Perfecting A Neighborhood

The third unit of Urban Planning, Flow, is about what a city needs to function and what makes a city ideal. We learned about how different cities evolved, and what makes “good” or “bad” urban planning. This action project is asking us to select a block that needs improvement, analyze the location, and then make improvements and build a 3D model of it. I’m most proud of how much I learned in this unit because it was a lot of information and the test was difficult, but I still did well on it.

The area I selected is around Division & Halsted. The neighborhood in general is really nice but the block I chose is basically just a bunch of empty lots with electric stuff. It's strengths are that is has a lot of room to work with and you wouldn’t have to tear down a bunch of stuff. It's main weakness is that it’s next to a river which might smell,driving people away, and it could be dangerous. The space would be better if it had nice park, like for kids with swings and stuff, as well as bike paths.

The area I chose is a quadrilateral shape, specifically a trapezoid. The southern side is 525.82 ft, the eastern side is 984.97 ft, the northern side is 753.25 ft, and the western side is 1350.87 ft. To find the area I multiplied the height, 535 ft, by the two bases divided by two:
Area = (535 x [984.97 + 1350.87 /2] ) = 624,837.2 squared ft

AG Labeled Map (2015)

5 physical alterations/redesigned sections that I improved in this space are:

1. Bike paths - because it is safer and more convenient for bikers to have their own space 
2. Turn the open green space into a park - because it gives the space a purpose and puts it to good use, also it is good for the community 
3. Add a fence alongside the river - for safety 
4. Add a library, soccer field, basketball court, and tennis court where parking lots are - because again it gives the space a purpose and it is good for the community 
5. Adding solar panels to all the buildings in the area - because it is good for the environment and our planet

AG Sketch (2015)

The Conrad Sulzer Regional Library & Wells Park inspired my design because the area has a library right next to a baseball field. They also have tennis courts and a playground like I do. I chose this space as my inspiration because I went there when I was younger and it always gave me a strong sense of community, and I think that's something every neighborhood should have. Another area that inspired me is the area I live in in Poland, Gdynia, because of the way their streets are. The driving cars are in the middle, and then there are parked cars, and then there are bikes and pedestrians on the side walk. This inspired me to do something very similar, but with separate space for bikers and pedestrians, because I believe that is safer and less confusing.

My area related to transportation because I added bike lanes and made the different parts of the street more distinct and safe. It relates to housing because I added houses in part of my area, and there are houses in the blocks next to my area. It relates to infrastructures because there are two bridges right next to my area. And it relates to services because there are many electric things; however, I am removing them. I think, if possible, they should be moved somewhere indoors because they are very unappealing to look at.

Two of the volumes of buildings I designed are:
(Library) Rectangular prism with a rectangular pyramid on top = (l*w*h) + (l*w*h/3) = (475.27' * 140.67' * 46.5') + (475.27' * 140.67' * 22.98' / 3) = 3,108,814.74' + 512,118.73' = 3,620,933.47' cubed
(House) Rectangular prism with a rectangular pyramid on top = (l*w*h) + (l*w*h/3) = (20.69' * 60.23' * 22.86') + (20.69' * 60.23' * 11.18' / 3) = 28,487.19' + 4,644.02' = 33,131.21' cubed

The most difficult problem I encountered was with using the sketchup app because it was very complicated and difficult to use, however, I overcame this when I got help from a former GCE student. Once he taught me how to use the app it became easy to use. This speed-bump taught me that it’s okay to ask others for help and it tends to be to your advantage when you do. If I were to redo this project I would probably chose a space that was a simpler shape, such as a rectangle, because my sides were all at angle which made the project much more difficult.

Circuit Circus

Our second Urban Planning unit is called Power, it is about powering cities and electricity. We learned about different parts of a circuit and how electricity works. Our action project is to design our own efficient electrical plan and to build a circuit with five resistors and two switches. I’m most proud of actually making the circuit work, because it was difficult and there were a lot of wires, but we finally made it work.

