Often times, stressed caused by everyday bustle can be overwhelming and sometimes inescapable. My project serves as a wearable meditation device that offers stress relief for those around the wearer. Initially, I was going to create a device that could isolate the wearer in busy crowds in order to allow them a breif respite from all the surrounding activity. I was inspired by feather collars that are often seen on runways, but I could not figure out the mechanics of how the device would raise and lower in my first prototype. The first prototype would serve the same purpose as jewelry for the wearer, but it would not benefit anyone else, except for maybe a momentary distraction. I did not complete any other complete prototypes until my final version, so I mainly worker on the mechanics and design. First, I recreated the shapes from the deep-breathing gif using popsicle sticks and screws. Using this model, I considered all my options to create the blooming motion that I found so appealing about the gif. The first option I considered was shape-memory alloy. However, after attempting to 'program' the alloy, I realized that it could not hold the more defined angles that my design required. My next option was servos. I didn't want to use 30 servos (the number of joints in my design), so I tried to figure out a way to unfold the shapes using only one servo per shape. This prooved to be very difficult and time consuming, so I moved on to my third and final option: gears. Since I wanted my device to unfold in the same manner as the gif, I wanted the triangle to come up first and the heptagon to come up last, but I only wanted to use one motor. Using gear ratios, I was able to manipulate the motor's motion to bring up the triangle first but still have it reach its peak at the same time as the heptagon in the back. Once I designed and lasercut the gears, I encountered the challenge of having them turn without getting caught or disconnecting. So I 3D printed the smaller gears as one piece and separated the larger gears with acrylic pieces to reduce friction. Since the extensions would only be rotating from the bottom corners, I designed the extensions in Rhino to be more attractive since they would be the more passive aspect of the device.

Sometimes objects fall down, and we either can't or don't want to pick them up. Regardless of the case, the Trunk is here to help. This is not your ordinary household grabber, either; the Trunk has a unique piece of bendable wood that curves around objects you want to pick up at your command, as opposed to the standard claw mechanism. It can move in two directions, to open and close.

My original idea was to design something to the standard claw mechanism so that it could be opened and closed at the push of a switch, but after the idea's conception I was encouraged to go further and redesign the claw part entirely. To start brainstorming, I looked how various animals carried objects, specifically insects.

It was later that I then decided to look at elephants for their trunks (natural progression, I know) once I realized just how truly unique they were; instead of simply picking something up with little appendages, elephants use their trunks to curl around objects before bringing them to their mouth. It was here that I decided on my final general idea, and where I eventually decided on the name for the final product to be "the Trunk" (as well as the affectionate working title, Project Elefante).

Once all that was set in stone, I decided to go ahead and make the first iteration. For this design, I had a piece of cardboard in the shape of a long trapezoid split into 17 segments. Instead of slanted edges, they were set up like stairs (each segment was slightly longer than the last.

 People who live in small spaces often find it difficult to find space for their furniture. The Hoberman Chair is piece of furniture that transforms between two phases, a lounge chair and a space-efficient table. The chair uses the three-dimensional scissor mechanism invented by Chuck Hoberman, and popularized in the Hoberman Sphere, to expand and contract in three dimensions. The elegant and mesmerizing motion of the petal shaped pieces gives the user the impression of a flower blooming.

The table is formed when the outer segments meet together in the closed phase, and the piece sits parallel to the ground. In this phase, the legs are also oriented with a support that holds the table upright.

The chair is formed when the mechanism is opened, achieved by pulling outwards on the table. In this stage, the segments open up into a ring. The piece is then tipped onto its side, and rests on the edge of two of the four legs. Elastic string is weaved in the area inside the ring, forming a seat for the user.

A device that lets two people support the body weight of someone who is disabled and unable to support themself, allowing him or her to dance freely and return to a sport they love.

Our project is a device made to help a women named Marina, who suffered a traumatic brain injury that resulted in a partial loss of motion on the left side of her body and the inability to dance. Dance brings a story to life, animates a feeling, and spreads cultural awareness, but most importantly it's an expression of creativity and self. Dance brings beauty to the world and everyone in it. The device we developed will allow Marina to return to the art of dance, an activity that she loves, with her siblings who will be there to support her physically and emotionally. Our project addresses the post injury issues of exercise and physical interaction. By helping her to dance, Marina will be able to spend time with her siblings doing something they all love. In order to make this device we used PVC pipe for the two poles that makeup the frame and between them is a metal "Lazy Susan" with a harness in the middle. This allows Marina to spin around without needing to worry about holding onto something or falling. The pieces that attach the "Lazy Susan" to the pipes were 3D printed as were the pieces that stop the "Lazy Susan" from sliding to far up and down the poles. Additionally, caps on the ends of the poles which hold strapping that attaches to the support harnesses is also 3D printed. 

Our project is a mobile prosthetic that stimulates contralateral movement in the arms, training the forearms to mimic the natural human gait. 

The Armomat is a portable prosthetic which forces one arm to move back when the other is pushed forward, and vice versa. We created this project for a person named Joe, who suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was 18 years old, and has very little control over his right arm. He told us that he had trouble maintaining his balance when walking due to the fact that his left arm does not perform the natural human gait, as he cannot control it; because of this, Joe has to hold his weak arm with the arm he has control over, and we wanted to create something that would assist him. After two very work intensive weeks, my partner and I created several different iterations of methods that would help Joe walk normally, and after encountering countless issues, we created the Armomat.