Mostly a smattering of projects from my work on the "Future of Making Things" team at Autodesk, or my time at Olin and MIT.
Most of the projects that actually made it to production - like a purse for Calvin Klein or a circular keyboard played by Lady Gaga’s pianist at the Super Bowl - were co-created with customers and aren't publicly shareable, but I’m always happy to talk about them in person.
Projects are individual unless otherwise noted.
CAST CONCRETE SINK 2016
With new animation features rolling out, I designed a cast concrete sink to share in a tutorial video, using the modeling/pouring/and assembling of the system as an example.
UNDER-ACTUATED HAND 2013
In this course-culminating project, I worked on a team of four to design and build a sheetmetal, plywood, polymer, and plastic Under-actuated hand. The final prototype (video at left) lifted the most in the course (12 pounds), and was ranked highest in aesthetics by students in the course. The system was designed in SolidWorks and prototyped using a laser-cutter, water-jet cutter, 3D-printer, and polymer molds.
PARAMETRICALLY-DRIVEN HEADPHONES 2017
In this course-culminating project, I worked on a team of four to design and build a sheetmetal, plywood, polymer, and plastic Under-actuated hand. The final prototype (video at left) lifted the most in the course (12 pounds), and was ranked highest in aesthetics by students in the course. The system was designed in SolidWorks and prototyped using a laser-cutter, water-jet cutter, 3D-printer, and polymer molds.
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP WITH WILL.I.AM AND THE PRINCE'S TRUST 2014
At a two-week London workshop co-sponsored by Autodesk, Makerversity, the Prince's Trust, and Will.I.Am's I.Am.Angel Foundation, I led industrial design and mechanical engineering instruction for students from underprivileged backgrounds, mentoring them through projects combining electronic music, programming, and product design. Their work was later exhibited at the Barbican, where Will.I.Am performed with their instruments, and many participants went on to pursue further education or launch startups in related fields.
SMART CLOCK 2014
We were working on projects that change the way we think about smart devices. One of the designs I worked on was a smart clock with an analogue interface that interfaced with the alarm clock on one's cell phone. The idea was bring character and story into a morning routine and onto a nightstand near you.
JACK-IN-THE-BOX 2012 with Casey Landey
This semester-long project to design and prototype a children's jack-in-the-box with moving visible front gears was meant to cover the entire process of designing for manufacturing. Our final deliverable was a full manufacturer's package containing both drawings for a fully manufacturable injection-molded product, as well as manufacturing and assembly instructions. We also created a 3D-printed looks-like/works-like prototype (video demo below).
MICROFLUIDIC RESPIRATORY MODEL 2010 with Torey Bird
For In this prototyping project I worked on a team of four to design and build a laser-cut plywood board of planar mechanisms. The system was powered by a pendulum and escapement, driving a belt drive that utilized a cam, rack-and-pinion, planetary gears, and lever to actuate a Mario character over obstacles on a spinning world.
HIDDEN ACTIVITY SENSOR 2015
My team at Autodesk partnered with Hackster.io to put on a "Hack the Home" design challenge. My example project submission was an electronics sensor casing that's 3D-printed and hidden in the trim of a door. A more advanced maker project would be cutting a piece of trim and cnc-machining the interfaces for the electronics. The initiative was a big success, with hundreds of submissions and a notable amount of community engagement.
CUSTOM DISHWASHERS WITH GE 2015
At FirstBuild, GE’s innovation lab in Louisville, KY, we developed a workflow for custom dishwasher rack design based on individual loading preferences. Using a phone and 123D Catch to create a 3D model of a loaded dishwasher, users could then sketch contours in a universal drawer to generate personalized inserts that both secure dishes and suggest optimal arrangement.
CUSTOM DISHWASHERS WITH GE 2013
Through Autodesk’s sponsorship of Greentown Labs, I partnered with Technical Machine to design customizable, 3D-printable cases for their JavaScript-enabled Tessel microcontroller. Built in Fusion 360, the open-source designs empower web developers to bring IoT ideas to life — downloadable, modifiable, and ready to print or laser-cut without the need for mass production, and in spirit with their open-source mission.
GENETIC ENGINEERING: MULTIPLE GENE PROMOTORS 2010 with Kendall Pletcher and Hande Piristine
Bit of a curveball here, but I was on a member of a team of three that designed a genetic plasmid that investigated the ability of e.coli to express computing logic through the probability of gene expression given multiple gene promoters presented before encoding to produce lactose (LacI gene). The results were inconclusive, but the methodologies and experiment were a fascinating learning experience.
MY FIRST ENGINEERING PROJECT EVER - A MECHANICAL HOPPER 2009
Tasked to design a child's toy after a jumping mechanism in nature, I researched the design of nature's click beetle to create a similar mechanism for this freshman design course. Two iterations led to a third and final prototype that jumped over the 1m goal, and spun according to project goals as well.
COFFEE MAKER 2016
In a semester-long project, my team of four engineering students designed a production-ready remote-operated vehicle to rescue crashed submarine robots for the college. We designed Power, Structure, and Transmission systems through three iterations, with the final iteration employing a candle-wax-controlled lasso to grab the sunken robot.
REMOTELY-OPERATED RESCUE SUB 2011
In a semester-long project, my team of four engineering students designed a production-ready remote-operated vehicle to rescue crashed submarine robots for the college. We designed Power, Structure, and Transmission systems through three iterations, with the final iteration employing a candle-wax-controlled lasso to grab the sunken robot.
LUXURY BATHTUB 2016
Sometimes things are just for fun.
OLIN BOX 2012
Given the directive to design a laser-cut plywood box with six different types of joints and four different types of fasteners, I designed and built this laser-cut box with butt, stepped-dovetail, rabbet, mitered rabbet, mortise-and-tenon, and dado joints. Walls feature a sunrise, skyline, hourglass, equalizer bars, and "Olin College."
SMART TV REMOTE 2016
Designed to test and showcase new simulation features in Fusion 360, as well as new focal length functionality in Fusion's native rendering engine. Nothing revolutionary here, design-wise, Except a hand double-thumb keyboard 🎉
MARIO PLANAR MECHANISM BOARD 2012
For In this prototyping project I worked on a team of four to design and build a laser-cut plywood board of planar mechanisms. The system was powered by a pendulum and escapement, driving a belt drive that utilized a cam, rack-and-pinion, planetary gears, and lever to actuate a Mario character over obstacles on a spinning world.
LAUNCHING AN EDTECH ANALYTICS STARTUP IN TEL AVIV 2018
My interest in the history and developmental factors of established innovation hubs like Boston, San Francisco, and Tel Aviv, led me to take a winter break MBA work-study in Israel, where my team of four spent a few months studying Israel's unique history that lead to it being a leader in startup innovation, and spent three weeks in Tel Aviv working with Time To Know, an EdTech startup, to develop a new business around their developing predictive analytics tools. While most of the project is under NDA, the poster above outlines the process we took in research and development of a Go-to-Market strategy.