The UMBC Kinetic Sculpture Team will share their process for redesigning the “MC Hammerhead” kinetic sculpture, including research on sustainable design (McDonough and Braungart 2002, 2013), Agile methods of project management (Ullman 2008) and integrative strategies for combining the expertise of majors from engineering, visual arts, information systems, anthropology, psychology, and Asian Studies (Miller&Boix Mansilla 2004). 

The Team will share art and engineering sketches, photos of the design and build process, and videos of the test ride of the twenty foot shark sculpture. Team members will discuss their experiments with reclaimed materials, including how they tested material integrity through prototyping. Building on the visual communication the Kraken Upcycle Team used regarding plastic accumulation as the new monster of the sea, the Shark Sculpture Team will create visual metaphors highlighting the importance of using recycled plastics.  

The project is continually evolving in iterative cycles, merging past teams’ work with current team members’ personal experience and skills that they bring to the project. Finally, the team will discuss the broader impact of sustainable design through examples such as WashedAshore.org and the work of artist Angelia Haseltine Pozzi.

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Enabling Computation, Control, and Customization of Materials with Digital Fabrication Processes

Michael Rivera, Carnegie Mellon University 

1:00-2:00 pm Wednesday, 31 March 2022

via WebEx

Low-cost digital fabrication technology, and in particular 3D printing, is ushering in a new wave of personal computing. The technology promises that users will be able to design, customize and create any object to fit their needs. While the objects that we interact with daily are generally made of many types of materials—they may be hard, soft, conductive, etc.—current digital fabrication machines have largely been limited to producing rigid and passive objects. In this talk, I will present my research on developing digital fabrication processes that incorporate new materials such as textiles and hydrogels. These processes include novel 3D printer designs, software tools, and human-in-the-loop fabrication techniques. With these processes, new materials can be controlled, customized, and integrate computational capabilities—at design time and after fabrication—for creating personalized and interactive objects. I will conclude Research this talk with my vision for enabling anyone to create with digital fabrication technology and its impact beyond the individual.

Michael Rivera is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University where he is advised by Scott Hudson. He works at the intersection of human-computer interaction, digital fabrication, and materials science. He has published papers on novel digital fabrication processes and interactive systems at top-tier HCI venues, including ACM CHI, UIST, DIS, and IMWUT. His work has been recognized with a Google – CMD-IT Dissertation Fellowship, an Adobe Research Fellowship Honorable Mention, and a Xerox Technical Minority Scholarship. Before Carnegie Mellon, he completed a M.S.E in Computer Graphics and Game Technology and a B.S.E in Digital Media Design at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also worked at the Immersive Experiences Lab of HP Labs, and as a software engineer at Facebook and LinkedIn.