Work | Gavin Meier

School Projects

Reach Project- ClickyBot

During the fall quarter of my freshman year at Rose-Hulman, I was able to work with a small group to create a toy for children with disabilities. We designed a magnetic toy with the intent of helping its user practice fine motor skills and learn emotional intelligence. The design was similar to Mr. Potato head, but with the assistance of magnets and larger pin/hole connections to place less reliance on developed fine motor abilities. We constructed four prototypes before 3D printing, painting, sealing, and assembling our final model. The skills I learned when creating this project included basic benchmarking, CAD modeling, creative design, color theory, and troubleshooting tolerances.

Empowering all Project- Laundry Folding Jig

In my winter quarter of my freshman year as an Engineering Design at Rose-Hulman, the class took a field trip to Paris, Illinois to visit a hospital laundry facility. The facility had a large percentage of employees with a mixture of physical and mental disabilities, and our group was assigned to an individual with both. This individual had trouble with gross motor skills, folding large hospital gowns, and meeting efficiency requirements for the facility. To help her make precise folds, we designed a gown folding device capable of making accurate folds consistently. To use the machine, the individual would simply attach the gowns to the appropriate colored clips, based on gown size. Then, they would fold the arms inward and pull down to detach the gown. This device essentially acts like a second pair of hands, helping her fold the larger items that were beyond her reach. This project helped me learn how to effectively communicate with a client, meet client demands, design effective workstation jigs, and practice woodworking on a larger scale.

Sensor Project- BackBoard Bully

During my third quarter studying Engineering Design at Rose-Hulman, we had the opportunity to make any project we wanted as long as it used sensors and microcontrollers. We learned how to use Python to code a Raspberry Pi Pico. The final prototype used input from two vibration sensors and a 3D printed lever to detect if a basketball had entered the hoop or not. With this information, the microcontroller would run a sequence of functions to decide how mean it should be to the user, then generate an audio clip to "roast" the user accordingly. Though the concept of the product was quite silly, it guided my learning in regard to microcontrollers and Python coding, as I had no prior experience with sensors or coding LED strips. Additionally, the hoop provides practice tolerating trash talk and distractions while playing basketball, which is beneficial in developing skills in the game.

Independent Project- Weather Box

While working on the BackBoard Bully project, I worked individually on a supplemental project to enhance my abilities coding LED strips in python and practice my woodworking skills. With $50 of funding from the school, I designed and fabricated a box with the ability to convey the daily forecast at a glance. Pulling data from an OpenWeather API, The microcontroller creates a digital display containing projected temperature, wind speeds, chance of precipitation, sunrise time, sunset time, and tomorrow's forecast. The LED lights will accordingly change color and pattern to reflect the climate. For example, warm colors signify warm temperatures, and a “twinkle” pattern signifies a high chance of rain or snow.

Design for Manufacturing Project- Lawn Mower Remote

During my fourth quarter at Rose-Hulman, we learned how to design and identify injection molded plastic parts. As a final project, we got the opportunity to create a remote with any design scope. I decided to prototype a remote to control a lawn mower. Design considerations include consistent draft angles, appropriate mounting bosses, and system status indication. Additionally, the remote was designed with visceral, behavioral, and reflective principles in mind. Viscerally, the design is meant to appear hefty and industrial, yet familiar and understandable. It is meant to be operated one handed and offer a variety of grips. Reflectively, the design requires minimum callback and the simple controls allow users to gain efficiency over time.

