Other Cool Stuff

Graduation Cap

This graduation cap was me trying to combine my artistic skills with my technical skills. I chose a railway ring around the Purdue logo because of the Purdue student nickname, the Boilermakers. It is a reference to our school's history as a working-class engineering school with a world-class locomotive laboratory. I had seen a reel (credit to shebuildsrobots) of a similar graduation cap for UIUC. I had started working on this only three days before my graduation! Despite the time crunch, I still managed to get it done. The gear train kept binding, so I was sanding it with a glass file down to the last minute. In the end it worked, though! Now it lives in my dorm at Purdue.

Skills: Art, CAD

My finished graduation cap around half an hour before I had to graduate.

Onshape — logo, front view.

Onshape — logo, back view.

Onshape model of the rail, front view — Onshape — rail, front view.

Onshape model of the rail, isometric view — Onshape — rail, isometric view.

Onshape model of the gears, front view — Onshape — gears, front view.

Onshape model of the gears, back view — Onshape — gears, back view.

Inside of the graduation cap showing the electronics — I managed to fit a battery pack, speed controller, and motor at the back of the cap. The battery pack had to be small, which meant the motor only got ~3V out of the 6V max. These electronics meant the graduation cap was heavy, so I had to hold it to my hair with some hairpins.

Group photo — Me wearing the grad cap with my close friends.

Wearing the cap at graduation — Getting mogged :/

It now lives in my dorm!