[Hydro-Morphologies:
Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Integration in Future Agtech Vehicles Inspired by Funnel Spider Web]
By studying how funnel spider web collects, filters, and distributes water, we reimagined PBV in the context of smart farming.
Client: Hyundai + KIA
Stage 1
April-May 2023
Collaborators: Jasmine J. Lee (Industrial Design), Diana Sanchez (Digital Media)
Stage 2
Summer 2024 (Ongoing)
Individual Research
- Opens wide at the entrance and taper to a central point;
- Spun outdoors between grass/bushes;
- High strength to weight ratio;
- Flexible yet durable in various weather conditions.
Chainmail structure testing
[Conductive Bio-silicone]
Silicone is being used to replace other polymers in some products and applications; but even though it is more environmentally friendly than plastic, it is still non-biodegradable. Often, instead of being properly recycled, silicone winds up in our landfills, where it may be harmful to the environment.
To turn silicone into a more sustainable material, I experimented with potato starch, arrowroot starch, agar, salt, glycerin, Yuzu sauce, maple syrup, orange peel, and vinegar to create a bio-silicone alternative. I adjusted the ratio of different ingredients to test out different kinds of textures and material properties for future applications, while mainly focusing on exploring a few material attributes: stiffness, elasticity, and electrical conductivity.
In the final design, I combined all of these characteristics to create a conductive, inflatable material that could be used in everyday products and/or unusual devices, such as expandable controllers or other kinds of fluid interfaces.
To demonstrate the potential of her work, I used her bio-silicone to form keys for a customizable keyboard instrument that she designed. Every piece of bio-silicone is a key that plays a distinct sound. The keyboard can be customized into different shapes, for example: animals, fruit, abstract forms, or lightweight ribbons that could be taped on a variety of surfaces. In a different configuration, the keyboard could also be used to play games or feature other outputs.
#Biomaterial #Conductive #BioSilicone #BioDesign
Program: Brown+RISD MA Design Engineering
Year: 2022
Collaborators: None
Instructors: Jennifer Bissonnette & Peter Yeadon
High fast food demand especially for burgers, is causing not only health problems but also environmental issues. As beef is the major meat source of burger patties, more and more trees were cut down in order to farm cattle. Turns out that livestock, especially the emissions of cows are the major contributor to greenhouse gas pollution. How might we push a more balanced and nutritious diet and mitigate food insecurity in Rhode Island while considering the environmental aspect? As Rhode Island is well-known for seafood, we decided to anchor around the native regenerative food source here called sugar kelp, and create an ecosystem around it.
The kelp powder system provides a low-cost nutritious solution that seamlessly integrates into Rhode Islanders’ daily dietary while reducing more than 82% of greenhouse gas pollution produced by cattle. By turning sugar kelp into the form of powder, it becomes a longer-lasting, preservable nutritional ingredient that could be easily introduced into many different types of food recipes.
In this system, we focused on the fast food and convenience food industry. Instead of selling the kelp powder directly to customers as a form of seasoning, we chose a more affordable and seamless way by mixing kelp powder into foods such as meat patties and/ or canned food to increase the percentage of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants during the process of food production. The uneaten food waste or excessed food waste could be donated to the USDA Donation Center and food bank and be provided to people in need with the necessary nutrients. It could also become feed for livestock or be easily decomposed.
The secondary form of food recipe that we included in the system is cattle feed. Researches show that introducing kelp to the current feed which is a mixture of soy and crop, reduces the emission of methane by cows substantially. The healthier diet of cows also provides better meat sources for burgers and further forms a healthier cycle for the ecosystem.
Lastly, the kelp powder product including those with flawed packaging could also be donated to USDA Donation Center as a nonperishable food source that helps stock the shelves at food banks and pantries, and further, be added to other donated food to increase the nutrients in the community diet.
Program: Brown+RISD MA Design Engineering
Year: 2022
Collaborators: Bill Xi [Video], Selena [Research Assistant]
Mental disorders are becoming a common social issue, however, it is often underestimated. Mental disorders will affect people’s mood, thinking, and behavior. At its worst, the disorders can lead to suicide.
Based on research, it is possible to believe that if we can find a way to help people become positive in the present, we might be able to change the way our brain processes the world and might eventually affect reality.
