The Final (College) Blog Post

This semester, I was fortunate enough to be able to further my knowledge of CAD modeling in an independent study with Professor Bryan Cera.Taking it during my last semester proved to be a challenge in and of itself, especially when I was taking other senior-level courses alongside it. However, one of the courses was a math class called Abstract Algebra, and if not for my experience in CAD modeling, I'm not sure I would have even passed it.

The first part of the semester included familiarizing myself with Autodesk's new CAD modeling software - Fusion 360. I was previously accustomed to using Inventor, so there was a bit of a learning curve involved in using Fusion 360. The controls were different, it saves your projects in the ever-elusive Cloud, and is a lot easier to pick up once you gain your bearings. The practice sketches and models below helped me pick right up where I'd left off in Inventor.

 






As I mentioned before, I was able to apply a lot of the work I did for this course to my abstract algebra class. A concept that was often discussed in class was the idea of the rotations of regular solids, and regular prisms. I used quite a bit of modeling for that in papers written on the subject.

The above 3-prism has 3 rotations for one triangular face, and below the same prism has been "flipped" to show 3 more rotations for that face.

My original intent was to showcase the applicable principles of group theory in abstract algebra through 3D-printed prisms, regular and irregular solids. However, despite the many tries and the experimentation with different settings on the printer, I only managed one successful print that did not break off midway through. Although that was a frustrating end to the project, I found that mathematical modeling via CAD software has more applications than meets the eye. (Updates with pictures of the failed prints to come.)