Student Projects
From artistic interventions to novel smart products, students in our design ecosystem create innovations of all kinds. In course assignments, personal projects, and more, students are constantly developing new ideas and solutions.
Students: Have you made something cool that you’d like to see featured here? Reach out to our Communications Officer with a brief description of your project.
embrace
Helping analyze patterns through wearables.
Frindle
Restoring the power of the written word.
Innovation Catalysts Update: Prana
Catch up with the Spring 2021 Innovation Catalysts Ignite recipients, Prana (formerly Limb-O2)
iOSOS: Data for Search & Rescue
Turning iOS into SOS
Locally
Providing travel tips for a more authentic, local experience
Shotline
Bridging technological divides to provide access to COVID-19 vaccines
Optical Aspects
Helping you see through obscure times
IC Hope
Community resources at your fingertips.
Omni Mouse
An adaptive computer mouse that works by detecting tongue movements.
mediStack
An updated solution to everyday medication adherence.
Softball Swing Trainer
A wearable device for finding the sweet-spot!
Halo
Revolutionizing the way you run.
Colors of the Piano
Seeing sound using LEDs and Arduino.
@artinCOVID
Creating community through art in a time of crisis.
Project Z-Lo
A guide to surviving a single-use wasteland.
Project Grip
Considering ergonomics and hand health in competitive gaming.
ASL Pal
Reimagining reading education for deaf individuals.
RattlesNeck
A two-way notification system to promote cyclist safety and driver alertness.
SmartSight
Using audio and navigation assistance technology to create independent navigational wearables.
b.Print
Supporting people with blindness through affordable, accessible braille printing.
FreeFlow
Providing free, hygienic, and environmentally friendly access to menstrual health across campus.
isoDome
Re-thinking the future of workspaces using traditional origami.
Water: The Memory Card Game
Taking an analog approach to education on issues of public health.
Vibrato
An Android mobile application that augments the musical experience for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Theohand
Taking a custom approach in designing a child’s first prosthetic.
IntelliCon
A robotic underwater wireless communication network.
ARInstructions
An augmented reality (AR) instructions tool for Jacobs Hall.
Heart Sounds Bench
A speculative design investigating how we might use urban sensing to support rest, emotional reflection, and respectfully sharing space with strangers.
Brain Saving Catheter
An innovative catheter that reduces the potential for neurological dysfunction and brain death at the time of cardiac arrest.
Wearable Data Diary of Dystonia
A wearable that serves as a data diary for each individual’s experience with blepharospasm.
Flipper Filter
Flipper Filter is a bioinspired concept for an economically and environmentally friendly device designed to help clean the oceans of microplastics and protect marine fauna.
Mechanical Computation
This project is intended to put computation on display, illustrating key concepts in computing.
Spiral Optic
SpiralOptic is an adaptive light fixture that achieves a dramatic visual unraveling with just the minimal user input of turning a rotational plate.
Ag Bot
In this project, a collaboration with Siemens, students worked to develop a robot to optimize data collection in agriculture.
Creative Programming & Electronics
In a new Design Innovation course, students conceptualized and created wide-ranging interactive objects.
Smart Greenhouse
Inspired by the pinecone, this environmentally adaptive structure is meant to provide passive shading and ventilation.
Deconstructing Walls
This project aims to creative an interactive form of protest against myths that create barriers between immigrant and non-immigrant communities.
Tearrarium
Created by Critical Practices students, Tearrarium is a device that allows your tears to transform and flourish into new life.
Smart Air Bears
Aiming to empower individuals to monitor and act on local air quality information, Smart Air Bears is a low-cost ambient air quality sensor, with an accompanying mobile app.
Climate Change Pitches
Visual Communication & Sketching students brought together storytelling skills to create visual pitches for products or services that could help address climate change.
Universal Socket Prosthetic
This design allows anyone to create a customized prosthetic system that they can adapt and use over long periods of time.
Tap Switch
TapSwitch is a flexible, low-cost device for remote light switch control.
Interactive Coloring Books
In an assignment for a summer course in human-computer interaction, students designed interfaces to support the creative activity of coloring.
3D Printed Bridge Designs
In an assignment for an engineering course that orients freshman and sophomore students to core concepts for manufacturing, students designed and prototyped bridges to span the space between two supports.
Auto Syringe
Auto Syringe is a clip-on attachment that provides greater precision and functionality for syringes.
Tabla
With a low-cost, accurate device that uses sound waves to diagnose pneumonia, a student team aims to meet critical needs in populations with limited access to medical infrastructure.
Wifi Buoy
A student team prototyped a WiFi buoy for the open ocean, considering applications and possible partnerships as they iterated on their design.
ReEmploy
ReEmploy is a prototype for a platform to help refugees build their local networks for resettlement and community engagement.
SpotBot
A project developed across multiple courses, SpotBot is a mechatronic free weight assistant.
KitKast
KitKast reimagines the experience of wearing a cast, enabling novel forms of customization.
