Students Bring Great Ideas to Life in Prototyping Competition

04/19/2017
By Edwin Aguirre

Computer engineering junior Travis Kessler wanted to do something to help level the field for people with disabilities. He found inspiration in an unlikely source – an oceanic echinoderm believed to date back some 450 million years: the starfish. With the ability to regenerate limbs, the starfish offered a powerful example of resilience and renewal.

Using that as a model, Kessler teamed up with accounting junior Christopher Johnson, mechanical engineering junior Gregory Dorian, business administration junior Roma Aurora and electrical engineering senior Maxwell Roy. Working under the name Project Starfish, they created a prototype of a low-cost, 3D-printed prosthetic hand and entered it in the Francis College of Engineering Prototyping Competition, a contest that challenges students to bring their ideas to life.

The project won the first-prize purse of $1,000, along with feedback from alumni judges and professors. The students are using both to help refine further development of the prosthetic. 

“This product has the potential to help hundreds of people,” Kessler says. “And this proves that even though we weren’t graded and there’s no textbook or syllabus, we could come up with a prize-winning idea and prototype.”

Project Starfish was one of 22 teams to enter December’s Prototyping Competition, which is affiliated with the campus DifferenceMaker program, but with a twist – students have to build an example of the product they are proposing. The Francis College of Engineering supplies materials and the prize money.

“We’re very hands-on,” says Dean Joseph Hartman. December’s competition was the third annual one since Hartman and the college decided to join the popular DifferenceMaker challenges with an evening of their own.

“We wanted to do something, but we wanted it to be different,” says Hartman. “We asked ourselves: ‘What can we do that best fits our mission?’ It had to be something with the DifferenceMaker’s socially conscious mission, and it had to involve building a prototype, because that’s what we do – build things.”

They came up with a mantra for the competition: “Ideas are great, but we want you to build it!”

“This is how engineering is supposed to work,” says Hartman. “It’s not just the element of design, but also the making of the project.”

Since the prototyping contest began, more than 250 students have entered, although it is not an academic requirement. Two rounds of alumni judges with business experience decide the winners; the first panel of six queries the teams and chooses finalists to pitch to another panel of five judges in the final round.

Projects from the teams vying in December’s competition at the Mark and Elisia Saab Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center on North Campus included a real-time air quality monitoring system, an automatic stain remover for clothing, a device that allows a single syringe to be safely used for multiple drug injections and a hybrid musical instrument that can transform any object into a touch-sensitive device for making music. 

Anna Faber came up with the idea for Breezy, the air quality monitor, after hearing a story on National Public Radio about $200 monitors. She loved the idea of a low-cost monitor and wondered about the quality of the air she was breathing.  But one thing bugged her about the radio story. 

“That seems awfully expensive,” says the mechanical engineering senior. So she designed a real-time monitoring system that can be checked through cellphones or online. Her prototype won second place and $750.

As for Kessler and his teammates, they are committed to pushing ahead with development of the prosthetic hand. The group expects the work will continue over the summer. 

“I’m only a junior. But I want to see where this goes. Maybe it’s my future,” says Kessler.