AG Circuit (2015)

AG Diagram (2015)

The LED light represents an LED lamp which saves about 16% of the energy that a regular lamp would use. The transformer represents a solar generator which creates 300 Joules per second. The speaker represents a hand-crank radio which saves 100% of the energy that a regular radio would use because you would crank it yourself, therefore it doesn't use any energy. The resistor represents an energy efficient washer which saves 50% of the energy that a regular washing machine would use. The second resistor represents an energy efficient dryer which saves 15% of the energy that a regular dryer would use.

MV Cover (2015)

Our circuit uses a total of 6 Volts
An example of Ohm’s Law would be if the speaker had a current of 3 amps, then the resistance is 2 Ohms because:
6V = 3A * x Ohms
x Ohms = 6V / 3A
x = 2 Ohms


There are two types of currents: AC which is an alternating current, and DC which is a direct current. Our circuit is DC because batteries are always DC. 


The circuit board had many options and we came up with our design by simply choosing the options we liked the most. We used the transformer because it distributes energy, the speaker because the sound was fun to mess around with, and the LED light because we wanted to be able to see something happen. Then we added the two resistors, which take up energy, at the end because we needed to have five total. The design changed a lot over time, especially towards the end where we tried to make it work with two different switches.

During the process of building our circuit we encountered a few problems, such as figuring out where to connect the wires in a way to make it all work. But we just remained persistent, kept trying different things, and followed the instructions. Doing that allows you to solve any problem however difficult it may be, so eventually we figured out the wiring and built our amazing circuit.

Work Cited

• Ballad, Tricia, and Demand Media. "How Much Do Energy Efficient Bulbs Save?" Home Guides. Web. 10 May 2015. 
• "Clothes Dryers." Consumer Energy Center -. Web. 10 May 2015.
• "Clothes Washers." Consumer Energy Center -. Web. 10 May 2015.  
• "Goal Zero Yeti 400 300-Watt Solar Powered Generator-23000 - The Home Depot." The Home Depot. Web. 10 May 2015. 
• "Watts to Joules Calculator." Watts to Joules (J) Conversion Calculator. Web. 10 May 2015.   

Bridge(t)

Urban Planning is the third and final class in the STEAM Global Design curriculum. The class, in a nutshell, is about how to create an ecosystem fit for a city. In the first unit we learned how an architectural structure can hold large amounts of weight by focusing on bridges. The main objective of this action project is to explore the various design options and resources to create a durable bridge. I’m most proud of the bridge (Bridget) that my partner and I built because everyone doubted us, but in the end our design did exactly what is was supposed to and more.

The bridge that inspired me and my partner was the Gazela Bridge. Our model resembles the Gazela Bridge because it is a flat and straight structure and looks like it has three layers just like our bridge.

Wikipedia contributors. "Gazela Bridge." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 7 Mar. 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

The Gazela Bridge is the most important bridge in Belgrade, Serbia, across the Sava river. It is a part of the city highway and passes through the wider city center, connecting Belgrade with Niš to the south, and Novi Sad to the north. The bridge was designed by a group of engineers led by Milan Đurić, and built by the Mostogradnja company.

Our bridge is very simple and to the point. It is your basic straight across, flat, beam bridge. At first glance it’s very deceiving, but our bridge divides the strength along its length, leaving no room for weak links where the bridge can collapse. 

Bridge Sketch (2015)

The scale in the image above only applies to the length, but 1 inch on the drawing equals 1.8 inches on the model. We only made the length to scale because we wanted to be able to show the layers, but the popsicle sticks are so thin they would just be drawn as lines, which isn’t very clear.

AG Labeled Picture (2015)

AG Compression and Tension (2015)

AG Body Diagram (2015)

Our final product ended up using only 49 popsicle sticks. Our bridge is 13.375 inches long and 625 inches tall. It is 180 degrees across (a straight angle).

