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Check out these great animations our friend, Monica made!

We continued to work on the Makerspace today, mostly on storage of items. Several people recommended that we use “shoeboxes” in order to efficiently store items. We took them up on that suggestion and it looks like they fit well in the shelves. Since they were clear, everything that’s inside is easy …

Today we began moving things into the Makerspace! We are very excited to start the next step of the process of physically designing the space and setting up for the upcoming workshops. Some CFS teachers also stopped by today to play with some LEGO robotics. We mostly worked with the WeDo kits, but…

Started off the day with a box full of boxes, it must be boxception or something. Then we went to Home Depot and AC Moore to get more supplies, both for the CFS kids to use and for some projects we’re starting to work on to put in the space. We had to cut some foam in the Home Depot parking lot t…

Today we had some CFS students play around with the Makey Makeys- they loved it! In the afternoon, we went to the opening of Jumbo Maker Studio, an on-campus Makerspace at Tufts where we spotted the rare Jumbo Unicorn. While at the Jumbo Maker Studio, we honed our LEGO robotic skills by…

Our 3D printed part for the animation table is finished and works like a charm! Also, we designed and printed a custom drawer handle for the animation table. Hopefully, Bugs Bunny is still recognized by kids today. We’ve been doing a lot of cool Makey Makey activities too! We set up a keyboard u…

We’ve been printing lots of cool parts, testing the Makerbot’s capabilities. The machine has impressed us with its consistent quality. Yesterday we connected the it to the wireless network and controlled the printer through an iPhone app: We also began to design out own 3D parts! Below is a lin…

Check out this animation made by our friend Pamina, a student at CFS.

DUUUUDDDDEEE! CHECK OUT OUR 3D PRINTER

The day started out with a visit to the CFS faculty meeting, in which we talked about the upcoming Makerspace and listened questions and concerns from the faculty regarding the space. We received some valuable feedback that will be very useful as we continue to move forward and create the space.…

Today more progress was made on the animation stand. We decide the best way to create a scaffolding for large cameras is with a 3D printed part. We’ll have to do that later, once we purchase a printer. Some of the team made a trip to Cambridge Friends School to prepare for out move in next week. V…

Construction on the animation stand has begun! Aside from that, there was more experimentation with LEGO robotics along with headshots for all the team members (check them out on our Meet the Interns page!).

We played around with Arduinos a little bit more, this time using sound. Here’s what we made playing around with some controls and a buzzer:

We had fun with our first Arduino attempts!

Today the team took a trip to the Cambridge Friends School. After a tour of the space and a meeting with the Head of School, we took some time to examine the space and assess some of the things we would need to start turning it into a Makerspace. Then, we broke off and talked to various students…

The fourth day began with a few errands: Home Depot to find price estimates for the raw material for the animation stand (more on that to come) and a camera store for advice on animation cameras and lighting. Then, the team took a trip to Artisan’s Asylum and DGF Technologies to get some i…

Today the MAKER team made their first foray into the world of 3D printing using the Afinia and the Cube printers. Here’s a video of the Afinia at work!

The second day began with some animation workshops, using SAM software. Some of the animations that the MAKER team made will be uploaded shortly. The day culminated with a visit to JumboLabs, a brand new makerspace being implemented right here on the Tufts campus. Created using SAM animation…

The first day of the MAKER internship! After a few brief introductions, the first task posed to the interns, in the true MAKER spirit, was to make something that described themselves, using Legos, paper, crayons, and whatever else was around. The next challenge was to divide into teams of two and…

Lately, one of the 3D printers in the Design Lab has been acting improperly. Upon extrusion, the filament would not come out straight from the driver. Instead, the material would bend upwards, often times catching itself on the extruder or creating clumps and knots in the filament that wouldn’t s…

So I know I’ve been talking a big game when it comes to the free 3D printing available to Tufts students. I’ve gotten a lot of questions like “How do I design something?” “What do I need in order to start?” and “Why male models?” The answers to these questions and more will be covered in my Brown Bag Lunch in Ti…

