(June 11, 2010) -- The world’s greatest engineers and physicists all started small. Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, the major technologies in use today were not invented by people with sheer luck and a bit of creativity.

The senior projects this year gave seniors like Fahad Nathani, a prospective future scientist,  a chance to showcase their abilities  and transform their ideas into reality.

Nathani built a wind turbine that creates electricity by using wind to turn blades. “Converting the energy from the wind directly into electricity to power our homes, I believe, is such an amazing feat. So I thought it’d be pretty cool if I made a scaled-down working turbine on my own,” said Nathani.

Senior William Shaler designed and built an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Senior Andranik Aslanyan opted for a more commercial product; he invented a device that limited the volume of headphones after it reached a certain point.

While getting good grades was certainly a priority for seniors, some used the project as an opportunity to create a product that could be put to good use. Nathani, who hoped to raise awareness towards renewable energy sources, said, “The United States desperately needs to switch to more sustainable energy sources to help break its dependence on foreign oil and save the environment.” Aslanyan planned to market his product. “[A musician] said that it was a great product idea and that if my design worked he had customers in line, as a musician’s hearing is [his] largest asset,” he said.
    

For some students, senior projects were a way to explore possible career options in the future. Shaler chose his project so that he could see if he was interested in the topic at hand.

“[It was] like a personal test to see if I could really deal with this in the world,” he said. Others who knew what they wanted to pursue careers in science used the project as a way to get a head start. “I’m majoring in Mechanical Engineering at UCLA, so this project is directly related to my major there,” said Nathani.

For most seniors, the most difficult part of the project was not the work itself, but finding time to do the work. The amount of time devoted to working on senior projects ranged from 30 to 150 hours. In the end, though, the seniors were proud of their final products. “One day I think it could be a marketable product,” said Shaler.