AG Side View (2015)

AG Top View (2015)

We came up with our structure because we knew that with the length and amount of popsicle sticks given, this was the thickest possibility for the body of the bridge. We thought that the thicker it would be the more weight it would hold. After building our original design, we had an extra 5 sticks left, and we decided to use 4 of those 5 leftover sticks to make the joints sturdier.

The main problem we encountered were the joints, because if they were all to be in the same place they could easily snap. We fixed this by shifting the middle layer so it had joints in a different position on the bottom and top layer, and we also the used 4 extra sticks, which we cut in half, to strengthen the top and bottom layers’ joints.

Work Cited

• "Bridges - WD-STEM." Bridges - WD-STEM. Buncombe County Schools. Web. 21 Apr. 2015 from https://sites.google.com/a/bcsemail.org/wdstem/bridges. 
• "New York State Covered Bridges - Truss Diagrams." New York State Covered Bridges - Truss Diagrams. 30 Sept. 2005. Web. 20 Apr. 2015 from http://www.coveredbridgesite.com/ny/truss.html.
• Wikipedia contributors. "Gazela Bridge." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 7 Mar. 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gazela_Bridge.

The Clock for Everyone

For our final Light and Sound unit we learned about time. We found out about time works, how it is measured, how the world started, and much more. We then focused on methods of telling time and learned about pendulums, sundials, geographic coordinates, etc. For our action project we were challenged to design a unique clock. I’m proud of the type of clock I invented, because it is to help people with disabilities which I think is important.

On the FE our class went on, to the Chicago Light House, something one of the head people of the organization said, stuck with me. He said "Blind people can do anything, as long as you give them a chance." So this was my way of trying to give them a chance to do something new.

Work Cited

-Aftelier Natural Perfume Wheel." Essential Oil UniversityRSS. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.

-Goodrich, Ward. "The Modern Clock; a Study of Time Keeping Mechanism; Its Construction, Regulation, and Repair : Goodrich, Ward L : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive." Internet Archive. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.

- Falcon, A. (n.d.). 20 Alarm Clocks To Wake You Up Creatively. Retrieved March 16, 2015, from http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/creative-alarm-clocks/

Pin the Hole on the Camera

Our Light and Sound course is about, as stated, light and sound but also time, and how they all relate. It has to do with our perspective on the world and how it would be different if those three elements were different. Our first unit is Light where we discussed how light affects us and how we are able to see it. We learned about how we see light with our eyes, and how cameras make photos with a similar process. We also learned about lenses and the visible spectrum and many other things having to do with vision. I’m most proud of the science parts I learned in this class since it isn’t my strong suit.

For our action project we made pinhole cameras. A pinhole camera is pretty simple: you choose an object, such as a shoe box, that is completely black on the inside, and cut a hole in it. You then place a sanded down piece of tin with a tiny hole poked in it that acts as a lens. The light will shine through that lens when you uncover it, and when there is photo-sensitive paper inside, it will a picture will appear based on the light that comes through the lens.

AG Inside Pinhole Camera (2015)

AG Pinhole Camera (2015)

The math concept we used for this project was similar triangles.

x^2+y^2=z^2                             a^2+b^2=c^2                             

1 15/16^2+11 1/2^2 = 136^2     4 3/4^2+16 43/62^2 = 302.24^2

   z = 11.66                                   c =17.36                                     

The height of my pinhole is x which equals 1 15/16 inches

The distance from the lens to my paper is y which equals 11 ½ inches
The height of my subject is a which equals 4 ¾ inches
The distance from the back of my camera to my object is b+y which equals 28 6/31 inches
The distance from the lens to my object is b which equals 16 43/62 inches

The shutter speed that I tried the first time was 2 minutes and the second time was 4 minutes. Unfortunately the pictures didn’t show up because the pinhole wasn’t the right size, it was a little too small so the light didn’t come through enough. If I were to get a chance to redo the project I would make sure to fix that mistake.

