Joshua
Ginsberg

A fully parametric duckbill spoiler designed to fit the compound-curved trunk lid of a Tesla Model 3. The goal is a clean, factory-flush fit with an aggressive functional profile — designed from scratch, not purchased off the shelf.

Design Approach

• Python script samples the trunk surface geometry and generates a parametric sketch in Fusion 360, ensuring the base flange matches the compound curvature exactly.
• Multiple iterations printed in PLA/ASA to validate fit before committing to composite tooling.
• Final mold machined from printed master + filler/primer surface prep for a clean carbon fiber layup.

Manufacturing Plan

• Dry carbon fiber layup (2×2 twill, 3K) with vacuum bag consolidation.
• Hardware: M6 T-nuts bonded into foam core; bolt-on fit to existing trunk lid holes.

An 18-site recirculating aeroponic grow tower built entirely from 3D-printed components. A submersible pump circulates nutrient solution from a reservoir to a top spray manifold, which mists root zones as the solution cascades down the tower.

Design Goals

• Watertight geometry achieved through perimeter-only slicer settings and tight tolerances at interlocking joints.
• Food-safe PETG throughout — no PLA near the nutrient solution.
• Snap-fit pod design for single-hand plant swaps without tools.
• Modular tower segments — add or remove height in one print.

System Details

• 18 net-pot sites, 2-inch pots, suitable for lettuce, herbs, and small fruiting plants.
• 500 GPH submersible pump, 15-min on / 45-min off cycle timer.
• Reservoir: 5-gallon HDPE bucket with printed lid and fill port.

Vacuum-jacketed vessels require external support cages to resist atmospheric pressure loading. The original cage designs were sized conservatively by hand — heavy, slow to iterate, and inconsistently documented. I built a Python-scripted SolidWorks Simulation toolkit to automate the entire optimization loop.

How It Works

• Python drives SolidWorks via its API: parameterizes geometry (wall thickness, rib spacing, hole diameter), runs static FEA, extracts max deflection and min FOS, then logs results to a spreadsheet.
• Automated sweep across a configurable design space — hundreds of simulation runs that would have taken weeks by hand.
• Output: Pareto front of mass vs. deflection, with recommended design highlighted.

Results

• 45% mass reduction on production cage design while meeting all deflection and safety factor targets.
• Released through formal ECO process at EDLON; now used as the standard cage sizing tool.
• Reusable for billet layouts and other vessel support geometries with minimal reconfiguration.

Production tracking at EDLON lived in a tangle of paper travelers, email threads, and disconnected spreadsheets. Status calls were 20 minutes of "let me check" — no single source of truth. I built an end-to-end digital tracker on SharePoint + PowerApps in about three weeks.

What Was Built

• SharePoint list schema designed around the job lifecycle: quote → design → fab → test → ship.
• PowerApps front-end for shop floor entry — tablet-friendly, no SharePoint training required.
• Auto-revision stamps and required-field validation prevent incomplete records from being submitted.
• Daily summary export (Python + Power Automate) delivered to the engineering team each morning.

Impact

• Eliminated all manual data entry and status-chasing; on-time job closures improved measurably.
• Audit traceability: every status change timestamped and attributed to a user.
• Adopted across the full production floor within two months of launch.

Sparky is a vintage animatronic Dalmatian owned by the Indian River Fire Company — a beloved mascot that had been silent for years. I took on the full restoration as a personal project during my senior year at the University of Delaware.

Mechanical Work

• Disassembled the entire drive and actuator system; replaced worn gears, cables, and motor mounts.
• 3D-printed replacement structural brackets and linkage parts that were no longer available.
• Rebuilt the differential drive system for reliable straight-line and turning motion.

Electronics Overhaul

• Replaced the original 75 MHz transmission system with a modern 2.4 GHz system for range and reliability.
• Diagnosed and replaced the central electronic controller — the original was damaged beyond repair.
• Rewired the audio system and integrated a new speaker amp for the siren and voice lines.

SAE International Aero Design East — Advanced Class. The mission simulates wildfire combat: a Primary Aircraft (PA) drops a Powered Autonomous Delivery Aircraft (PADA), which deploys a Ground Transport Vehicle (GTV) to a target. I served as Wings Lead Engineer.

My Role

• Designed and analyzed the wing and tail assembly for the Primary Aircraft: lift requirements, control surface sizing, structural spar layout.
• Led composite fabrication of the wing panels (fiberglass skin over foam core); coordinated layup schedule with a team of 6.
• Integrated the PADA release mechanism into the fuselage — mechanical latch triggered by servo command at altitude.

Technical Details

• PA carries a 4 lb water payload + PADA; total gross weight ~14 lbs.
• Wing: high-lift airfoil, 72-inch span, tapered planform.
• PADA: autonomous navigation to GPS and color targets using Pixhawk flight controller.
• GTV: manually controlled RC vehicle assembled post-drop, carries 2 lb water payload.

Compact automated assembly line that conveys, fills (30 pills/bottle), and caps pill bottles for small-batch supplement manufacturers. Designed within a 20×20×40″ 80-20 aluminum extrusion frame with a total BOM under $428.

