Kien Truong 1089 23rd Ave SE

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Phone: 763-267-3743

Email: kientruong189@gmail.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------

Education

Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering, Expected May 2019

College of Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

GPA: 3.1

Coursework includes Statics and Dynamics, Material Science, C++ Programming, Intro to Mechanical

Construction, and High-Powered Rocketry

Skills

Languages: C++ (In Progress)

Software: Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PTC Creo, Mathematica (In Progress), Matlab (In

Progress), Cura 3D Printing Slicing Software, Makerbot Desktop

Machinery: Band saws, Drill Press, Table Saw, Radial Arm Saw, Surface Grinder, Rotary Power tool, 3D

printer

Laboratory Techniques: Acid/base titration, solubility tests, flame tests, computer probes (electrical,

spectroscopy, temperature, conductivity), and compound synthesis.

Projects

Solid-Fueled Rocket Project, High-Powered Rocketry September 2015- December 2015

Led a team of 3 students to construct a rocket capable of reaching a least 4000 feet and deploying

two separate parachutes at different altitudes safely

Researched different rocket materials and simulated rocket trajectory

Presented construction results and rocket post-flight analysis to 40 students an instructor

Compiled reports at various stages of construction and on flight readiness

Random Distribution Machine September 2016- December 2016

Construct a robot that randomly distributes skittles into one of 5 containers

3D print each individual part with the use of Cura 3D printing software

Construct an electronic subsystem with an Arduino Uno microcontroller

Present the robot at a public demonstration to hundreds of people and be evaluated by a panel of

judges

Other experience

Student Security Monitor August 2015 -November 2016

Security Monitor Program, Minneapolis, MN

Escort individuals home and around campus

Keep buildings secure by locking doors and checking student access

Provide accurate documentation of incidents

Serve as ambassadors of the University of Minnesota Twin-Cities campus by providing assistance

to visitors and members of the University

Activities

Member, American Society of Mechanical Engineers Fall 2015-Present

Member, University of Minnesota Quizbowl Fall 2015-Present

Member, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Fall 2016-Present

3D Printed Random Distribution Robot Kien Truong

December 12, 2016

The purpose of this robot is to randomly distribute candy into each the 5 containers. First candy is poured into the top container, then at the press of the switch, the small top gear motor spins in a 50-loop cycle of 250 milliseconds followed by a 250 millisecond pause. The candy falls through the top gear, landing on the yellow spinning gear. As the yellow gear and white gear is spinning, the candy will fall through the hole and land in one of the containers.

Page 1 of 1

Kien Truong

December 12, 2016

Random Distribution Robot Bill of Materials

Material Cost

1x Arduino Uno micro-controller (From robot kit)

1x breadboard (From robot kit)

3x NPN bipolar transistor (From robot kit)

2x 9V battery snap (From robot kit)

Power plug (From robot kit)

2x 9V batteries (From robot kit)

1x LED, red (From robot kit)

1x Microswitch pushbutton (From robot kit)

22 g solid yellow Wire (From robot kit)

3x 1k Ohms Transisitor (From robot kit)

1x 10k Ohms resistor (From robot kit)

1x 330 Ohms Resistor (From robot kit)

3D printed parts $ 9.95

1x 2’x2’ Wooden board $ 4.44

3x DC gear motors $ 22.50

Total $ 36.89

robot code// constants#define WATCHLED 6 // LED is pin 6#define STARTBUTTON 2 // start button is pin 2

// variablesint i;boolean startbutton;

void setup() // run once, when program starts{ pinMode(WATCHLED, OUTPUT); // sets the LED pin as output pinMode(STARTBUTTON,INPUT); // sets the button pin as input}

void loop(){ startbutton=false; while (! startbutton) { // stay in this loop until button pressed digitalWrite(WATCHLED,HIGH); // LED on for(i=0;i<10;i++) // repeat process 10 times{ delay(25); // wait for 25 milliseconds if (digitalRead(STARTBUTTON) == LOW) // check button startbutton=true; // button is pressed} digitalWrite(WATCHLED,LOW); // LED off for(i=0;i<30;i++) // repeat the process 30 times{ delay(25); // wait for 25 milliseconds if (digitalRead(STARTBUTTON) == LOW) // check button startbutton=true;}} // end of while loop digitalWrite(WATCHLED,LOW); robotcode();} void robotcode(){ digitalWrite(5,HIGH); // start the top motor for(i=0;i<30;i++) // repeat the process 30 times{ digitalWrite(3,HIGH); // start the yellow gear digitalWrite(4,HIGH); // start the white gear delay(250); // run the yellow and yellow gear for 250 milliseconds

