Projects

There’s a lot house-buying advice out there, but it feels like most of that advice is based off of people’s gut instincts. As a gutless individual, I’d rather just stick with numbers. Numbers should make things simpler, right? [See More]

I invent new words and phrases on a frequent basis (e.g wungus, tingerling, little bibble). I don’t know what any of these words mean, but they sound like they should mean something. Can AI help us solve this problem? Probably not, but we might as well try. [See More]

Last year, I was fortunate enough to join the Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT as a Masters student. The CBA deals with an assortment of cool topics; the niche I chose to dive into was personal fabrication. [See More]

I recently saved a tiny Sherline 5040 mill from my school’s dumpster. What better way to make it CNC-capable than with an equally tiny control cabinet? [See More]

As is tradition, my friends and I attended MakeMIT (a hardware hackathon) for the 4th time. The theme of the night was… bananas. [See More]

My Mitutoyo Absolute calipers are one of my prized possessions, but the case they came in is a blow-molded atrocity. Asides from looking ugly, it also provides no protection to my calipers and takes up an enormous amount of space. I figured it was time to do something about this.... [See More]

I’ve always wanted to own a server rack, but most racks have a glaring problem. They aren’t cute. I want my server to be cute. Is that too much to ask? [See More]

I’ve always loved impressionist paintings, but I don’t think I could make one. My computer might have more artistic talent than I do, though. [See More]

Image colorization is a fun application of deep learning - but fun doesn’t mean easy. Training examples for image colorization can be made from any RGB image, so data is plentiful. But coloring an image, intuitively, cannot be done without some amount of image classification. We know that a banana... [See More]

The fastest pitch on record was 105mph. It’s amazing that a human body threw something that quickly - but it’s stranger that the human body did it with a “mechanism” that looks completely unfit for the job. How does a 3DOF arm with high distal mass throw something this quickly?... [See More]

The goal of this robot was to see how effective a unibody CNC’d frame would be on a battlebot. Most frames seem to break at the joints, so removing joints should theoretically make for a stronger battlebot. The second, hidden goal was to see how “easily” a CNC’d robot could... [See More]

Cats follow lasers. Lasers can be aimed by computers. Computers can run YOLO. YOLO can detect cats. We now have a beautiful hackathon project. [See More]

I can’t say that I had the honor of making that acronym - that goes to Prof. Slocum - but I did have the honor of actually designing them. [See More]

Sometime around November, my friend Alex decided that it would be cool to make a 250lb battlebot. I didn’t his whim to consume my life for the next 5 months and land me on a major network television show… but hey, life happens. [See More]

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Every college student with a mechanical engineering degree builds a robotic bartender at some point in time. They’re usually made out of peristaltic pumps and MDF, controlled by an Arduino, and fall apart after one usage. If they don’t fall apart, they get left uncleaned and become a habitat for... [See More]

ABS is stronger than PLA. Nylon is stronger than ABS. Fiber-reinforced nylon is stronger than nylon. Chocolate is superior to all of these. [See More]

There’s this great scene in Toy Story 1 where a giant claw machine picks up Buzz lightyear. [See More]

Our dorm’s kitchen is nominally disgusting. This is to be expected when 30 students are forced to use the same kitchen. [See More]

Update I had to disassemble this machine due to a lack of space, so I took a few minutes to record it in action. [See More]

The “useless machine” is a classic DIY project. It’s a box with a single switch. When you press the switch, the box extends an arm and turns it off. It is truly a masterful representation of existential ennui in the 21st century. Let’s make an excessive version of it. [See More]

How do you prevent a hall of rowdy mechanical engineering students from destroying brand-new power tools? Why is this even a problem? [See More]

Some projects are born of meticulous planning. Others are born out of boredom. Witness the latter with the following project: [See More]

“Cheap” and “Laser Cutter” are not words that are normally seen together; the CO2 laser tubes they use are often to blame for this. Cooling systems, high-voltage power supplies, and flying-mirror assemblies don’t help. [See More]

A head-pointer is a little-known tidbit of technology used by those with limited control of their extremities. It consists of a stick (often with a capacitive stylus attached) that is secured to the head of a patient. Using this stick, a patient can operate buttons, keyboards, tablets, and more using... [See More]

My girlfriend loves growing succulents, but the onslaught of homework we both get makes watering them impossible. As a Christmas gift for her, I decided to make a plant for her that she could never kill in the only way that an engineer knows - with a petting-fueled flower with... [See More]

MakeMIT, the largest annual hardware hackathon in NA, is my second Christmas. Teams of four are given 24 hours (or less, depending on the year) to construct a hardware project of their choosing. In 2016, four hallmates and I chose to create an automatic hotdog cooker. [See More]

Some say that necessity is the mother of all invention. I think that statement detracts from the essential role that boredom can play. During my high school years (9th grade), I decided to “portablize” a Wii gaming console so that I could play games on my bus rides to school.... [See More]