2018-2019-STEAM-Superheroes - Flipbook - Page 49
EPIC IDENTITY FEATURING PROF. LEIA STIRLING
Project Example: NuVu Student
Here’s an example of a student project that fits the criteria of the Epic Identity featuring Prof. Leia Stirling
challenge. Because the MIT Challenges are designed to be student-driven, we encourage you to focus
on the process that led to this project, rather than the outcome of project.
Students at NuVu, a studio-based middle and high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, were tasked
with creating “future footwear.” One student group created a wearable technology for beginner triathletes.
Their product is a cycling shoe exoskeleton that can be worn with a regular running shoe, and clips into
the pedal of a bicycle. From the students’ project documentation:
“To start off our project we started to brainstorm ways that we could make sports shoes
easier to use, and, ultimately, have multiple uses… Our product was designed on the basis
that the user would input his/her size shoe, and also any other specifics such as wide feet,
and be able to 3d print an exoskeleton within a few hours to his/her running shoe so that it
can clip onto a bike.”
The students describe working through three iterations of their design before finalizing their project. Their
first model was made of cardboard, which allowed them to quickly and inexpensively test their idea; the
final product was designed with CAD software and were 3D printed.
If this project was part of the Epic Identity MIT Challenge, the students could have quantitatively measured
how much faster a triathlete transitions from cycling to running in a race scenario.
Read about the students’ project on the NuVu website:
https://cambridge.nuvustudio.com/studios/future-shoes#tab-projects
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