Design-Build Team: Kayla Guzovsky, Jay Rodman The goal of our project was to create both a sombrero and a maraca that would have special effects. For the sombrero, we wanted to make it play different songs depending on the position it was in. Instead of a regular maraca which makes the same noise consistently, we wanted to make an electrical maraca that would make 4 different shaking noises depending on the direction shaken. Finding a sombrero was difficult, and we ended up with a womens sun hat. To make it look more like a sombrero, we painted it red, white, and green to represent the Mexican colors. We also folded in the ends like a cowboy hat, because it was impossible to fold up the edge all around on such a flimsy hat.

Both the maraca and the Sombrero have an Arduino and an accelerometer inside them that connects them to the computer. To create the sounds, we used the Max software. In order for Max and Arduino to work together we had to use a special Arduino code, but most of the programming was done in Max. We decided not to connect the hat or the maraca to external speakers, so the music will play through a computer.

The accelerometer takes in the direction that the hat and/or maraca is moving and plays various instrumentals or shaker sounds. The person wearing the hat will be able to change the song that is playing, and use the maraca to play along with the song from the hat with multiple shaker sounds.

Post by Carli Jaff Here is another project from the



Lastly, Yash spent his 2 weeks in the Comics and Gizmos studio creating a pogo stick boot. Yashs inspiration for this gadget was Ironman, and his original idea was that the spring would allow the superhero to jump high. At first, he thought that a leaf spring (a single strip of metal that will bend) would work if one tracked it to their leg with a motor on it. That motor would in turn be attached to a spring. The bottom of the spring would be attached to a platform, which would be attached to ones shoe, and when one jumped, the spring would shoot the platform down. Once Yash got a pogo stick with a leaf spring, he took the inner springs out and experimented with them. Out of this trial and error period, Yash decided to shorten it to ones lower leg and put the leaf spring on and only have 2 springs in the pogo stick instead of 3. The stick would then operate under a ratchet system. However, this proved difficult because the spring was so strong that it was difficult to compress it. If Yash were to put a motor on the stick in order to compress the spring, it would make the whole stick too heavy. The pogo stick, in addition to the wall climbers, was not completed when presentations came around, but Yash explained that he is okay with this outcome because he learned so much during the process. Yash says that the most important thing he learned in this studio is to never be stuck on one idea; try many different options before settling on a final idea. Overall, Sam, Armando, Benji, and Yash created 3 very impressive products and look forward to using the skills they learned at NuVu in the outside world.


"Cold Blooded" by Sam Ingersoll

We had our Fall 2011 exhibit last weekend. It was a great opportunity for the students to show off their creations. This is also our first exhibit in the new space. We were not sure how we would run the exhibit but we settled on a gallery style with a few demonstrations. Most of the students spent all of saturday and sunday finishing off their projects and preparing food for the visitors. You can also see the crazy robotic chandelier hung in the back. The arms are supposed to move independently responding to data coming from different sensors.

The students put the newly acquired robotic arm to good use during our Spring 2011 Exhibit. NuVu students Mark and Noah transformed the Arm into a receptionist who hands out brochures to Exhibit guests. Mark and Noah spent a lot of time designing the Arms choreography, so the movement appears fluid and responsive to the guest's arrival. The Arm is equipped with a proximity sensor which triggers a sequence of coordinated movements when a guest approaches it: The robotic receptionist picks up a brochure and hands it to the guest, and as the guest takes the brochure, the Arm waves good-bye!

NuVu invites you to our Spring Exhibit at Beaver Country Day School. The event will showcase student projects from the Design for Development Spring trimester. Come explore students projects that addressed various challenges and opportunities facing communities all around the world, such as in Kenya, Nevis, India, El Salvador and Malawi. On display will be low-cost products, documentary films, an energy computer, and much more. Make smoothies with the pedal-powered blender, test out the pedal-powered water filtration system, and perhaps wash your clothes! Time: 2:00 - 4:00, Sunday, June 5th Location: Beaver Country Day School. 791 Hammond St Chestnut Hill, MA 02467

In the

Now, in our last day of design, it's thrilling to watch the final collection of six educational games take shape and begin the next phase of development.



As the studio coaches, the most exciting part of the process has been watching the students shift their thinking over the nearly two weeks to be more open-minded, yet also more in touch with the particular needs of the project. When we started last Monday we worked with the class to understand the context (India) and tools (Android Phones) we would be designing for--the key to the project was to create games for kids in India to play on one phone shared amongst a group. We jumped into our first round of design-brainstorming where students thought of a range of games -- team played snake, digital hide and seek, hot potato phone.



All of the games were centered on the device itself--they were concepts driven by what the phone could and couldn't do, not what the phone could help kids in India to do and learn in their environment. When we stepped back from the technology and conceived of games to reinforce and encourage new lessons independent of technology, a breakthrough happened. The students have designed excellent games that are supported by but not dependent on technology -- and now, another week later we have six exciting games which will soon be going into development.



All of the games encourage good habits, good health, and positive social skills--from one game which challenges kids to make up imaginative stories to learn emotional skills, to another that takes kids on a whirlwind dancing tour of India, or a third that engages kids as superhero sidekicks. As the main studio comes to a close,

Getting into the cultural context, Indian food for lunch!

Skype conversation with Tupur Chatterjee of

Students began the new year with the "Dancing Robots" Studio in the second unit of the Winter "Storytelling" trimester. Led by Sean Stevens, an Alternative Energy Artist and Scientist, and assisted by David Wang, our in-house Rocket Scientist, the studio focuses on designing, building and prototyping robots that can dance and emote based on stories and character descriptions the students develop. The studio integrates concepts surrounding energy and power, robotics, programming and mechanical construction using basic tools and free software, so that students will have the skills and knowledge to quickly design and build robots easily and anywhere!
The first day, students formed four teams and began the design process by brainstorming ideas about the types of actions and functionality desired for their robots. They then further iterated their designs with a focus on the expressiveness of the robot and its character as a guiding design element. Day two, Sean did a quick demo of how to quickly (and messily) prototype robots using basic construction tools, polycarbonate as a raw material, metal screws and servo motors. Students then began building their first prototypes out of cardboard and construction foam. Using servo motors connected to micro controllers that send and receive signals from an open-source, electronics prototyping platform called Arduino, students began testing how to make their robots move, dance and form expressive motions through basic programming. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming language. Receiving input from a variety of sensors, Arduino then can be used to control lights, motors, and other actuators on the robots.

Today, we constructed electric motors which work by using batteries to power an electromagnet that would spin a metal shaft that had magnets glued to it. The batteries had two wires coming off of them, one went to the electromagnet while the other went to a reed switch, and the reed switch was then connected to the electromagnet. The reed switch is used to turn the magnet on and off at the correct speed by breaking the circuit when not pulled by the magnets. The electromagnet would spin the shaft with the magnets glued to it when the two pieces of metal in the reed switch were connected.

This morning Charlie, David H., Jonathon, and Henry disassembled a Power Wheels Jeep Wrangler that they picked up on Friday. Everything that was attached by a screw was dismounted and the rest was cut out. Primarily, the guts, or electrical/motors, were salvaged.

The chassis was constructed after taking some basic measurements. An outlining frame, consisted of PVC piping was created and placed between two, cut, plywood pieces. Screws were bolted in to hold everything together for the axels to be attached to. The wires that were cut in order to disassemble the vehicle were soldered back together. After making sure that everything had proper connections, we moved onto the design of the shell. The goal of this project is to turn this battery operated kids toy into a solar powered, remote control car. Stay tuned for daily updates!