System Architecture

• Bottle Dispensing: Linear actuator pushes bottles from a vertical chute directly onto a rotary table — replaced original crank-rocker design for simplicity and reliability.
• Pill Filling: Angled hopper with rotating funnel gear; break-beam sensor counts each pill and stops the motor at exactly 30. NEMA 17 motor with 2:1 gear ratio.
• Capping: Linear actuator seats cap; lead-screw capper with rubber plunger tightens it. 3D-printed bottle guides prevent misalignment during tightening.
• Controls: Arduino Mega with manual button board (2-axis per subsystem) and E-stop that halts and resets all systems.

Testing Results

• Bottle Dispensing: 99% success rate — 120 bottles, 10 trial runs.
• Pill Dispensing: 97% exactly 30 pills; 3% received +1 pill (no -1 errors).
• Cap Dispensing / Tightening: 80% success rate — cap orientation sensitivity identified as root cause; redesign proposed.

Balance bike ("Dandy Horse" style) designed and fabricated from 1/2″ plywood as part of UD's Statics course. Full-scale, foot-propelled, and capable of safely supporting a 200 lb user.

Design Requirements

• Frame cut from a single 4×4 ft plywood sheet on a CNC router; 1/4-20 hardware only.
• Integrates pre-fabricated 26″ wheels and front steering column.
• Factor of Safety ≥ 1.5 for a 200 lb rider — validated through static analysis.
• Disassembles to fit a standard travel bike bag.

Engineering Analysis

• Seat plate connection: FOS = 2.97 — pin reactions: Ay = 300 lb, moment = 7,107 lb·in.
• Front fork connection: FOS = 1.33 — pin reactions: By = −537 lb, moment = −14,525 lb·in.
• Both critical connections exceed FOS = 1.0 minimum; seat connection provides significant margin.

Designed a PID vehicle speed trajectory controller for a 1:25-scale robotic car used at UD's Information and Decision Science Lab Scaled Smart City. Target: <25% overshoot, <0.2s settling time, <10% steady-state error.

Design Process

• Derived equation of motion for the car (mass m = 0.434 kg, viscous friction b) and applied Laplace transforms to obtain the open-loop transfer function.
• Built closed-loop block diagram with PID controller; derived characteristic equation and compared to ideal second-order form to solve for gains.
• Identified viscous friction b = 4.5 from MATLAB step response analysis; solved for P = 35.43, I = 3436, D = 0.

Results & Lessons Learned

• Simulation (MATLAB): 19% overshoot, 0.1s settling time — met all targets.
• Physical test: 53% overshoot, ~1s settling, 0.50 m/s steady-state error (target: 0.4 m/s).
• Root cause: zeroed derivative term removed damping. Path forward — re-derive gains incorporating D term and re-validate on hardware.

Life-scale replicas and custom fabrications on an Ender 3 Pro, pushing the limits of consumer FDM printing through multi-part assemblies, structural reinforcement, and post-processing.

Elden Ring Greatsword

• 6-foot life-scale replica — 28 printed parts to fit within the 220×220×250 mm build volume.
• Three galvanized steel rods run the length of the blade for structural reinforcement.
• Designed in Blender; 0.2mm layer height, 0.6mm nozzle for strength-to-weight balance.

Stormbreaker (Avengers)

• Full-scale replica printed in sections; steel rod through center for weight and stability.
• Metallic spray paint on axe head; dark wood finish on handle for movie-accurate appearance.

Lord of the Rings Rings & Electric Guitar Body

• LOTR replica rings with 0.4mm nozzle for precise engraving detail; specialty filaments for color accuracy.
• Voronoi-pattern electric guitar body printed in sections, internally reinforced to handle string tension, finished in vibrant green.

Designed a surgical femur fracture plate in SolidWorks targeting maximum comfort and load-bearing capacity. Prototype 3D-printed and mechanically tested on a hydraulic press.

Design Features

• 8 screw holes sized for M4 flat-head machine screws with loose-fit clearance for surgical flexibility.
• Scalloped edges (16 total, 8 per side) reduce bone contact area while maintaining structural integrity.
• Central load-bearing channel (4.03 mm wide × 0.78 mm deep) reduces bone contact without compromising strength.

Stress Analysis

• Critical section at plate midspan (fracture location) — all other regions share load with the intact bone.
• At 100 N (conservative walking load): total bending stress = 588.9 MPa.
• At 800 N (full body weight): total bending stress = 4,712 MPa — illustrates why patients are weight-restricted post-surgery.

2D Finite-Difference Heat Transfer Simulation (MATLAB)

Explicit FDM simulation of temperature distribution in a 30×30 cm aluminum plate with mixed boundary conditions (flux, fixed temperature, convection).

• Validated on a 3×3 node grid before scaling to 50×50 for final resolution.
• Plots temperature distribution at configurable time steps via mesh + surface plot.

CFD Flow Analysis — Eppler 423 Airfoil (MATLAB)

Computational fluid dynamics study on the Eppler 423 wing profile (48″ span, 14″ chord) selected for the ASAE senior design competition.

• Reynolds number: 372,726 (turbulent); Mach: 0.039 (incompressible).
• Generated pressure and velocity contour plots; analyzed lift generation via pressure differential.

Airfoil Selection Database Scraper (Python)

Python script that queries 1,600+ airfoils from an online database, evaluates each on lift-to-drag ratio under user-defined flight conditions, and ranks candidates.

• BeautifulSoup parses UIUC airfoil database; ThreadPoolExecutor evaluates profiles concurrently.
• Outputs Pareto-ranked candidates with visualized airfoil shape and reference data.
• Used to select the optimal airfoil for the ASAE Advanced Class competition aircraft.