MAKE-ing it happen at MakeMIT 2015
MakeMIT 2015 just happened over the past weekend on Saturday, February 28th, 2015. It drew over 200+ students that were excited and passionate about designing and building. They were given 15+ hours to prototype their ideas, with the top 10 teams coming back the following weekend to refine their design.
Before the opening ceremony, we got a chance to engage with the students, they were enthusiastic and pitching their ideas to us
Hardware checkout was on the 2nd floor, a line began to form as soon they were operational. Everyone just can’t wait to get their hack on!
Teams immediately got into action. As soon as they got their hardware, they were back at their tables with their teams, testing out their designs and ideas. As you can see in the picture above, the Intel Edison was a popular choice for the students; how many can you see in the picture above?
There were a lot of creative projects going on, with this event being a hardware hackathon, we saw a lot of designs utilizing servos, motors, and various sensors. We’re always there to help if the teams ran into any software or hardware problems.
The students were well-versed in CAD and made liberal use of the provided 3D printers, as well as the laser cutters. We saw lots of interesting mechanics and structures integrated in their projects.
There were tons of great projects that got built in the span of just 15 hours! This was simply phenomenal and we would like to applaud all teams for their amazing work.
Overall, there were 50+ team projects, and below we have a recap of all the projects that were built using the Intel Edison:
Team 47 built a real-time video monitoring system for law-enforcement using the Intel Edison. It also monitors their vitals, such as their heart rate. This data allows them to map out stress/danger zones based on stress levels of the wearer and also triggers video streaming once they reach a certain threshold. Built by Alexander Hadik, @jungomitis, and @joshiau
Team SLAM-ing 40s - The S.L.A.M. Bot
Team SLAM-ing 40s built the amazing S.L.A.M. bot. It is a robot on wheels that maps out its surroundings using a LIDAR. It roams freely and avoids obstacles, while sending this sensor data back to a web server. Built by @madscientist11, @Saarth2012, Michael Searing, Joseph Kochevar, and Doyung Lee.
This team built a robot car powered by the Intel Edison.In their spare time, the team constructed a laser-cut spire that spins. It is guaranteed to inspire and awe its audience. Built by Kevin Kwok and Ben Chan @Vervious
Team LED Zeppelin - LED Spin Staff
This team set out to create an LED staff that shows various light patterns as you spin it around. It has an Intel Edison and battery attached on one end, and a series of LEDs on the other. Built by Sasha Riekard, Ebeth Mittman, and Allie Stanton
Team Bons Hi - You can grow a bonsai and be friends with it too!
Team Bons Hi made an attractive little Bon Sai garden with a personality. It is an Intel Edison powered green house that allows you to grow and nurture your Bon Sai plant. At the same time it has a A.I. voice over that allows you to talk to your plant! Built by Norihito Naka and Sopuruchukun Ezenwa.
Team Crimson45 - Securidesk (Top 10 finalist)
Team Crimson45 was well aware of the troubles in using public spaces with your personal laptop: every time you need to leave or get up, you need to secure your belongings or have some stranger look after it for you. Their solution? A pressure sensitive desktop powered by the Intel Edison that alarms and alerts you through the phone if anything is removed from your desk! Built by John Holland, Jessica Lam, Joy Hui, and Fiorella Vargas
Team 25 built the prototype of a robotic wheelchair with the Intel Edison that can be controlled with a MYO armband, allowing people with disabilities to control where they want to go with just a flick of their arm. They also created a phone app that lets you do the same without a MYO band. Built by @otrollseags, @wengoatzeng, @shramanrc, and Kimberly Leon.
Team 16 - The car that believed it could
Team 16 build an autonomous car using the Intel Edison. It uses 4 push buttons located on each side to detect collision and reroutes accordingly. Built by @mrdavidliang and Tony Lao.
Team Catbots built a swarm of robot “cats” with the Intel Edison that roamed about and reacted to light sensors. Their vision is to have a swarm of robots that can be controlled by using gestures and laser pointers. Built by John Bowler, Alan Chiao, Amruth Venkatraman, Karen Hao, and @flnunez11
Team ROVR built a robotic rover using the Intel Edison that can act as a telepresence device. It works with VR goggles (using Google Cardboard) that allow you to see what the rover sees; head movements are translated into camera movements, allowing the wearer to truly immerse themselves. Built by Ziggy Q Kotchetkov, Rhed Shi, Ryan Lee, Vincent Chow, Jeff Chen.
Team 2E Strikes Again - PentaTune
Pentatune is a music generation/collaboration device that allows you to create your own jam and share it with your friends. It comes with 5 buttons that activates a different sound clip when pressed, allowing you to to mix your own tunes. Built by @Manny4C, @jenniferjzhang, Lucia Liu, Samantha Bishamber, and Justin Xiao
Team 11 - A new IoT Architecture
Team 11 came up with a brilliant idea to connect IoT devices: give them a common protocol and domain specific language, allowing programmability and interoperation of different IoT devices. Built by @nalinimsingh and @anishathalyo
Team WeLock - YouLock (1st Place Winner)
YouLock is a bike locking system that allows remote securing of bikes, as well as commoditizing the process. Powered by the Intel Edison, YouLock is a great fit for campuses and public areas. Anyone can lock their bikes without the need to bring their own and fear having their bikes stolen or locks vandalized. Built by Fiona Paine, Atif Javed, Farhan Khan, Tristan Paine, and Jen Cardona.
Team 3D Rock - Contour Modeler (Best use of Intel Technology Winner and 3rd Place Winner)
Contour Modeler is a 3D modeling system that allows you to draw in open space using a tethered pen, which will then generate a 3D model based on your movements. The contraption consists of 3 Redbull cans and ultrasonic sensors to measure hand movement. Built by Jiao Hao Li, Mitchell Ga, and Hung Jui Huang.
After 15+ hours of hacking and demos the event comes to an end. The top 10 projects were chosen by a panel of judges and they got to pitch their ideas on stage one last time before the top 3 teams were chosen. We’re super excited to see that 2 of the top 3 teams used Intel Edisons for their project.
Team WeLock - YouLock (1st Place)
Team 3D Rock - Contour Modeler (3rd Place + Intel Prize)
Team Crimson45 - SecuriDesk (Top 10 Contender)
The Boston Globe also has an article recapping the event which can be found here: MakeMIT Undergrads Hack High Tech Tools
Overall we had a great time at MakeMIT and it was exciting to work with all the students and their innovative projects. We would like to thank the hardworking organizers and other sponsors that made this event possible. We look forward to participate in this event again next year!
