My name is Jonah Wagner. I am a junior from Baker residential college studying mechanical engineering and physics. At Rice I am heavily involved in my residential college, serving in a variety of roles from government to housing to bimonthly campus runs on the 13th/31st. I’m also involved in the mechanical engineering department, where I have served three semesters as an undergraduate teaching fellow and am beginning research in the tribomechadynamics lab. I love studying physics as a supplement to engineering because I’m fascinated by physical processes, and I find that the two fields complement each other nicely.

One thing that I have made that I’m proud of is a modified water gun to be used in assassin, a last man standing kind of game which requires the players to be armed (with water) everywhere they go. The typical water guns often leak in my bag and are incredibly obvious when carried around. I wanted something that did not leak and was more subtle, so I removed and shortened the water gun mechanism from the brightly covered plastic shell and secured it to an empty hand sanitizer bottle with a hole in it. An incredibly low effort, and low fidelity as you can see, solution, but it worked very nicely and was very fun to use.

I hope to make simple devices to solve the little problems in life, either this semester and/or in the future. I love finding solutions to the small, yet annoying, problems that often go overlooked, especially since they oftentimes have simple solutions when approached with a clever mind. In ENGI 210, I hope to learn how to use the many tools available in the OEDK to make my current and future visions come to life. I’ve always been limited by my knowledge of prototyping methods, so I am incredibly optimistic of my future prospects if I am successful in fulfilling the learning objectives of this course. I’m looking forward to an engaging semester!