For your final project, you’ll explore a specific set of materials, techniques, or applications in depth. The project could take many different forms, including but not limited to:

• A design project in which materials or materiality plays a central role.
• A series of documented material or technique explorations.
• A prototype for a new tool that could help others work with materials and technology.

The final project presentation will consist of short (10-15 minute) formal presentations that you will present in class and short online descriptions. Your presentation should include:

• A description and demonstration of your project.
• A survey of previous work in the area.
• A description and discussion of your construction process.
• Reflections on how you might expand the project with more time and/or resources.

Create a post on the site for your proposal and add it to the Final Project category. Your page should contain a short description of the project, documentation of and reflection on your construction process, and a downloadable version of your presentation.

Working either individually or in a small group (2-3 people), you will experiment with material actuators in a hands-on project. For Tuesday’s class you should prepare a 5-10 minute presentation and a blog post that documents your project.

Your presentation and blog post should include:

• A description of your project.
• Images and/or videos that document your process.
• A discussion of challenges, frustrations, and/or epiphanies.
• Reflections on how you might use the material or technique in your practice in the future.

Add your blog post to the the Actuators Project category. Bring your project to class on Tuesday for an in person demonstration and discussion.

For this assignment, you’ll research different material actuators in small teams. Each team is assigned a type of actuator and a paper that should provide a foundation for further research. For Tuesday’s class you should prepare a 3 minute presentation (note the change in time) and a blog post (on this site) that documents your research.

Your talk should include:

• An explanation of the basic properties of the actuator, how it works, and how it’s constructed.
• Brief reflections on how you might use the actuator in your own practice.

Your blog post should include:

• The material covered in your talk, plus:
• Identification of at least one supplier of the actuator (or its constituent parts). Provide information about cost and any safety concerns. You should be able to reasonably acquire material from this supplier.
• A link to a pdf of your research presentation.

Add your blog post to the the Actuators Research category.

Groups, materials, and starter papers are given below:

Group 1. Jamming
Adedoyin Ogunniyi
Sara Hendren
Jill Sherman

Brown, E., Rodenberg, N., Amend, J., et al. Universal robotic gripper based on the jamming of granular material. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, (2010).

Group 2. Pneumatics and Soft Robotics
Oz Agar
Jason Wee

Ilievski, F., Mazzeo, A.D., Shepherd, R.F., Chen, X., and Whitesides, G.M. Soft Robotics for Chemists. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 50, 8 (2011), 1890-1895.

Group 3. Thermochromic Inks and Paints
Nicole Tariverdian
Dena Molnar
Daekwon Park

Siegel, A.C., Phillips, S.T., Wiley, B.J., and Whitesides, G.M. Thin, lightweight, foldable thermochromic displays on paper. Lab on a Chip 9, 19 (2009), 2775.

Group 4. Electroactive Polymers
Timothee Boitouzet
Sam Jacoby
Farre Nixon

Petralia, M.T. and Wood, R.J. Fabrication and analysis of dielectric-elastomer minimum-energy structures for highly-deformable soft robotic systems. 2010 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), IEEE (2010), 2357-2363.

Group 5. Shape Memory Alloys
Shan Gao
Fangbing Qiu
Woong Ki Sung

Hawkes, E., An, B., Benbernou, N.M., et al. Programmable matter by folding. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, (2010).

For your final project, you’ll explore a specific set of materials, techniques, or applications in depth. You are very welcome (in fact encouraged) to work in groups. The project could take many different forms, including but not limited to:

• A design project in which materials or materiality plays a central role.
• A series of documented material or technique explorations.
• A prototype for a new tool that could help others work with materials and technology.

The final project proposals will consist of short (10 minute) formal presentations that you will present in class and short online descriptions. Your presentation should include:

• A concise description of your project.
• A preliminary survey of previous work in the area.
• If you are planning a project whose outcome is a specific artifact, preliminary sketches of the artifact.
• A time line/plan of work.

Create a post on the site for your proposal and add it to the Final Project Proposal category. Your page should contain a short description and a downloadable version of your presentation.

Working either individually or in a small group (2-3 people), you will experiment with material sensors in a hands-on project. For Tuesday’s class you should prepare a 5-10 minute presentation and a blog post that documents your project. This project can take one of two forms:

1. Build a novel sensor
Create your own sensor, document your construction process, and describe the electrical and mechanical properties of the sensor (create a draft datasheet for your sensor). See an example bare bones datasheet for a flex sensor here and a more complete one for a pressure sensor here. Your “datasheet” should include the physical dimensions of the device, a textual explanation of its basic functionality, and a quantitative documentation of its functionality. For this project, building a sensor that someone else has already built and documented is insufficient. Your sensor or construction process should be novel.

