On Tuesday, February 18th awardees of the Prototyping Fund gathered at the Tandon MakerSpace to review prototyping methods and meet each other. Over the next 2 months, the cohort will build different types of prototypes - some may be physical form, others “work-like” or “look-like.” Regardless of the type, all participants will use prototyping as an iterative process to fail safely, get user feedback, and test their assumptions. 

Since 2013 the NYU Prototyping Fund, a collaboration between the Design Lab @ NYU MakerSpace and NYU Entrepreneurial Institute, has awarded teams of students up to $500 for Phase 1 and $2000 for Phase 2 to build prototypes and bring their ideas to life. We are excited to announce the Spring 2020 cohort - 11 teams were selected for Phase 1 and 4 teams for Phase 2. Participants represent 6 NYU schools, with the highest numbers from Tandon, Steinhardt, and Tisch. Ideas range from: wearables that promote proper posture, to biosensors that test water for contaminants, and autonomous, rock climbing robots capable of traversing mountainous terrain for exploration and data collection. 

We can’t wait to see what the teams create. Learn more about the awarded projects below and save the date for the final showcase at the Leslie eLab on Thursday, April 30th (4-5:30 pm).

Phase 1:

AI League: The future of competitive sports, AI robots competing head-to-head. Ajeet Gary, Tandon MS ‘21 & Yassin Chandran

Allegro Learning: Learn to play the piano through educational gaming via projected interface. Lucas Pollice, Tandon BS’ 21; Min Kim, Tandon BS ‘20; Khoa Nguyen, Tandon BS ‘21; Andrew Hu, Tandon BS’ 20

Ateles: Autonomous, rock climbing robot capable of traversing mountainous terrain and vertical mountain faces on earth and other celestial objects for exploration and data collection. Estefano Calero, Tandon BS ‘21; Steve Ucho, Tandon BS ‘21; Edgar Duran Garcia, Tandon BS ‘22

Cartographr AR: An AR map creator tool that combines AI terrain generation technology with a custom map editing feature to easily project 3D terrains into physical space around us. Joanna Liu, Steinhardt MA ‘20; Charles Chan, Tandon BS ‘21; Andrew Liang, Tandon BS ‘21; Cassandra Chow, Tandon BS ‘21

Climate Clock: Displays the current time left before a 1.5 degree increase in global climate temperatures as well as display how much CO2 in tons is being released into the atmosphere. Shlok Paul, CAS BA ‘20; Ariane Schoenwiesner, Tandon BA ‘20; Omar Gowayed, Tandon PhD ‘21; Ingrid Paredes. Tandon PhD ‘21

GPStroller: A stroller attachment and connected smartphone app which allows parents to know exactly where their child is and has been walked that is easy to use, lightweight, readily available, and does not require an external source of power. Claire Velau, Tandon BS ‘20 & Gabrielle Fisher, Tandon BS ‘20

Leela: Bridging the cultural gap present in today's cosmetics industry and creating makeup products that help Indian American's truly identify with themselves and their culture. Nehal Shah, SPS BA ’20 & Deep Biswas

Matrix: A B2B platform that gauges emotional feedback of a focus group during a test screening of a movie by detecting emotions through wristband hardware to help distribution companies to better market and sell a movie. David Nakhapetian, Tandon BS ‘21; Malika Baymuradova Tandon BS ‘21; Rafael Karapetyan

O2+ Wine Aerator: O2+: An electrical approach to wine aeration allowing for fine tuning oxygenation specific to any bottle of wine. Joshman Singh, College of Dentistry DDS ‘22

Re-Pose: Wearable that promotes proper posture and spinal-alignment while highlighting comfort and freedom of movement. Runa Koli, Steinhardt MA ‘23; Caroline Paulson, Tandon BS ’21; Mathew Stirling, Steinhardt MA ‘21

Smart Container: DIY kits you can build yourself a serial of the smart flower pots, by doing some simple assembling, gluing, and soldering. Rui Wang, Tisch MA ‘20

Phase 2:

Biosensor for Water Contamination: Designing biosensors that test water for contaminants such as lead, arsenic, chloroform, etc. David Sung, Tandon BS ‘21 & Ali Hasan, Tandon BS ‘20

Brian: Programmable smart guitar with on-board sound processing and effects control. Ariane Schoenwiesner, Tandon BS ’21

Skeleton Key: An arcade-style alternative controller/game that mimics the tactile experience and precision of picking a lock. Mary Georgescu, Tisch MFA ‘20 & Connor Carson, Tisch MFA ‘20

Walkway: Creating a new source of clean, renewable energy by converting foot traffic into electricity.Benjamin Zhu, CAS BA ’23 & Max Trop, Tandon BS ’23