{"id":158699,"date":"2022-05-08T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2022-05-08T18:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=158699"},"modified":"2022-05-09T15:25:41","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T01:25:41","slug":"engineering-students-chocolea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2022\/05\/08\/engineering-students-chocolea\/","title":{"rendered":"Engineering students 3D print decorative molds for M\u0101noa chocolate shop"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"chocolate<\/p>\n

When you see a box of chocolates on Mother\u2019s Day, you might not realize how much engineering goes into each individual truffle. Students in the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa\u2019s Department of Mechanical Engineering<\/a> learned first-hand as part of the new course in Advanced Additive Manufacturing.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m hoping that I can use the skills that we learn at UH<\/abbr> to benefit more business.
—Kendall Lorenzo<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Under the guidance of Assistant Professor Tyler Ray<\/a><\/strong>, approximately 10 upper-level mechanical engineering students spent the spring 2022 semester developing a system based upon 3D printing to produce custom chocolate molds for the chocolate shop Choco leʻa<\/span><\/a>, located in M\u0101noa valley just one mile away from campus.<\/p>\n

According to senior mechanical engineering major Kendall Lorenzo<\/strong>, custom chocolate molds ordered commercially cost thousands of dollars, making them out of reach for many small businesses. Ray and the students provided the customized molds to Choco leʻa<\/span> free of charge to help the locally-owned business save on costs, while gaining real-world experience.<\/p>\n

“Honestly, it feels really good; it feels amazing,” Lorenzo said. “Never would I have thought that I would be using my skills to benefit the community. But that\u2019s the heartwarming part of this entire project. I\u2019m hoping that I can use the skills that we learn at UH<\/abbr> to benefit more business, more companies, and help them solve the problems that they have.”<\/p>\n

A chocolate challenge<\/h2>\n

\"blocks<\/p>\n

Ray connected with Choco leʻa<\/span> owner Erin Kanno Uehara<\/strong>, a UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa alumna, who earned her bachelor of education in 2006 and master of business administration in 2013. In fact, a majority of Choco leʻa<\/span>\u2019s team are graduates from the UH<\/abbr> System, including from UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa and Kapiʻolani<\/span> Community College\u2019s culinary arts program. Uehara presented Ray with the challenge that her business has of finding chocolate molds at a low cost and Ray thought it was a challenge his students could tackle.<\/p>\n

The students created the designs in consultation with Choco leʻa<\/span>, then used food safe materials, a high-tech 3D printer in Ray\u2019s lab, and fabrication equipment in the UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa Department of Mechanical Engineering\u2019s new student ProtoLab to create the molds. The students also toured the chocolate shop in late April 2022, discovering first-hand how their molds were being put to use.<\/p>\n

“The collaboration with Choco leʻa<\/span> is an opportunity to both bridge classroom concepts with real-world design challenges and simultaneously give back to the community,” Ray said. “In addition, students are taught how to approach engineering in a consulting setting and gain hands-on experience in product development.”<\/p>\n

\"person<\/p>\n

“At Choco leʻa<\/span>, we use chocolates as a way to connect with others and it was an honor to be able to do it right here in our own community,” Kanno Uehara said. “A conversation with a chocolate friend led to an opportunity where together we could really ‘Bring peace to our world, one chocolate at a time.’ On behalf of my entire team, we are so grateful to have shared this collaborative experience to grow together. I hope more businesses and schools will partner up because we can all learn a lot from each other! Mahalo Professor Ray and the mechanical engineering students for your exceptional contribution!”<\/p>\n

This work is an example of UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s goals of Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>) and Enhancing Student Success<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), two of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Â鶹´«Ã½<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), updated in December 2020.<\/p>\n

—By Marc Arakaki<\/em><\/p>\n

\"people<\/p>\n

\"molds<\/p>\n

\"white<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Customized chocolate molds were provided to Choco leʻa<\/span> free of charge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[90,498,95,179,204,182,1466,1363,1496,146,9],"class_list":["post-158699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-alumni","tag-business","tag-college-of-education","tag-college-of-engineering","tag-education","tag-engineering","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-manoa-research","tag-mechanical-engineering","tag-shidler-college-of-business","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158699"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158723,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158699\/revisions\/158723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}