Student Work

I spent a couple hours today tearing down my newly purchased bike to see exactly what I’m working with. Luckily the engine is sound and will only need some basic maintenance before riding season this summer. After some work and research I have summed up my 5 biggest constraints. Time: Time is the biggest factor…

Time: It almost doesn’t need to be said, but the primary driving constraint on this project is the time remaining to have an operational product demo at the design expo in April. Cost: As with any non-defense/government project, cost will play a huge role in the components that I select to use. I am currently in…

For my project, I have decided to make an LED light fixture that is powered by an Arduino. Inspiration I have always really liked LED art instillations. I think they are very captivating and beautiful in their simplicity. For example, artists Jim Campbell creates LED instillations. Below is a picture of his instillation Scattered Light…

Cost – Although 3D printing and raw materials are fairly cheap, the strong Neodymium magnets required to levitate the motor rod are quite pricey in the quantities that this project calls for. Along with the cost of the magnets, the solar cells and magnet wire are also fairly pricey. Wood Working – I have never done wood working outside…

1.) Size: The size will limit what facilities I can use to 3D print my project. If it is too large I will be unable to 3D print it in the ITLL and perhaps Protogenics as well 2.) Mass: Since this product is meant for the kitchen, it should be fairly light weight. I hope to…

Building the “box” the map will sit in. I am still unsure whether I want the map to be horizontal, vertical, or at an angle, but am leaning toward an angle for design purposes. I haven’t worked much with power tools so I am sure this portion of my project will be a definite challenge…

2 plates with identical patterns (necessary for Moire effect) By definition, a Moire effect is a pattern that emerges from moving two identical patterns against each other. Perhaps there are unique results from using two different patterns, but the intrigue in this project is really the production of distinct geometric forms solely from rotating one…

My top five constraints in no particular order: Cost – I want to keep the project under $100 if I can due to my own budgetary constraints. This will also force me to be innovative in the way I implement some things if my cost starts to get too high. Light Diffusion – If the…

Implementing the Arduino is not too much of a challenge, but the hard part is making the project aesthetically pleasing with all the electronics sitting on top of the base. Maybe finding a way to hide the Arduino with a dome cover is an option. Chandelier must be in equilibrium, balancing perfectly while hanging from…

3D-printing only (DIY kit for Thingiverse) No fasteners (all parts must align or lock together without fasteners) Print Time (2-4 hours per prototype, so I can only cycle through a couple of iterations per day) Material properties (must make design considerations based on one type of filament – eg: a snapfit feature designed for PLA may not work for ABS due to…

From 3-7-16 Class: Our aesthetic was “Hippie Flower-Power” and the item was “walker.” We each designed a different type of walker: Brendan’s on the right and Meridith’s on the left.

For this project, I’ll be constructing a woven branch dividing wall that will be featured in the set of “Quantified Self”, a theatre production that some friends of mine are producing here at CU. The play takes place in a dystopian near future, and the aesthetic of the set is largely centered around something we’re…

BMW just showed a concept i8 called i8 Mirrorless at the CES. The car gets rid of the traditional rear view mirrors and adopted a whole new rear view system. The left and right rear view mirrors are now replaced with two cameras. The real time views of the left and right cameras and also…

For my final project I am going to build my own custom bicycle frame. While a modern custom frame can range from $2k-10K depending on the material, much of the cost is more for the labor and craftsmanship rather than materials. Custom paints and geometry only add to the cost. By doing all this work…

When considering what I wanted to produce for my final project, my mind immediately went to music and music instrument production. I’m not entirely sure why this happens, but it may be because I have experience with music instrument production through a class I took here at CU called Electronic Musical Instrument Design, or it…

In my main project, I decide to make an infinity LED mirror. An infinity mirror has three main components: a standard mirror, an LED strip, and a one-way mirror. The way we achieve the one-way mirror is by applying mirror tint onto a piece of glass or acrylic. The mirror tint faces towards the standard mirror…

For my project I wanted to work with speakers, but it seemed to simple and so I thought that it would be really neat to do a wireless speaker system. I always wanted wireless speakers but they wore all really expensive and I did not like how they look. By creating my own wireless speaker…

Introduction Over the next few weeks, I will be designing* and constructing a 3D printer, focusing on an aesthetic which will fit in my living room or even kitchen. So many home-built 3D printers and printer kits are bare skeletons of extruded aluminum and rods, with tangles of wire harnesses and exposed components. While this is typically the…

I have wanted to work with LED’s for a long time so for my project I will be making an LED rotating ball.  It’ll be a challenge for me as I have very little circuit and coding experience, but I am motivated to do well on this project.  When I first saw an LED ball…

First Impressions When I first began this project, I wanted to make sure that my personal style was obvious. I am a light hearted person who loves colors and gold. I talked about my art and love for jewelry in my previous posts. Jewelry, especially statement jewelry, is my favorite form of art because it…

INSPIRATIONS: Trimpin is a kinetic sculptor and sound artist who visited the ATLAS Black Box theater last semester (Trimpin’s Website). He installs exhibits where embedded microcontrollers around the room and within different components send MIDI data back to his computer and digitally produce sound. Some of the components produce live sound as well, as a…

COOL! That is what I want people to say when they see my final project. My overall goal for the Aesthetics of Design course is to fabricate a toy spider that can walk or jump across a table. I do not want to create a creepy realistic spider, in my mind that is boring. I…

The barn door can be an attractive and functional solution to the real challenge of dividing rooms where architecture and/or space don’t allow for a traditional door.  For my class project I have chosen to create a barn door for my home, partly out of necessity and partly for the challenge.   My guest bathroom…

For my final project, I plan on making an engineering/aviation style set of wind chimes.  Upon first sight the aviation aesthetic should really stick out, with either a model Super Hornet jet used as the bottom weight. It will be a functioning wind chime. My inspirations were the windy, windy weather in Boulder, along with…

My final project is based on the concept of a children’s music box, the wind up kind that have been played for centuries (see below). I have a fascination with old school mechanical movement, anything from clocks to watches even to old pinball machines that don’t use electronics at all, but instead rely on complex…

Until today, I still had no idea what I wanted to do, which is one reason this post is late.  Today, Wednesday March 2nd, was incredibly windy.  While I was walking between classes the wind gave me an idea, an inspiration you could say.  I decided to make a set of wind chimes.  Some examples…

For my final project I am making a dynamic Ferrofluid sculpture. I have been fascinated by ferrofluid ever since I came across it years ago in a lab and have always wanted to work with the stuff. There is an exhibit in the ITLL that continues to tease my interest every time I walk by. The…

What even is it? For my project, I’m building a bicycle frame. I’m trying to use a technology that was the cream of the crop during the late 80s and early 90s. Lugged carbon fiber. This process is essentially the use of metal to make the corners of the frame with carbon tubing adhered between…

I was on the fence about what I wanted to do for this project and have changed my mind to do something with a bike. I recently watched a video of early 90’s cycling and was captivated by the colors and flash that riders had back then. All the bikes that they rode were made…

My goal for this project is to create an infinity mirror that follows a certain aesthetic theme which will really help add to the illusion of the mirror.  With that, my teammate Sreyas recommended a “time” theme, explaining how time is infinite much like the infinity mirror.  After many dead ends in creativity and uniqueness…

My idea for my final project is to make a very large scale music box; these little trinkets were always beautiful to me as a kid. http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/x/small-music-box-5643196.jpg http://cf.ltkcdn.net/antiques/images/std/128210-400×265-jsw_inside_of_a_music_box.jpg   My idea is to make a wall art version of these, mounting it on a canvas or something similar. One of the neat things about these…