We all have some very small problems that are just part of our daily lives, problems that we adjust to and don’t usually consider fixing. Often it is a leaky faucet, creaking hinge, or a lock that needs to be jiggled in just the right way to open. For Jess Scolnic, it was an inconvenient light s…

In this video, Professor Ethan Danahy from Tufts University provides insights to his philosophies of assessment within his first-year intro-to-engineering course on robotics (using LEGO MINDSTORMS and LabVIEW Graphical Programming) and the techniques he uses for numerically evaluating his students…

From: Tufts University Simple Robotics (Fall 2015) In the first-year intro-to-engineering class at Tufts University, instructors Ethan Danahy and Aaron Johnson created a "space themed" project around developing tools that could be used by astronauts in space in order to perform typical…

Everyone who has seen the popular HBO series: Game of Thrones has probably thought about having a pet dire wolf. Jeremy Slavitz decided to use 3D printing to make that thought a reality. I really wanted to make something using the 3D printers to verify that they are in fact as ridiculously…

This Brown Bag Lunch was from earlier in the summer, but it definitely deserves some recognition. Leo Madariaga, a graduate student at the CEEO, gave participants an objective: help Mr. Egg survive a crash landing! Leo handed out straws and tape to the Makers, and instructed them to build a capsule…

In addition to picking a fantastic name, Jenny Skerker and Nadia Hallaj did a great job with their first Brown Bag Lunch. We wanted to get across to people that 3D printers can be used for so much more than just cute toys or little trinkets. The focus of our workshop was to have people design and…

Last night I wrote up a wrapper for I2C communication with our 2 RMCS-2203 servos. We also set up a github repository which will host and version-control all of our code. I also put our electronics schematics in there. Here’s a link to the repository so you can peek at what I’ve written: htt…

I should really slow down with all the alliteration. As someone who loves baking, I’m really excited about this one. See those really cool Jumbo themed cookie cutters? Look at them. You can make COOKIES that look like that. I have always had a thing for eating shaped foods, notably Kraft Macaroni &…

These are two prints of the same minion character from the movie Despicable Me. The larger is printed with ABS plastic and the smaller was printed with recycled material made by the Maker Studio’s own filament extruder. Think you can print something cuter? Prove it!

(Comment here) Lately I’ve been busy designing a shield for the Intel Galileo which will interface all of our actuators. This includes the linear actuator and three servos. They are all controlled in different ways, all of which is handled by my board. The 2 larger servos, the RMCS-2203’s, are pow…

(Comment here) Finals stressing you out? Take a study break with the Robotics Club and help break in our new IRIS+ quadcopter drone! If you didn’t get a chance to fly it at our meeting last Friday, this will be a great opportunity. We’ll be flying around Bello field, across the street from Hal…

Engineering professor Chris Rogers leads Tufts faculty members through a hands on interactive workshop with LEGOs as a way to encourage new ways to think about engaging students in the classroom.

Fall semester has been a busy one for the robotics club! We kicked off our two projects for the year in September: the Firefighting Robot Competition, and the Intel Cornell Cup. For the Firefighting Robot Competition, club members are building self-driving robots that can navigate a maze using…

Wentworth Institute of Technology The Bray Lab staff and summer interns visited the Center for Applied Research at Wentworth Institute of Technology in their Department of Architecture. The Center supports bachelors (sophomore year and above) and masters students in Architecture – around 450 s…

So I continued work on the shield and changed quite a few things from the last design. First, I decided to move the relays off board and connect them to the power supply with low gauge wire instead of routing power through the board, as I was scared of overheating the board with high current draw…

Come to this free workshop and learn how to model 3D objects and systems using Onshape, the completely free, online CAD program! The workshop will be taking place on Saturday, November 21st from 2:00pm – 4:00pm in Anderson 208. Reserve your ticket here. Please bring your own laptop!

Come to our free Soldering Workshop this Saturday, October 24th at 2:00pm, hosted by the Robotics Club and ECE department! You’ll learn how to solder together an electronics kit, and even get to keep what you make. It’s completely free, but space is limited, so reserve your ticket now!

