Penn State Berks associate teaching professor of engineering Marietta Scanlon and her students recently partnered with Berks LaunchBox for an activity. In the Engineering Design and Analysis With CAD course, Scanlon's students, who are seniors majoring in mechanical engineering and electro-mechanical engineering technology, utilized the computer-aided design (CAD) program Autodesk Fusion 360 to design and simulate loading of a cantilever bridge.

Scanlon spoke of the importance of the course's "application to design" process and how students gained the opportunity to "study via simulation." She also stressed the importance of introducing the students to hands-on projects that allowed them to complete the entire process of design, simulation, fabrication and testing.

Step one took place in the classroom, where students modeled a cantilever truss based on a specific set of criteria. Utilizing Fusion 360, the students were able to simulate failure based on applied loads and make predictions on where and how their bridge would fail when loaded.

Then, Scanlon and her class spent about three hours at the Berks LaunchBox, located in the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts in downtown Reading. The Berks LaunchBox assists early-stage entrepreneurs and startup companies with accessing the tools and resources they need to launch and grow in the greater Reading area through accelerator programs, mentoring, co-working space for startups, a makerspace with equipment for prototyping, and Meetups focused on business development.

Working in teams of two and leveraging the makerspace, students fabricated and assembled their trusses, cutting the material with laser cutters housed in the LaunchBox. Scanlon and her class worked alongside Patty Leshinskie, part-time LaunchBox facilities specialist and mechanical engineer, as well as Michelle Hnath, LaunchBox facility coordinator, and Erica Kunkel, LaunchBox director.

Once the trusses were assembled, the students returned to the Berks campus and loaded their trusses to failure. They compared their simulations to the actual outcomes.