SDP/SI Featured People and Organizations

Uniondale High School Pre-Manufacturing and PTech Students Connect with Manufacturing Leaders Virtually

Did you know that almost 3,000 jobs went unfilled in the manufacturing industry right here on Long Island? (According to Patrick Boyle of Ignite LI.)

On May 20, 2020 - Mr. Robert Kufner, President of Designatronics, Inc., participated in an online lesson for the PTech and pre-manufacturing students of Uniondale High School, which is located here on Long Island, NY in western Nassau County. The main idea behind the virtual lesson was that the future of manufacturing lies in the hands of our youth. The meeting touched on the fact that manufacturing has an aging workforce and through efforts like these, CEO's and business owners hope to get young students excited about a career in Manufacturing. Click here to download the official press release from the Euity First Foundation.

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SwapStop - Autonomous Battery Replacement System

From left-to-right: Will Clark, Will Thibault, Geoff Spielman, and Tom Meredith are Mechatronic Engineering students at the University of Waterloo. SwapStop (download the team poster) is a fourth-year design project, which was an eight-month long cumulative task, designed for the Mechatroncis Engineering Fourth Year Design Project Symposium. The idea for this project came from the team member's love of all things robotic and autonomous. Swapstop seeks to help make coordinated swarms of multi-rotor drones practical for extended use. Unfortunately, the design symposium was cancelled due to COVID-19, so the team never had the chance to show their prototype to the public. Watch their youtube video above to see their innovative design, we think it's great! Read more...

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Autonomous Robot: Goose

Goose is a mobile autonomous robot designed by Paul Bupe, Jr. Built over 6 months in his spare time for a robotics competition. "This was a fully custom and challenging build that tested my competence in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, control systems, and computer science."

Mike Bemiss, Challengeyourself.blog

Chemist, engineer, tinkerer, and gamer; Mike Bemiss, is building a small robot arm from scratch and controlling it with a Raspberry Pi. His vlog is really interesting and worth a look.
Go to challengeyourself.blog

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Autonomous Robot: Goose

Goose is a mobile autonomous robot designed by Paul Bupe, Jr. Built over 6 months in his spare time for a robotics competition. "This was a fully custom and challenging build that tested my competence in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, control systems, and computer science."

"SDP/SI was gracious enough to provide me with the timing belts and pulleys I used in my custom drivebase (shown in the image above) so thanks to them! I also would not have been able to build this robot without the amazing engineering/manufacturing facilities at Georgia Southern University that have state of the art equipment (such as the waterjet and laser cutter I used) available to students."

Read more about Paul and his design...

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Solon Science Olympiad

On Behalf of Solon High School Science Olympiad, we would like to thank you for your generous donation towards our 25th annual invitational tournament this past February. This year, we hosted 72 teams from six states. With your sponsorship, our team was able to raise over $10,000 to provide students of all financial backgrounds the opportunity to explore their interests in STEM and successfully compete in Science Olympiad.

We are also pleased to inform you that our team placed second in the nation last month at the 2019 Science Olympiad National Tournament at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. We qualified for the national tournament for the eighth time in the past ten years after placing first at the 2019 Ohio State Tournament in April. Your support made it possible for our students to afford their travel to both competitions. Additionally, your donations were used to purchase critical materials for our competition devices and provide our students with academic experiences in their areas of interest.

Thank you once again for your donation to our team. We hope you will consider returning as a sponsor for our 26th annual invitational tournament next year. Our team, school, and community greatly appreciate your continued support.

Cherese Fiorina (Head Coach, Solon High School Science Olympiad)
Nick Maurer (Assistant Coach, Solon High School Science Olympiad)

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Pictured Above: Joe McDonnell and his daughter about to wrap up the team's robot in a
plastic bag that can only be opened at the competition.

Voorheesville Praetorians Robotic Team 5964

The Voorheesville Praetorians robotic team 5964. Designatronics helped us by donating some parts to our team last year. We are getting ready to compete at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. – Joe McDonnell

RENSSELAER NEWS
TROY, N.Y. — Hundreds of high school students will find themselves immersed in a challenging space-themed simulation as they compete for a slot in the FIRST World Championship and more than $80 million in scholarship funding. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will once again host the three-day New York Tech Valley FIRST Robotics Competition starting on March 7, 2019.
Continue Reading...

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The ITec Robotics team, comprised of students from Iowa State University, recently took first place in the overall robotics competition at the ATMAE Annual Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. Photo courtesy ATMAE.

Industrial Technology (ITec) Club Robotics Team

Taken From: The Iowa State University 2048 ATMAE Robotics Competition, Technical Report.

The Industrial Technology (ITec) club’s robotics team placed first in the Robotics Competition overall while also receiving the Stephen Harris Cup. This was the first time that the ITec club Robotics team took first in this competition and only the second time in the history of the competition that an Iowa State team had brought home the competition title. The team is multidisciplinary and comprised of the following students: Ben Gibson, ITec; Nathaniel Hall, ABE; Cody Kapka, ABE; and Nathaniel Stewart, ITec. The team also received the Robotics Competition Peoples’ Choice Award.

SODA (Semi-automated Object Detection and Avoidance). SODA was the Iowa State University Industrial Technology Club’s entry for the 2018 ATMAE annual Robotics competition. The development of SODA utilized a wide variety of skills and tools. Nearly every part of the robot was modeled in CAD prior to construction, and a range of fabrication methods were used. We utilized CNC vertical mills, FDM 3D printers, a water-jet cutter, and a sheet metal brake in addition to drilling and tapping. Electronic fabrication work included soldering, prototype board construction, and terminal crimping. Software work included Arduino programming, firmware flashing, serial communication, Windows and Linux environments, and Robot Operating System development.


ITec SODA Robot Right Motor Assembly

The motors are mounted in custom machined aluminum fixtures that hold not only the motors, but the rotary encoders. The motor fixtures are more complex than necessary, but were designed this way so that they would qualify as a final project for a manufacturing class. The wheel axle is mounted in a separate machined block. The axles, bearings, belts, and pulleys were donated by Stock Drive Products – Sterling Instrument.