Research Symposium

BIO

My name is Vivian Bernard. I was born in the Dominican Republic, but lived in Cape Coral, Florida, most of my life. I am a biomedical engineer and I am especially interest in biomechanics and biomaterials. In the future, I hope to get my PhD, do some research more research in biomechanics and become a professor to teach the next generation of engineers.

Finding Orange: Natural Frequency of Rocking Chairs

Abstract

Our project focuses on modeling the motion of a rocking chair. We recorded videos of the free oscillation of the chair under different conditions. The data obtained from our trials were then processed using MatLab. From the figures generated, we were able to begin to identify the constants within the pre-established ODE, which modeled the motion of the chair. Our goal with this research is to gain a thorough understanding of the chair in order to be then able to create a device that prolongs the oscillation of the chair. Our main motivation for this project is to provide a restful night of sleep to a child who has autism. He is unable to sleep if he is not being rocked, and therefore we hope our research is able to develop a device to aid him.

Keywords: Oscillation, Natural Frequency, Rocking Chair