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Charles Smith

Portfolio: Academic Work
Engineering + Chocolateering

 

Undergraduate: Wifi 1993

The Infopad was a computer without a brain, or a cord. By ditching the CPU and hard drive, the Infopad Research Group made room for a high speed radio. The Infopad captured pen strokes and immediately transmitted it to a remote workstation. The workstation then interpreted the strokes and transmitted back the appropriate updated display. The college of engineering liked the project so much, it’s the 1990 entry on the history web page.

Over the course of the project, I was responsible for:

  • Ergonomics
  • 2D layout sketches
  • 3D modeling
  • Collaborating with electrical engineers to resolve ME/EE interface issues
  • Machined prototypes
  • Injection mold & core design
  • Tooling & core fabrication
One half of one of the two mold sets.
The other half of the mold and the first shot part.
Top and bottom components to the housing.
   
 

Masters: Automated CNC 1996

My master's thesis was "CyberCut: A World Wide Web Based Design to Fabrication Tool." Here is the initial article. It was basically a MacPaint like interface written in java (original release of the JDK !). Each feature draw was assigned a depth. The final drawing can be sent via the internet to a remote CNC mill planner, which would in turn download the paths to a milling machine.

[video of cutting pending]

   
 

Doctoral

I couldn't seem to get enough of Berkeley, so I proceeded to get a Ph.D. in May 1999 with an emphasis on Internet-based manufacturing process selection, with minors in computer graphics and control theory.

The Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) is an online tool I wrote familiarize people with the capabilities of various manufacturing processes, and provide experienced designers the chance to learn about new technologies. To use the MAS and browse its supporting tutorials and reference material, visit the MAS home page. You can also download my thesis as a PDF (~1.2meg).

The MAS is an educational software product, funded by the National Science Foundation as part of the CyberCut project. Some of the material compiled for the MAS is going to be included on a DFM CD-ROM being developed by NASA! During the course of the project, I completed the following tasks:

  • Researched pre-existing software and tools for process and/or material selection
  • Database construction
  • Java programming
  • Analysis of failure modes of user interface for complex task
  • Formalized Testing and revision
  • Extensive Documentation
Opening screen.
Sample illustration from process guides.