CSU Research Competition 2025 Physical and Mathematical Sciences trophy

ENGR 205 Physical Sciences and Mathematics Trophy created by team MIAD FALL 2024. This project is for Cal Poly Humboldt for the Engineering class 205. It is to create trophies for the CSU research Competition. This is for the users of the trophies to have a larger understanding of their trophies and maintenance.

In 1985 the California State University Research Competition was created to bring forth ideas from numerous categories across the state every year. April 2025 marks the 39th year the competition takes place with the location being Cal Poly Humboldt. To celebrate the first ever hosting of the research competition Cal Poly Humboldt became dedicated to creating unique trophies for each category with the involvement of its students from the engineering department.

The objective of this project is to design and create two functioning egg of Columbus based trophies for the Physical and Mathematical Sciences category, they are to be presented to the 39th annual CSU research competition winners in this category.

-Below resides a list of our criteria weighed in order from most important to least important

• Prototyping Gallery
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  corner view from above showcases rotating surface and objects as well as acrylic shield.
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  Trophy Side view showcases slide-rule.
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  Trophy front view, showcases plaque, switches and overall aesthetics.
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  Comparison of stains and finishes on scrap redwood.
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  Miaka LaRose Egg of Columbus CAD model
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  Functionality prototype of spinning magnetic fields.

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  front view of both trophies
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  alternate front view of both trophies
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  front view of trophy with aluminum egg in dish
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  alternate object, gold flip over top
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  Rear view of both boxes demonstrating the sliding scales on our slide rules
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  side view of our boxes, the right shows the screws that can be removed to replace batteries the left shows the non removeable box cap.

Parts of the construction process consisted of laser cutting to find the perfect dimensions for our trophy housing. Instead of using a copper coil design to create magnetic field we decided that we will be using a magnet and motor for similar results and easier design. We also conducted a test on wood conditioners for the best cosmetic appearance. For the housing of the trophy the type of wood we picked to use was redwood to represent Humboldt County and because of its distinct color.

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  Laser cutting machine cutting box sides for our box
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  Red wood and prototype boxes side by side.

A good way to display a process is by making a video explaining your process. See Template:Video for information on how to add and annotate videos.

Egg of Columbus

Spinning Columbus Egg Prototype

Keywords: Columbus Egg, Spinning, ENGR 205

Authors: Ibrahim Alyassiry, Derek Gomez, Aiden Higgins, Miaka LaRose

Date: 2024-01-12

Location: California

Language: English (english)

License: CC-BY-SA 4.0

Description of costs, donations, the fact that this is just proposed, etc. For a simple cost table, see Help:Table examples#Cost Table and Template:Bill of materials for two nice formats.

The operation of this trophy is designed to be intuitive and affirming for the user. the Trophy contains a push-button switch and a rotary dial switch and a choice of two objects to spin, an aluminum egg and a 'flip-over' spinning top.

1

Locate and Press Button

Locate the Main On/Off push-button on the front of the trophy and depress it with one finger until it clicks into the ON position.

2

Locate and Adjust the Rotary Dial

Locate the rotary dial on the trophy after it has been turned on and slowly increase or decrease the speed until an ideal frequency has been achieved causing the egg to increase velocity steadily, once the egg or spinning top is moving the dial can again be increased to achieve rotation on the vertical axis of either object. The Dial should be increased until the object is rotating at the steadiest rate with the least amount of horizontal movement.

Must remove and insert batteries within the machine. Batteries last around 5-10 hours in high drain situations. Overall the user should replace them once a month.

The user should also clean the device buy dusting once a week. Thanks to the acrylic shield it gets dusty less often then other trophies.

This is when to maintain what. Please keep the format the same as it populates the kiosk in CCAT.

• No Work necessary

Weekly

• Dust once a week

Monthly

• Replace batteries

Describe the testing results.

The test Columbus egg was able to stand up on a plate on its own when held at the right distance from the spinning magnetic plate.

Neodymium magnets were much more effective for producing Eddie currents compared to ceramic magnets.

When testing different motors we learned that the RPM had to be significantly higher to create Eddie currents than the motor we used for our initial prototypes.

The laser cutter could only cut wood up to 3/8ths of an inch thick before excessive passes were needed to cut through it, our final conclusion for cutting speed was 2.6% speed with 100% power and 4 passes to cleanly cut the redwood boards.

Discuss the testing results.

When holding a plate with a resting plastic egg with magnets inside you are able to lift an egg laying sideways at rest into an upright position. If the egg place is held too far the rotating magnetic disk will not receive enough force to lift. Likewise if the egg plate is held too closely to the rotating magnetic disk it will cause the egg to fly off the plate.

Neodymium magnets were attached to a round fixture plate and spun with a brushless motor at the full speed at low voltage (1.5V) , roughly 500 rpm and the previously mentioned plate was hovered above the fixture plate. The same procedure was done with neodymium magnets. Ceramic magnets had little to no effect on the egg however the neodymium magnets allowed the washer to temporarily enter into a eddie current induced rotation.

Once we were able to test rotation with a smaller higher rpm motor we saw a significantly stronger reaction to the magnets eddie current at a higher speed.

The laser cutter we used to cut out our boxes is a CO2 laser and therefore ideally to be used for thin materials so when approaching a material like our thick redwood board we chose to test first with 3/8ths of an inch plywood to estimate settings and then dial them in as we developed prototypes.

Discuss lessons were learned during this project and what you would do different next time.

During the research and experimenting of the Columbus egg, as a team we discovered that applying the concept sounds more difficult than it was. We learned that the speed of the spinning magnetic plate was not fast enough as well as the magnets need to be more strong. We also learned being able to adjust the speed allowed for a better demonstration of the eddie currents and their effects. Additionally we learned to set goals that were achievable based on our situation and capabilities and we learned to work well together as a team.

If we were to revisit this project we ideally would spend less time brainstorming and spend more time prototyping and building the final product. The more time there is to revisit issues or components the better the final project will be. The trophies were build according to plan the entire way through but some components had less reiterations and could be improved upon.

Discuss any next steps for the project as it goes on into the future.

The next step is delivering the trophies to the Mathematical and Physical Science CSU student research competitions winners in 2025, there is no further required research or testing needed.

• Ibrahim Alyassiry
• Derek Gomez
• Aiden Higgins
• Miaka LaRose