The inclusion of a floating lamp, bed or just about any appropriately-sized household object in a room is almost certain to be received with open-mouthed wonder and demand closer inspection from the curious minds of young and old alike. Add the wireless transfer of power into the mix and you're guaranteed to have a winner. Such is the case with 18 year-old Chris Rieger's LevLight. It's not exactly huge, doesn't break any new ground in a technical sense and is more functional than flashy. Nevertheless, the floating LED is quite the visual feast.
http://www.gizmag.com/rieger-wireless-power-levitating-led-light/23222/
This student designed dishwasher should be much cheaper to buy or run than the typical model. There's a reason for that . it's powered by hand. The Circo manual dishwasher is designed for use where space is limited, or by people who cannot afford an electric dishwasher.
http://www.gizmag.com/circo-manual-dishwasher/39359/
Held in China and the United States over the past week, the 2013 International Aerial Robotics Competition saw the team from Tsinghua University successfully complete an elaborate autonomous espionage operation that was first proposed in 2010.
http://www.gizmag.com/international-aerial-robotics-competition-2013-results-uav/28622/
When the first living visitor from Earth lands on Mars we might well expect it to be a man or a woman, but if students from the University of Southampton Spaceflight Society have their way, it could be one small step for a lettuce. That may seem more than a bit mad, but its part of an experiment to see if crops can grow in the Martian environment as a prelude to colonization.
http://www.gizmag.com/mars-one-lettuce-southampton/35424/
A new breed of robot fish that is both relatively inexpensive and highly customizable is teaching students between the ages of 10 and 18 about technology and biology. It's the latest in a line of biologically-inspired underwater robots developed within the naro (nautical robots) project at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), which has previously developed robots based on tuna fish and sea turtles.
http://www.gizmag.com/naro-nanin-robot-fish/28309/
When the first living visitor from Earth lands on Mars we might well expect it to be a man or a woman, but if students from the University of Southampton Spaceflight Society have their way, it could be one small step for a lettuce. That may seem more than a bit mad, but its part of an experiment to see if crops can grow in the Martian environment as a prelude to colonization.
http://www.gizmag.com/mars-one-lettuce-southampton/35424
We.ve seen Pavegen's energy-harvesting tiles turning up in a variety of places to harvest some of the kinetic energy generated while walking or running over them. But a team of students at Rice University has put the shoe on the other foot with PediPower—a prototype device that attaches to a shoe to harvest energy generated when the heel hits the ground.
http://www.gizmag.com/pedipower-kinetic-energy-shoe/27591/
The fastest serve ever recorded by a ping-pong player moved at about 70 mph (113 km/h). Professor Mark French of Purdue University's Mechanical Engineering department and his graduate students, Craig Zehrung and Jim Stratton, have built an air gun for classroom demonstrations that fires a ping-pong ball at over Mach 1.2 (900 mph or 1,448 km/h). As the picture above shows, that's fast enough for the hollow celluloid balls to blow a hole through a standard paddle.
http://www.gizmag.com/how-to-build-a-supersonic-ping-pong-gun/26082/
How do you deflect a civilization-destroying asteroid that's heading straight for Earth? Shoot paintballs at it. This may sound like an exercise in futility, but if the calculations of MIT graduate student Sung Wook Paek are correct, then the sport of running around in the woods shooting splotches of paint at people on the weekends could get a lot more respect.
http://www.gizmag.com/paintball-asteroid-paek/24736/
Antimatter propulsion is the Holy Grail of spaceflight. When matter and antimatter react, the energy produced is several billion times larger than the thermomechanical energy resulting from burning a kilogram of a hydrocarbon fuel. Now a high school student has developed a new magnetic exhaust nozzle that would double the velocity of an antimatter-powered rocket.