HeliHoot
HeliHoot, a project from an integrative biology course, is a concept for applying the natural design of owl wings to reducing the noise levels caused by drones.
Farm-to-Label
This kit takes a speculative approach to “taking fashion back to its roots.”
WheelSense
WheelSense is a modular, open-source system that empowers visually impaired and movement-restricted wheelchair users to explore the world around them.
InPrint
This prototype uses wearable circuit technology to simplify symptom monitoring for patients with Parkinson’s disease.
Go Green/Go Home
This project focuses on optimizing household energy load schedules — integrating consumer energy demand, clean energy generation, and optimized control within a cyber-physical network.
Nektar
Nektar empowers anyone to play songs on guitar, using laser projection to illuminate specific chord positions and to provide intuitive visual guidance that beginning guitar players can follow.
Interaboard
Interaboard is an interactive balance board that engages users in fun workout routines.
IV-GO
This portable IV case is aimed at increasing patient mobility in rural and lower-income regions.
PESES
This proof-of-concept sensor network is focused on facilitating post-earthquake recovery processes by estimating structural damage.
Ellie the Jellyfish
Harnessing the power of cuteness and curiosity, Ellie the Jellyfish lowers the barrier to starting conversations with new people.
Carpt
Reimagining Mobility students conceptualized an autonomous platform that could be called on demand to transport conventional vehicles, cargo, and more.
Nabu
Translating sign language, this wristband broadens access to interpersonal communication.
Drill Sergeant
Drill Sergeant is an ecosystem of augmented power tools that help new makers gain confidence and hands-on skills.
HydroLily
HydroLily takes an interdisciplinary, bioinspired approach to the pressing global issue of expanding access to clean drinking water.
Liberato
This independent project explored applications of 3D printing for rapid prototyping of musical instruments.
Pum
Modeled after mono-wing maple seeds, Pum is a bioinspired relief package airdrop device designed to keep food and medical supplies from being damaged or blown into inaccessible areas.
Spark
Spark is a unisex, multipurpose scarf designed to increase awareness of sexual harassment.
Under Pressure
Aiming to enhance quality of life for those in wheelchairs who suffer from pressure sores, a student team called Under Pressure created a pressure-monitoring pad and a compatible mobile app.
Sustainable Residential Designs for Berkeley
Architecture and structural/civil engineering students teamed up to create innovative, sustainable designs for a residential site in Berkeley.
Dear Jacky
Dear Jacky is a mood-tracking application that enables you to record your emotions, reflect on your entries, and receive a personalized response.
PEC-MAN
PEC-MAN is a portable, low-cost device designed to gamify and socialize standard workouts to help people reach their healthiest, happiest selves.
Max
By increasing awareness of financial activity and endowing the everyday wallet with a personalized, playful identity, Max seeks to be your new, pocket-sized sidekick.
aSYST-ME eB
A cyber physical system designed for use with electric bicycles, aSYST-ME eB guides the user to more efficiently balance pedal power with electric power, preserving comfort as well as battery charge.
WareComm
WareComm is a smartwatch app that offers an efficient means of improving communication between colleagues.
Xylophone Player
Inspired by automatic instruments like music boxes, Computational Design and Fabrication students designed and made a xylophone player.
Riviera
The team behind this interactive device aims to “revolutionize the recruiting process.”
TrashScan
TrashScan is an interactive device that takes a fun approach to educating community members about sustainability.
Bluetooth-Controlled Vehicles
Introduction to Prototyping and Fabrication students gained skills by designing and building bluetooth-controlled vehicles.
Helios
Helios is a real-time body-cam and sensor package designed to improve firefighters’ safety.
SynthSense
Aimed at empowering the visually impaired, this augmented white cane provides both obstacle avoidance and navigation assistance.
COPD Monitor
A student team prototyped an armband respiratory monitoring device designed for patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
Explaining with Visual Communication
In an assignment for Sketching & Visual Communication, students took on the challenge of visually explaining a product, process, experience, interface, or system.
Volta
Volta, an updated take on the traditional rocking chair, harnesses the rocking motion of its user to generate energy.
Light-Link
This “puzzle piece” chair, which lights up when connected to a similar chair, aims to encourage creative collaboration among its users.
Lean
Lean’s capacity for transformation offers a dynamic, multi-functional seating experience.
Büng
This smart barrel gauge, using wireless sensors, could save distilleries 160 hours of labor per 700 barrels each year.
Ninja Walker
Ninja Walker changes shape to fit tight spaces, giving elders safer access to narrow hallways and bathrooms.
Laparoscope
The everyday ballpoint pen inspired a student team to design a self-cleaning surgical laparoscope.
Eko
A student team modified the classic stethoscope, enabling the digitizing and sharing of heart sounds via a smartphone app.
Portable Spirometer
Asthma patients can get highly accurate lung capacity readings with this inexpensive, handheld device.
LifeWrap
This whole body pressure cuff aims to reduce maternal mortality in the developing world from postpartum hemorrhage.
Kin
This communal solar lantern offers a sustainable and affordable alternative to kerosene lamps used in the rural Philippines.