Nelson Ranch Petanque Court
I led a project to design and build Cedar Park's first Pétanque Court for my Eagle Scout Service Project. Members from the community previously had to travel a considerable distance to the nearest courts in Austin, so they asked the City of Cedar Park to construct a five or six lane court. When I reached out to Curt Randa, the Director of Parks and Recreation, he informed me of this project and labeled it as "ambitious." He wasn't sure if I could complete it in the short 3-month timeline I laid out. The project was a complete success. After talking with many businesses in the area, I found donations for the building materials, food, and labor to complete the project. The Nelson Ranch Pétanque Club now operates at this park and is a registered member of FPUSA.
Published Articles (Click to View)
- Cécile Fandos. "La pétanque gagne du terrain à Cedar Park." French Morning, 3 September 2015.
- "Developing the Game at the Grass Roots Level: Some Commendable Efforts form Some Commendable People." Federation of Petanque USA, 2015, pg. 4
- Dupin, Arsene. "Inauguration of New Courts in Texas." Heart of Texas Petanque Club, 24 August 2015.
Off-Road Competition Vehicle
I am a rookie member of the 2018/2019 BAJA SAE team at Texas A&M University. Every year, this team designs a competitive off-road vehicle that will participate in a 4 hour wheel-to-wheel race. I am on the suspension team and work with a partner to design the steering wheel, steering column, rack, pinion, rack and pinion case, and tie rods. The two of us are also responsible for selecting the proper rod ends, materials, lubricants, and connection tabs to the chassis. The members in the BAJA team are all underclassmen, and we design and build the vehicle on our own time between classes and on weekends. Each year, a new car is designed from the ground up. Not a single part is meant to carry over from one year to the next. Below is the car's rendering as of last December-weighing in at just under 325 lbs (a 100 lb drop from last year).
Robotic Drawing Machine
This is one of my "just for fun" projects I completed with two of my friends. Using inexpensive stepper motors and a raspberry pi, we designed a low cost machine that can draw onto paper. All the components in green were 3-D printed on a printer I constructed from a component kit. On the right is an example of a tree which was drawn by the machine.
Mustang Piston (CAD Example)
After helping my neighbor disassemble the engine from his mustang, he gave me one of the pistons as a souvenir. Around this time, I was learning how to use Autodesk Inventor. Reverse-engineering the piston became a project for me to practice my CAD skills. After about twenty-five hours of measuring and modeling, this is the result. You can view the individual parts on Thingiverse.com. The models have been downloaded more than 1,800 times since I posted the project in June of 2017.