Grand Challenge Project- Aquapack Filtration

During my fifth quarter at Rose-Hulman, I worked in a seven person group to tackle the challenge of clean water access. After conducting benchmarking, we realized that many current filtration solutions aren't portable, so we came up with the Aquapack portable filtration system. Aquapack is an automatic filtration device designed for use on the go. The advanced filtration system can filter out nearly all contaminants known to be found in water, ideal for extreme circumstances. Concealed within a backpack, the system can filter out particulates and remove/neutralize dangerous viruses from a dirty water source while storing up to two liters of water at a time. It uses a combination of purification tablets, resin beads, a Sawyer brand filter, and a UV-C LED. An in-depth video explaining the product can be found at https://youtu.be/rEMM98zceco

Software Design Project- Artyom Music Player

In our final design studio at Rose-Hulman, we were split into groups and asked to pick a country and learn more about its culture. Our team decided to look into Eastern European countries, but we could not agree on just one country to pursue research in. We noticed very quickly that the countries in the region had "Listening to Music" constantly in the top hobbies lists for civilians. After our professor granted us an exception to the "only one country" rule, we moved forward with research and decided to make a song player app to display the top 5 songs in each country. We used photoshop to bring our graphic design ideas to life, and used java graphics to display our images and give them functionality. Our CSSE professor knew next to nothing about audio interactions in Java, so I taught myself how to successfully code all of the functions. This project taught me the ins and outs of java graphics, giving me experience with things like JComponents, JButtons, JLabels, and ActionListeners. I also rounded out my leadership skills during this project, as I called the majority of the shots for our group and managed the project progress while completing the majority of the coding.

Self Directed & Volunteer Work

LED Matrix Case

After graduating from high school, I worked with my Grandfather to create a wooden case for a RGB LED matrix. This was my first experience woodworking, and I got to use tools such as a mill, sander, bandsaw, drill press, calipers, and wood stain. This project taught me how to operate traditional machinery as well as make accurate blueprints, evaluate tolerances, and work toward precision.

Phillips Wave Volunteer Assistant Coach

During my Co-Op at BW papersystems, I frequented the local community pool as a workout after work. Toward the end of my stay, the swim coach approached me to ask if I would be willing to lend a helping hand to the team. I helped out by teaching the kids basic drills, demonstrating correct technique, and evaluating them for their upcoming swim meets. I worked with the 10 and under age range primarily, but also helped out with the 10-14 age range.

14th & Chestnut Community Center

During my sophomore year at Rose-Hulman, I volunteered at the 14th & Chestnut Community center as a tutor and chaperone. I engaged with the children by playing games, helping with homework, and teaching them engineering tactics in their arts and crafts. Although I only visited the Community Center once a week for 4 weeks, I got to know the kids pretty well and had a blast.

Big Brothers Big Sisters Christmas

Every year, my fraternity volunteers at the Big Brothers Big Sisters facility to throw a christmas party. We buy and wrap presents, and get a brother to dress as santa and hand them out. While thats going on, other members run arts & craft stations, serve pizza, play games, and make sure everyone is having a good time.

KIB Tree Planting

While working for The Veridus Group, our team decided to participate in a community service event through Keep Indianapolis Beautiful together. The six of us went around to areas in Indianapolis with significantly less tree coverage compared to the Indianapolis average. Over the course of three hours, we made our way through the streets with a wheelbarrow full of tools to plant a total of six trees. It was a great opportunity to get to know my coworkers, but the best part was seeing the gratitude of the community members when they saw the new trees in their yards.

Bridging Volunteering

While working at Donaldson Filtration Solutions, the interns spent an afternoon volunteering for Bridging in Bloomington, MN. This is a local charity that helps people furnish their homes with quality used furniture and home goods. The interns split into teams to tackle challenges for Bridging- one team folded and sorted blankets, one team loaded and unloaded trucks, one team organized shipments, and my team did landscaping work.

Junkyard Guitar Stand

While working at BW PaperSystems, I was allowed to take up to 100 lbs of scrap material from the machine floor for free. I was able to accumulate 80 lbs of quality, reusable material over my 6 months there. I then started brainstorming problems I had and designs I could implement to solve them with these limited resources. I decided to make a guitar stand, and spent the next 4 months designing and fabricating the guitar stand, using the machines available in my grandpa's garage and my schools makerspace. The result was perfect: a robust, heavy duty stand that wasn’t afraid to look unpolished. The design has rubber gasket on every surface contacting the guitar, preventing scratches. These surfaces can also be pivoted to accommodate different styles of guitar. The legs can be adjusted vertically to balance any guitar perfectly. Once in place, the legs can be locked to prevent the stand from tipping. The bottom heavy design also prevents tipping. Slipping is prevented by rubber pads on the bottom of the feet. On the backside of the stand, there is a cutout to wrap guitar cables, similar to the cable management systems common on household vacuum cleaners. Finally, the stand is easy to transport and can be easily bokeh into parts by the removal of a single bolt. Each half of the design has an ergonomic handhold to make carrying it easier.

