Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Cornell Engineering and the Maker Pro Catalyst”.
I’M here at makercon with dr david schneider faculty member at systems engineering at cornell tell me about what you were just talking about on stage well, thank you very much. Um. We worked on this idea called the maker pro catalyst, which is basically, how do you take all the energy and enthusiasm that a maker has and then be able to bring it to next level professional design such that? Not only are they creating something but they’re, creating something that can make a real difference in this world and a recognizable difference is they can actually say. I can prove to you how valuable this this design actually is at meeting this particular need, and so what can you can you give a specific about? You know what there is to learn from making in the world of engineering. Oh absolutely um.
I think one of the important things that um uh you know making has really embodies the student’s spirit and that you know students don’t know that things can’t be done, so they find a way to do them anyway, and the maker movement is all about that too. A lot of different people who are always challenging the rules you know trying to break them in in new ways to do. Even you know greater inventions uh. As a part of that, i think that that spirit of ingenuity, uh is a very, very important part of engineering. A lot of people don’t recognize how creative engineering really is um, but is creativity where you have the opportunity to make such a large impact with that creativity? Can you tell me about some of the work that students are doing? Oh, my goodness uh yeah, so we have a fantastic labs like seven thousand square square feet at least 400 students. A semester are working in that lab um this past year we actually just built a first generation r2d2 and c3po uh yeah.
It’S it’s really cool uh. I mean so we don’t just build, though just to be cool. I mean that that’s that’s um, you know, that’s fun, don’t get me wrong! Uh, but the uh uh. We looked at different kinds of curriculum gaps that we’ve noticed uh.
You know across the country even across across the world and say what’s a project that we could develop, that will really help students target those curriculum gaps and become even better in it. So r2, for example, uh he’s not just you know a cool droid he’s. Actually, our lab assistant, he can keep track of tools and does all kinds of database analysis. He does uh different kinds of localization and mapping in our lab, and so he can actually do you know, path, planning and all these elements, but we’re bringing to a level that not only our students could do it, but then teach other students to do it and The large amount of work that we do is not just to make that cool robot, but actually, with the building example platform, that a lot of people can build their own systems off of so we like to say, you know we’re not just making. You know that system we’re making all the other systems better. You know that.
That’S what i think is you know a key element of the maker community right. You know that idea of helping each other out, you know being real inventive. You know seeing how we can you know, raise each other up even higher uh, and so that’s what we focus a lot on our lab. You talked a little bit also about uh the cornell cup.
Can you tell me what that’s about sure uh? It’S actually the intel cornell cup uh. It’S intel’s been a fantastic partner uh to work with uh throughout this, and this is an exciting competition in the the maker spirit. Uh students are able to basically invent any embedded system that they want as long as it features an intel atom, which is a great little powerhouse, a chip for them to use. But the thing is that they have to be able to say what is the the challenge that they’re trying to solve? What’S that real need that they’re trying to meet then be able to describe their entry as how it meets that need and then take it.
One step further say here are the performance metrics. I would use to evaluate any solution to that need to that problem and thereby can actually prove to you. The design i’ve come up with is not only one of the best, but possibly the best solution to that need it’s uh yeah, so that that level of professional design uh that that we enter into that has helped our students to create. You know far more elevated projects, and i know from across across the country it’s really exciting – to see what they’re able to develop um.
We think it’s a great launch pad for a lot of students. In fact, our winner two years ago, uh, which was a titan arm from u pen uh, they made this really cool iron man like exo skeleton thing that actually makes you stronger uh for like physical rehabilitation, and they went out to win the james dyson uh award For engineering design or design engineering and uh their first american group ever to do that, uh yeah i mean so that that’s what i mean by elevating that work, it’s really exciting. I can’t wait to see what they do next great well. Thank you, dr david schneider.
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