Rachel
Sharpe
Spent a semester, Fall 2017, building a drill powered vehicle with a team of five engineers. We were challenged to apply our knowledge of dynamics and mechanics of solids to build our own drill powered vehicles from the ground up. The team, never having done anything like this before, invested three months in designing the vehicle and the last two months in fabricating the chassis, fork, and even free wheel adapter. Fun additional aspects included a speedometer we built and coded with Arduino, and our #23 acrylic plate we cut using a laser cutter. As the systems engineer I calculated our necessary gear ratio to give us enough speed and torque for the sport class, and did a failure analyses on our critical components. During manufacturing I did the bends for the low carbon steel tubes and aided in welding the chassis.

Drill Powered Bike Race and Testing (3 Videos)
![]() | ![]() |
---|---|
![]() | ![]() |
![]() | ![]() |
![]() | ![]() |
![]() | ![]() |
![]() | ![]() |
![]() | ![]() |
![]() |
Engineering Portfolio
1st Place for Speed & Maneuverability: Project Blood Sweat and Gears- drill powered vehicle
People and Judge's Choice: Project Sensory Space - Engineering for the community
In Spring 2017, my team and I were paired with an instructor from an intensive learning center at Broomfield High School. This instructor was looking for a team of engineers to build components for her sensory space. Sensory spaces are meant to be therapeutic spaces with a variety of equipment that provides students with special needs personalized sensory input to help these students calm and focus themselves so they can be more prepared for learning and interacting with others. Broomfield high school did not have it in their budget to purchase components. Spring of 2017 my team met with her students to bring them fun, yet relaxing components for their students. The process incorporated extensive user testing to get each component just right. The components we entered in an engineering expose that year and swept all two awards- People and Judge's Choice in a competition with 170 CU engineering teams.
Client Feedback
![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
---|---|---|
![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
"Hello Team Sixth Sense,
I just wanted to let you know how wonderful your projects are. Today, we had a student, whom I don't believe you got to meet, let us know that he was experiencing pain. We were unable to contact his family and we can not give him medicine, so we asked if he would like to lay down in the back room for some quiet. It wasn't until we turned on your fantastic bubbling machine that he was able to fully calm down and relax. Thank you again - all of the students love it and we love the fact that it can help to bring some comfort or be a good distraction when necessary!"
Section Winner: Project Space Blaster 3000 (A laser target arcade game)
![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
---|---|---|
![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
![]() |

Space Blaster 3000
The Space Blaster was built Fall 2017 for my Basic Electronics Final. We had three weeks to design an arcade game that involved electronic components, voltage dividers and micro controllers. Our team designed Space Blaster 3000 a laser target shooting game. The goal of the game is to defeat the alien resistance by shooting down each of the space aliens. There are five levels that grow with challenge each round. The game was built and coded using an arduino. It features targets with UV paint that are capable of tracking a laser. During this project I worked on the code for each level that actuated each target, sensed the laser, and displayed levels and a count down on the lcd display screen. I also spray painted the box! This project was brought to CU's annual engineering expose, and won best in section for my basic electronics class. We are in the process of improving the project for potential delivery to students at the Denver Children's Hospital.
Children's Hospital Project: CU Science Discovery Research for STEAM Exhibit
Designed and Co-Lead a team of undergraduate students in a research project with the Summer Program Director, Brian Jernigan, of CU Science Discovery. I was tasked with guiding six engineers to collect and ideate cohesive STEAM activities to bring to the Denver Community Hospital. The day in STEAM would serve as an opportunity to interact with patients, test which activities were most exciting, and to build a relationship and an understanding of our patient's, their environment, and the safety factors that must be considered. After, a beautifully successful day at the community hospital a relationship was grounded that served to aid the Senior Design team the following semester with a longstanding Educational Exhibit they aimed to integrate the into the Denver Children's Hospital.
​
Click here for featured event article!
![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
---|---|---|
![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
![]() |