2.009 class presents capstone projects
2.009 class presents capstone projects
Students in 2.009 (Product Engineering Processes) presented final projects on Monday to potential funders, the MIT community, and guests. The theme to inspire this year’s designs was “adventure.”
Live music and videos about 2.009’s students, mentors, and past projects were interspersed throughout the show. Each team gave an eight-minute presentation showcasing its product, giving technical background, and discussing market predictions, followed by five minutes of audience questions.
The Pink Team presented Origin, a durable, lightweight wristband meant to help skiers locate each other on the slopes independent of cellular service. Origin implements its own GPS network, and allows for syncing with fellow skiers and “pinging” to check in and call for help if needed.
Terrainer, demonstrated by the Blue Team, is a motor, controller, and phone app set that can be installed in a regular bike to provide varying resistance like an exercise machine. Bikers can customize their workout without sacrificing the outdoor experience.
Changing the focus from sports to medical devices, the Silver Team designed Contour, a below-the-knee adjustable prosthetic that uses granular jamming technology in its socket to conform to the user, rather than the user having to adjust to it.
The Purple Team presented Upbeat, a drum kit with lights on the rims that illuminate to indicate which drum to hit when. The product also includes an app to show written music, and the system carries both “practice” and “compose” settings.
Wali, the Green Team’s project, is a hands-free baby gate that projects a conical sensor to detect approaching figures within the standard adult height range. If it detects such a figure, it unlocks. Wali is meant to replace ugly and inconvenient manual baby gates.
The Red Team demonstrated Otto, an automatic longboard brake that engages when there is no weight on the board in order to prevent boards from rolling away when a skater falls off. Escaped boards may hit pedestrians or run into traffic, and children often chase after their escaped boards without paying attention to where they are going.
The Yellow Team designed Sunflower, a low-cost heating bassinet for premature children who cannot keep themselves warm. The bassinet can maintain heat without power for up to 40 minutes, crucial for hospitals with unreliable power supply, and is transparent to allow for concurrent jaundice phototherapy.
Finally, the Orange Team presented KOACH, a heavy bag containing a system that records punch force and factors in height, weight, and boxing experience to develop an individualized score for a boxer. Implementing KOACH in gyms allows for competitions that transcend physical and skill differences and do not involve actual combat.
Because of the “adventure” theme, the students presented 2.009 Professor David Wallace PhD ’94 with signed and colored penguins from the cartoon “Adventure Time” at the end of the presentation.
—Sanjana Srivastava