Hey Tufts! The robotics club is going to be holding its general interest meeting on Friday, Sept. 18th at 3pm in the new building, 574 Boston Ave in room 404! We’ve got a fun meeting planned where you’ll learn the basics of Arduino programming, electronics & soldering, 3D modeling, and robot des…

The arm we are building will need some form of control. Since we are cost minded, and we happened to have an old 15 pin gaming joystick laying around, we decided to hack it for our purposes. I was able to search up some pin-out guides for the joystick outputs:…

In April of 2016, Prof Ethan Danahy from Tufts University's Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) traveled to Barcelona to present at the international STEAM Conference. While there, he visited an innovative school in Rubi, Catalonia, Spain that has implemented an interdisciplinary…

Chris Rogers, professor at Tufts University, explains why STEM education should be taught in the classroom. Watch how LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 is used at Tufts to help students develop their own opinions and drive their own STEM learning.

What makerspace research is happening at Tufts University? Through interviews with faculty, post-docs, staff, graduate students, and local teacher and student partners, this film explores much of the research and developments, as well as philosophies and contemplations, that are happening at Tufts…

At Rutgers University, Alexandra Garey worked with a friend to develop: “a tool for children on the autism spectrum — a grip for a pencil or crayon that could be fitted with an extension so the teacher could guide the hand of students who dislike being touched. By January, Ms. Garey had designed and…

I have worked with 3D printers before in past internships, and I learned how useful they can be for prototyping an idea, or a quick part replacement. But I decided to make my first print in the Jumbo Maker Studio to be both fun and functional. So I decided to print a small cup that just happens to…

(taken from https://sites.google.com/site/isbmakerblog/home) Hej! As you can tell, I'm already fluent in Danish.... I'll be trying to keep a bit of a blog here with updates on my experience as the maker in residence at ISB. Stay tuned! Monday (day 1) After my arrival at ISB this morning (the…

This will be the new site for the Tufts Robotics Club. We will be posting information about ongoing projects, competitions and other useful information here.

Over the past weeks, I have been working to set up tutorial and reference pages on how to use the Othermill for 2D and 3D pieces. I included information I found on the Othermill support page, other online tutorials, and tips and tricks I found to be useful from my own experience with the machine.…

(Comments here) Hey everyone, This blog is where the Tufts Roboticists team will post updates on our progress on our Intel Cornell Cup Project. So what is it we’re building? The Tufts Roboticists team is building a robotic arm intended for use with any mobile robot. We intend to engineer a modular, l…

Looking for a gift idea for someone? 3D printing is an inexpensive, and very creative way to go. As a HUGE fan of Calvin and Hobbes growing up, I became very excited about this 3D print by Brian Goodmon, a Software Engineer at Tufts. My project is to make a charm bracelet charm in the shape of…

Take a look at our gripper doing its thing: Some notes from testing: Water is much more effective at creating negative pressure than air, since it’s non compressible. We get much better grip while also moving the syringe less distance, meaning that the linear actuator won’t have to expend very muc…

Our system involves a lot of actuators that are powered off a 12V source. If all actuators are stalled at once, you’re looking at about 20A of current. This demands some pretty beefy wires and power connectors if this worst case scenario ever occurs, otherwise we might burn something. When I first s…

This past weekend, five Robotics Club members went out to Trinity College to compete in the annual Firefighting Robot Contest. We did pretty well too! We maintained our title as Olympiad champions: And had a successful run in the maze: If this seems like a cool project to you, it’s easy to get i…

Daniela Torres, "MEMS Shear Sensor", Bachelors of Science Thesis, Tufts University, May 4, 2016.

A free webinar titled An Update on Cognitive Aids for People with Brain Injury is being offered this Wednesday (2/17) at 3p.m. EST. The webinar may be of particular interest to OTS 226 students who are currently acting as consultants to a class of engineers who are tasked with developing a medical…

Two weeks ago, the Tufts Robotics Club helped put on “The Weekend of Making” as part of the Tufts Maker Network. The event was packed, with everyone participating in workshops that revolved around learning by making. You can read more about it in the article in today’s Tufts Daily. We’re really excited…