Job experience & Leadership

Sky Zone trampoline park (multiple positions)

My longest employment experience was at Sky Zone trampoline park in Edina, MN. I was in the first batch of hires when the location opened, and helped keep the franchise running while outlasting most of the managers. Starting at the age of 14, I worked there until I turned 18, and was the longest lasting and most versatile original hire. I guided management, worked climbing walls, monitored the trampolines, enforced safety standards, made and sold food, worked the front desk, took inventory, assisted in maintenance, and engaged with guests.

GTC Lawn Care Technician

After graduating high school, I worked as a lawn mowing technician for a summer job. This job catapulted me into the real world of working with industrial machines, while giving me experience as an independent worker. Instead of the typical teamwork approach I was used to, I was solely responsible for myself, my truck, my three industrial lawn mowers, two weed trimmers, a leaf blower, and meeting my quotas. I learned how to maintain and care for the equipment by changing and sharpening lawnmower blades, restringing the trimmers, and monitoring the fuel levels of all three mowers, the truck, the trimmers and the blower. By the end of the summer, I had forged unforgettable relationships with my management and clients, as was dubbed the most efficient mower on the team.

Jefferson High School Swimming & Diving captain

Democratically elected captain of the swim team for Junior and Senior years of high school. Coordinated swim parties, engaged team mates, and made lasting connections. This was my first and argueably most impactful brush with serious leadership, and the first time I was a role model to younger people.

Rose-Hulman Merit Scholarship

Awrded upon my admittance to Rose Hulman, Maintained throughout my stay.

Alpha Tau Omega Kitchen Manager and Membership Educator

As the kitchen manager of my fraternity, I instituted several standard procedures and increased the scope of the job. Previously, the kitchen managers had been solely in charge of ordering groceries. Under my management, I completely reorganized the kitchen, using a label maker and other visual cues to improve the layout and decrease disarray. I also managed the 1500/week budget to order groceries, implementing a QR code grocery list addition system to make the process of ordering food more democratic. Additionally, I managed a kitchen cleaning crew to keep the area tidy, and worked with Pesi co. to keep our soda machine stocked and functional. I also created an online drive with work instructions for each aspect of maintaining a clean and successful kitchen for future managers down the line, due to the absence of any instructions when I began the role.

As the membership educator, I was in charge of creating a process for pledgeship in the fraternity. Our old system was outdated and inefficient, I spent the next year and a half after my election creating and approving an eight week system to fully educate new members on the operation, ordinance, and organization of the fraternity. The process includes 12 events, weekly, meetings, and themes of leadership development, community outreach, philosophy, social excellence, brotherly relations, local history, campus comfort, academic success, and fun. Almost none of the old system was allowed to continue on, so I used a lot of creative thinking, brainstorming, and leadership skills to create the new process. I also instituted character roles in the process to provide positive social pressure and instituted a new committee to manage and plan the pledgeship process.

Rose-Hulman LongBoard Club- President and founder

After arriving at Rose-Hulman, I noticed a vacancy in the campus groups offered. There were several students who longboarded around campus, but no dedicated group to enjoy the activity. As a measly freshman, I decided to take on the challenge of founding a club dedicated to just that. I met a senior, who put me in contact with the longboarders he knew, and from there I made a groupchat, logo, and met with the student activities committee to discuss the scope of the club. The club currently meets weekly with additional optional meetings and monthly longboard maintenance meetings. I supply the club with the knowledge and materials needed to clean and maintain the boards, and the club now has over 15 members.

