Take a pile of electronics that used to be an exhibit, and give them a second life.
The company that originally built the interactive would not return e-mails or calls, so I had to decode configuration files and wade through extraneous hardware to get things working
I helped scientist Rohan Maddamsetti create a Muller Plot and supporting diagrams for his paper on E. coli evolution. Rohan provided the raw data and we worked together to merge it together into the final diagram using Adobe Illustrator.
The paper was awarded the “1st Centennial Award For Population And Evolutionary Genetics.” More info from the Genetics Society of America.
The full scientific article: Adaptation, Clonal Interference, and Frequency-Dependent Interactions in a Long-Term Evolution Experiment with Escherichia coli
These renderings were created to lend form to exhibit concepts and sell them to funders and other stakeholders. Tools: Adobe Photoshop and Wacom Cintiq
Pen, pencil, and paper
Various life drawings, ideas, and illustrations, mostly personal work
(mini-project)
When I found out we were paying $200 every few weeks to replace the mechanical robot in one of our exhibits, I knew there had to be a better way. I worked with volunteer Paul Stankiewicz to create a durable, low-maintenance, and affordable replacement. The Robo Crab uses an over-sized motor, linear guide rail, and pivots with bushings and shoulder screws.
Materials cost around $200, and thanks to Paul’s generosity, it only took a little bit of my labor to manage the project.
Create an exhibit that empowers visitors to explore the science of light and color. See the captions of the images below for more detail:
The Spectrum exhibit sponsor requested that we include a giant ‘Lite Brite.’ I thought that we could do even better and create a color-changing version, but the complexity and cost of the obvious solution (RGB LEDs and rotary encoders) was prohibitive. I invented a simple mechanism that consists of 4 parts per peg (2 custom parts, an o-ring, and a dowel pin), and has proven reliable over the years.
Each peg assembly would go through thousands of cycles, and there would be a couple thousand peg assemblies, each with a potential for failure, so I took extra steps to ensure longevity. See the photos below for more details…
After seeing my designs at Impression 5, Fenner asked me to conceptualize a new space to reinvigorate their aging exhibit area.
This was a very quick, low-budget project to fill a gap made by a departing traveling exhibit. Other staff developed the activities, and I designed the exhibit layout, look and feel, and environmental treatments. The project took 2 months from initiation to completion.
It turned out to be one of the most popular exhibits in the museum.
Redesign and relocate the aging bubbles exhibit at Impression 5 Science Center. I added to the atmosphere with iridescent plastic panels that resembled the thin-film effect seen on bubbles.