JS Pinhole (2015)

This project shows the relationship between light and energy because when the light makes touches the paper it causes it to change color, which shows that is transferred its energy to it. I didn’t however think that the camera illustrated the idea of refraction because there wasn’t anything like water that would slow down the light, there was only air. Refraction involves light slowing down and bending so if that didn’t happen, refraction wasn’t shown.

As an addition we got to make photograms.This also involves using light sensitive paper, however you don’t use the camera and the pictures show up differently.

AG Photogram (2015)

Best Bike

This unit was about wheels, gears, and bikes. We learned how to calculate the circumference of a circle, how to calculate gear ratios, we learned about axles, we learned to graph circles, and we learned about the different parts of a bike. I’m proud of the graphing I did, because I haven’t graphed in a long time and I never learned to graph circles and which I learned quite quickly. The purpose of this assignment is to get us thinking about speed and user-friendliness. To do this, each group in class got a persona with specific needs, and we were asked to design a bike for them. With our new background knowledge that we got from professionals and basic bike users, we were able to design the perfect bike for each of our personas.

AG: Bike Sketch (2014)

From the research we did on existing bikes, one of the things I learned was that bikes with thicker tires will be able to withstand more damage (potholes, snow, rocks) than bikes with thinner tires. A bike with thinner tires can go faster on paved road whereas thicker tires will slow the rider down. Also that wider handlebars allow for more controlled steering because it gives you more leverage.

One quote that helped me with designing the new bike, was said by my friend RW: “Different handlebars, I would prefer bull-horn handlebars, so I could position myself differently while riding.” It helped me when designing because he gave me the idea to add bull-horn handle bars since our persona had the same issue.

The persona my partner and I got was Peter, who needs to ride 12 miles from Hyde Park to school. His legs get tired along with his arms, when they are in the same position for too long, not to mention his back hurts. He needs a secure bike because his last bike was stolen outside of school. He also needs a comfortable bike to make the 12 mile ride easier.

Our new bike that we made for Peter has many great features. It has a special seat, a space for a backpack, or other cargo, with a hook and something to buckle it down, a handlebar with different positions to hold, locks and GPS locators on the separate parts, and an electric engine.

• The shape of the bike allows the user to sit down and comfortably pedal. 
• The handlebar also rotates so there are very many holding options. 
• The GPS chips in the parts of the bike ensure that if the parts were somehow stolen, which is already unlikely due to the locks on the separate parts, that you could find them. 

The bike solves our user’s problems by providing him with comfort. His back problems are solved with the new seat, his arm tiredness get solved by being able to switch his arm position, and his leg tiredness is solved with the addition of an engine. The bike also resolves any security issues. The locks on the bike parts make the parts safe from being stolen, and if they are somehow stolen the GPS chips in them make sure they can be found again.

AG: Bike Labeled (2014)

The user should trust in our design because it is the safest, most comfortable option. Without our additions, bikes are more difficult to use and maintain. This bike solves so many problems that not only our user has, but many other people have as well, so instead of grinning and bearing it, now there’s a solution.

Peter lives 12 miles from school. With our bike it will take him about 36 minutes to get there with an average speed of 20 mph. His new wheel’s diameter is 26 inches and its circumference is 26 pi which is about 81.68 inches. The wheel will rotate 9,308.5 times on his journey. The scale we used for our model was 13 inches, so 1 inch on the model is 13 inches in real life. For example, the wheels on our model have a diameter of 2 inches and the actual wheel's diameter is 26 inches.

We took into consideration all of Peter’s different issues as well as the distance he must ride each day. Some of the obstacles were that he has to put his backpack somewhere while riding, he can’t wear it because of his back problems and because of the seat design. We solved this by adding a space for it behind his seat; he could strap the shoulder straps onto the seat, set it on the rack, hook it to the hook, and strap and buckle it in. Another problem was that his legs get tired, but it’s a bike so he still has to pedal. Our solution to this was adding the engine. This makes riding much easier and more effortless. Much less force is required, as the engine does most of the work for him so his legs don’t have to. The bike runs on a cordless lithium battery that is good for over a thousand charges. The battery will last up to 25 hours before needing to be recharged.