Page 1

robot code digitalWrite(3,LOW); // stop the yellow motor digitalWrite(4,LOW); // stop the white motor delay(250); // pause the yellow and white motor for 250 milliseconds} digitalWrite(5,LOW); // stop the top motor}

Page 2

KIEN TRUONG

DECEMBER 1 2016

KIEN TRUONG

DECEMBER 1, 2016

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GENERAL TOLERANCES UNLESS NOTED

MODELDRAWN DATE

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GENERAL TOLERANCES UNLESS NOTED

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0.500.010.001

Kien Truong

9/28/16

Description of a Staple

The stapler is meant to provide a way to attach multiple sheets of paper together with minimal

alterations to the papers. It does this by taking a short piece of malleable steel and while pressing

it against the pile of paper, forcing it through the paper via a two-hole puncture where the metal

piece is bent into mold where it is folded in a mold to hold the papers together.

To attach a pile of papers together, first the metal staple slide pushes against the supply of staples

inside the metal case to hold the staples in place. Then the top metal slide presses on the supply

of staples and presses out one staple onto the pile of paper held in place by the top of the staple

and the metal base of the staple. The individual staple is pressed through the paper puncturing

through each sheet. Then the edge of the staple is bent into itself to hold the staple in place.

To make the staple, first the top and bottom case are made by pouring plastic into molds. Then

the metal casing is made by melting steel and shaping them via stamping. To make the staples, a

flat sheet of metal is hammered out and cut into individual staples. The staple is assembled by

attaching the metal casing to the plastic covers and the supply of staples is placed into the metal

casing.

One of the most interesting feature of the staple is the way that the stapler can fold the staple

back into itself without breaking the staple or deforming it. By keeping the staple properly

pressed each time it’s used is not easy feat because the malleability of the staple must be kept

constant so that it doesn’t break and that the staple doesn’t bend out of shape.

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Elastic Modulus Analysis of a Wooden Ruler

Kien Truong October 19, 2016

Introduction

The elastic modulus is a property of a material that tells how stiff the material is. This value

depends on the length, width, and thickness of the material. The purpose of this experiment was to

calculate the elastic modulus of a wooden ruler by measuring the deflection of the ruler under

different loads, and then to compare the calculated value to the literature value.

Methods

For the experiment, the ends of a wooden ruler were placed on two chairs positioned 9.25

inches apart. A textbook was placed next to the ruler on the chairs and was used as the zero point

for the deflection measurements. One end of a shoe lace was tied to the center of the ruler and the

other end was tied to a four-liter pitcher. The experimental setup is shown in Figure 1. The pitcher’s

weight was looked up on the Sterilite website and found to be 0.5 pounds. The pitcher was filled

with varying levels of water for each trial. The mass of water was calculated using water’s density

of one gram per milliliter. The mass of the water in grams was then converted to pounds and added

to the weight of the pitcher. For each trial, the ruler was set on the chairs with an equal length of the

ruler overhanging the chair on each side. The deflection of the ruler was measured, in inches, by

measuring the distance between the bottom of the ruler and the bottom of the textbook with a dial

calipers. The experiment was done two times with eight trials each time. The volume of water was

increased by 500 mL between each trial and went from zero to 3500 mL. The same volume was

used in the corresponding trials of both experiments. In order to calculate the elastic modulus of the

ruler, a single deflection versus load plot containing the data form both trials was created using

Excel. A linear trendline was added to the plot, and the slope of this line along with the ruler’s

dimensions were used to calculate the elastic modulus.

Figure 1: Experimental setup for deflection measurement.

Ruler

Chair

Pitcher

y = 0.0461x - 0.0237R² = 0.9896

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0

0.1

0.2

0.3

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lect

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(in

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Load (lb)

Results

Table 1: Measured deflection of Figure 2: Plot of deflection versus load data for all

ruler under different loads. 16 trials along with linear trendline fit to data.

