A R X I M E D E S

As a member of Art + Engineering, I built an interactive device that combined an Archimedes screw with a modifiable Plinko board maze for the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen's Engineering + Art competition, held in conjunction with their 10th anniversary OEDK@X celebration. The device's name is a pun off Archimedes and the OEDK's 10th anniversary.

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We built a screw mechanism to carry the balls in a shaft from the base of the maze up to the top, where they were pushed off the screw to go down through the maze again. A gear box mechanism was designed to allow people to use a handcrank to move the balls using the screw system. The axle is actually angled so the balls will fall onto the spring at the bottom of the maze and then fall off the spring onto the board at the top of the screw. This is aided by a wooden latch that pushed the ball into the maze.

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We bought light-up balls to add some colorful contrast to the wooden base, and we designed the maze so the balls would be able to move down it easily in a variety of paths.  This variety was created through obstacles in the shapes of the letters O, E, D, K, and X (in honor of the OEDK's 10th anniversary). To add to the variety, the poles were removable if balls got stuck or if viewers wanted to manipulate the path. Unused pieces could be placed in the storage compartment on the bottom of the device.

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I was in charge of designing the structural components of the device using a combination of Solidworks and Adobe Illustrator. I also helped construct the finished product and troubleshoot it in testing.