CSU Research Competition 2025 Education trophy

Final Trophy Award for the CSU Student Research Competition

These are trophies awarded to the undergraduate and graduate winners in the education category at the 39th annual CSU Student Research Competition. The trophies were created by the Enginerds team of Engineering 205: Introduction to Design in collaboration with the Cal Poly Humboldt Makerspace in the Fall 2024 semester. These trophies were commissioned to provide a unique award for the winners of the competition, making their talents stand out while showcasing outside-of-the-box designs and challenging the design of traditional trophies.

Background

The project consists of designing and building trophies for the graduate and undergraduate winners in the Education category of the 39th annual California State University (CSU) Student Research Competition. The CSU Student Research Competition is held each year in the spring semester to award and recognize graduate and undergraduate students for creative scholarship and research. The competition consists of students from all 23 CSU campuses and includes ten disciplinary categories. The 2024 39th CSU Student Research Competition will be hosted by California Polytechnic State University, Humboldt. The Enginerds were assigned the Education category and are working with Sam Caudill.

Problem statement

The objective of the Enginerds’ design project is to design and build unique trophies specific to the first-place graduate and undergraduate students in the education category of the CSU Student Research Competition. The trophies are designed with the intent to push beyond the societal constructs of standard trophy award designs.

Prototyping

The first prototype was designed based on the “Light in the Dark” drawing concept created by Miller Smith. It was created using a cardboard base and cardboard book. Layers of paper were laid on top of the cardboard book to mimic the look of paper pages. A rectangle was cut out on the right side of the book to house the gears. The gears were also made of cardboard and cut out by hand. They were fixed in place in the cutout using clear tape. A gold push pin was added to the middle of the gears to determine the placement of the cardboard gear crank. The brain was created using a plastic mask casing and placed on the cardboard stem. The first prototype gave us a better idea of the future dimensions needed for the base, book, brain, and gears. It also allowed us to decide that the brain’s placement needed to be changed as well as the crank’s placement.

First Prototype
First trophy design drawing for Enginerds Prototype 1		First prototype build of Enginerds education trophy.

When creating the second prototype, we discovered that the dimensions of the base needed to be smaller to fit the dimensions of the hand carved wood book. The hand carved book was smaller than that of the final trophy mainly due to the lack of materials, but it proved to be a sturdy and easily carvable medium. Gears were designed in tinkerCAD and 3D printed using black PLA filament. The second prototype helped us determine that the teeth of the gears needed to be more precisely designed to ensure that they turned together properly. The brain was also designed in TinkerCAD and 3D printed using black PLA filament. We learned that the PLA filament was a strong enough material for both the brains and the gears. The process of printing both the gears and the brains allowed us to refine our print settings for the final trophy.

Second Prototype
Second prototype of the hand carved book.	First prototype of hand-carved book and 3D-printed gears. (Photo taken by Jack Prieto)
Gears being 3D printed for the second prototype.	The second prototype of the trophy base. (Photo taken by Jack Prieto)
Second prototype of the 3D-printed brain for the trophy.

Final product

The final trophy is an open book set on an angled base. The book page on the right has gears placed in a hollowed out window. Rotating a crank at the base of the gears lights up the brain in a pulsating pattern.

Final Trophy Design

This is the final trophy designed created by the Enginerds for the 39th annual CSU Student Research Competition.

Base built and designed in AutoCAD by: Jack Prieto

Book carved by: Noelani Anderson

Brain, gears, and electronics programming by: Miller Smith

Assembled by: Noelani Anderson, Jack Prieto, and Miller Smith

Construction

The sections below include detailed descriptions of the construction of each component used to completed the trophies.

Trophy Bases:

The trophy bases were first designed in AutoCAD to ensure correct dimensions. A six foot 3/4 " thick red oak wood plank was used to build the bases. The bottom, side balls, and top of the base were all cut using a laser cutter. The AutoCAD file used to design the base was transferred into a pdf and uploaded on to the laser cutter to cut the wood. Prior to laser cutting the wood, the wood was cut into two sections, 21 inches long and 26 inches long, then planed to 3/8" thick. Once the wood was laser cut the bases were assembled using wood glue and held together using woodworking clamps while the glue tried. After the glue completely dried on both bases they were sanded down to create smooth and even edges. The bases were stained using an ebony wood stain after sanding was completed. Once the stain dried for five hours the bases were coated in a polyurethane sealant to protect the wood. After staining and sealing the bases decorative gilded edges were nailed on each corner of the bases.

Construction of Trophy Bases
AutoCAD design used for dimensions and laser cutting the trophy bases.	Cutting the wood into sections before the planing process for the trophy bases.
Planing the red oak to 3/8" thick planks.	Laser cutting the 3'8" thick red oak planks for the trophy bases.

