NDVL Resources & Videos

The GTL has sponsored a number of students who participated in the TEK8 program where they developed design challenges appropriate to middle school age students. Below are a list of the projects with links to all the design challenge resources (instructor and student handouts and videos):

• Airfoil Analysis (2021): UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), or drones, have become increasingly popular over the past several years. They have become more accessible to the average person where they can be used for recreational uses such as photography while companies are using drones for agriculture, deliveries, the military, and all sorts of other options! However, with increased UAVs in the sky increases the air traffic meaning the airplanes that have dominated the skies for decades will have a new obstacle to avoid. With this new threat in the sky, research is needed to be done to make sure the planes we fly today stay safe in the air and can withstand an impact from a UAV if necessary.
• Airborne Collision Repair (2020): Airplanes have dominated the skies for the past few decades, with all hazards such as hail and birds studied extensively to ensure that airplanes can safely fly. However, in the last 5 years, a new hazard has entered the sky: the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), or as you might know it, the drone. With UAV’s being a possible threat to planes, many researchers are studying how the damage affects planes when the most vulnerable part of the plane, the turbine, is hit by one.
• Drone Collision Repair (2022): Unmanned aircraft vehicles, or drones, have become quite popular in recent years, but sharing the sky with airplanes creates a safety risk. More specifically, drones can cause significant damage to a jet engine if they collide or are ingested. Research regarding structural analysis of jet engines and their components, like blades, the nosecone and containment ring, after drone ingestion is important in order to determine how detrimental these events may be. In this design challenge, you will simulate the drone ingestion research process by analyzing damage done to a nosecone and building a reinforced version of your own!
• Floatation Station (2020): In today’s world, we are always looking for new sources of energy, especially ones that do not use fossil fuels. One source of this “green” energy is the power of ocean waves. At Ohio State, we are designing a device that can harness the power of these waves. Your job will be to design a buoy to hold the device.
• Turbine Design (2022): Jet engines are a special type of engine called a gas turbine. A gas turbine is made up of several components, namely the fan, which sucks in air from the environment, the compressor, which pressurizes the air, the combustor, which ignites the air using jet fuel, and the turbine, which uses some of the fuel to power the fan. All this air and fuel flowing through the engine creates thrust, which allows the airplane to fly. In each section of the engine, the blades are very close to the casing. This is to make sure a minimal amount of air escapes, which would waste a lot of energy. Sometimes, the blades can elongate slightly, and the blades can rub against their casing. 
• Vibration Sensors (2022):  Detecting vibrations and changes in the world around us is one of the most important things to engineers and scientists. Whether it is detecting an earthquake, how many people enter a room, or creating energy from waves, there are many ways that vibrational energy can be used. One of the many ways that vibrational energy can be used is with vibrational sensors. A vibrational sensor is a sensor that goes off when vibrations occur. Using this data, key values that are important for the vibration can be calculated.