2. Build and use a material-based sensor in a design project
Build a sensor that is new to you and incorporate it in a design project. The material properties of the sensor should play an important role–aesthetic, conceptual, and/or functional–in the project. Take photos throughout your building process. Make a note of challenges you encounter and techniques or approaches you develop. Reflect on the affordances of the sensor and materials you used and how you might use them in other contexts or larger projects.

Your presentation and blog post should include:

• A description of your project.
• Images and/or videos that document your process.
• A discussion of challenges, frustrations, and/or epiphanies.
• Reflections on how you might use the material or technique in your practice in the future.

Add your blog post to the the Sensors and Projects categories. Bring your project to class on Tuesday for an in person demonstration and discussion.

For this assignment, you’ll research different classes of sensor materials in small teams. Each team is assigned a category of sensor and a paper that should provide a foundation for further research. For Tuesday’s class you should prepare a 10 minute presentation and a blog post (on this site) that documents your research.

Your talk should include:

• Identification of at least one additional scholarly paper that discusses a similar sensor. Good places to look are IEEE explore, the ACM digital library, and google scholar. This paper should also inform your talk and blog post.
• An explanation of the basic properties of the sensor, how it works, and how it’s constructed.
• Identification of at least one supplier of the sensor (or its constituent parts). Provide information about cost and any safety concerns. You should be able to reasonably acquire material from this supplier.
• 1-3 examples (no more than 3) of an art, design, or engineering project that employed a similar sensor. Videos and photos are preferred. Try to avoid using examples from the papers you were assigned.
• Reflections on how you might use the sensor in your own practice.

Your blog post should include:

• The material covered in your talk, plus:
• Links to material suppliers you’ve found.
• A link to a pdf of your research presentation.

Add your blog post to the the Sensors and Research categories.

Groups, materials, and starter papers are given below:

Group 1. Bend and Stretch Switches
Jill Sherman
Woong Ki Sung
Farre Nixon

Slyper, R., Poupyrev, I., and Hodgins, J. Sensing through structure. In Proceedings of the Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction Conference (TEI), ACM Press (2011), 213-220.

Group 2. Chemiresistors
Oz Agar
Dena Molnar
Shan Gao

Dong, X.M., Fu, R.W., Zhang, M.Q., Zhang, B., and Rong, M.Z. Electrical resistance response of carbon black filled amorphous polymer composite sensors to organic vapors at low vapor concentrations. Carbon 42, 12-13 (2004), 2551-2559.

Group 3. “Natural” Sensors
Sam Jacoby
Fangbing Qiu
Adedoyin Ogunniyi

Kuznetsov, S., Odom, W., Pierce, J., and Paulos, E. Nurturing natural sensors. In Proceedings of the Conference on Ubiquitous Computing (Ubicomp), ACM Press (2011), 227-236.

Group 4. Fiber Optic Bend Sensors
Timothee Boitouzet
Sara Hendren

Kuang, K.S.C., Cantwell, W.J., and Scully, P.J. An evaluation of a novel plastic optical fibre sensor for axial strain and bend measurements. Measurement Science and Technology 13, (2002), 1523-1534.

Group 5. Pressure and Proximity Sensing Matrices (Capacitive)
Nicole Tariverdian
Daekwon Park

Rekimoto, J. SmartSkin. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI), ACM Press (2002), 113-120.

Group 6. Infrared Ink + Cameras
Jason Wee

Rosner, D. and Ryokai, K. Weaving memories into handcrafted artifacts with Spyn. CHI ’08 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, ACM (2008), 2331–2336.

To deepen your understanding of electricity and begin to build an understanding of sensor technologies, read the following sections from Jacob Fraden’s Handbook of Modern Sensors:

Chapter 1: Data Acquisition
Chapter 3, Section 3.5: Resistance

Optional reading:
Chapter 2: Sensor Characteristics
Chapter 3: Physical Principles of Sensing

All readings from:
Fraden, J. Handbook of Modern Sensors: Physics, Designs, and Applications. Springer, 2010.

Working either individually or in a small group (2-3 people), you will experiment with novel conductive materials in a hands-on project. For Tuesday’s class you should prepare a 5-10 minute presentation and a blog post that documents your project. This project can take one of three forms:

1. Build a new material
Create your own conductive composite. Carefully document how you created your material as well as any unsuccessful attempts you made along the way. For example, if you’re attempting to make a conductive paint from metal powder and gel medium, keep track of the amount of powder and gel you use (by weight) and the conductivity of each mixture. Take pictures of each sample and note any remarkable characteristics. Look for patterns in your data.

