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Mars network lander mission concept Planetary Science Summer School, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2004 I attended this course at JPL intended to train students how an interplanetary space mission designed by NASA at JPL. The idea was to teach planetary scientists, but also a few engineers, about the tradeoffs and technologies used for missions. Each of approximately 20 of us acted as a "shadow" for one of the members of JPL's Team X. Team X is drawn from across JPL, and specializes in the rapid development of mission concepts. Best estimates for cost and technology factors are brought together and a mission layout is generated in a week or two. Each member specializes in a different area, such as power, thermals, orbit mechanics, and public outreach. A networked spreadsheet juggles numbers and there is a well-honed arbitration process for when key decisions need to be made (such as, in our case, how many landers we wanted). While we shadowed Team X, we also made the key decisions about the character of the mission. We designed a four-lander mission to Mars to measure
seismic activity. Knowing more about the makeup and center of mars, the
geologists tell me, is crucial to understanding what it's made of and
how it was formed, which is also really relevant if you're wondering if
life could be there (which I am). The picture on the left shows the
four separate landers in their
aeroshells, attached to their carrier during the "cruise-phase" between
Earth and Mars.
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Nerve-cell-patterning ink-jet printer Advisors: Prof. Sebastian Seung and Shuguang Zhang, MIT, 2001-2003 I built this printer as part of my Master's thesis. It was designed to push the limits of ink-jet printer resolution for use in patterning nerve cells. I wrote a custom graphical interface and printer controller using Visual Basic. The printer was able to fabricate patterns of water- or solvent-based materials onto a glass coverslip, and neurons remained adhered to the pattern for over a month in culture. They showed evidence of functional synapses and spiking activity. We wanted to wire individual or small ensembles of neurons together in specific patterns so that their behavior can be more readily analyzed.
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Hopping Mars rover Advisors: Prof. Paolo Fiorini and Prof. Joel Burdick, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech, 2000 I built the embedded microcontroller system for this battery-powered wireless frog-hopping Mars robot prototype. It used two parallel PIC chips communicating over I2C between JPL-designed "widget boards," each of which carried basic motor control and sensing capability. The robot received commands through a 900MHz digital radio and returned sensor data and video from an onboard wireless camera. To hop, the robot tilted onto its large foot to retract its wheels and then released two large springs between its "knees" to make a frog-like hop. These robots are simpler and more agile than wheeled rovers, enabling them to be deployed in larger numbers and in more difficult terrain. This way, maybe only a few would survive, but they would reach very interesting areas, such as layered strata or caves in canyon-type terrain.
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Ink-jet fabricated circuits, tags, and micro-electromechanical machines Advisor: Prof. Joseph Jacobson, MIT Media Laboratory, 1998-2000 I invented an ink-jet printer to print electrical circuits and micro-electromechanical machines by printing solutions of metal nanoparticles as an undergraduate researcher. This was the first demonstration of ink-jet printing functional devices out of nanoparticle ink. From top left: an electrostatic rotary motor using a piece of tissue paper as the rotating arm (a close-up), a printed resonant inductive coil (a 1-bit radiofrequency "RFID" tag), and an electrothermal cantilever actuator on glass printed out of many individual layers of nanoparticle ink, and an image of our work on the cover of Technology Review. We wanted to make a "desktop fab" for microchips or other devices using printing technology. The technology was spun off to Kovio, Inc. in 2002.
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ORCA-1 Autonomous submarine MIT ORCA team, AUVSI autonomous underwater vechicle competition, 1998 I was on the mechanical group in the inaugural ORCA-1 submarine team.
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"Woodchuck" ROBOCON International Design Contest Robocon International Design Contest, Tokoyo, Japan 1997 As a follow-up contest to MIT's 2.007 contest, top competitors were invited to take part in an international design contest, held that year in Tokyo. Students from six countries around the world separated into six teams with one member from each country on each team. The contest was nationally-televised on NHK, Japan's equivalent to PBS in the USA.
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"Thwoooop", MIT 2.007 Contest MIT 2.007 Mechanical Engineering design contest, 1997 I built this robot for MIT's mechanical engineering design course, which culminates in a popular contest pitting robots against each other for points. The theme of my year's contest was "Pass the Puck," and the way points were scored was by removing various objects from your side of the table. My approach was to gather balls and fire them across the table like a tennis-ball server. I refined an idea borrowed from an earlier contest in which balls were picked up by pressing a rubber net between them, sort of like how tennis-ball baskets pick up balls. I managed to make it all the way to second place, out of a total lineup of 144 robots, using this outrageous idea.
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Stirling Engine MIT course 2.670: Mechanical Engineering tools, 1997 I built this custom-modified engine as part of a course taken by all mechanical engineering students where we learn machining and some computer modelling. It uses the stirling cycle to generate rotational power, powered by a candle on one end. In this course, students are given the opportunity to make custom modifications to their engine. I added ball bearings, a custom-machined flywheel design, and I opened up one of the air-paths through the engine.
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