EOH 2016: From VR and edible 3D printing to an immovable cheese wheel

 

 

 

This year’s Engineering Open House upheld its reputation for being jam-packed with creative and innovative exhibits.  The following is a snapshot of just some of the many student projects on display this past weekend.  

 

ECEB had an interactive “music player” created with conductive paint; the paint itself served as part of the circuit.  Touching or waving a hand in front of the shapes painted on the poster board produced different notes and animal sounds.  

 

Also in ECEB was a display for Project Andy, which studies 3D printed robots.  The project showed off its life-size humanoid robot.  Named Andy, the robot can be built for less than $1,000 and has 27 degrees of freedom.

 

In CSL, one research group showed off an infrared depth camera that connected to different computer-simulated environments.  By keeping both hands over the camera, users could see their hands appear on the screen in the environment.  Their motions in the air translated to the motions of the hands on the screen. For example, by pantomiming picking up a block (and accounting for depth), they could pick up a block in the room on the screen.  

 

CSL also had, among other exhibits, a Minecraft-themed power grid, a virtual reality human heart demo, and a lock-picking station that gave lessons on how to pick padlocks.  Interesting fact: lock-picking kits are legal in Illinois, but you can only use them on locks that you own.

 

Behind CSL, the North Campus Chiller Plant (one of three chiller plants on campus) was open to the public and had exhibits providing an overview of utilities production.

 

Inside the Hydro Lab, one project had a projector showing a map of campus.  A computer mouse served as a rain cloud and would rain on whatever buildings were clicked on.  The map also showed the paths the water took as it flowed away after hitting the ground.  Champaign is actually a relative high point, so the water shown flowing away from buildings on campus moved through the streets in several directions.  

 

Siebel Center had a 3D printer that used sugar as its material.  There was also an interactive music room.  The room was lit with infrared lights and had a large projector screen on one wall with animations of clouds and streaks and paper airplanes moving around.  Students could stand in front of the screen and interact with the animations by waving at them.  Doing so produced different beats and sounds depending on which animation responded, creating a song that sounded similar to upbeat electronic ambience.

 

In addition to the regular Caterpillar and John Deere exhibits in MEL, there was also a table with a clear plastic gearbox displaying how a car’s transmission works.  Cranking it by hand caused the gears to spin, either in drive or in reverse.  

 

On the second floor in MEL, ASME had The Mighty Cheese, a large flywheel embedded in a cheese-themed cylinder.  Once the flywheel was cranked (which was done by hand using magnets), it became extremely hard to interfere with the wheel’s inertia.  This gave the light foam wheel the effect of being very heavy and difficult to tip over or move—so difficult that the wheel had to be contained within a wooden enclosure to ensure it wouldn’t move too far away as it slowly rotated around a slightly angled axis.  

 

Similar to ASME’s chocolate injection molding, SEM had chocolate 3D printing, complete with a cooling system to expedite the hardening of the liquid chocolate. Among other projects, SEM had a mechanical s’mores-making machine as well.

 

Also in MEL, Illini Hyperloop had a booth displaying examples of the technology they used in the SpaceX Hyperloop Competition. 

 

Friday night was the Tesla Coil Concert, where two tesla coils played songs through static electricity discharges reminiscent of lightning.  The coils harmonized with each other over the melodies for songs such as “Radioactive” and “Uptown Funk,” and played along to “All About That Bass,” “Best Day of My Life,” “Popcorn,” and “Shake It Off,” among others.  “Psy” danced around the coils during “Gangnam Style,” and Darth Vader fought the static with light sabers during his theme song from Star Wars.  The Super Mario Bros. theme and the height of the dueling banjos song from the movie Deliverance were also played.  The concert, which opened with the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey, lasted more than an hour and also included a wood burning demonstration courtesy of the coils. 

 

Newmark, DCL, MNTL, Talbot, Transportation Building, Ceramics Building, Engineering Hall, Bardeen Quad, MSEB, and Loomis Lab also had project displays, making for another successful and extensive EOH.