The 2017 Prototyping Showcase Put NYU Ingenuity on Display

On April 25, visitors to the MakerSpace were treated to an impressive display of projects that had been conceived by students and professors from across NYU who received mini-grants from the university’s Prototyping Fund, a program overseen by NYU Tandon School of Engineering’s Greenhouse (a student-run initiative within Tandon’s MakerSpace where aspiring designers, engineers, inventors, and entrepreneurs can brainstorm and grow) and the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute.

“If you look around, you’ll see many NYU schools and programs represented
here — Gallatin, Steinhardt, Stern, Tandon, Tisch, and Wagner to name a few — and many of the teams are multidisciplinary, involving students from several schools,” explained Associate Professor of Technology Management and Innovation Anne-Laure Fayard, who helped launch the Greenhouse at NYU Tandon in January 2013. “This is what the innovation ecosystem at NYU is all about: encouraging collaborations across schools and disciplines, helping those with  ideas play with them and make them real, and inspiring all our participants to use their know-how to create products and services that might create a positive impact in society.”

Humble is a wearable charging device that helps American customers connect with refugees by donating profits to an organization building solar power stations in Syria

Teams were awarded up to $500 in the first round of funding and — thanks to a generous VentureWell Grant from Tandon’s Department of Technology Management and Innovation — up to $2,000 in the second with which to build and refine their prototypes. (Each group was also connected to resources and mentors to aid them as part of the process, with Phase II awardees being admitted to Blackstone LaunchPad, a comprehensive campus-based entrepreneurship program.)

Spring ‘17 Phase I teams that include Tandon students:

• Collaborative Shopping, a platform that enables members of low-income communities to purchase supplies in bulk at wholesale prices, developed by Wagner students with the help of Tandon alum Carlos Bautista (’16)
• DigiTape, a smart, easy-to-use device that measures precisely, even over curves or other such surfaces, developed by Quinn Robertson ('18)
• Heat Deflector, an automatic system comprised of cost-efficient 3D printed parts that keeps parked cars at a normal temperature, built by Fei Chen ('19), Yi Yang ('19), and Xianbo Xu ('17)
• Mobility Device for the Elderly, customized solutions created by Rodney Lobo (’17), Eunha Park (’19), Cesar Sindoni (’19), Sepehr Forouzan Yazdani (’19). In collaboration with nursing student Dawn Marta Feldthouse
• Mudguard, a 3D printed device that attaches to shoes in order to keep pant legs from being soiled in inclement weather, created by Halim Kerim Bas (’19) under the guidance of Professor Rakesh Behera
• S.S. Columbia, an educational game that teaches upper elementary students STEM skills and social studies content with an emphasis on collaborative effort, developed by Tianyi Chen ('16), Rhonda Lee Davis (’17), Tanvi Sinha (’17), and Tracy Zhao (’18), with help from CAS and Steinhardt teammates.

A specialized growing chamber in which climate, energy, and plant growth are controlled and monitored by computer

Phase II teams that include Tandon students:

• Filament Maker, a process that turns shredded recycled plastic bottles into thin filament to use on any 3D printer, conceived by Dakota Marin (’19) and Roshaun Morris (’19)
• Humble, a wearable charging device that helps American customers connect with refugees by donating profits to an organization building solar power stations in Syria, the brainchild of William Lee (’19), along with teammates from CAS and Gallatin
• INVIP, an electronic aid that allows visually impaired individuals to understand their surroundings easily and safely move around indoor locations, created by Nicolas Metallo (’17), Nuvina Padukka (’17), and Brenda Truong (’17)
• NYU FREEdge, a socially conscious, smart community sharing refrigerator that reduces food waste and provides people with access to free food, launched by Simon Chen (’18), Rodney Lobo (’17), Vandit Maheshwari, Michael Niamehr (’19), and Tuba Naziruddin (’18), along with Emma Hoffman of Gallatin
• Peris, an innovative pill bottle that combats prescription drug abuse by regulating pill intake, built by Artin Perse (a former Tandon student now at Gallatin) and Nabil Abbas (’17), along with colleagues from Stern and NYU Shanghai
• Resprana, a wearable filter that utilizes the efficiency of existing filters, but is smaller and more comfortable, designed by Jai Rathore (’17) and Sukanya Goswami (’16), along with teammates from Stern.
• TECHnically Speaking, a communication and room control device for ventilator dependent patients in pediatric and adult intensive care units, the work of Hsu YiWei (’18), who collaborated on a multidisciplinary team with Steinhardt, Tisch, and CAS students.
• We Are the New Farmers, a specialized growing chamber in which climate, energy, and plant growth are controlled and monitored, designed by Omar Gowayed (’21), Jonas Gunther (’18), and Selim Senocak (’18).

Learn more about funding opportunities and competitions at the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute.