Student Project Grant Winners 2018
On Tuesday, November 13, our Tech Hub student project grant semifinalists pitched their projects to a packed crowd with representatives from across the university. They explained their concepts and answered audience questions. Then the audience had a chance to vote on their favorite and later that night the committee deliberated to determine the final winners.
We will be sharing the progress of the recipients throughout this semester and next.
3D Mountain Mapping
In the mountains of Peru, dependence on glaciers for water necessitates that the local populations live in close proximity to extreme hydroclimate risks of flooding, avalanches and landslides. Unfortunately, these glaciers are rapidly disappearing, and as a result, water supplies are vanishing and hazards are increasing in frequency and magnitude. This student team, led by Forrest Schoessow seeks to quantify these critical water resources, improve capabilities to predict hazardous conditions and enable informed decision making that will decrease the likelihood of negative health impacts on local populations. They have built the first custom-built unmanned aerial system (UAS) capable of 3D laser- mapping in high mountain environments. they will continue to improve their GPS, sensors, parts and safety equipment.
Handikapp
As society moves more and more towards touchscreen technologies, Jen Schlegel realized certain aspects of those technologies have become unavailable to her and others whose bodies may not be as capable as their brains. Handikapp is a visual coding language application for mobile devices and tablets designed to give coding capability to all, regardless of physical ability. Jen plans to partner with a student developer to create the app and launch it in the Spring.
Unite the World
Unite the world has a vision to connect people on a deeper level and create communities where individuals are inspired to empathize and advocate for others of diverse backgrounds. This large group of 8 is still in the conceptual phase of development but the goal is to eventually launch an app that utilizes technology to bring people together through conversation, filtered by the self-selected interests of each person.
Activated Art: Glass and Electronics
Rebecca Arday is testing the properties of strands of glass and the interrelationship between the strength and fragility, attraction and repulsion, timelessness and ephemerality, and how this material lends itself so well as a representation of human psyche. Her work involves glassmaking, electronics, human interaction and video.
Non-invasive Deep Brain Stimulation
This team of Mohammed Aboulesoud and Mukul Govande is exploring the option of a bandana containing electrodes as a non-invasive deep brain stimulation to combat mental illness.
Thank you to all who applied, presented and were involved in voting. We were blown away by the quality and innovation evident in the proposals we received. We will be sharing the progress of the grantees throughout the next semester.
If you are interested in grant funding for your tech project, our next round of applications will open August 2019.