Trident: Mechanical Synthesis Original Design Project
During the Spring of 2020, I took the Mechanical Synthesis (MAE 2250) at Cornell with Professor Guy Hoffman. One of the projects for the course was an Open Design Project (ODP). After engaging in crazy 8 brainstorming and interviews with friends, a partner and I decided to design a product to improve the experience of campers.
I've always been a fan of camping, mainly because of the exciting prospect of roasted marshmallows. The delayed gratification of holding a marshmallow over the fire as it slowly turns golden orange comes blissfully in the shape of a warm cylinder of goodness, crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside. This process could only be marred when I get distracted in conversation and look back to the marshmallow to see it charred on one side or worse, gone entirely. To alleviate this issue for worrywarts like myself, I hoped to create a design that would prevent both non-ideal situations from happening. The Trident features a 3-prong marshmallow holder that would prevent falling and a built in battery powered rotation motor to enforce an even heat distribution across the lateral surface of the marshmallow. We conducted market research to identify the target audience, its size, and analyze competitors. It was a very fun project I had hoped to create in real life, but the semester was unfortauntely cut short due to COVID and we were not able to manufacture the design.