DIY 3D Printing: Open source 3D printer development by students of engineering product design

This paper documents a project undertaken by undergraduate students of Engineering Product Design at the author’s institution. Five small groups were each provided with a kit of components for a RepRapPro Huxley 3D printer, and tasked with assembling, testing, and then redesigning it to improve or adapt its function. They were asked to document the process, and encouraged to share their learning experiences and innovations online through the ‘Instructables’ website. The objectives of the project were to emulate the self directed educational nature of the Maker Movement in an academic setting, to foster a level of craftsmanship in students’ use of 3D printing as a tool for design and to explore their attitudes towards open intellectual property. The results are presented through descriptions of the redesigned printers, observations from the tutor throughout the process, and feedback from the students themselves. Two of the five groups chose to publish their designs online; these were highly positive about the feedback they received from the community. It is concluded that the project provided a highly beneficial, contemporary and relevant project based learning experience, deepening students’ practical understanding of 3D printing technologies and extending the capacity for independent learning

Computing with functions in spherical and polar geometries I. The sphere

A collection of algorithms is described for numerically computing with smooth functions defined on the unit sphere. Functions are approximated to essentially machine precision by using a structure-preserving iterative variant of Gaussian elimination together with the double Fourier sphere method. We show that this procedure allows for stable differentiation, reduces the oversampling of functions near the poles, and converges for certain analytic functions. Operations such as function evaluation, differentiation, and integration are particularly efficient and can be computed by essentially one-dimensional algorithms. A highlight is an optimal complexity direct solver for Poisson's equation on the sphere using a spectral method. Without parallelization, we solve Poisson's equation with $100$ million degrees of freedom in one minute on a standard laptop. Numerical results are presented throughout. In a companion paper (part II) we extend the ideas presented here to computing with functions on the disk.Comment: 23 page

Phenomenological optical potential analysis of proton-carbon elastic scattering at 200 MeV

Differential cross sections for 200 MeV protons elastically scattered from C-12 were analyzed utilizing a local, complex, spin-dependent optical potential with a harmonic well radial dependence. Analyses were performed using the WKB and eikonal approximations. For the latter, first-order corrections to he phase shifts were incorporated to account for the spin-orbit contribution. Large disagreement between theory and experiment was observed when the usual Thomas form for the spin-orbit potential was utilized. Substantial improvement was obtained by allowing the parameters in the central and spin-orbit potential terms to vary independently

COST OF FORWARD CONTRACTING HARD RED WINTER WHEAT

Two methods were used to estimate the cost of forward contracting hard red winter wheat. One hundred days before delivery, the estimated cost of forward contracting ranged from six cents/bu. To eight cents/bu. Thus, further evidence is provided that the cost of forward contracting grain is not zero.forward contracting, nonparametric regression, wheat, Marketing,

Cost of Forward Contracting Hard Red Winter Wheat

Marketing,

Analytic determinations of single-folding optical potentials

A simple analytic method for calculating nucleon-nucleus optical potentials using a single folding of a Gaussian two body interaction with an arbitrary nuclear distribution is presented. When applied to proton-lead elastic scattering, the predicted real part of the Woods-Saxon potential is in substantial agreement with the experimentally determined phenomenological potential, although there are no adjustable parameters. In addition, the volume integrals of both real potentials are nearly identical

Improvements to the Langley HZE abrasion model

Improvements to a previously developed high charge energy abrasion model are made by incorporating more realistic values for the constituent Fermi momentum and nucleon root-mean-square charge radius. The theoretical predictions for neon projectiles at 2.1 GeV/nucleon colliding with carbon and molybdenum targets are in excellent agreement with recent experiment results

Experiences of embedding blended physical and digital making into design education

This paper considers modern concerns that a new generation of designers are rejecting traditional methods in favour of purely digital ways of designing. The study is contextualized in some of the relevant theory, and describes a selection of projects across academic levels from the design curriculum at the authors’ institution that illustrate a blended approach to digital and physical design pedagogy. Results are presented from a survey of final year students who have experienced this approach, exploring the extent to which these methods are now embedded within their practice. The results suggest that although CAD use is prevalent in their natural practice, and some of the recognized problems associated with it are more evident than in professional CAD users, the students have adopted our approach of designing across digital and physical platforms

Experience, Design, A Student Pop-Up-Shop

This paper presents the experiences of staff and second year BSc Design students at the Authors’ Institution in developing a ‘pop-up shop’ event over three consecutive academic years. Students were given a short period of time (3-5 weeks) in which to design and manufacture a small gift item, which could be sold at the event. They worked in small groups to explore the systems, service, marketing, graphic, and experience design of the show, and then in teams to produce, market, and run the event. Individually, each student designed their product to the requirement to sell it for a demonstrable profit margin at the event, and the need to be able to batch manufacture it to order during the subsequent week. For many this was their first experience of working to an externally imposed deadline with the potential for real income generation from their design skills. Students developed a broad spectrum of design and entrepreneurial skills, deepening their understanding of the traditional role of a product designer while reflecting on the value of enterprise skills for their future careers in industry. This paper will contextualize the project within the Design syllabus at the authors’ institution and the wider industrial environment, and concludes with some reflections on the value of the project for student learning, and suggestions for teachers of design in considering similar pedagogical approaches