Ansync Labs is a rapid prototyping company that works closely with clients to follow their business model while also bringing an idea to market in the most efficient way possible. Ansync has mechanical, electrical, software, PCB and assembly employees all working together in one space which provides a product workspace when developing new designs. Ansync has the ability to quickly design and manufacture any prototype in house with 3-5 axis CNC machines, 3d printers, and by utilizing the in house printed circuit board line. 

My time at Ansync in the summer of 2022 was spent leading the company's effort to produce better, more organized prototypes and speed up the software side of our mechanical projects. Software is known to be the more time consuming part of our prototyping process due to the amount of troubleshooting and debugging necessary to make a new product. Pictured on the left is a test bed previously given to the software department to start software development.

My role was to make these test stations much cleaner to work with and to have more functionality. I designed new test stations for 10+ projects that would correctly mimic the mechanical functionality of the system without the mechanical design having to be finalized and built. This gave the software team a clean workstation and a clear way to explain to the client what they were working on and how it affects their system/product.

Summary: My biggest take-away from this internship was the ability to design something and then machine it right away. Ansync has all the machinery to quickly make an idea into a physical prototype and being able to go through that process many times made me aware of issues and design restraints that would have gone unnoticed until later on in my design process if I didn't have the experience of building these machines myself. I also got to work with many experienced engineers on other projects which was a great way for me to learn more about how they design and plan their way through a prototype.

My time at Ansync in the summer of 2023 was spent working on a new project. I was the lead engineer of a project designed to provide kids and adults with an interacting learning/entertainment experience at a museum or exploratory.

This project took a lot of research on RFID signals and other sensors. The system was meant to be robust so the game pieces have no electrical connection between to the game board. They are recognized by the board using an RFID antenna and tag. Managing interference between other electronics in the area and the mass amount of antennas less than 6 inches away from each other proved to be a challenge. Another challenge was being able to read multiple tags at one time on a single port (tiles and buttons). Shown on the left is the prototype undergoing assembly and testing.

Another feature of the project is the large led rings shown through the front of the board. This give visual feedback to the user and can be configured to show any colors and patterns. This was made possible by machining a ring slot very close to the surface then reinforcing the corian material with a sandblasted acrylic to strengthen the board and disperse the light. For testing purposes a few ports were wired up with an rfid antenna, magnetic encoder, pass through sensor and led ring to show the systems functionality. The buttons, dials and knobs were personally machined out of hdpe and acetal plastic using a haas HL-2 Lathe, Haas VF-4 and Fanuc YCM. They were then dyed to be our desired colors and had a rfid tag attached inside.

Summary: My biggest take away from this internship was how to fully design and build a prototype, from working with others whose visions of the idea were different than mine and taking their feedback into consideration to learning about all the logistics and timeline of a project like this. I also advanced my machining and CAM skills in order to machine and build this prototype. I also worked on a preliminary patent document for this concept and got it ready to send to a company lawyer to proofread and submit. This project was completed to the point where it can be a working prototype with the work of some software engineers who could program everything to work together.