Senior design project
September 2020 to May 2021 - Swarthmore College
According to the Animal Care and Control Team there are about 400,000 stray cats who live outdoors in the city of Philadelphia, which is about one cat for every household. And even though cats are often able to find their own shelter, this may unfortunately lead them to areas that are dangerous for them or properties on which they are unwanted. Rehabilitation of the cats would also be difficult because they are so numerous and they prefer to remain outdoors, which they consider to be their home. However, winters can get very cold and their fur coat only insulates them as long as they do not get wet. Therefore, they need warm and dry shelter to protect them and to prevent them from getting frostbite. For these reasons, the Stray Cat Relief Fund (with whom I partnered) has established outdoor, population-controlled, fenced-in spaces (also known as cat colonies), which have become the homes of 200 plus cats, and I helped them build a shelter for the cats to live in to put in said colonies for my senior design project. The top goals for this design were for the structure to be safe, maintainable, and cost effective. Modeling, testing, and building this structure comprised of using Autodesk Fusion360 (renderings, animation, structural simulation), thermal analyses using MATLAB, as well as a multitude of woodworking power tools.
