harrison kolar
driven by design
about me.
I’m a dynamic Canadian-Czech university student with a keen interest in aerospace-focused mechanical engineering. My persistent pursuit of excellence fuels my drive to achieve personal goals and learn along the way. In academia, I have participated in courses spanning aircraft propulsion, fluid dynamics, manufacturing process, and many more. Outside of school, I enjoy creative outlets as well as physically intensive hobbies, with strong interests in the automotive industry, robotics, and aircrafts. Eager to gain work experience, I bring leadership and an optimistic attitude to any new opportunity. With experience as a aerospace engineer on an electric Formula SAE team and a passion for restoring vintage motorcycles, I’m dedicated to bringing to life the next generation of vehicles.
engineering projects.
Aerodynamicist Formula SAE
This year on UBC Okanagan's Formula SAE team, I am an aerodynamics engineer focusing on studying its applications in the racing industry. This enabled me to develop an in-depth understanding of the principles of aerodynamics outside of school.
This work includes running CFD simulations on Star CCM+ with different multi-element wings and analyzing fluid behaviour across different yaw and roll positions, ultimately replicating how the car acts during different dynamic movements such as in straights or corners. Other responsibilities include manufacturing MDF and foam molds for vacuum infusion, compositing carbon fiber body panels and wings, and weld sections of the chassis.
This section features images of composite carbon fiber, chassis alignment for welding. I also recorded videos of our Mk.4 car's rear wing during cornering on a test day to analyze its behaviour, CAM simulation for an infusion vacuum mold, and CFD analysis of a single-element wing.
Vintage Motorcycle Restoration
Over the past six years I have dedicated my free time to restoring vintage motorcycles. This passion grew from constantly being in the garage as a young boy to assist my dad with all of his designs and manufacturing for his personal projects. My primary project was a 1981 Honda CM400E, a bike known for its reliability and versatility. When I first purchased this relic, it was inoperable and unfashionable, having multiple issues spanning from the carburetors to the electrical. I taught myself how to fix it through YouTube videos, 12 year old online forums, and trial and error. Today, I have transformed this 44 year old bike to a more modern, sleek design, capable of riding cross country.
Some of the work I did included:
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Carburetor rebuild and cleaning
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Custom paint job
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Upholstery and design of new leather seat
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Chassis modifications
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Electrical troubleshooting, rewiring, and soldering
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Installation of new lights
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Installation of new tires
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Manufacturing home-made bracket and small parts
Automated Moth Counting Project
For my final year capstone project, my team developed a computer vision photo box to automate counting of 1-2 millimeter translucent moth eggs on wax paper for OKSIR, a company managing codling moth populations in the Okanagan region. It won first place for our category and second overall out of 56 teams.
My role included R&D on various lighting arrangements and dyeing strategies on the eggs. Additionally, designing and manufacturing the hardware of our prototype including the assembly of V-slot laminar rails, melamine laminate walls, as well as soldering and mounting LED lights. Furthermore, I trained our dataset on CVAT's open source computer vision annotating software for incorporation into YOLO's real life object detection algorithm.
Within a $500 budget our project resulted in a 88% accuracy of hatched eggs, 72% accuracy unhatched eggs, and total process time of 15 seconds. This saved the lab technicians 99.2% of time compared to their traditional method, and a 860% increase in sheet counting production.
Brake Assembly Formula SAE
During my first year on University of British Columbia's Formula SAE team, I was a kinematics engineer responsible for designing the new brake system for our first ever electronic race vehicle.
This project required adequate caliper selection, master cylinder selection, as well as a custom rotor design and manufacturing. The rotor design included doing extensive research into the automotive brake industry, creating CAD designs, and running thermodynamic simulations, all while meeting Formula SAE safety regulations.
This section includes a video in Solidworks of the brake assembly to test geometrical spacing between the caliper and rotor, as well as some preliminary brake rotor designs.
Two Stage Reduction Gear Box
My team designed a two stage reduction gear box with the goal of reducing the speed of the input shaft while producing amplification of torque at the output shaft.
Powered by an asynchronous AC motor, using AISI 1045 steel helical gears and 4340 steel shafts, this gearbox downshifts from 1500 rpm with 656.64 lb-in of torque to 160 rpm with 4728.78 lb-in of torque. Multiple finite element analyses were done to ensure that these components fit the required strength criteria as well as survive a sufficient life span.
This project produced an an optimal performance in terms of speed, power, and torque output and is applicable in automotive systems as well as industrial machinery.
COVID 19 Vaccine Scanner
A COVID vaccine QR scanner at the entrance of commercial spaces that regulates vaccinated customers as well as total capacity of persons in the building.
I was a member of a 5 person team who designed this project for our first year CAD/CAM design course's competition at the University of British Columbia. This scaled down prototype included 3-D printed parts, an Arduino, QR scanner, and can be quickly mass manufactured in the event of another pandemic.
It won first place out of all first-year engineering teams and appears in a promotion YouTube video for the course made by the university.
hobbies.
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Working with animals
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Blender
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Dirt biking
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Media production
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Snowboarding
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Surfing
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Drawing
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Fishing
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Motorcycle riding