AG: Bike Model II (2014)

AG: Bike Model (2014)

AG: Bike With Terrain (2014)

A New Beginning

    In our first unit of Design and Engineering we researched and designed new tools. The tool my partner and I had was a tiller. We found our tool while on a field experience at Home Depot, where we also learned what it is used for. A tiller is a tool designed to loosen soil and provide it with more air. When designing a better version of the tool, we had to take into consideration how to make it usable by different types of people, such as elders or people with difficulty preforming certain tasks. Doing this shows empathy, which is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. I'm proud that I was able to design such a tool to help others that aren't always taken into consideration.

AG & TC New Tiller (2014)

    The purpose of this assignment is to see how we would recreate a tool that gives people problems nowadays. Our users are most specifically elders but can be used by people of all ages, and what makes them unique is that they would be able to use this tool no matter what height or size they are.

    As mentioned earlier our class went to Home Depot to learn about different tools. Experts there were very helpful. We also conducted our own interviews, mine being with my mother who has gardened for years. With all this new information I learned a lot. Some of the most important things I learned were that: certain tools are flimsy and won’t work properly, for example they will loosen and fall off the handle; the handle type is important, because certain materials will hurt your hands; and the weight is important, because if it's too heavy you might not be able to use it as well as you should be able to, and it will be more difficult to use. One of the quotes from my interview that really stuck with me was: “The shovel has a hard handle and it’s heavy which makes it difficult to use.”

   Aside from going to Hope Depot and conducting our interviews, we each had to do more research on our specific tool. Three important things I learned from this research were:
1) There are also electric versions of our tool.
2) There are also smaller hand versions of our tool.
3) The tools vary a lot in sizes and prices.

    Our new tool is a longer, sharper, and spikier hand tiller. With the new adjustable length of the hand tiller it won't cause back problems for taller people or shorter people. There would be a button or switch on the side to adjust it to the size that best fits you. The parts to this new hand tiller are: the wheel as a new handle, the adjustable length for different height varieties, and spikier tines (the outer ones being slanted). The new handle as a wheel helps get a better grip and keeps your hand secure while turning the handle. A wheel is easier to use than just a straight bar, because a circle is easier to turn; if the handle were just a straight bar you would have to stretch out your arms to grab the further side while twisting. The two inner tines are sharper in order to enter the soil more easily, and keep the tiller more in place. The outer tines are slanted with horizontal spikes and the bottom, which help the tiller cut through the soil. Other tillers don't have the horizontal spike added to the tines, which would make it more difficult to cut through the soil because the tines are vertical but the tiller is turning horizontally. Our improved tines solve that problem. However, since there are now spikes going to the side, the tiller can only be turned one way, which will be explained on the label. Furthermore, our tool is made completely out of stainless steel, aside from the foam covering the handle, which makes it easy to wash and doesn't result in rust.

AG & TC Vectors (2014)

    Three ways our tool is better than the competition are:
1) Our handle will be circular so it will be easier to turn.
2) There will be spiked ends on the side of the pokers at the bottom of the tiller, to make it cut through the soil more easily.
3) The middle part will extend so you can choose the length so it's customized to each person’s height.

    Our tool uses the wedge concept because to get deeper in the soil/dirt we had to add a slant into the outer spikes, which lets our tool cut through more dirt and creates more air pockets for the garden. Wedges focus all their weight into one point, and since you will turn the tool the way the spikes go, the weight of the tool will all go to the points of the spikes which will require you to use less force.

    Two things we took into consideration when redesigning our tool were:
1) What would make it easier for old people, or just everyone in general, to turn the tiller, so we turned the handle into a circle.
2) People’s height differences, so we made the tiller extendable (you can make it longer and shorter).

    The steps to use our tool are shown in the following pictures:

AG & TC Tiller Steps 1-4 (2014)

AG & TC Tiller Steps 5-6 (2014)