.
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A Snapshot Of The Project
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Quickly iterated through 12 designs based off of data from experiments over 4 weeks for the spectrophotometer reading device.
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Worked around financial budget restraints with 3D printing with MDF and Acrylic
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Took ownership of design and manufacturing efforts.
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Reworked existing designs to accommodate financial and material limitations.
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Created code for calibration of the spectrophotometer using MATLAB.
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Journey to Success
My group and I started by splitting up our work and responsibilities. I would take responsibility for the manufacturing portions (this included the casing and spectrophotometer cuvette reading compartment) of our project, while my team members worked on creating the best combination of electronic components for the spectrophotometer to reach the desired high levels of accuracy. I scoured the internet for a model of Hogwarts Castle and found an STL model. However, while importing the STL model into SolidWorks I encountered several setbacks. Importing the STL model only allowed me to see the full model and I couldn’t remove or modify any parts. Additionally, there were limitations to how much we could 3D print, due to the project budget. Because of these issues and limitations, many of the pieces had to be redesigned.
Results
My team and I were able to make the most accurate spectrophotometer in our class while also having one of the coolest designs.
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The Tasks I Undertook
In the initial portions of our project I helped create the initial code measuring the concentration in the spectrophotometer.
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The issues I encountered led me to remodel pieces from the STL model in SolidWorks. Additionally, I designed a holster for the cuvettes and the measuring apparatus. I had to be creative with the materials to achieve our goals while staying within our materials budget. Attempting to do this became one the most challenging parts of this project for me. Ultimately, the spectrophotometer casing became a mix of 3D printed parts along with laser cut MDF and acrylic parts. To make our project even more unique, we laser cut the insignias of the four Hogwarts houses into each corner of the base.
For the spectrophotometer cuvette reading compartment that I designed. I worked with several different iterations to ensure that it met certain specifications. The specifications for the reader compartment required that, it needed to be as dark as possible, materials couldn’t be reflective so that light wouldn’t bounce around, had to allow for two different reading mechanisms in one holder. This required constant iteration in the design to find the optimal holder design. My teammates would test the new design give feedback and I would create a new design.
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Lessons Learned Along The Way
I was able to test my engineering abilities in terms of using SolidWorks to iterate through designs and take the feedback from team to constantly improve our devices accuracy.
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During this project, I had 2 other major projects that were due a day before and a day after the due date for this project. So, my time management and organizational skills were tested and improved as I worked on this project.
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Considering the limitations my team and I had financially, this project required a level of resourcefulness and imagination. I needed to ensure that as I redesigned our casing, so that it would still allow for the spectrophotometer’s reader to attach seamlessly.
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