Waterloo Engineering’s Hidden Gems

First year is hard.

As 1A Mechatronics students, we found ourselves inundated with school work, theory, and the promise that by 3A, we’d be able to build something “cool.”  Although hands-on engineering excited us in high school, as first year students, we found it hard to further those skills in Waterloo. Granted, our knowledge of the available resources was limited, but this appears to be a common problem. Now having learned the ropes, we’d like to shed light on Waterloo Engineering’s hidden gems, and how they helped us practice some real engineering in making an Arduino-based self-balancing robot.

The MESS

The first thing we needed was a proof of concept prototype. But after paying tuition fees, our meek financial situations couldn’t afford paying full price for wheels, motors, sheet metal, a motor controller, an accelerometer, and a gyroscope.

That’s when we found the MESS. The Mechatronics Equipment Surplus System is a free service based in E3 (room 3166) available to all MME students. It provides a wide selection of borrowable electrical and mechanical components, and is staffed with people who have years of industry experience. Within minutes, we found the perfect electrical components to prototype our design despite having only a vague idea of what we wanted. The folks at the MESS then directed us to the E3 machine shop where we picked up the sheet metal we needed for a subsidized price.

For those not in MME, there’s rumours that similar surplus systems may be started within other departments in the coming terms.

Engineering Student Machine Shop (ESMS)

Although we had wheels and motors, we then needed to design and machine a coupler to connect the two. Unfortunately, like most first year students, we had no design or machine shop experience before coming to Waterloo. We entered the ESMS intimidated, but walked out three hours later with not only a coupler, but also professional machine shop training and the skills we needed to move forward independently.

Over the course of our project we developed an amazing relationship with the ESMS staff inside and outside the shop, and to date we consult them on design feasibility and machining techniques. We’re three of the hundreds of students that they’re happy to help on a daily basis, and they’re a resource definitely worth leveraging.

Ridgidware

RidgidWare opened in 2014 with the mission of providing on-campus access to hardware components. In addition, they have regular merchandise giveaways where we happened to scored a free Arduino Uno. If you’re desperate for a part and RidgidWare doesn’t have it, DigiKey.com has next day delivery to Waterloo on most electrical components.

Upper Year Students

The Waterloo Engineering network is unexpectedly strong. Upper year students, especially those from your program, are outstanding sources of engineering wisdom. Many of the issues that we encountered while building our robot were solved by consulting an older student who had previously overcome a similar problem. Just don’t forget to return the favour next year when that freshman ECE asks you if it’s a good idea to hook 5V up to GND (it was an honest mistake)!

When all else fails: http://google.com

At this stage in your engineering careers, it is highly unlikely that any problem you’re having hasn’t already been solved by someone else. The proliferation of blogs and forums has become essential to troubleshooting. Instructables and other DIY sites are great places to get started, and can even help you source the right parts to make troubleshooting easier later on. Patient reading and a willingness to fail with some guess-and-check is literally all it takes.

At the beginning of 1A, a hedonistic pastime of engineering frosh is to share their academic schedules with their peers, complaining about all the hours they’re spending in their ‘professional’ degree. But as important as class is, the time we spent after 4:30pm exploring campus resources added a crucial dimension to our growth as engineers that first year instruction is unlikely to foster.

And with that, it’s our time to pay it forward. If you have an idea and need some help starting up, feel free to reach out to us and we’d be happy to do our best.

Special thanks goes out to Chris McClellan from MESS, Phill Laycock & Andrew Urschel from the ESMS, Jack Ye MTE 2B, Jason Zeng MTE 4B, and Joe Kinsella MTE 4B.

Don’t forget to stop by RidgidWare Tuesdays & Thursdays from 11:30 – 1:30 in CPH!

Project video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g7U8gHD9v4