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December 13th, 2018
We’ve all been there—in that situation where a last-minute change to a project or a plan can evoke panic-inducing visions of the entire thing going up in flames. For college students, end-of-semester papers and projects can be rife with this kind of hiccup, and many times, at such a critical juncture, the support and resources provided by faculty and staff can make or break such an assignment.
Recently, when Gabriel Ng (Overland Park, KS), a senior biomedical engineering major, and his fellow group-project members in Purdue’s Mechanical Engineering (ME) 444, “Toy Design,” course had a last-minute change to a toy product prototype, he and his team received such support from staff in Purdue Libraries—support that was critical for the project’s success. With the help of Library Assistant Robin Meher and her fellow employees in the Data Visualization Experience Lab of Purdue (D-VELoP) located in the Wilmeth Active Learning Center (WALC), the students were able to get the project—the “Fidget Cube”—completed and turned in on time.
“We had been working on a large semester project in ME 444, and I came into the WALC just before Thanksgiving break because our team had a last-minute change that forced us to send a significant amount of our nearly 50 parts to the 3D printers in D-VELoP for printing,” Ng explained. “Robin was the one in the room at the time and was incredibly helpful in answering my questions, detailing the quotas and constraints of your system, and helping me organize the prints so we could get everything printed on time to complete the project.”
According to Joseph “Joey” Baietto (Crystal Lake, IL), a senior mechanical engineering major, for their project, the team wanted to design a challenging, complex, and creative toy that would celebrate Purdue’s 150-year anniversary. Other team members include Delaney Sunbury (Seymour, IN), a senior mechanical engineering major, and Rohit Srivastava (St. Louis, MO), a senior biomedical engineering major.
“Our preliminary designs for a toy each focused on one aspect of Purdue and Purdue’s icons,” Baietto explained. “However, with the Fidget Cube, we could incorporate most of the Purdue icons into a single toy! As a result, we chose this concept as our toy. The resulting toy was an astounding success. We were able to incorporate Purdue’s Sesquicentennial, the Purdue XTRA Special, Purdue Pete (twice), and an ‘IU SUCKS’ banner all into the toy. The team incorporated many concepts we learned in class into the design, as well. Because there are six sides to the cube and all are unique and independent, all of us had the opportunity to design our own sides on the toy. As a result, each person was invested equally in the project,” he added.
Earlier this week, Ng sent Meher an email, thanking the staff in D-VELoP for their help with the team’s toy product prototype, and he included a photo of the prototype.
“Right now, the size of the prototype is rather large, but in the future, the size of the product will be reduced greatly,” Ng added. “The Fidget Cube has four sides: a fully functional fidget spinner; a 150-years push button (users can push the 1 and 0 back and forth); a maze feature that, when you complete the maze successfully, the LED array around the maze lights up; and a train side that, when a user spins the wheels, a Purdue Pete pops up and down, which is based on a scotch yoke mechanism in the inside of the face. There is also a drivetrain on the bottom to drive the cube around.”
The course, ME 444, teaches students about computer aided design and rapid prototyping and uses toy design projects for student learning. Such courses at Purdue often require students to create product prototypes. Many times, Purdue students use the 3D printing and data visualization resources provided through D-VELoP (part of the Library of Engineering and Science in the WALC) for their assignments.
“The creativity and ingenuity of Purdue students never fails to amaze us in the print lab,” Meher noted. “We have printed architectural designs, tools for shaping clay, parts for robot cars, and so much more. Printing prototypes like the Fidget Cube is especially enjoyable, as we can imagine the day when the items come to market. For a lot of prints, especially parts, we don’t know what the final product will be–so seeing the finished cube is very cool. Props to Gabriel, Joseph, Rohit, and Delaney for their vision and design! It was a pleasure working with them.”
To learn more about the resources provided at D-VELoP, see www.lib.purdue.edu/d-velop. Information about and instructions for 3D printing through the Library of Engineering and Science is available at https://guides.lib.purdue.edu/3dprinting/Home.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general
June 1st, 2018
by Teresa Koltzenburg, Purdue Libraries
Purdue University senior Jacob Nolley is in no danger of lacking entrepreneurial ideas and endeavor. Nolley—a dual marketing and management major in the Purdue Krannert School of Management and president of the Purdue Honors College Mentor Council—and his business partner and best friend, Collin Clevenger (who attends Ball State University), have both embodied the entrepreneurial spirit since they were in fourth grade together many years ago. Back then, the Shelbyville (IN) natives started a business selling lollipops and pencil erasers to their elementary-school classmates. The pair’s business partnership continued into their high school years, when they founded a headband business together and sold their headband products to fellow students and friends.