This project was initiated in a poetic hardware class while I was trying to re-create the robots from Yuri Suzuki’s art piece called “Looks Like Music”, in order to learn the mechanism behind it. During the process, I wanted to alter the project and create hand-gesture-controlled robots that are able to detect the colors in our environment and transform the colors into playful sounds. In this way, to help people stay in the present and pay attention to the positive little things that are around us all the time.
#MentalHealth #Toy #Product #Electronics #Innovation #DesignEngineering
Project: Self-initiated
Year: 2020 (8 Weeks)
Technical Instructions: CW&T [Che-Wei Wang & Taylor Levy], MORAKANA [Tiri Kananuruk & Sebastian Morales], and Andy Law;
- Train ourselves to start paying attention to the existense of our environment by noticing the colors around us;
- Gamifies it by transforming the colors into sounds, with options of soundtracks including piano, violin, drum, and vocal;
- Move the robots around to detect different parts of the environment by hand-gesture-control, just like a conductor of a symphony;
- Customize your robot and start noticing and having fun with the little moments that are around us all the time!
An at-home device that changes the conditions of the user’s environment and encourages presence through tactile and playful interaction.
#MentalHealth #Mindfulness #AtHomeDevice #Playfulness #HCI #InteractionDesign
Program: Brown + RISD Design Engineering
Year: 2023
Collaborators: Ava Garfinkel [Mechanical Engineer & Prototyper], Jeff Brewer [Mechanical Engineer & Prototyper], Vivian Chan [Interaction Designer & Electrical Engineer]
[Building a Better Mouse App: New Modalities For HCI]
The rigid conventions for mouse and keyboard design are ripe for reinvention. We present a collection of new modalities for mouse and keyboard design, which explore possibilities that untether the user from the constraints of surfaces, both screens and tables, and investigate novel relationships to emerging HCI modalities that reconsider how we situate the user in physical and virtual space. We discuss our design process, and present a collection of prototypes that serve as provocations for this and future work. We conclude with a discussion about how these prototypes might provide new opportunities for HCI design in augmented and virtual reality, as well as their application to new possibilities for ubiquitous computing.
#Human-Computer Interaction #Ubiquitous Computer #Human Centered Design
Lab: Brown University Engineering and Computer Science
Year: 2023
Collaborators: Ian Gonsher, Frank Carber, Jesse Gallant, Fuka Ikeda, Claire Poissonnier
Publish: IHIET 2023
https://openaccess.cms-conferences.org/publications/book/978-1-958651-87-2/article/978-1-958651-87-2_54
[Biodesign Featured/Experiments]
NYU ITP Intro to Biomaterial Workshop Speaker
Papilio Palinurus Butterfly Wing under Electron Microscope
Hyundai x KIA Biodesign Research Fellowhttps://www.hyundainews.com/en-us/releases/3864https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hyundai-motor-group-and-rhode-island-school-of-design-pursue-collaborative-future-living-via-2023-project-301856422.html
Biocement Workshop by Laura Maria Gonzalez
RISD Biodesign Homepagehttps://biodesign.risd.edu/Biodegradable-Bio-siliconeCheckout this project
2. Harvesting, Drying and Conditioning
- Purify and sequence a portion of our DNA to analyze for ancestry;
- Generate our own genetically modified organism (GMO) using bacteria and green fluorescent protein (the same protein that won the 2008 Nobel Prize!)
[Technical Literacy]
This section documents my learning processes and practices in creative technology, CS, and engineering. I am passionate about exploring the intersection between art, design, technology, science and engineering.
https://chienlu.zip/TechnologyExploration
Programming
#Computer Graphics #C++
Special thanks to Vivian Chan and Cheng-You Lu for helping me out on this course.
#Three.js #Shader
Hardware
#Electronics
#Fusion 360
AR/VR
#AR #Game
Visualization
#SoundVisualization #NYU #ITPCamp #2019
Game
#Game #Unity
Machine Learning
#Machine Learning #Wekinator
[Technical Literacy]
#Computer Graphics #C++
Special thanks to Vivian Chan and Cheng-You Lu for helping me out on this course.
#Three.js #Shader
[Technical Literacy]
#Electronics
[Technical Literacy]
#3D Modeling #C4D #Vectery
#Fusion 360