Dodgeball Trophy
For the annual UCLA Engineering Dodgeball Tournament in 2023
The Dodgeball Trophy | UCLA (2023)
In 2022, I served as the Social Director for the UCLA Student Chapter
of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), where I organized
a Dodgeball Tournament between all of the engineering organizations
at UCLA to duke it out to determine which organization reigned supreme.
After passing the torch to the following Social Directors, my hands were free
to create a permanent trophy to be presented to the winners of the tournament
and also to participate to try and win my own prize.
In homage to the 2004 film "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story", we handed out
the club's largest wrench to serve as the prize for the 2022 champions because
"If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball!" The following year in 2023,
I wanted to provide a trophy that an org would be proud to showcase in their
labspace and boast to the other campus organizations.
The trophy is comprised of two components, the base and the hand:
The base is composed of laser cut 3/16 inch plywood assembled into a
box shape. What is hidden on the interior is a series of 3D printed joints
that not only provide the wood more surface area to adhere onto, but also
a spot for threaded inserts to lie so that the front panel can easily be
removed via fasteners when it comes time to replace the panel for a new
year of competition. In regards to the front panel, it is a 1/8 thick piece
of acrylic that is laser cut and engraved with text.
For the hand, I found a free-use model of a hand in the shape of a
fist to use for the trophy. Then, to create space for the wrench to
sit in the fist, I hollowed out the center of the fist with the negative
space created by a representative wrench in the CAD. The knuckles were
then split apart from the palm and wrist to allow the wrench to go in
and can be re-attached with countersunk fasteners. And to prevent
the wrench from slipping out of the hand, a few layers of tape are
hidden in the palm of the hand to provide more friction and compression
onto the wrench from the clamping force of the fasteners in the knuckle.
