A team of four engineering
students from East Chapel Hill High School have constructed an Augmented
Reality Sandbox (ARS) to be used by East science teachers to provide a
dynamic interactive 3D color topographic modeling environment. The
team's project idea was first suggested by East Chapel Hill science
teacher and team's project "client", Dr. Stephen Snyder. This idea was
inspired by a similar machine constructed at East Carolina University by
colleagues of Dr. Snyder. The team of first-year engineering students,
consisting of seniors James Jennings and Victor Ding along with sophomores Sam
Castleberry and Ryan Pecaut, constructed their functioning version of
the ARS on a slim budget of less than $300. These students creatively
financed their project through a combination of teacher directed PTA
funds, donations, and CTE instructional funding. They received guidance
and encouragement from their client, Dr. Snyder, East engineering
instructors, Patrick Pudlo and Bill Vincent, and local and district
level support staff including Bill Groves, Anita Benton and Brian Wood.
This team of four engineering
students were part of a total of 134 taking the Introduction to
Engineering Design (IED) course at East Chapel Hill High School. For
the course final project, these students self-assembled into more than
60 teams and attempted almost 30 authentic projects. Teams bid on
authentic projects submitted by members of the East community including
East teachers and the athletic booster club. The person submitting the
idea for an engineered solution served as the "client" for the students
who operated as engineering firms. Through the project, the engineering
teams were responsible for maintaining communication with their
clients, managing overall project time lines and budgets, creating
comprehensive design briefs, constructing 3D CAD models and creating
physical models of their designs before presenting their final products
to their clients. Many of these students will continue their study of
engineering next year at East in the second level engineering course,
Principles of Engineering (POE). Learn more about engineering at East
by visiting Back to CHCCS website
