Odyssey
During the summer of my freshman year in college, my mother unexpectedly passed away. I took only a week off, putting school and my sport ahead of myself: I had too many swim sets and problem sets to do!
Spoiler alert: that was a stupid idea. Eventually, during the summer before senior year, I deliberately went home for three months in hopes that I could get a little better. Odyssey, and the healthier person I am today, are the results of that decision.
Constructed out of scrap bike parts and scrap steel, Odyssey is a kinetic fountain that utilizes the force of pumped water to power a series of simple mechanisms, culminating in the rotation of a non-functional fan. The time I spent working on Odyssey in my dad's garage, welding with my uncle's old oxy-acetylene rig, was an inexplicably powerful journey. It dramatically affected my worldview, motivation, and happiness.
I don't have an artsy conceptual blurb on this piece: I made it out of scrap because it was inexpensive, and I built it because I needed to.
“Homeless” for 36 hours
Senior year at Stanford, I was asked to do some deep need-finding and take a walk in somebody else's shoes. My partner and I wanted to push the assignment as far as possible, and took a one way ride on the CalTrain to San Francisco with nothing but our sleeping bag and notebook.
We slept in Golden Gate Park, panhandled, and talked to a wide range homeless people during these 36 hours. Admittedly, our time on the "streets" was not enough to build as much empathy as we would have liked, but what we did experience was powerful, poignant, and will stay with us forever. I could go on forever with the stories our adventure spawned, but I will share the one that we utilized in our project.
I first encountered Michael underneath an overpass in SOMA. We had grown accustomed to homeless gathering cans, but Michael was picking up trash! I walked over and introduced myself to Michael and we shook hands- my skin bare, his hand protected by a black, frayed lifting glove that had seen better days.
When asked why he was picking up garbage, Michael responded: "This is my home. I take pride in it. [sic]" Michael lived on the raised base of the overpass column, his cardboard beds standing in stark contrast to the dealership parking lot full of expensive, shiny cars located right next to their house. Michael then told me a bit of his life, facets of what homeless life was like, etc. I then gave my thanks for his time, and reached out for the goodbye handshake.
Michael responded in kind, reaching out with his gloved hand; however, mid motion he stopped, looked at his, pulled it back, removed his glove, then shook my hand- bare skin against bare skin.
Cup
I love plywood. It can be inexpensive, sturdy, and, if you play with it a little bit, absolutely beautiful. The photos below document one of my "play" dates with some beautiful BB/B Russian Birch.
My efforts culminated in a rich, unique expression of the plywood's grain. By gluing together plywood planes at non-parallel angles and then shaping, the resultant gradients of grain will give you a pleasant surprise.
Mechanical Hand
For the final project of the seminal Stanford Class ME 203: Design and Manufacturing, I built a wearable mechanical hand that utilizes a series of two four-bar linkages to emulate the natural "curling" motion of a finger.
Coffee Depositing Rabbit
For the final project of ME 112: Mechanical System Design, we were tasked to create a mechanical rabbit, powered by a battery and driven by a DC motor, that had to climb a 15° ramp and demonstrate an auxillary rabbit function (eg nose wiggling).
Our design ended up holding the record for fastest ascent at 6 seconds. Class average was around 27 seconds.
Our auxillary function was the rabbit pooping coffee beans. :)