http://www.gizmag.com/beamed-core-antimatter-propulsion/22654/
Last month we told you about a team of Brigham Young University engineering students, who created a clever Batman-inspired wall-climbing system. They were competing in the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's 2012 Service Academy and University Engineering Challenge, in which teams had to design gadgets that would allow soldiers to safely and quickly ascend vertical surfaces. Given that the Brigham Young entry didn.t take first place, however, we thought it only made sense to take a look at the entry that did ... and that would be a little something known as the Personal Vacuum Assisted Climber (PVAC), designed by a team from Utah State University.
http://www.gizmag.com/pvac-wall-climbing-system/22540/
Gas-powered lawnmowers are notorious polluters. Switching to an electric or reel mower is certainly one option, but a team of engineering students from the University of California, Riverside are developing another: an attachment that they claim reduces noxious emissions by over 90 percent.
http://www.gizmag.com/ucr-nox-out-catalytic-reduction-lawnmower-emissions/32872/
Speech-to-text systems already exist, as do augmented-reality displays. Now, a group of New York City teens led by Daniil Frants (who interned at the MIT Media Lab when he was 14) have combined the two technologies to form the Live Time Closed Captioning System (LTCCS). Once up and running, it could revolutionize the way in which deaf people communicate with the hearing world.
http://www.gizmag.com/live-time-closed-captioning-system/40078/
Easton LaChappelle, a 17-year old high school student, is developing an alternative to advanced prosthetic arms and hands using freely available online resources and the boom in inexpensive 3D printers. It has already attracted the attention of the White House and NASA.
http://www.gizmag.com/easton-lachappelle-3d-printed-prosthetic/28685/
Sign language is definitely a boon to hearing-impaired people when it comes to communicating with each other, or with non-deaf people who are trained in the system. If a hearing person doesn.t regularly deal with the deaf, however, then there's an obvious communication barrier. In order to address that situation, a group of engineering technology and industrial design students from the University of Houston have created MyVoice—a prototype American Sign Language (ASL) translator.
http://www.gizmag.com/myvoice-portable-sign-language-translator/22810/
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory wants to find a better way for airmen to scale tall structures or rock faces, so it did what just about anyone seeking new ideas does these days—it held a contest. Its 2012 Service Academy and University Engineering Challenge saw teams from 17 universities and three service academies showing off their wall-scaling systems, earlier this month at Wright State University's Calamityville tactical laboratory in Fairborn, Ohio. One of the teams, from Utah's Brigham Young University, devised an impressive system that was inspired directly by Batman's grappling hook-shooting, power winch-equipped gun.
http://www.gizmag.com/batman-grappling-hook-wall-scaling-device/22307/
Very little is known about this "single person transport system" concept dreamed up by the enigmatically-named product design student Sanu K R from Ernakulam on India's west coast, but one thing is clear: it's a head-turner.
http://www.gizmag.com/gyroscopic-personal-transportation/22060/
A team of Delft University students has developed a concept for a solar-powered skin to be fitted to the typical Dutch home, better aligning its energy usage with 21st century power demands.
http://www.gizmag.com/solar-panel-skins-dutch-rowhouses-energy-neutral-home/31104/
A solar-powered wheelchair designed by students at the University of Virginia has won first prize in a competition, Change My Life in One Minute, to mark World Cerebral Palsy Day. Entrants to the competition were asked to come up with an innovation that could make a significant difference to a person with a disability. The solar-powered wheelchair can run continuously powered only by the sun.
http://www.gizmag.com/solar-wheelchair/27822/
A team of students and professors recently unveiled a prototype of what they cite as the future of urban living. The micro-housing unit is set on wheels and can fit into a standard-sized parking space.
http://www.gizmag.com/scadpad-micro-housing-tiny-house/31648/
Since 1985, the Shell Eco Marathon has pitched teams of students against each other in an attempt to see who can travel the furthest using the energy from one liter of fuel (or its equivalent). Teams compete by running at 15 mph (24 km/h) over 6.3 miles (10 km), and the cars that use the least fuel, electricity or alternative propulsion method are crowned winners in their class.
