TCNJ Design Challenge

On November 19, 6 of my CAD II Engineering students attended TCNJ for a Junior/Senior Design Challenge.  They competed against 16 other schools and placed 2nd by popular vote and 1st by TCNJ Judges!  

Their design challenge was to design and build an arcade game that must be mechanical and physically interactive, using common class materials, Scratch programming software and a Makey Makey controller. 

Our team designed an Asteroids game where they built an actual joystick that controlled the game they programed in the Scratch program... quite impressive!! 

Powered Flight - Tech Design & Innovation Class

Students learned about principles of aerodynamics, airfoils and flight. Then they designed an airfoil, cut it from foam and assembled the remaining plane.  The planes were then tested and problem solved in order to achieve take-off, maintain flight and then successfully land.  Thanks to Steve Richards for hooking me up with this project!

Building Towers in Tech Design & Innovation Class

Students learned about engineering principles of which they applied to building a tower that must withstand as much compressive strength as possible, while being as light as possible.  After using an efficiency formula, our winning group found that their tower held 3,290 lbs at an efficiency ratio of 567.24 lbs per oz.!!  Thanks to Steve Richards for hooking me up with this project.

Congratulations Class of 2019!!!

John Fiorini - Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech

Alicia DeMarchi - Mechanical Engineering at Northeastern University

Emily Perna - Architecture at Univ. of Texas at Austin

David Kim - Mechanical Engineering at Rutgers

Rohan Harish - Electrical and Computer Engineering at NJIT

David Eweka - Aerospace Engineering at Virginia Tech

Andy Kim - Mechanical Engineering at Cooper Union

Lexi Soulias - Mechanical Engineering at Lehigh

Max Kevelson - Mechanical Engineering at Lafayette

Joe Campione - Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech

Anthony Lin - Biomedical Engineering at Northeastern University

Cameron Yeager - Materials Science & Engineering at Arizona State

Mo Rivadeneyra - Mechanical Engineering at NJIT

Scott Layton - Architecture at the University of Cincinnati

Ryan Lindrud - Civil Engineering at Manhattan College

Katie Kisker - Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University

Meredith Regner - Human Systems Engineering & Health Care Innovations at Arizona

Evan Shimoun - Computer Engineering at Michigan
Karthik Iyer - Biomedical Engineering at Pittsburgh 

Technology and Engineering Club

Chris Richardson and Marijn deBie designed and built a remote controlled glider...that works!

TSA - Technology Student Association 2019

A team of students participated in the 2019 state conference at TCNJ in April.  Students competed in Software design and Animatronics.

Robotics II - Space Elevator

An incredible challenge of making a robot to climb a strap to the ceiling and then return back to the floor after a touch sensor is activated to reverse the motors.

Robotics I - Electronics and Arduino

Students are wiring circuits with electronic bread boards and creating programmable robots with Arduino kits.

Robotics I - Cross the Gap Challenge

Students were challenged to create a robot that could cross the longest gap possible.  The best robot crossed a 15" gap!!!

Harley Field Trip 2019

Engineering and Robotics students took an extensive tour inside the York, PA Vehicle Operations Plant, where they saw first hand, motorcycles being built using a plethora of technology, robotics and engineering methods learned in class.

Congratulations RHS Class of 2018

Ashley George - Texas A&M University - Mechanical Engineering
Matthew Stamatiou - Virginia Military Institute - Mechanical Engineering

Charlie King - University of Maryland - Mechanical Engineering

Robin Heppell - Drexel - Architecture

Evan Kupsch - RIT - Industrial Design

Hitha Santosh - University of CA Berkeley - Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Chris Ambrozy - University of Delaware - Engineering

Dylan McCauly - PITT - Civil Engineering
Sean Rhatican - TCNJ - Civil Engineering
Zach Wyman - West Virginia - Mechanical Engineering
Peter DeNicola - PITT - Mechanical Engineering

Andy McGowan - RVCC  - STEM
Maddy Lui - Carnegie Mellon - Mechanical Engineering
Andrew Gene - Rutgers - Biomedical Engineering

Good luck!
Mr. Dotta

Congratulations Class of 2017
Tristan Hinoul - Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison - Mechanical Engineering
John DeNicola - Virginia Tech - Building Construction
Catherine Giuseffi - Arizona State - Industrial Design
Ashley Kang - Univ. of Texas, Austin - Mechanical Eng.
Joe Giusti - Virginia Tech - Civil Engineering
Mandar Badithe - Texas - Aerospace Engineering
Val Post - Lehigh University - Computer Engineering
Carolyn Wang - Lehigh University - Computer Engineering

Architecture at RHS

Laser Cutter/Engraver, Meets Fine Woodworking and Architectural Design

The folks at the Fellowship Village Retirement Community reached out to us back in September and asked if our Architecture students could build a model of the new wing, which is currently under construction.  Without hesitation we accepted the challenge!  The students have spent a great deal of time working on this incredible model, which is of true professional grade!

