On April 9, a trailer with the words “Born by Fire” on the back destroyed the North Corridor (also known as Outfinite) at MIT. Students wearing orange construction vests maneuvered their futuristic creation out of the trailer, sparking a wave of curious passersby. The aerodynamic shell is covered with solar panels with an area of 5 square meters. This Gemini solar-powered multi-seat car was designed and built by A set of solar-powered electric vehicles (SEVT) is scheduled to compete in the American Solar Challenge 2024. Located just outside Building 13, Gemini made its inaugural public presentation during this year’s Edgerton Center student team showcase. The team’s first-place trophy from an earlier competition sat on top, glistening in the sun.
MIT Motorsports then arrived with their shiny red MY24 electric race car. SEVT, embodying MIT’s collaborative spirit, paused its own installation to support the Motorsports team bring MY24 to Lobby 13. Such camaraderie is common among the Edgerton teams. MY24 is scheduled to compete in two upcoming events: the FSAE Hybrid competition in Loudon, Fresh Hampshire on May 1, followed by the FSAE Motorsports competition in Michigan in June.
During the Edgerton Center’s third annual showcase, Lobby 13 was packed with students, faculty and guests drawn to the passion and excitement of the members of the Edgerton Center’s 14 student teams. Team members excitedly demonstrated a wide range of technologies, including autonomous vessels, rockets, wind turbines, assistive devices and hydrogen-powered turbine engines. “It was inspiring to see the culmination of what MIT students can build in so many different forms. It was great to see everyone’s passion and creativity unfold in each team project,” says junior Anhad Sawhney, president of the MIT Electronics Research Society (MITERS) and captain of the Combat Robotics Club.
Nearby at MITERS, students from the Spokes team were throwing ice cream into a bicycle-powered blender. A quick drive down the street created milkshakes that many people enjoyed. Spokes is a team of Edgerton students who will be riding bikes across the country this summer while conducting STEM outreach activities. Their curriculum is inspired by MIT’s hands-on approach to education.
One of the Edgerton Center’s newest teams, The Assistive Technology Club, has demonstrated a number of innovations that could revolutionize lives. Their blindness support team is designing an app that uses machine learning to describe salient environmental features to visually impaired users. Their adaptive game controllers team is designing a one-handed game controller for a user who has been paralyzed on one side of the body due to a stroke. Junior Ben Lou from the Robotic Self-Feeding Device team has a uncommon condition called spinal muscular atrophy. He says: “Food is a basic necessity, but current devices that help people like me are not suitable for use with different types of food, are unsuitable for users with different positioning needs, are generally difficult to set up and are extremely expensive. The self-feeding team is completely reimagining the way a self-feeding device can work. Instead of using a spoon that cannot cope with a wide range of food products and is prone to spilling (among other things), our device uses a completely new vessel.”
In addition to project presentations, the event also served as a forum for the exchange of ideas and cooperation. The MIT Wind team brought back their first working prototype of their wind turbine model, which they will apply as the basis for competing in next year’s Collegiate Wind Competition. “We hope to continue working on rotor optimization and blade fabrication, power conversion and subsea foundation design to compete with other CWC teams next year,” says team captain Kirby Heck. “As a new Edgerton Center team, the showcase was an incredible opportunity for our team members to connect with industry partners, interact with the MIT community, and see how we fit into the broader constellation of teams at Edgerton at MIT. We also received helpful feedback on our current design and have plenty of new ideas for how we can innovate in the next iteration of the design.”
The event included a compact program during which SEVT captain Adrienne Wing Suen Lai and first-year Rachel Mohommed from the Electric Vehicle team conveyed their congratulations to all teams. A special tribute was also paid to Peggy Eysenbach, the event organizer and development specialist at the Edgerton Center, with a bouquet of flowers. Edgerton Center Director and Professor Kim Vandiver welcomed the MIT community to the event and provided a brief overview of the 30-year history of engineering teams sponsored by the Edgerton Center.
Vandiver believes that robust careers emerge through fun and creativity. “Participating in an engineering team is great professional preparation. After graduation, these leaders are not afraid of arduous problems and quickly advance to project management positions, says Vandiver.