Students Flex Their Mechanical Muscle

At the Make Anything Robot Hackathon held in the Innovation Lab at Wisser Library from September 25-28, students had the opportunity to build and program a robotic arm. The event is part of the 2017–2018 Make Anything Robot Build workshops, which take place every week throughout the year. The initiative was conceived of by Christian Pongratz, M.Arch., professor and interim dean of NYIT School of Interdisciplinary Studies and Education, together with Haddington Dynamics, a research and development company.

With the aid of faculty members and representatives from Haddington Dynamics, students who participated in the hackathon built Haddington’s Dexter robot arm using parts they created with a 3-D printer.

The arm could then be programmed to do various tasks. “Just imagine that the arm can do anything you do with your hands, just more precise,” explained Pongratz. “It never gets tired and will do stuff you don’t want to do yourself or produce things you would really like to have. It will make the tools to make the products themselves. From building parts to farming to healthcare and even toys like skateboards.”

“We organized the hackathon to create new experiences in NYIT’s public spaces that are connected with the mission and vision of the university and aligned with student interests,” said Jim Martinez, Ph.D., associate professor at the School of Interdisciplinary Studies and Education. “The idea is to create new knowledge across NYIT via a shared language to build across NYIT and form a cohort of collaborating students between disciplines, as well as to stimulate the growth of new courses and programs proliferating aspects of design and making in the respective school or college curricula,” added Pongratz.

The students who participated in the hackathon each offered their own skill sets and area of expertise. “This was an opportunity to bring different majors together like electrical engineering and computer science,” said Michael Morgan, a mechanical engineering student.
“You need mechanical engineering to help build the robot, electrical engineering to put the circuits together, and you need someone to program it,” added Vignesh Harish, an information, network, and computer security major.

Faculty members worked with the students and also met with the president, inventor, and chief architect of Haddington Dynamics, to discuss ways in which NYIT can employ the robot arm. “We plan on continuing to cultivate interdisciplinary ideas and projects with faculty by inviting them to bring their teaching and research priorities to the conversation,” said Martinez. “We are looking forward to some exciting new projects emerging from these collaborations.”

But the main goal of the series is to train student mentors who can now train other students. “The student mentors will work with faculty and other students to build more Dexter arms, but more so engage in a variety of disciplines to speculate applications and make the various tools that might be needed, from bioprinters to foodprinters to design-fabricate building parts,” said Pongratz. “This is industry 4.0 emerging right from our labs and NYIT has the chance to be a major player. After NYIT’s teaching machines from the 1960’s and computer graphics in the 1980’s, it’s time for act three: Making.”

Make Anything sessions will be held every Monday and Wednesday, October through May, in Manhattan and Old Westbury.

Interested in building a robot? Learn more or contact Elizabeth Pirri at epirri@nyit.edu for a schedule of upcoming sessions.