Most recently, Nolley and Clevenger started the product-development venture The Graphite Lab, through which they hope to help other young entrepreneurs take their product ideas to market successfully. As a proof of their product-development company concept, Nolley and Clevenger have developed their very own product, the GripIt, a holder for mobile devices, which they describe as “the most comfortable, customizable, and care-free way to hold your device.” Sleeker (for carrying a device in one’s pocket) than the popular pop-up holders—and still creating a more secure grip on one’s valuable mobile device—GripIt attaches easily to mobile devices (including tablets) and features 16 different band colors. Nolley said, too, those who order GripIt in bulk orders (for giveaways and brand awareness “swag”) will have even more customizable options (e.g., printing the bands and/or more color options).
Recently, the pair launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to help them purchase start-up capital, including a printer so they can make some of the product pieces themselves. But before they could start marketing GripIt (and the services of The Graphite Lab) and launch their Indiegogo campaign, Nolley and Clevenger needed a product prototype to show to prospective investors and to take to manufacturing partners. That’s where the 3D printing resources in the Purdue University Libraries’ Data-Visualization Experience Lab of Purdue (D-VELoP) proved to be integral. (D-VELoP is part of the Library of Engineering and Science in the Wilmeth Active Learning Center.) After creating a design using OnShape online product-design software, Nolley used D-VELoP’s 3D printing resources and the D-VELoP staff members’ expertise to help him hone the prototype.
“Libraries personnel, like [Instructional Developer] Aly Edmondson helped me a great deal,” Nolley explained. “I talked with her and other D-VELoP personnel about what they would recommend for this particular prototype design. Through this process, I learned how to design a product to be manufactured, as there are lot of different things that need to be implemented in this type of design—one that will be 3D printed and injection molded— for it to work. I went through about 25 iterations before I came to the final prototype design, and every time I sent a design to be 3D printed, I got it back promptly, and they gave me great feedback, which was super helpful,” he added.
Nolley—who is also minoring in creative writing and completed Purdue University’s Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program—not only credits D-VELoP’s resources and personnel for helping him and his partner get to this point with the start-up The Graphite Lab and the GripIt product, but he also noted that many people, resources, and services at Purdue have been invaluable during his college career.
“No one has helped me more at Purdue than Debbi Bearden, my academic advisor in the Krannert Leaders Academy. She has helped provide me with all the many, wonderful opportunities I have benefited from as a Purdue student. Debbi has made my time at Purdue absolutely the most fruitful experience I have had in my life,” he noted.
Nolley also took advantage of Purdue University’s Foundry, which, according to the Purdue Foundry website, “exists to help Purdue students, faculty, and local alumni move ideas to the marketplace more quickly.”
“My freshman year at Purdue, I founded ‘Jacob’s Loom,’ a start-up project that I ended up closing because of financing problems, which is part of the inspiration for using the crowdfunding approach for Collin’s and my current start-up project,” he explained. “The resources at the Purdue Foundry and the staff there—like Tim Peoples, Purdue Foundry managing director, and John Hanak, managing director of Purdue Ventures—were pivotal in providing me with the skills to be successful with The Graphite Lab and GripIt.”
Nolley also credits his former Purdue instructor Beth Carroll (who now works in the retail sector)—who taught courses in Purdue University’s Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program—for helping him learn and hone his entrepreneurial knowledge and skills.
“She is one of the most helpful faculty members I have ever worked with,” Nolley said.
Nolley and Clevenger launched their Indiegogo campaign just this week, and they only have short window, about a month, to get to their fundraising goal of $15,000. The good news is that, as of June 1, they already have close to 100 backers and have raised more than $1,000.
“We used Indiegogo because we wanted to show it is possible that you do not have to sell your ideas and efforts to get your company off the ground. That is what we want to do with our customers of The Graphite Lab,” Nolley explained. “So, when people bring their products to us, we want to help them get their ideas off the ground and sell their products through our sales channels, but we do not want to own their products. Many times, what happens with young entrepreneurs, in order to get their ideas to market, they have to ‘sell their souls to the devil,’ so to speak, and sell off their companies and product-development ideas and efforts. So, in the long term, they do not earn those profits. We want to lead by example, and we are trying to show young entrepreneurs that they do not have to sell their companies and/or ideas. We are providing them with another option through The Graphite Lab.”
For more information, check out the GripIt Indiegogo campaign at www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-gripit-iphone-security#/ and/or contact Nolley at JacobNolley@gmail.com or Clevenger at CollinAClevenger@gmail.com.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, press_release, PSET, services, WALC