  

2017-2018 Engineering Department ~ Student Excellence Awards

Ashley George - Texas A&M University

Mattew Stamatiou - Virginia Military Institute

Charlie King - University of Maryland 

There are 3 awards being presented to students who have achieved excellence in Mr. Dotta’s Engineering, Architecture and/or Robotics courses.  The recipients have demonstrated outstanding performance, leadership, enthusiasm and devotion towards a career in engineering or architecture.  Each recipient has excelled in their understanding of engineering concepts and has designed and built custom robots, 3D printed mechanisms and laser cut assemblies.

Congratulations!!!

Intro to Engineering Design - PLTW

2016-2017
Projects from this years IED students, including; Wood Puzzle Cube & Balloon Transport Device

Engineering Design CAD II - Small Gas Engines

2016-2017
Students in Engineering Design/CAD II also had an experience working on Small Gas Engines. They learned everything from start to finish about how engines work, tools, safety, fasteners and how to disassemble an engine. From here they precisely measured and drew the parts on AutoDesk Inventor in 3D.

Catherine Giuseffi and Maddy Lui’s Connecting Rod

Carolyn Wang's Piston

Chris Au's Piston

Engineering Design CAD II Students Projects

I had the pleasure of teaching another amazing class this year who designed some awfully impressive projects!!!  

Students in this second level engineering course were challenged to design custom projects that must be mechanical in nature. Incorporating parts such as gears and/or simple machines was a requirement. The students drew the parts on AutoDesk Inventor or AutoCAD in either 2D or 3D depending on the part. Parts were then 3D printed or Laser cut and then assembled. As usual, Ridge students produced amazingly complex and impressive projects. Every part of every mechanism is designed and drawn by the students; they are not permitted to simply download ready-made files from the Internet.

Igor Guranovic’s Award Winning Model of a Working 4-Speed Transmission

Catherine Giuseffi’s Adjustable Smart Phone Mount

Madison Lui’s Laser Cut Geneva Mechanism with Electric Motor

Jon Bissonnette’s Archimedes Screw Model

Moises Rivadeneyra’s Gyroscope

Vincent Richards’ 3D Printed 3 Cylinder W-Engine

Carolyn Wang and Leslie Hwang’s Laser Cut and 3D Printed Galileo’s Escapement Clock

Ann Kang’s Impressive Rubik’s Cube (in progress)

David Kim's Strand Beast (In progress)

Chris Au’s 3D Printed Concept Vehicle

RHS Architecture Program Teams up with UVA

Ridge Architecture students in Mr. Mark Dotta’s class, teamed up with the University of Virginia and Professor Sanda Lliescu to create custom abstract structures.  Mr. Dotta’s inspiration for this project came from his dedication to preparing his students for both college and real world experiences.  It’s not uncommon for him to reach out to his engineering or architecture alumni students for advice.  “I want to say on top of the latest trends and I love to see what projects my alumni are doing in college”, said Mark.  He then takes that information and applies it to his classroom so he can prepare his students as best he can.  This project was a perfect example of this as he wanted to give his students an experience that he saw so many of his alumni doing at college.  “My architecture curriculum lacked this extremely abstract approach to a hands-on project that is so often part of what architecture majors are doing at college,” Mark said. 

With that he teamed up with UVA and had his students study the work of Professor Lliescu’s students.  The theories and lessons intertwined abstract art and hands-on methods, which was just what he was looking for.  First students drew their structures in 3D on AutoCAD and then they built them from scratch.  The following projects are a result of hours of designing and building the structures from an array of materials such as wood, foam board, cardboard and acrylic.  Some students even 3D printed and laser cut members of their structures. 

You can use your imagination to see how a project went from step one to step three or just sign up for Mr. Dotta’s class!

Step One – Randomly draw boxes and color

Step Two - Draw in 3D on AutoCAD

Step Three - Build!    (Outdoor Attraction, by Charlie King)

 Award winning; City Attraction by John DeNicola

Jaydon Shafer’s Abstract Pavilion structure

Jenna Juechter’s Crooked Way Playground

Peter DeNicola’s impressive abstract Living Space structure

Art Show

Balsa Wood Home Construction Project