http://www.gizmag.com/shell-eco-marathon-cars/43385/
Technologies developed to grow without soil and nutrients might not only help with future space missions, but could also prove pivotal in feeding the developing world. For design student Nikian Aghababaie, this is exactly where he drew inspiration from for a low-cost approach to growing vegetables without soil and using minimal water, something he hopes can ease world hunger and generate income for rural communities.
http://newatlas.com/no-dirt-low-cost-kit-plants-air/50792/
Orthodontics don't tend to mix too well with self-sustaining undergraduate students, whose budgetary extravagances might extend to the odd double serving of instant noodles. But faced with crooked teeth and access to a 3D printer, digital design student Amos Dudley has taken matters into his own hands, straightening out his smile with a set of DIY plastic aligners.
http://www.gizmag.com/3d-printer-braces/42412/
When we complain about the rain, other people will often say "Yeah, but it's good for the plants." Well, thanks to a microturbine-based system created by three students from the Technological University of Mexico, it's now also being used to generate electricity for use in low-income homes.
http://www.gizmag.com/pluvia-rainwater-microturbine/31379/
Copenhagen's CPH Containers aims to create low-cost container-based student homes for installation on underdeveloped land. Working with Vandkunsten Architects' Søren Nielsen, the firm has developed a container home with which it plans to construct its first "student village" in Copenhagen later this year.
http://www.gizmag.com/cph-containers-student-village/41824/
Architecture students from California State Polytechnic University recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to support their local community garden. The team's innovative plans include the use of rammed earth construction, recycled shipping containers, and solar power.
http://www.gizmag.com/huerta-del-valle-community-garden/41298/
This year, we've seen a number of important developments in the race to bring personal flyers to market. A team of flying enthusiasts from Hungary took to the skies in a proof of concept tricopter named Flike in March, Malloy Aeronautics announced plans to develop its Hoverbike for the US Department of Defense at the Paris Air Show in June, and the JB-9 made its maiden flight around the Statue of Liberty just last month. Now a team of students from Singapore has joined the fray with a battery electric multicopter called Snowstorm that's being designed for recreational flying.
http://www.gizmag.com/snowstorm-singapore-single-pilot-multicopter/40750/
Speech-to-text systems already exist, as do augmented-reality displays. Now, a group of New York City teens led by Daniil Frants (who interned at the MIT Media Lab when he was 14) have combined the two technologies to form the Live Time Closed Captioning System (LTCCS). Once up and running, it could revolutionize the way in which deaf people communicate with the hearing world.
http://www.gizmag.com/live-time-closed-captioning-system/40078/
In an effort to further open the lines of communication for people with hearing and speech disabilities, a university student in London is developing a smart glove that converts sign language into text and spoken dialogue. Dubbed the SignLanguageGlove, the wearable device features a handful of sensors to convert hand and finger movements into words, with its creator now looking to add real-time language translation to the mix.
http://www.gizmag.com/smart-glove-sign-language/39669/
This student designed dishwasher should be much cheaper to buy or run than the typical model. There's a reason for that—it's powered by hand. The Circo manual dishwasher is designed for use where space is limited, or by people who cannot afford an electric dishwasher.
http://www.gizmag.com/circo-manual-dishwasher/39359/
Three French students will travel from Bangkok, Thailand to Toulouse, France on an electric tuk-tuk in an effort to demonstrate that electric power will be sufficient for our future mobility needs. They plan to cover 20,000 km (12,427 mi) through 16 countries in 120 days on their modified three wheeler relying on two giant batteries, a solar panel and the generosity of strangers.
http://www.gizmag.com/pilgreens-electric-tuk-tuk-travel/38857/
In a recent challenge issued by NASA, university students were asked to design an electric aircraft envisaged to enter service in the year 2020 and be commercially competitive with standard piston-engine craft. In response, the space agency received submissions from 20 universities across the United States that not only met the brief but, in many cases, went above and beyond to really the impress the judges. We take a look at the top five prize winners.
