student work

Why Educators Love Maker Faire 2013

Teachers love Maker Faire because they see how much it means to engage their students as makers. For Teacher Appreciation Week, we want to salute educators who bring the Maker movement to kids in schools and in after-school programs. We believe making has the power to transform education and develop the potential of every child to create and innovate. Getting making into schools can be difficult so we’re particularly happy to applaud the efforts of pioneering educators who are leading the way. It’s important that these pioneers realize that they’re not alone.

Continue Reading May 9th, 2013November 3rd, 2015 Michelle "Binka" Hlubinka

CNC Conversation Rocker

This was a reality check for me: Before there were TVs and computers, chairs were sometimes pointed at other human beings. Enter the “conversation chair,” for which I admit preferring the French term tête-à-tête: Two or more chairs built together, expressly for the purpose that their occupants sit and talk to one another.

Continue Reading May 11th, 2012 Sean Michael Ragan6

Matt’s Electromechanical Alpha Display

Cool student project from our own Matt Richardson, who built this single-character “combination lock” text display for Daniel Rozin’s Designing for Digital Fabrication class in the ITP program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Continue Reading May 9th, 2012 Sean Michael Ragan

The Great Concrete Canoe Race

For me, Concrete Month has been about discovering all kinds of amazing uses for a material that, before, had seemed pretty mundane. But among engineers, that sentiment—that concrete can do so much more than we normally ask of it—is not new. Case in point: the concrete canoe phenomenon.

Continue Reading April 30th, 2012 Sean Michael Ragan6

Oobleck for Potholes

A group Case Western Reserve University undergraduates have created a waterproof Kevlar-reinforced pouch filled with shear-thickening fluid that can be simply dropped into a pothole to effect a quick fix. Under its own weight, the goo flows to take the shape of the pothole. But when a car drives over, it thickens in response to the applied force and supports the weights.

Continue Reading April 30th, 2012 Sean Michael Ragan10

Pipe Crawling ‘Bot

An oldie-but-goodie from a student project at Florida Atlantic University. This pipe inspection robot has a modular “train car” or “snake” construction and uses an unusual “screw drive” mechanism to pull itself along the pipe. Best of all, it comes with a very well-told story.

Continue Reading April 23rd, 2012 Sean Michael Ragan2

Belt-Driven, Hubless Rear Wheel Bicycle

The aim was to use a hubless wheel to create a compact bicycle, with the benefits of a large wheel and belt drive.Hubless wheels have appeared in bicycle concepts already, and were first invented by Sbarro. However, few concepts have made it to prototype and when only used for aesthetic purposes, the disadvantage of extra cost out weights the visual gain. Lunartic uses the hubless for a reason; to house the working parts, reducing the wheel base but not sacrificing conventional riding geometry. Lunartic is supposed to be as compact as possible without folding or being awkward to ride, however there is the potential for the front wheel to fold up into the rear or for that space to be used for a laptop back, motor or dynamo.

Continue Reading April 7th, 2011 Sean Michael Ragan48