• Working as a design team in USC's 3D For Everyone (3D4E) chapter.

• Robot that moves along an xy-plane to produce unique pancake designs.

• The PancakeBot was constructed using a combination of salvaged parts from 3D printers, 3D printed components, and purchased items.

• The gantry system consists of 3D printed support legs, belt idlers, belt tensioners, x and y carriages/housing, a 5mm width belt, 4 600mm sliding rods, 2 330mm sliding rods, and 12 linear bearings.

• The pump system consists of a 12V motor peristaltic pump and 3mm ID PTFE-coated silicone tubing.

• The electronics control comes from a small circuit setup on a breadboard and an Arduino UNO microcontroller with a CNC shield attachment.

• Programming was done in Arduino's IDE and G-code editing software.

• Utilizing Google OR-Tools package, commonly used in solving vehicle routing problems, for satellite antenna pathfinding.

• The antenna is located at a fixed location on earth and has to point at a number of orbiting satellites when each comes into the viewing frame (defined as >= 30 degrees above the horizon).

• A distance matrix is set up to minimize the total "distance" traveled by the satellite antenna's path. 

• Currently testing on TLE data pulled from Celestrak website as part of the "proof of concept" phase.

• Visualization of the optimal routing in 3D space on a test data set is seen to the left.

• Work-in-progress code is available upon request from a private GitHub repository.

• 2 semester partnership with our assigned client, DHL eCommerce.

• Tasked with identifying process bottlenecks for outbound parcel dispatch operations in the LAX2 (Whittier) facility.

• Modeled current system behavior using Arena discrete events simulation software and went through an extensive model verification and validation process.

• Proposed a mechanical conveyance alternative to move shipping bins ~ 200 ft. across the facility floor as a replacement for current forklift usage.

• Studied alternative viability based on 2 key performance indicators (KPIs): cycle time and labor headcount.

• Cost-Benefit analysis utilizing discrete time statistics from the alternative system model to estimate ROI period.

• Designed a manufacturing facility layout optimized for productive efficiency and cost savings. 

• Software utilized: AutoCAD (2D layouts) and Excel. 

• Explores the effects of rationalization on love with the example of optimal stopping theory in dating. 

• Analyzing if rationalization is, counter-intuitively, inversely related to happiness. 

References: 

1. Essays in Sociology - Max Weber 

2. Love and Its Discontents: Irony, Reason, Romance - Eva Illouz