Mechanical Engineer computer skills

My undergrad computer skills in Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical engineers develop a wide range of skills during their academic and professional life. These skills include (but are not limited to) critical thinking & problem solving, mathematics, physics, design, and many computer skills. In this article, I show some of the most important skills, which are related to computers, that I learned during my studies at university.

Content summary:

  • Raspberry Pi & Arduino
  • Matlab
  • CAD
  • FEA
  • Python

Raspberry Pi & Arduino:

I learned a little about Arduino and Raspberry pi through self-learning and by doing my graduation project. The project was a rolling robot that moves forward and backward through shell rotation, and moves left and right by changing the position of the center of mass of the robot. The main components that I used for the project were Arduino and HC-06 Bluetooth module for controlling the robot, 3D printing for manufacturing the main frame, which was used inside the shell, 2 DC motors for shell rotation, and servo motor for moving the mass.

The plan was to add additional features to the robot, but due to time limitations and the pandemic situation, this was not feasible.

Below is a video that describes the project in detail.

Matlab:

I took Matlab introductory course during my first semester under name of COMP110: introduction to computer programming for engineers. It introduced me to programming basic concepts, such as conditional statements, loops, reading and writing to files, and data visualization. 

3D mesh plot Matlab

I took another class that used Matlab in my second year named MECH307: Numerical methods for mechanical engineers. This course was more advanced and focused on solving mathematical problems using programming. I heard about numerical methods previously, but before taking this class, I did not really know what they do in them. The main topics focused on root finding, curve fitting, numerical differentiation and integration, and finite element method. Example problems were mainly in the mechanical engineering domain and during the class, I practiced animating simple mechanical systems using a mathematical description of the system. 

Radius of curvature
Radius of curvature project

                            Radius of curvature

              Functions with numerical derivatives

Matlab Mechanical motion
Piston data

          Piston motion animation using Matlab

                    Functions of the system

I also touched on some features in Matlab during a class named MECH304: Control system. I used Matlab libraries that are made to solve control systems and differential equations. I also used Simulink for a class project.

The last class I used Matlab for was MECH444: Robotics. The class discussed various topics including robotic arm configurations and pathfinding. For one of the class projects, we were asked to write a Matlab code that will move a robotic arm in 3D space while avoiding obstacles and touching other objects.

Robotic arm_object avoidance
path_finding
collision map robotic arm

CAD:

I learned CAD in MECH203: computer-aided design. The program we used in class was Siemens NX. I learned about 3D design, drafting, and assembly in this class.

CAD saw machine project
Makita saw machine

                                   CAD model

                     Original Makita saw machine

CAD model
CAD model
Technical draft
Technical draft

I also did another project as with my group in MECH206: Dynamics. We used CAD, Matlab, and Ansys.

Topology optimization
Topology optimization

              CAD model with topolgy optimization

                              Simplified version

FEA:

I learned about FEA by doing projects for my classes. I worked mostly on COMSOL Multiphysics and ANSYS. I made simulations for microcantilever beam vibrational analysis, fluid through a pipe, micromixers, and pressure sensor. I have used FEA modules for fluids, electricity, mechanics, and vibration.

Comsol particle tracing
Particle tracing COMSOL for simple laminar flow with velocity values.
Microcantilever beam 77kHz
Microcantilever beam 77kHz
Microcantilever beam 437kHz
Microcantilever beam 437kHz
ANSYS fluent CFD tempreture analysis
ANSYS fluent CFD tempreture analysis
ANSYS fluent CFD velocity analysis
ANSYS fluent CFD velocity analysis
Stress analysis
Stress analysis

Python:

I learned python mostly on my own, but I took a class for python and used python for Machine learning class. I learned the basics of Object-Oriented-Programming (OOP), GUI, Data-Analytics.

1 thought on “My undergrad computer skills in Mechanical Engineering”

  1. Hello there! This article could not be written much better!
    Looking through this article reminds me of my previous roommate!

    He constantly kept preaching about this. I’ll forward this information to him.
    Fairly certain he will have a great read. Thanks for sharing!

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