All of the deflections of the ruler measured in the experiment are show in Table 1. A plot

of the data and a linear trendline of the data is shown in Figure 2. The R2 value of the line of best

fit was 0.9896, and the slope of the trendline was 0.0461. The elastic modulus of the ruler was

calculated using the equation 𝐸 =𝐿3

48𝐼(𝑃

𝑦) with 𝐿 being the length of the ruler between the chairs,

𝑃 being the load, and 𝑦 being the deflection. In this equation, 𝐼 is equal to 𝑏ℎ3

12 where 𝑏 is the

width of the ruler and ℎ is the thickness. For the calculation of the elastic modulus of the ruler,

the dimensions were measured to be 𝐿 = 9.25 inches, 𝑏 = 0.967 inches, and ℎ = 0.134 inches.

The slope of the trendline is equal to 𝑦

𝑃, so

𝑃

𝑦 is the inverse of the slope which was found to be

21.7. Using these values, the elastic modulus of the ruler was calculated to be 1.84 × 106 psi.

The resolution of the dial calipers used in the experiment was 0.001 inches and the resolution for

the pitcher was 100 mL. The accuracy of the measurements was 10 percent.

Discussion

The material the ruler was made of was assumed to be pine. The literature value of the

elastic modulus of pine along the grain is 1.31 × 106 psi according to The Engineering ToolBox

website. The percent difference between the calculated and literature values was 40.5 percent.

The most likely reason for this high percent difference is that the ruler was a different type of

wood than what was used to calculate the literature value. There was also a thin metal strip along

the edge of the ruler that may have changed the elastic modulus of the ruler as a whole. The data

from the experiment is reliable because the R2 value of the trendline was very close to one. Even

though the trendline fit the data well, there were some limitations to the experiment. The part of

the experiment that may have impacted the results the most was that it was difficult to get a

measurement of the beam deflection without moving the beam. The deflection values were all

under half an inch as well. The calculated elastic modulus may have lost some of its accuracy

due to this small range of deflections. Another limitation that may have affected the results was

the fact that the pitcher only had measurement marks for every 100 milliliters which made it

difficult to know when there was the exact amount of water in the pitcher that was needed for

each trial. Because the data was linear as predicted, the limitations of the experiment most likely

did not affect the results significantly.

Load

(lbs)

Experiment

1 Deflection

(in)

Experiment

2 Deflection

(in)

0.5 0.006 0.004

1.6 0.047 0.043

2.7 0.093 0.090

3.8 0.141 0.152

4.9 0.194 0.211

6.0 0.236 0.228

7.1 0.313 0.317

8.2 0.361 0.373

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Analysis of Buckling Force on a Wooden Apparatus

Kien Truong

September 21, 2016

Introduction

In the real world, engineers use various tests and simulations to make sure that their designs are

functional and able to support themselves. The purpose of this experiment is to give a first-hand

look into the process in which engineers test their products. This experiment will involve

stacking various items on a structure, finding when it buckles and using mathematics to find

when the structure should buckle.

Methods

Take a 14.20-inch wooden kitchen spoon, and balance it with the spoon at the bottom and the

narrow handle end in the air. Use both hands to hold the base of the spoon steady while

balancing the books to make sure that the spoon doesn’t tip over. Carefully place books on top of

the spoon until the stem seems to visibly buckle. Record the weight that causes the spoon to

buckle. Repeat the process 3 more times to get a more accurate results. To measure the

hypothetical force required, use the mathematical equations below to compare the experimental

buckling weight to the hypothetical buckling weight:

𝐹 =𝜋2𝐸𝐼

𝐿2 𝐼 =

𝜋𝑅4

4

To measure E use the value given on engineerstoolbox.com.

Results

In the experiment, the wooden spoon buckled at an average of 3.575 lbs. Using the mathematical

equation, the hypothetical maximum force that the spoon could hold before buckling is 10.36 lbs

with E being 1.3x106 psi, and R being 0.12 inch and L being 14.20 inch.

Discussion

The experimental value for the buckling weight was much lower than the hypothetical buckling

weight since the experimental weight was 3.575 lbs and the hypnotical bucking weight is 10.36

lbs. The results could have been off because of several sources of error in the experiment. One

source of error could have come from inaccurate measuring of the wooden spoon itself. this

could have thrown off the buckling weight when using the equations. Another source of error

could have been from the way that the books were placed on the spoon. The books weren’t able

to balance on top of the wooden spoon by itself so it had to be supported. This could have thrown

off the amount of weight that the spoon could have been supported since the books had

additional support to keep balance. The purpose of this experiment was to get initial experience

into the work that engineers do when creating their products.