And it begins again...

[caption id="attachment_118" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Robotic Feeding Arm Base[/caption]

My current goal is to build my third robotic feeding arm. The first one is at the Franciscan Hospital, the second is in my possession but was used to compete in the Cornell Cup. This third device will be used hopefully to compete in RESNA student design competition in June. Despite competitions, the school will want to have one to display in the ECE office as a show piece to incoming students/parents.

As I receive more funding, future robots will be built to try out new designs and platforms. Just today I got invited as a semi-finalist (from 70+ applicants) to an interview in hopes to be a finalist for the Sandbox Summer Accelerator! If chosen, I will have the opportunity to kick-start my business over the course of this 12-week program that ends with $30k in cash prizes.

Looks like this could be a busy summer.

Wish me luck!

Friends of Kevin Radio Interview

Earlier this morning I had the pleasure of speaking on air with Kevin Wilett who is a host for WSMN 1590. I first met Kevin during the Sandbox High Growth/Tech Pitch Contest I blogged about earlier this month. Kevin attended the contest as a social media expert giving advice to contestants who needed ideas/help managing sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc... Through Emil, a sandbox marketing manager, I was invited to go on air where I was asked a series of questions regarding my robotic feeding device and my experience doing the contest.

Please listen to the interview here: Friends of Kevin Radio Interview

Graduation! part 1...

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="576"] Graduation Day[/caption]

One of the biggest accomplishments of my life so far has been graduating college with a degree in Electrical Engineering (with a minor in robotics). It certainly proves that perseverance trumps pure intelligence alone. Ignorance is what set me sailing towards this degree as I sat in front of my computer 4 years ago and said, 'hm, I'm going to be an electrical engineer' then proceeded to Google 'what is an electrical engineer?'.

I was attending North Shore Community College at the time and was doing quite well (to put my abilities in perspective though, in high school, if you organized my graduating class in ascending GPA order, you'd find me spack-dap in the middle). Turns out people have unlimited potential, but some choose to keep it dormant. I did, until fear of not succeeding in my degree caused my social life to go out the door and ended up spending any free time studying.

Turning a long, arduous story short, I graduated Cum Laude and am wearing that yellow stole because I was the president of Eta Kappa Nu (HKN), the electrical and computer engineering society at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The blog post titled 'Graduation! part 2...' will come next year when I finish my graduate studies in computer engineering. Here's to perseverance!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="490"] Degree in Electrical Engineering[/caption]

 

 

Sandbox High Growth/Tech Pitch Contest

On May 9th I gave a 2 minute pitch in front of a panel of judges. The pitch I gave was based on the robotic feeding arm concept. I took 2nd place overall out of an original 50+ applicants. The money I won will go towards developing more user interfaces for my robots. I am currently looking into Emotiv's EEG headset. For more information on the Sandbox and to see the other contestants, you can visit this website: High Growth Pitch Contest

[caption id="attachment_56" align="aligncenter" width="625"] 2nd Prize Winner[/caption]

 

Cornell Cup

Since September of 2012, Team ARM (Autonomous Robotic Mechanism) has been designing and building a robotic feeding device to compete in the Cornell Cup. The Cornell Cup is a student design competition sponsored by Intel. Many Universities throughout the nation apply to compete in this competition that is held annually at Walt Disney World's Contemporary Resort. My team was 1 of 30 final teams chosen to fly down.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="512"] Here at the Cornell Cup in Walt Disney World[/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="470"] Badge for Cornell Cup[/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="470"] Presenting ARM[/caption]