City of Bloomington Surveying Engineering Intern

During the summer quarter after my freshman year, I got an internship in my hometown. This internship, I learned how to set up and operate surveying equipment. This included a Total Station, Prism rod, Backsites, Levels, and Locators. I also learned how to operate in a construction site, following OSHA standards and engaging in business and recreational communication with workers and foremen. Additionally, I got my light rail on track safety certification.

BW PaperSystems Manufacturing Eningeering Co-Op

After my sophomore year at Rose-Hulman wrapped up, I started my 6 month Co-Op position with BW Papersystems in Phillips, WI. BWPS makes industrial manufacturing machines used in the production of paper products including cardboard, card stock, and printer paper. During my stay, I had daily tasks as well as projects to work on. My daily tasks included creating part routings, entering quality incident reports, and learning the ins and outs of Lean Manufacturing.

The Veridus Group Project Engineering Intern

During the Spring Quarter of my Junior year at Rose-Hulman, I had the opportunity to complete a Co-Op with The Veridus Group. A small Civil Engineering firm in Indianapolis, Veridus showed me a side of companies I had never seen before. The small size (~30 employees) of the company allowed for a tight-knit culture to flourish. Working with the team, I tackled many new challenges. Though I had some experience in the civil industry before, I had no classes to prepare me for the intricacies of site design. After a few weeks of mild training, I was able to aid in the design of plans such as sitebase, demolition, grading, erosion control, storm water pollution protection, and utilities. I was even able to create a sitebase and grading plan for a site from scratch. I also engaged in my fair share of due diligence research, reading through governmental ordinances and regulations, contacting utility companies, and ultimately helping decide whether or not a parcel was feasible for development. This helped me further my understanding of professional communication, as I had to leave countless voicemails and emails. Another aspect that helped with my communication skills was the sending and receiving of memorandums. I would aid in the creation of documents such as O&M and Drainage reports, then respond to comments on the documents in the form of engineering memorandums. Another form of communication I was unaccustomed to was application forms. After filling out a few applications for utility companies, such as sanitary lateral extension applications, I realized how much went into the entire process of extending utilities throughout a site. Overall, I learned so much about the construction and land development and renovation processes, and I am very lucky to get so much experience in this aspect of design.
Picture: The Veridus Civil team and I volunteered for Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB) planting trees.

Donaldson Filtration Solutions New Products Engineering Intern

After finishing my Junior year at Rose-Hulman, I started an internship with Donaldson. A global company headquartered in Bloomington, MN, it was certainly an adjustment from my previous company. I was not used to collaboration with people across multiple countries, languages, and time zones. However, I was able to overcome all the challenges adjusting to the environment with dedicated mentors and managers to give me all the guidance I needed. I started the intern experience with self directed learning. I was given a list of eLearning courses to take, and was told to ask any questions I may have. My inquisitive nature helped me learn the ropes of these new topics fast, and before long I was able to help design and test. My big project was to create an efficient prefiltration device by using creative thinking and innovation strategies to test and model new designs. Through this process, I was able to design my own experiments to better my understanding of pre filtration and how different variables would affect the relevant metrics. Over the next two months, I tested 20+ designs and compiled relevant data for each. We narrowed the scope of the project to 4 configurable designs, and tested how changing certain dimensions in the designs would affect our metrics. From here, we picked the best performing design and continued experimenting with its dimensions. This design has our hopes high, with an efficient optimization of high particle absorption and low pressure loss. I will continue to work on this project online through my senior year of classes.

One of the most positive experiences from this internship was the opportunity to network with managers in our business unit. Not only did this teach me about the organizational layout and strategies, but it also helped me figure out where my skills would be useful. I was met with positive feedback and reception, forming genuine yet professional relationships with the managers.

I also worked on several smaller projects during this internship. I tested an experimental pump setup, coded an arduino to collect data, designed a plate for a test rig, designed experimental setups, ordered components on McMaster Carr, and created a presentation for my main project. To celebrate the end of our projects, we had an intern expo, allowing the full time employees to come see the intern’s summer projects. I enjoyed communicating the scope of the project to different audiences with varied background knowledge of my topic for presentation.

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