When I decided to join Trinity Engineering, I never expected it to be easy. I knew it was one of the toughest majors at Trinity and many students have to devote an extra semester or more to graduate. Yet, it was this ambition of designing devices and equipments to make others' lives better that attracted me to Engineering in the first place.
Our first experience of designing a device that would have an impact on people in real life came in Sophomore year through a course named Engineering Design III & IV. Engineering Department partnered up with Goodwill Industries to come up with projects appropriate for sophomore engineers at Trinity. The projects under the guidance of Dr. Jack Leifer involved improving an existing device or designing a new one altogether that would make work easier for people with some form of disabilities. Goodwill Industries employs a lot of people who would normally have a difficult time finding a job.
Sophomore engineers set on their year long projects so that those people could work by using a friendly device. Some examples of our projects were:
i) Designing a filler that could be operated with a single hand. (Previously, it required use of both hands)
ii) Designing a device to transport large boxes (2 ft X 2 ft X 2 ft.) along stairs
iii) Designing a remote controlled device to stop a string trimmer and signal the worker (if he has some form of hearing disabilities)
iv) Designing a head lamp that would light up automatically in a dark room
v) Designing a retractable hook to remove A.C. filters
On May 11, 2010 we traveled to Goodwill Industries to give a presentation of our project and demonstrate how well our prototype works. Everyone was very impressed with the final design. There was so much media present and they were impressed too with all our work. They interviewed a lot of students regarding their projects and some of that was reflected in San Antonio Express News the next day. Also, a minute long clip was premiered on Channel 12 (KSAT) on the same day 2 hours later. It was good to see how well the collaboration between young engineers, a university department and an industry had worked out perfectly.
Also, you could read news articles that appeared in newspapers here.
