The AutoWindow

In my first year at university, I joined Fabrication and Design Essentials (FADE), part of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) at UCLA. In this program, a small team of experienced engineering students teach the basics of CAD modeling, manufacturing, and electronics to fellow students with less experience, typically freshmen. While I would later serve as the lead of the program, I participated as a student in the first year, and the AutoWindow was my final project for the program, integrating my learning of design, manufacturing, and electronics into a single product.

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​The premise of the AutoWindow is simple: to close a sliding window if the temperature it measured was above or below a threshold set by the user, and to open it otherwise. To accomplish this, the device included a temperature sensor to monitor the environmental temperature, a display and joystick for the user to set their desired temperature range, and a motor to drive the window with a rack and pinion. Miraculously, I was able to find a 12V motor strong enough to move a 10-20 lb window, although fairly slowly. While the rack mounted nicely onto my window with VHB Tape, you may notice I had to hold the main body of the AutoWindow down since I did not want to mount it to the wall using screws.

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​This endeavor taught me a lot. It gave me significant experience with motor selection (which I have relied on many times since), as well as practice considering practical factors such as User Interface design, power constraints, and significant budget constraints. I even got to practice my soldering skills when connecting the motor controller to the microcontroller and motor, in order to avoid using a breadboard.