Whether CMU engineering teams are given a week or a whole semester, their projects are always innovative and exciting.
It’s easy to find teams of engineering students working together at Carnegie Mellon. Whether it’s for a project-based course, a short-term challenge, or just for their own interests, students have the tools, space, and funds at CMU to make it happen. The only thing they need to pick on their own? Ideas.
Two events where many students showcase their projects at once are the Mechanical Engineering (MechE) Design Expo and Build18, named for the course number prefix for the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE). Held at the end of the fall semester and the beginning of the spring semester respectively, these showcases of student ingenuity feature projects from the college’s two largest departments.
This year, students in the graduate course 24-686 Advanced Mechanical Design were prompted to “make something that I can’t find on Google” by MechE Associate Professor Rahul Panat. Undergraduates in 24-441 Engineering Design II: Conceptualization & Realization taught by MechE Assistant Professor Kate Whitefoot had the whole semester to go through the design process in its entirety. And for students optionally participating in Build18, the two limitations they had were a $250 budget and time—just a week to put together their prototypes when they returned to campus from winter break.
Kitchen ingenuity
One theme that was popular among Advanced Mechanical Design students was something that anyone can relate to: food. Everyone eats, and everyone wants the process of cooking and preparing food to be easy and fun. Mechanical and electrical additions keep the whimsy in the kitchen without as much of the hassle.
One group of students created S’moresBot 3000, which skewers and cooks marshmallows, arranges graham crackers and chocolate squares into rotating blue compartments, and even squishes the ingredients together for a compact snack.
A group of students tackled a redesign of the French press coffee machine to perfect their perk.
A student explains to visitors how their mug-washing device transfers soapy water to cups and mugs to make clean up simpler.
Connected to an Alexa device, this spice rack is voice-activated; saying the name of a particular spice will cause the system to rotate, bringing the stated spice to the front of the casing for the user to grab.
A student stands next to their gantry system for item storage and retrieval. Similar to a vending machine, a user can input a numeric code on a keypad to activate the gantry and retrieve their desired item.
Disability assistance
Multiple teams in the Conceptualization & Realization course and Build18 chose to use their engineering knowledge to make improvements to devices that assist with impairments and difficult physical activity. Since the Conceptualization & Realization students had a whole semester, they were even able to test their projects with individuals who actually use similar devices regularly.
To reduce the risk of individuals injuring themselves while carrying heavy objects on stairs, one team designed a more effective and ergonomic dolly-type device called the Staircat.
A student demonstrates how the CPRobot works. This medical robot can administer CPR and is also equipped with a defibrillator it can use autonomously.
One student group was inspired to update the clunky Perkins Brailler machine. The original design has remained untouched for over 60 years, and although it is useful to the visually impaired, the machine is also heavy, hard to repair, and expensive. This team incorporated a simple English-Braille translator, stripping out mechanical weight and replacing it with lighter electronics.
The ASL Robotic Hand uses small motors to pull strings connected fingers of the plastic hand. Users can learn more about ASL by inputting letters and simple words and then seeing how the hand forms the American Sign Language equivalent.
These glasses are equipped with Sight Text, a small computer system that detects lip movement to read lips for the user, ideally someone who has recently become hard of hearing and does not know how to lip read. The device features a small screen, which displays English words to match what it detects.
Another group was concerned about the safe mobility of those who make use of walkers, so they designed RollRite. By incorporating softer and larger grips to help those with a lack of grip strength, a taller frame to keep users from bending over too much, and automatic brakes so users can use the device to lift from a seated position without it rolling away.
Physical activity
A handful of student teams at both events focused on improving equipment used for physical activity and mobility. By making enhancements to pre-existing equipment, students were able to improve them for safety, for mental engagement, and even for artistic expression.
Although a punching bag is good for receiving practice blows, it does not engage boxers’ quick reflexes. This team chose to construct a sparring machine with LEDs to indicate which pads should be punched or kicked and a mitt to block or dodge.
