Bone-shaped bottle and label design for new organic dog product company. The bone shape is uninterrupted by having the top of the bone be a cap over the pump handle.
Playlamp is a noninvasive tool for monitoring the early development of children considered high risk for developmental disorders such as autism. Playlamp is a noninvasive tool for monitoring the early development of children considered high risk for developmental disorders such as autism.
Date: 2007 December - 2008 June
Tools used: 3D Printer, Lasercutter, Waterjet, Mill, Solidworks.
Designed and manufactured a small tabletop lathe capable of cutting steel and aluminum parts within a tolerance of ± 0.001 inches over the range of motion of the lathe. Parts were designed and spec'd to achieve desired performance and tolerances using failure analysis, finite-element analysis, and static mechanical analysis using homogenous transformation matrices. Crossfeed table made use of specially designed damper for minimizing mechanical vibration.
Around the world, shea butter is used as a cosmetic product and cocoa butter substitute. The SheaCycle is a recumbently pedal powered device that grinds shea nuts into paste, replacing two steps of the current process for producing shea butter. The SheaCycle is made from locally available materials and takes advantage of locally available manufacturing processes.
Inspired by howling footballs, the Whistling Ninja Yo-Yo has four built in whistles and is made of injection molded and thermoformed plastic parts, and was designed using Solidworks. Molds were CNC machined from aluminum blanks.
The Backpack houses active vision and touch robot Trisk's controllers and amplifiers for its motors and sensors. The design is highly modular, easily adjustable, and provides means of cable routing and strain relief.
This two motor jointed robotic arm is tangibly programmable. The arm can be moved by hand through a series of positions which can be recorded to memory and played back sequentially.
This project performs wireless power transfer using magnetic induction and coupled resonance. A transmitting coil powered by a PWM and frequency adjustable H-bridge is tuned to resonate with the receiving coil's LC circut. The receiving coil compares the rectified DC voltage with a set value and turns on a high power LED if that voltage is achieved.
The six semicircular legs invoke the natural properties of hoop structures and the wood itself to turn the bed into a giant spring, thereby avoiding the need for a boxspring. The headboard appears to float when a mattress is added. Constructed out of maple, black walnut, and birch plywood.
The Bug is the first ever violent tangible interface. When The Bug detects motion, its eyes glow and its wings flutter as it begins to record audio of its surroundings. To playback the recorded audio, the user faces the ethical dilemma of permanently destroying The Bug to hear its story or to let it live a while longer. Bug body created using 3D Printer, folded cardboard box using lasercutter.
Date: 2006 September - 2006 December
Tools used: 3D Printer, Lasercutter, Solidworks, plaster mold, custom software.
This car picks up balls passively by driving into them with its plow and a one way gated mouth. Balls are deposited out of the rear opening by means of gravity. This design simplified driving and allocated all four motors to driving the wheels.
Date: 2007 February - 2007 May
Tools used: 3D Printer, Lasercutter, Waterjet, Mill, Solidworks.
This machining exercise makes use of stirling heat cycles to drive a flywheel. Slight modifications from the stock engine design to have lighter linkages and make use of carbon powder lubrication made this stirling engine capable of 450 RPM using only a small ethanol burner.
The dinosaur nametag was created as a design exercise and used in the classroom. The bottom of the nametag is designed to fit into a slot on the desks in the lecture hall. Lasercut from birch plywood.
Design assignment to turn plastic water bottles into something functional. A lampshade and two vases serve functional purposes while transcending the aesthetic limitiation of their material source.
MIT 6.370 Battlecode is an annual programming competition held at MIT during its January Independent Activities Period. Entrants program the behavior of their army of robots in a space-themed real-time strategy game. MIT needed promotional flyers, t-shirts, and a webpage splash to promote the class and final competition. Also designed the in-game character sprites.
As part of a two week curriculum of physics and thermodynamics at three high-schools in China, students designed, built, and flew ethanol powered hot air balloons using core concepts they had learned in the class