2. Experiment with a material or technique
Explore a material or technique that is new to you (ie: conductive paint, electroplating) and carefully document your experiments. Work to thoroughly understand a particular aspect of a material’s conductive and mechanical properties or a technique’s viability for a particular application. For example, an investigation of electroplating could explore the flexibility and durability of platings on fabric. In this case you would keep track of your plating method (documenting things like the conductivity of the initial conductive coating and the length of time the material spent in the plating bath) and the conductivity of your plating over time as you abused the sample in some way (ie: putting it through the washing machine). Again, you would take pictures of your samples throughout the process and look for patterns in the data you collected.

3. Use a material or technique in a design project
Use a material or technique that is new to you in a design project. The material or technique should be an important element of the design. Take photos throughout your building process. Make a note of challenges you encounter and techniques or approaches you develop. Reflect on the affordances of the material or technique you chose and how you might use it in other contexts or larger projects.

Your presentation and blog post should include:

• A description of your project.
• Images and/or videos that document your process. For projects in the first two categories, a presentation of the quantitative results of your experiments (tables, charts, etc.).
• A discussion of challenges, frustrations, and/or epiphanies.
• Reflections on how you might use the material or technique in your practice in the future.

Add your blog post to the the Conductors and Projects categories. Bring your project to class on Tuesday for an in person demonstration and discussion.

You will research different classes of conductive materials in small teams.  The goal of this assignment is for you to get a deeper understanding of a particular material, learn how to use scientific papers in your explorations, and discover new materials that you can employ in your practice.  Each team is assigned a class of material and a paper that should provide a foundation for further research.  For Tuesday’s class you should prepare a 10 minute presentation and a blog post (on this site) that documents your research.

Your talk should include:

• An explanation of the basic properties of the material and a discussion of the varieties available and their intended applications. The goal of this talk is to share what you learned with your classmates.  Pay special attention to the material’s conductive properties and any known health hazards.
• Identification of at least one supplier of the material (or its constituent parts) in some form.  Provide information about the material’s cost. You should be able to reasonably acquire material from this supplier.
• At least one example of an art, design, or engineering project that employed the material. Videos and photos are preferred. Try to avoid using examples from the papers you were assigned.
• Reflections on how you might use the material in your own practice.

Your blog post should include:

• A few paragraphs explaining the basic properties of the material and describing the varieties that you identified and their intended applications.  Again, you should pay special attention to its conductive properties and any known health hazards.  Include references/links to papers, websites, books, and other materials that you used to collect this information.
• Links to material suppliers you’ve found.
• A link to a pdf of your research presentation.

Add your blog post to the the Conductors and Research categories.

Groups, materials, and starter papers are given below:

Group 1. Carbon Nanotubes
Jill Sherman
Daekwon Park
Dena Molnar

Hu, L., Choi, J.W., Yang, Y., et al. Highly conductive paper for energy-storage devices. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, (2009).

Lam, C.-W., James, J.T., McCluskey, R., Arepalli, S., and Hunter, R.L. A review of carbon nanotube toxicity and assessment of potential occupational and environmental health risks. Critical Reviews in Toxicology 36, 3 (2006), 189-217.

Group 2. Conductive Ink (Silver Based)
Adedoyin Ogunniyi
Jeremy Roc Jih
Shan Gao

Russo, A., Ahn, B.Y., Adams, J.J., Duoss, E.B., Bernhard, J.T., and Lewis, J.A. Pen‐on‐Paper Flexible Electronics. Advanced Materials 23, 30 (2011), 3426-3430.

Group 3. Conductive Elastomers
Sam Jacoby
Sara Hendren
Woong Ki Sung

Ruschau, G.R., Yoshikawa, S., and Newnham, R.E. Resistivities of conductive composites. Journal of Applied Physics 72, (1992), 953.

Group 4. Conductive Polymers, Conductive Plastics
Timothee Boitouzet
Oz Agar
Fangbing Qiu

Kumar D. and Sharma R.C. Advances in conductive polymers. European Polymer Journal 34, 8 (1998), 1053-1060.

Group 5. Metal Filled Polymers and Conductive Adhesives
Nicole Tariverdian
Jason Wee
Farre Nixon

Mamunya, Y.P., Davydenko, V.V., Pissis, P., and Lebedev, E.V. Electrical and thermal conductivity of polymers filled with metal powders. European Polymer Journal 38, 9 (2002), 1887-1897.