Mr. Dotta's Technology Education Blog at Ridge High

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

TSA Results 2021-2022

Atilla Bodur came in 4th place for the "CAD Engineering Design" competition where he had to design a 1 wheeled skateboard. He custom designed and drew every component including the bearings and battery compartment.

We also placed 4th in the Biotech challenge (Albert Caesar, Jaiman Munshi, Nancy Puthenpurayil, Alex Zhang). They did outstanding research in developing a robot that controls algae!! In addition, they submitted the project to the NJWEA (NJ Water Environment Asso.), where they came in 3rd

To see their robot... Website display: https://nancyputhenpurayil.wixsite.com/r4cw Video Presentation: https://youtu.be/1c6kXfvIR7EPortfolio Finally, we placed 6th in video game design (Matthew Leopold, Arden Pentlicki, Cy Westbrook).

Saturday, April 9, 2022

Students were challenged to fully animate a mechanism that converts Rotary to Linear motion. These mechanisms were completely custom drawn in Inventor. Amazing work!!!!

Atilla Bodur

Samee Sheikh

Monday, April 4, 2022

Students were challenged to fully animate a mechanism that converts Rotary to Linear motion. These mechanisms were completely custom drawn in Inventor. Amazing work!!!!

Gabriel Troconis

Tristan Deffenbaugh

AJ Lembo

Grace Younan

Sid Burgula

Tristin Orthmann

Matt Sprinkle

Friday, December 10, 2021

Garage Structure Building Activity

Students built these amazing garage structures!

We wrapped up another great hands-on project, which consisted of team collaboration, problem solving and use of basic hand tools.

Students had to study and build model garage kits, applying great detail to measuring the wood members and cutting precise joints.

In the end, they had the great idea of decorating the structures for the holiday season! See the photos below for the amazing final results!

Sunday, March 7, 2021

Architecture Abstract Pavilion Projects

Simply Amazing!!! These are abstract structures that took an interesting progression over several months. Being born from a simple color meditation (seen below) they progressed into 3D SketchUp models and finally became physical structures. There were many other factors that played into the design process.

Below are a few outstanding examples that are simply remarkable in terms of craftsmanship, attention to detail and application of lessons learned in class.

Justin Liu

Steffi Liu

Camille Xu

Emily Thompson

Stella Smith

Thursday, June 25, 2020

Rube Goldberg Machines

Students in CAD I and Tech Design and Innovation classes designed and built Rube Goldberg machines from home, during distance learning.

Please visit my YouTube Channel to see some amazing projects! Very impressive work!!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcWpD6xnWn0s-sVTi1GGzJVbAdJ7HCCM2

Friday, June 19, 2020

CAD II Capstone Projects - Distance Learning Spring 2020

Students in Computer Aided Design II/Prototyping class designed custom mechanisms for their final capstone projects. The objective was to design and draw a complex mechanism with moving parts such as gears or cams. After hours of research, sketching and planning their designs on paper, the parts were drawn on AutoDesk Inventor, OnShape or SketchUp in 3D. After each part was drawn to extreme accuracy and precision, the mechanism was assembled as a unit, as seen below. If school was in session, the next step would be to 3D print and/or laser cut each part and make a final assembly in class.

There are no words to express how proud I am of these students! The level of complexity they were able to accomplish is outstanding considering that they were working from home. Here are a few outstanding projects... I hope you can all appreciate the level of detail and hours of work that went into these projects. SIMPLY AMAZING, CONGRATULATIONS CAD II.

BE SURE TO CLICK "OLDER POSTS" AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE, TO SEE MORE!!!

Andrew Lee-Au

Automatic Transmission consisting of over 30 parts!

Congratulations to Andrew for also being chosen for this years RHS Engineering Excellence Award!

Robbie Rutkowski

Walschaerts Valve Gear consisting of over 20 parts! Amazing!!!

Based on the following idea...

Maggie Neumann

Orrery - A mechanical model of the solar system, used to represent their relative positions and motions.

As you turn the crank, each individual gear combination has been calculated to the correct ratio, to speed up or slow down each planet The planet's speed, distance, and size are all proportional to what it is in the natural world.

There are about 223 different pieces making it up! WOW, INCREDIBLE!!

Planning out the timing and gear ratios!!

Jimmy Bao

Rubik's cube

Charlie Corbett

Combination Lock Box

Cameron Mays

Safe Lock Mechanism

Tyler Hoke

HHO Generator

The electrolyzer takes power from a charged battery and sends electrical current through water splitting the molecules into a gaseous mixture that collects in the one half of the container. After the water is converted into a hydrogen gas mixture it can be used in hydrogen technology or burned as a replacement for fossil fuels.

OUTSTANDING WORK and RESEARCH!!!