Books:

We started with a 7.5 x 3/4 x 48 inch plank of poplar wood and cut off 5.5 inches of length. We kept the other dimensions of the plank as these accounted for later adjustments. The exact midpoint of the 7.5 inch side was measured and marked to later become the seam of the book. Another mark was made along the width of the book that is 50 degrees from the bottom corners; these will be cut along to appear as pages, with 3 millimeters left at the bottom to act as the cover of the book. A router with a bit that was an inch wide and 90 degrees from the top was used to cut along both the middle and the sides. A saw was taken to make the middle seam slightly deeper, and then a straight chisel was used to smooth out the sharp turns. The same chisel was used to increase the degree of the page edges and slightly taper down away from the middle. This was sanded down smooth. On the right side, a 11 cm by 5 cm window was drawn on to later become the window for gears. The corners of this window were made using a drill press that went all the way through the book. These corners were connected using a scroll saw, creating a hole through the book. These edges were straightened and refined with a chisel. The plate that sat on the back of the book needed a place to sit in so it would be flush with the entire back. This was done entirely by hand with a chisel and then glued down and gaps filled with wood filler. The hollow was sanded to satisfaction and then holes were made with the drill press in places where we wanted gears to lay. The gears are held down by screws and lay on top of washers so when the crank in the corner is turned, they all turn together. The left side of the book is where the first place plaque is etched using a laser engraver. It is an original design by the team with inspiration from old story books, and traditional trophy plaques. The whole book is stained with golden oak stain and coated with clear polyurethane finish.

Construction of Trophy Books
Laser engraving award text on the books.	Woodwork carving process for book construction.
Text laser engraved into the books.

Gears and Hand Crank:

The gears used in the book are 3D printed from green Prusa 3D PLA filament using a Prusa MK3S 3D printer at 15% infill with gyroid infill. Two sizes of spur gear were created by using the website evolventdesign.com to create the outlines of the gears, which were then imported into TinkerCAD and extruded to a depth of six millimeters. All of the gears have an internal diameter of 6.05mm, the larger have a diameter of 27mm, and the smaller have a diameter of 17.8mm. Also printed with the gears are washers and sleeves for the 4.6mm diameter screws that hold the gears in place. The crank is designed using one of the 17.8mm gears extruded upwards to 16mm.

Construction of Gears and Hand Crank
3D model of gears and hand cranks in TinkerCAD.		Gears and hand crank screwed into the final trophies.

3D Printed Illuminated Brain:

The Brain is printed in two halves from clear PLA filament using a Prusa MK3S 3D printer at 10% infill with star-pattern infill. The brain model by cults3d user BEEROCLOCK is used under the personal use license of cults3d.com, and modified in TinkerCAD to hollow the interior and add the 19.05mm diameter attachment plug. After printing, three pairs of warm white 300mm flexible filament LEDs are glued around the rear, middle, and front interior of the brain before it is closed, and their anodes and cathodes placed through the hole in the brain’s attachment plug.

Construction of Brains
3D model in TinkerCAD used to 3D printed brains for the trophies.

Electronics:

The electronics of each education trophy consist of an Arduino Uno REV3, three pulse width modulation integrated circuits, a 5.5mm jack socket, a 10k ohm potentiometer modified to rotate a continuous 360 degrees, three 30 ohm 2 watt resistors, and four 25k ohm resistors,  and the six 300mm flexible filament LEDs in the brain. The components are connected according to the circuit diagram shown in the included image titled "Circuit Diagram". Two flexible filament LEDs are connected in series for the rear, middle, and front of the brain, as single LEDs. The Arduino is coded to read the voltage of the potentiometer and vary the brightness of each LED filament in a pulsing pattern according to where the potentiometer is in its rotation. An image of the code used in the operation of the education trophies is shown in the image titled "Ardunio Code".

Construction of Electronics
Ardunio Code	Electronic wiring setup for brain LEDs in trophies.

Operation

Operation of the trophy is simple and user friendly. Each step of operation is included below, along with detailed instructions.

1

Plug the power cord into an outlet.

Plug the included power cord into a 120V outlet. ONLY use a 9V power cord to power this device.

2

Plug the power cord into the trophy

Plug the power cord into the port located on the lower backside of the trophy.

3

Turn the crank to pulse the lights

Turn the green crank that is attached to the gears. The crank is located on the right-hand side of the book. Increasing the crank's speed of rotation increases the speed of the light's pulsating pattern.

4

Unplug the power cord from the trophy to turn it off.

Unplug the trophy when it is not in use.

Conclusion

Team

The Enginerds team includes:

• Noelani Anderson
• Miller Smith
• Jack Prieto
• Corey Lee

References