http://www.gizmag.com/nasa-electric-aircraft-university-design-challenge/38762/
We've covered plenty of tiny houses on wheels here at Gizmag, but Small House on Tracks is the first that would sit on rails. Designed by Polish architecture students Tomasz Zablotny and Pawe. Maszota, the concept comprises a number of expandable tiny homes that could be moved around on existing rail tracks in Gdansk Shipyard.
http://www.gizmag.com/small-house-on-tracks/38421/
Dutch students have developed a new family car that is not only powered by the sun, but generates more energy than it uses. Stella Lux seats up to four people and is designed to be efficient, intelligent and comfortable. It will compete in the World Solar Challenge in Australia later this year.
http://www.gizmag.com/stella-lux-solar-powered-family-car/38299/
For many of us, making something during an extracurricular high school activity probably involved bringing home a papier-mâché head or wonky flower pot to proud parents, but Berkeley, CA high school students constructed a solar-powered tiny house. The unnamed dwelling measures just 9.2 sq m (100 sq ft) and includes a small sleeping and storage area.
http://www.gizmag.com/berkeley-students-tiny-home-studio-h/37871/
Using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) radio telescope in the Western Australia desert, a Sydney University student, Cleo Loi, has discovered enormous plasma pipes in the Earth's upper atmosphere. Thought to be responsible for possible radio interference with satellite navigation systems, the presence of these objects has been predicted for over 60 years, but never before seen. By imaginatively using the radio telescope to observe in 3D, Loi was able to image large areas of the sky using the fast photography capabilities of the MWA to produce a movie that shows the motions of the plasma in real-time.
http://www.gizmag.com/plasma-tubes-ionosphere-cleo-loi/37843/
A team of five mechanical engineering seniors has been tasked by NASA to design furniture suitable for use in future habitats on Mars, the Moon, or in space itself. The Lunar Lounger project aims to address the lack of available space and the low-gravity in such conditions, while ensuring the comfort of astronauts. The students from Rice University, in Houston, Texas, have designed a prototype flatpack chair and table. The table has integrated gas springs which enable height adjustment, and it is also modular, with connection ports that allow it to be joined together with other tables.
http://www.gizmag.com/student-designed-furniture-mars-nasa/37263/
When we complain about the rain, other people will often say "Yeah, but it's good for the plants." Well, thanks to a microturbine-based system created by three students from the Technological University of Mexico, it's now also being used to generate electricity for use in low-income homes.
http://www.gizmag.com/pluvia-rainwater-microturbine/31379/
In a little over a decade WiFi has flourished to become something that we take for granted every time we go to a coffee shop. The only problem is that in situations where WiFi would be most useful, such as on the battlefield or in a disaster areas, it's least likely to be available. That's the problem being tackled by a team of seven undergraduate students at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. As part of their senior project for the Northeastern's Capstone design program, the team designed and built a robot that can enter rugged territory and create a theoretically infinite WiFi networks as it goes.
http://www.gizmag.com/wifi-robot/23471/
The inclusion of a floating lamp, bed or just about any appropriately-sized household object in a room is almost certain to be received with open-mouthed wonder and demand closer inspection from the curious minds of young and old alike. Add the wireless transfer of power into the mix and you're guaranteed to have a winner. Such is the case with 18 year-old Chris Rieger's LevLight. It's not exactly huge, doesn't break any new ground in a technical sense and is more functional than flashy. Nevertheless, the floating LED is quite the visual feast.
http://www.gizmag.com/rieger-wireless-power-levitating-led-light/23222/
Do you remember those building toys called K'Nex? Well an engineering student at the University of Colorado (CU) named Andrew most certainly does. He actually managed to build a fully-functional pinball machine using only the tools available from the plastic building toy. Andrew spent over four months meticulously planning and building his K'Nex pinball machine that has functioning flippers and a plunger that is capable of launching the ball into the field of play. It also has a small gearbox that powers the two small chain lifts that help move the ball between the different features of the table.
http://www.gizmag.com/knex-pinball/24681/
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