Team Members & Role:
- Pranit Bharadia – Team Lead
- Nikolas Eliopoulos – Design Lead
- Elijah Feldman – Analysis Lead
- Keegan Dooley – Fabrication Lead
- Tiantian Ni – Evaluation Lead
Sponsored by: Compliant Robots and Structures Lab, UMass Amherst
Abstract:
In this capstone project, conducted as part of the undergraduate mechanical engineering program at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, team 1503 aimed to develop a more accessible and cost-effective method for testing research components in a simulated deep-sea environment at depths of 100 meters below sea level. Sponsored by Professor Gina Olson and supported by the engineering department and the Compliant Robots and Structures Lab, the project focused on designing and manufacturing a pressure holding vessel to meet specifications related to cost and performance as outlined by the project sponsor. The team effectively created a reduced-size prototype to validate the full-sized design’s feasibility in meeting the project’s objectives, demonstrating not only the potential to replace the lab’s existing testing method but also establishing that the full-scale design could be fabricated using the available tools and resources at the UMass-Amherst campus. In conclusion, the team successfully developed and tested a “Deep Sea Chamber” design that will allow the sponsor to potentially conduct testing on campus in lieu of using an outside vendor.
