Hello! My name is Ashley Spicer and I’m a 2nd year Mechanical Engineering Major from High Point, North Carolina. I’ve always been fascinated by machines and how things work from an early age and have a strong love for math. I grew up admiring my dad and how he is capable of understanding and being able to work on just about anything. He can operate all of the machines at his plant, fix the AC units in our house if needed, and he's even capable of hand crafting new parts for our old cars and fixing them himself. I think it’s amazing and I want to be just as capable and mechanical gifted as he is when I'm older. This is why I chose to study mechanical engineering. I am very interested in how things work and want to be involved with creatiopn process of products along with improving current products. I have had alot of fun in my classes so far in learning about the math behind structures and using AutoCAD for the first time since coming to UNC Charlotte. I have found so much love in my thermodynamics, physics, and my statics courses so far and am excited to see what the other classes have in store for me!
Three designs created within the past 150 years that have made the greatest impact on mankind are cars, air conditioning, and computers. Cars are a necessity in today’s society, without transportation I would be walking an hour jsut to get to the grocery store and that would be awful! Air conditioning is big on the list because I can only bear so much heat myself until I am miserable- I can't imagine how people before AC felt by not having the luxury of good AC.The invention. Last on my list is computers! To be honest, I spend my entire day with my eyes glued to either my phone or computer screen- and I know just about everyone else in today’s society does the same. Being able to communicate with whoever you want at a simple click of button is something I feel we really take advantage of today. The world would be so much more inefficient without technology.
A simple product used in my house are command strips. Command strips are able to hold various objects that possess a flat side to any wall. Command strips are used by using two separate strips that both have a amazingly strong grip on one side that can stick to just about anything, and the other side possess hook and loop velcro so that you may connect the two strips together- successfully attatching an object to a wall. Command strips were created by Achim franch, Andreas Junghans, and Andreas Wieck. They are manufactured with adhesive sheet strip that is pressure-sensitively adhering. I personally use command strips to hang heavy items such as mirrors and door hooks, but they can be used to hang things as light as a poster too. The product would be super different if it were made out of another material because there are not many alternatives to the strong adhesive materials that are easy to detach later. I think that instead of the adhesive strip tape that is removable command strips could be made with some form of super glue- the downfall would be only getting a one time use out of it and probably ruining the surface that it was attatched to.
Other alternatives to using command strips are push pins, poster putty, and suction cup grips. Push pins and poster putty are limited to lighter objects like posters or tapestries. Heavy objects like a shelf wouldn't even be able to stay on the wall if you were able to hang it up with them in the first place. Suction cup grips have a much stronger capability out of alternative methods but are limited to slick surfaces like a shower wall.
For my 2156 project I would like to design a small organizer for my desk that is capable of holding my computer wires in an organized manner, able to hold basic office supplies like pencils/rules/stapers/erasers, and be able to easily hold my phone upright while also having my phone on the charger so that my charging wire has a place to go and my phone does not have to be propped sideways- this is currently my biggest peeve on my desk right now!
This assignment took me around five hours to complete.