Names: Rich Yazbeck, George Matsumoto, and Nicole Veilleux, all B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, 2001 School: University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts Impact: Making an easy transition from a UMass student to a real world designer
At the University of Massachusetts, mechanical engineering has a softer side. Assistive technology - the design of devices to help people with physical handicaps - is a major theme of classes, professors' research and students' projects.
In a "Design of Mechanisms" course, three juniors, Rich Yazbeck, George Matsumoto, and Nicole Veilleux, debated how to fulfill an assignment to develop a new design for a "failed" consumer product assembly. They chose to design a better wheelchair, one that could withstand repeated stress on the back of the chair due to a patient's violent muscle spasms and seizures (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Photo of the wheelchair the team selected
The project had a major impact on the education of all three students. According to Yazbeck, it served as the catalyst for him to develop his 3D design knowledge and abilities working with PTC's flagship product, Pro/ENGINEER, a mechanical computer-aided design and related software solution.
The student's team, named YVM Design, studied the wheelchair in question and determined that the point of failure related to the connection between the backrest and the seat cushion. To solve the problem, the team needed to design a new type of "L-brace" that could withstand the repeated backward thrusts that fatigued the connection point. The L-brace is a hollow plastic tube shaped like the letter L, with the longer tube running up the back of the chair and the shorter tube running beneath the seat of the chair. The old design had a thin triangular connection to support the right angle. The failure point occurred where the horizontal and vertical tubes met.
Figure 2: Failure point of the previous design
By identifying and understanding the problem with the help of Pro/MECHANICA, the UMass students re-modeled the L-brace on Pro/ENGINEER and modified the design to compensate for the weak connection point between the back and seat of the wheelchair. The team strengthened the connection by thickening the width of the triangular connection.
Yazbeck found PTC's software to be key to their success because of the versatility of the software packages, which allowed for a comprehensive assessment of the problem and the ability to make corrections.
"The interesting part of the project was that it was a real world situation that pertained to meeting the needs of a specific individual," says Rich Yazbeck. "Pro/ENGINEER allowed my team to easily model the L-Brace, diagnose the problematic areas, and then redesign to compensate for the stresses."
The UMass professor who assigned the project was Dr. Sundar Krishnamurty, associate head in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering. One of the purposes of the project was to build teamwork by using several communication skills, including engineering communication. "Pro/ENGINEER was the facilitator for transitioning what was in the student's mind to their other team members," says Professor Krishnamurty. "It was an effective tool for modeling, analysis, and design of real world complex problems, which enabled students to work together and communicate with each other to successfully redesign the 'failed' product projects." Through their work in the project, the students learned how powerful and easy-to-use product design tools, such as Pro/ENGINEER, can be the key to successful engineering design projects.
After being introduced to Pro/ENGINEER during his sophomore year, Yazbeck used Pro/ENGINEER in several of his classes, refining his solid modeling design capabilities. His first project - a design for a "retractable" mailbox that could extend over snow banks in the winter and then retract in the summer - was the first of many where he developed his 3D design abilities by using PTC's Pro/ENGINEER.
Applying what he learned in college has helped Yazbeck realize his career goals. Today, he's a design engineer with Texas Instruments. "Having the experience of Pro/ENGINEER on my resume showed employers that I was well versed in using market-leading tools to design and redesign products," said Yazbeck. "I took the initiative to learn and become fluent in the solid modeling programs, including Pro/ENGINEER, which has been extremely beneficial in my work at Texas Instruments."
Fellow team member Matsumoto also found Pro/ENGINEER to be helpful, not only in his courses but also in the real world. "As an engineer working for a defense contractor," said Matsumato, "I would say Pro/ENGINEER has been crucial to my success."
