Automated Feed Bin Gate Design
Reflection
It's stated that this course is designed to provide students with an “educational experience in engineering design” and I feel that it is doing just that. BSEN 4310, Engineering Design for Biosystems, takes the technical concepts used in our engineering discipline and forces application of them to real life problems. I came into this particular project not knowing almost anything about the commercial poultry industry, but the challenge of working with something new interested me. I wanted to gain technical knowledge about mechanical systems that I lacked beforehand, which can be gained through this atomization process, in order to make myself a better-rounded engineer. Not only have I learned a large amount about Biosystems Engineering principles and regulations through this capstone course so far, I have also expanded my knowledge on subjects that are typically considered topics of other engineering disciplines. For example, when dealing with the “smart” components of our project, I worked on writing logic statements that could be used to program the set of relays the linear actuators would be controlled by. This skill would typically fall into the Electrical Engineering discipline; however, when combining this with the use of several ASABE safety standards that dictate shielding of mechanical systems with moving parts, the result is a cohesive engineering design that draws on several different disciplines. Additionally, the Senior Design process has built on concepts learned in previous courses and taken them one step further by applying them to meet specific objectives. For example, courses in our curriculum familiarize students with concepts about static forces and free body diagrams. During this design process, my team used this prior knowledge and expanded upon it in order to compute the force requirement needed to open and close the feed bin gates in order to spec a linear actuator that meets this force requirement.
During this design process, in addition to my technical knowledge I have also developed my soft skills. Not only has my design team been collaborating with our peers and faculty of the department, we also work with our industry client, Cumberland Inc. This alone has enforced a wide array of personal skills that are crucial for a new engineer entering the workforce. Learning to write memos and provide constant updates on the progress of our project to all of these groups is something new we have not had to do in previous classes. Traditionally, college courses focus only on the final product and the process to get there is only a personal concern. The importance of being able to communicate the design process, both orally and written, is a crucial skill that will benefit any engineer.
After Graduation
After graduation I plan to earn a Master’s degree in Biosystems Engineering at the University of Tennessee beginning this summer. After earning my degree I hope to then start a career in the research and development sector of a company working as a research engineer. Though my graduate school research focus (biofuels) will not mirror that of this project, the design process and problem solving skills will carry through.
*Note: Some deliverable examples have been included below
