Class of 2018: EDI Thesis Projects

Each graduating student from the Engineering Design Innovation program completed a thesis project with support from faculty and industry mentors. The thesis projects spanned multiple fields of design including product, interaction, service, strategy, and user experience. The Class of 2018 presented their thesis projects during an exhibition fair on December 14, 2018. Learn more about each student’s final thesis project below.

Harrison Bourikas - Shuffle

Shuffle is a cloud-based software solution for gyms that are looking to provide a more informative and hassle-free workout experience for their members in the free weight and weight machine spaces of the gym. The software includes an administrative web/mobile application (Shuffle Administration) for gym employees, as well as a mobile fitness application (Shuffle Workout) for gym members. 

Colin Brown and Christopher Datsikas - Sol

Over 16 million people in the US alone experience the ‘winter blues’ or seasonal affective disorder - a form of depression caused by limited sunlight exposure around wintertime. Sol provides a clinically proven, medication-free treatment for seasonal affective disorder in the form of light therapy. Unlike traditional light therapy devices, Sol works harmoniously with people’s morning routines to encourage usage of the device.

Joseph Burke - Drumm

Drumm is an interactive music production device for use by music therapists in group therapy. It consists of a series of drum pads - one for each participant - that all connect to the therapist's iPad, which synchronizes everyone's input to make music. This system will alleviate some of the burden placed on the therapist by maintaining rhythm, promoting turn-taking, and allowing participants to more easily have creative input in the music making process.

Ivan Eduardo Calvachi - Lume

Lume bridges the gap between cyclist and drivers to reduce ambiguity on the road. By leveraging the vehicle as a point of interaction, Lume ensures that drivers and cyclists ackowledge each other during critial moments.

SueSan Chen - Kami

Kami is a simplified sheet set that is easier to use and helps keep your bed clean. The sheet wraps securely wraps around your bed without the need to lift your mattress and folds flat when not is use. The duvet opens in the middle instead of the edge and has an extra layer to protect sleeping surfaces.

Lydia Davison - Makeaway

Young adults can feel uncomfortable, overwhelmed, and excluded within making environments. Makeaway is an inspiring, mobile architectural structure that provides a positive and explorative environment. Makeaway empowers makers to confidently create within a welcoming, comfortable, and inclusive space. 

Enes Umur Gokcek - Gather

Eating lunch together with other employees at large organizations requires proactive efforts. Two-thirds of white-collar employees end up eating lunch at their desk alone and feel more stressed, fatigue and excluded. Gather is a service that connects employees to each other through simple on-demand lunch scheduling and engaging lunch experiences to increase collaboration and happiness at workplaces.  

David Jacob - Ally

The emergency room is a chaotic and overwhelming experience that can often make patients feel anxious and confused - especially if they are alone. Ally is a multi-channel service that meets patients where they are in order to proactively support them during and after discharge. With Ally, patients can confidently leave the ER reassured that they have all the information they need.

Jasmine Kim - Pebbie

Pebbie helps office workers better communicate their availability at their desk to co-workers in order to balance work and social interactions. Pebbie features a focus mode that will allows the user to get work done with less interruption. For urgent work-related questions, users have the option to ping co-workers or accept requests through gesture control.

Joshua Kim - Plus+

Proton therapy is a specialized form of radiation therapy for cancer patients. Due to the nature of this treatment, patients must be accurately aligned to the couch top for treatment during a process that can take up to 20 minutes. PLUS+ is a proton therapy couch top system that utilizes independently controlled panels to streamline the daily patient alignment process. PLUS+ aims to minimize the amount of x-ray radiation patients are exposed to, reduce the time patients spend immobilized, and improve clinical efficiency.   

Beth Lester - Nubo

Nubo is a smart nebulizer and accompanying interface designed for children with Cystic Fibrosis (CF), their families, and their pulmonologist. At-home airway clearance treatments are tedious and frustrating, especially during childhood, which often leads to conflicts between parents and children regarding CF care. Nubo helps engage children by creating an interface between the nebulizer and video games while improving treatment execution.

Morgan Lewis - Auxilia

Auxilia marks a new generation of guitar stands that reside on the guitar itself. This new stand stays out of the way and out of sight while you are playing, deploys automatically when you set the guitar down, and tucks away snuggly with your guitar in a hardshell case at the end of the day. Auxilia fits seamlessly on your guitar and within your lifestyle.

Anna O'Donnell - Denote

For learners of Mandarin Chinese, character writing skills degrade more quickly than speaking or reading skills without practice. Denote is a mobile web platform for language learners who have achieved high proficiency in Mandarin Chinese that provides learners the opportunity to practice their writing skills. Through iterative assessment of user level and integrated handwriting practice, Denote uses technology to reverse character amnesia instead of causing it.

Ellen Owens - rethread

rethread is a platform that extends the value of denim. rethread collects denim in your community with a convenient service that connects the donations to the value and impact they provide. These donations are repurposed into a product line that offers durability  to consumers seeking sustainable alternatives to their everyday products. Through a connected end to end process, rethread empowers consumers to make confident decisions towards a more sustainable lifestyle.

Byron Pang - Agratia

It's easy to focus on the few things that go wrong every day, and forget about the hundreds of things that go right. Agratia is an analog-digital journal which helps people recognize and reflect upon easily overlooked details and transform them into moments of gratitude. Prompts are provided in a thoughtful manner which guides these reflections to become more impactful and intuitive, while also encouraging expressions of appreciation towards others.

Mert Pekdemir - UpKeep

Bicycle maintenance is the key for safe and prolonged rides, yet it demands time, space and proper equipment that is hardly available for urban cyclists. UpKeep offers a novel bicycle station, designed for urban cyclists, that encourages routine maintenance through the provided space and equipment. UpKeep stations enable a rapid, self-cleaning service with one time use kits on the go, in order to ensure safer and more pleasant rides without compromising cyclists' daily tasks.

Shoshi Shapiro - Teens Take the Field

Youth learn that to succeed in school and academia one must not use their personal voice when writing. But, youth are the next generation and have a want to be heard. I asked how can I as a digital learning coordinator promote youth voice, and I will be sharing my work thus far.

Gar Waterman - Limited Addition

Metal sculptors operate on tight margins and face anxiety when making the large upfront investment required to have limited edition sets of their works fabricated by way of the age-old foundry system. Limited Addition is a fabrication service that leverages the low upfront cost and per-part economy of additive manufacturing processes, specifically metal 3D printing, to enable lower investment manufacturing for the artist. It includes a marketplace for connecting patrons with artists to increase the bandwidth of sales.