BMUFSD: Students Build Machines In New Capstone Course

Press release from the Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District:

2024-05-03

The inaugural year of the Engineering Design and Development Capstone course at Briarcliff High School has been a huge success.

The goal for each student in this course is to design and build a machine completely on their own.

“This is the highest level of engineering course that we have at the school and it is the final of the three Capstone engineering courses we offer,” said Ted Sandomenico, who co-teaches the class with Chris Lo.

The students in the class created incredible projects.

We spoke with three of them to find out more.

Senior Ethan Weiss built a wooden dog bowl that dispenses water automatically.

“My dog was my inspiration, but this can work for cats, too,” he said.

The bowl connects to a hose in the back so it can be attached to any faucet. It features a mechanism that has a plastic ball that sinks when the water level is too low.

“Once the bowl is empty, the hole in the tubing allows more water to come in, but when the water is high enough, the ball acts as a stopper and water will stop flowing,” Ethan said.

“I tried it in class – it works, and it’s very simple: it’s a one-step process: just hook it up to a hose and faucet,” he said.

Although the bowl cannot be taken out, it can be cleaned easily. Ethan also built a drawer on the bottom for extra storage.

“You can store treats or a toy for your pet in the drawer and it’s a completely separate compartment, so it won’t get wet,” he said.

Senior Jordan Kratz built a vending machine that dispenses tennis ball cans.

“I play on the Varsity Tennis team and when I go to the tennis courts, sometimes I forget to bring tennis balls, or the balls that I bring are flat,” he said. “So, I designed and built a vending machine out of wood for tennis ball cans.”

The machine features a Servo motor, which Jordan learned how to hook up to an Arduino, a microcontroller, or a platform that enables users to create interactive electronic objects.

“I programmed a button that tells the motor to turn 360 degrees and this moves a can of tennis balls,” he said. “I also plan to have a mechanism that allows you to put in money and I’m hoping to install solar panels to recharge the batteries.”

Senior Austin Lee built a robotic chair.

“The idea was to create a vehicle that can help carry heavy loads,” he said. “I often see people in my neighborhood walking up the hill from the ShopRite carrying groceries. So, I was inspired to build a robot that could carry groceries up the hill. Alternatively, delivery workers could use this robot to carry their items around during delivery, or everyday people could use it to bring out heavy garbage bags.”

Although the original idea was to create an autonomous vehicle, Austin said that the coding for that was too difficult and beyond his capabilities, so he decided to switch over to a vehicle that could carry people as well as objects.

“A person can sit in it and use a controller to move around, kind of like a motorized wheelchair,” he said.

Austin obtained almost all of the materials from a junkyard and the chair itself from the school.

“They were going to throw out the chair because they had new furniture,” he said.

The chair features Caster wheels in the front that enable it to swivel, and chain ribbon wheels in the back.

The chair, which can carry as much as 200 pounds, uses a gaming controller that people typically use for video games.

“I use two microcontrollers: an Arduino, like Jordan used for his project, and a Raspberry Pi,” he said. “I have two motors powered by rechargeable drill batteries, which can last for about five hours.”

Austin encountered some challenges in building the chair.

“Originally, the chair did not swivel, so I installed the Caster wheels in the front, to make it pivot,” he said. “Also, the mechanical part comes naturally to me, but the electronics part was difficult.”

Working through his challenges paid off.

“I have ridden on the chair,” he said. “It’s fun.”

Although the class size is small, with only five students, Mr. Sandomenico said there has been interest in the class for next fall.

“Next year we will have a small class as well, but it will be a college-level course with college credit, so I am hoping even more students will express interest,” he said. “We would also like to encourage more women to join the course.”

This press release was produced by the Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.