Quadrotor

• Helped TA for a student taught course (STUCO)
• Co-lead a project subdivision of the Quadrotor organization, Quad Academy
• Joined Project Ignite to deploy a prototype of an educational Quadrotor kit and curriculum
• Taught high school students for four hours every Sunday for ten weeks in the spring of 2016

STUCO

At CMU, students are often allowed to teach courses to other students in what is known as a STUCO. Our goal for this STUCO was to spread awareness and understanding of the technologies behind Quadrotors, even if one had no technical background.

• Taught a class of 17 students varying from college freshmen to masters students
• Designed and developed curriculum for students
• Explained the various hardware components that went into a quadrotor
• Explained the physics and electrical engineering behind quadrotors
• Taught students how to use CAD software to design body frames
• Used technologies such as 3D printing and laser cutting to materialize CAD designs

QUAD ACADEMY

After the STUCO, our sizeable club decided to split into two separate branches in order to cover different research and development fields. Quad Academy was formed, as well as an autonomous battery recharging station group. The autonomous battery recharging group is currently focusing on developing a station where LiPo batteries can safely and effectively be swapped out for a new pair. I, along with a 5th year mechanical engineer (Kevin Apolo), pursued Quad Academy.

Quad Academy aims to help spread educational quadrotor kits to high schools around the Pittsburgh area. These kits would help students learn basic programming, promote hobbyism, and introduce concepts of hardware and electrical work.
 

Project Ignite:

The first initiative of Quad Academy was to get involved with high school students directly to test out a prototype kit and tutorial course. We were looking to see how engaged this subject was for the students, how the pricing of certain hardware components played out, and how to effectively structure the course’s curriculum. We decided to join a new student organization, Project Ignite (PI), focused on exciting high school students in projects and hobbyism.

• Designed and developed our quadcopter kit, as well as our academic curriculum
• Taught 6 students from local Pittsburgh high schools for four hours each week—for ten weeks
• Covered basics of what a quadrotor was (how it’s made, what parts are needed, what does each part do?, etc.)
• Covered physics behind quadcopters (roll, pitch, yaw, sinusoidal waves, etc.)
• Introduced programming in Python, Arduinos, and Raspberry Pi’s to students
• Taught students how to solder and how basic electrical engineering worked
• Taught students how to callibrate their flight controllers, tune/trim controllers, and fly their quadcopters