The Wheaton College Engineering Lab, located in the Meyer Science Center, is a dedicated, flexible design lab with state-of-the-art prototyping equipment exclusively for engineering student use. The lab gives students the space and resources to design, prototype, and build a variety of projects. The floor-to-ceiling whiteboard walls in the lab often display sketches and ideas from brainstorming sessions. The layout of workbenches, furniture and classroom displays are fully configurable to meet the needs of different project teams. Each engineering course includes hands-on project work that utilizes the tools and equipment in the lab.
The lab includes several Ultimaker 3D printers of different sizes that are used to build plastic parts layer-by-layer. The dual extrusion system enables the printing of water-soluble support material for more complex parts.
The multiple print nozzles in the ProJet 3D printer add a layer of plastic resin that is cured by ultraviolet light before the next layer is added. The ProJet reliably prints high-quality parts and is used for multiple projects, including the annual Statics course Bridge Competition.
The Glowforge Laser Printer can etch and cut out designs in materials like wood and acrylic using laser light. The Glowforge is frequently used to cut out custom parts for class projects or to make sleek signs for the Engineering Lab.
The lab is equipped with a variety of manual and powered hand tools, as well as a bench-top tools like the scroll saw and miter saw. These tools are used frequently as students cut and drill what they need for a project.
The Shopbot Desktop MAX is a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) Router. The Shopbot plunges a router bit into materials such as aluminum, wood, or acrylic along a 2D or 3D vector-based path.
The Computer Numerical Control (CNC) mill progressively removes material from plastic, wood, aluminum, or steel stock to create custom-designed parts.
Students using the lab have access to Arduinos, soldering equipment, oscilloscopes, signal generators, and more as they incorporate electronics into their work.
Welding workshops allow students to try out different arc welding techniques as they learn to weld pieces of steel together.
The lab contains several tools for the study of materials, including a MTS tensile tester, metallurgical microscope, furnace, hardness tester, and grinder-polisher.
Engineering Student Projects
- Eric Ferry '22“The hands-on nature of Engineering at Wheaton College has shown me that engineering design must be both innovative and practical. I learned this when tasked with building a mechanical bunny for class. My team's design idea was clearly superior to the other team’s idea, but was so challenging to build that our bunny fell apart on competition day. By having the opportunity to bring my ideas to life, I now appreciate that a final design must also consider the resources available.”