One team created enhancements to a regular bicycle, outfitting it with a rear-view sensor that can detect when vehicles are close behind the cyclist.
This skateboard, cheekily named the Build sk18, is outfitted with multicolor LED light strips. The skateboard will light up with different colors and patterns depending on how fast it is moving and how hard the user kicks while skating. The team took advantage of this feature to create artistic long-exposure photographs of a skater’s path.
Gaming and visualization
Build18 often has a strong showing of video games, visualizers, and virtual reality experiences. This year was no exception. Since devices like the Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and Kinect are cheap enough for teams to afford with their $250 standard Build18 budget, they are able to produce a wide variety of fun activities.
These projects were appreciated by all the Build18 visitors, but especially by local high school students attending for day trips. These younger students were able to learn from undergraduate and graduate students about their designs, hopefully piquing the interests of more than a few young minds.
Inspired by the indie hit video game Untitled Goose Game, this whimsical robot was designed to follow individuals around, flap its wings distractingly, and HONK loudly.
This gaming system inspired by the Harry Potter franchise was particularly popular with visiting high school students. The game makes use of a Kinect and trackable wands. Users move the wands in certain patterns to activate a selection of magic spells, each of which light the wands up a different color. Source: Larry Rippel
This system uses two Logitech webcams to track the different colored balls at the ends of sticks. Each color represents a part of the unicorn character. One to three users can move the sticks to make the character move as they wish.
Students and visitors admire the holographic music visualizer that is digitally projected onto acrylic sheets.
A visiting high school student tries out PÆTHOS, a virtual reality system that uses EEG sensors from OpenBCI to measure electrical brain activity noninvasively to build a cognitive interactive experience. Users can use this VR system to explore their thoughts and meditate.
Additional innovations
At Build18 and the MechE Design Expo, there is always a wide variety of projects. Students participating in Build18 can pick any project to tinker on. While there are more requirements for mechanical design courses based on the curriculum, students still manage to put forth an assortment of projects, varying from fun and whimsical to useful and innovative.
One team constructed an origami table with a retractable lamp element. The color-changing lamp is able to be tucked down into the table, providing a flat surface or extra light as needed.
A student tries out the Rocket Shoes prototype. A powerful motor can be activated to propel the user forward by leaning to apply weight and pressure to the plate. The team used a rolling chair so visitors could pull themselves without needing to balance.
A student holds a drone in front of the Drone Swapper, a robotic machine that acts as a charging hub for drones. The system is meant to provide recharging opportunities for multiple drones so that the drones can take turns completing tasks together without needing to break to recharge collectively.
A student shows off the capabilities of the RoboHand, an Arduino-powered device that mimics human hand motions.
Although this may look like a typical speaker set up, the Dynamic Room Correction system uses its microphone to gauge a room’s acoustic response, essentially measuring it with echolocation. The system can then adjust its settings to perfectly tailor the sound for the space.
This small vehicle is the CMUCar. It uses LIDAR technology to detect obstacles and avoid them as well as GPS data to navigate CMU’s campus on its own.
One group endeavored to create a product for cleaning shoes, an alternative to paying for a service that can be expensive for footwear enthusiasts.
These shoes feature user-controlled, easily deployable and retractable spikes to give the user extra traction on icy or slippery terrain. The project has the added bonus of being constructed as an addition to the shoe’s sole, meaning it could be transferred to different kinds of shoes.
Also concerned with cold weather, one team designed a robot equipped with a snow shovel to autonomously patrol the sidewalks of campus, clearing them for pedestrians.
The Power Glove is intended to be a computer periphery tool; users can control computer functions with taps, flexes, and gestures.
This caterpillar-esque robot is called Naagin. It is designed to autonomously detect its environment so it can modify itself to change its mobility capabilities. Each segment is able to detach or attach as needed.
