First Makeathon successful

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You wouldn't know it from the energy they were giving off Sunday afternoon, but many of the participants in the first-ever Makeathon never went to bed Saturday night. 

Over 24 straight hours, April 18 to 19, Ohio State University engineering students invaded several rooms in Dreese Laboratories, just to get more people excited about what they do best. They created apps, designed electronic systems and generally unleashed brand new inventions on the world overnight. 

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Makeathon was created and led by the Electronics Club at Ohio State. The top winner for the event was the Pancake Printer team, consisting of students Carter Hurd, David Frank and Ryan Niemocienski. They used electronics to power a pancake maker that created custom designs. Tying for second place was an automated Etch-a-Sketch team, as well as some mechanical engineers who went overboard, bringing their own hand-made 3D printer to create a remote-controlled video camera robot with a head goggle viewer.

Watch this short video with footage from Sunday by clicking here. To find more pictures from the judging event, click here. To view more details about the winners, check out the Awards Ceremony link: /sites/ece.osu.edu/files/uploads/awards_ceremony_12.pdf

By about 3 p.m. Sunday, box fans were blowing full blast into work-filled rooms, remnants of mass midnight snacking lay strewn across tables.

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"I thought the event went very well overall. I was pleasantly surprised at the caliber of everyone’s projects and what they were able to do in a 24-hour period," Electronics Club President Eric Bauer said. "The plans for next year aren’t set in stone yet but we definitely want to repeat this event again. It was as much of a prototype as the projects built during it so we’ll see where we can go with it!"

EC member, Gus Fragasse, said he feels the Makeathon accomplished what he hoped it would.

"The mission statement of the club was just to educate people about electronics, and to inspire people to create or make things," he said. "It's just a really cool event. It went pretty well. Better than we expected."

Fragasse said Makeathon teams got ambitious in their contributions. One team created a graphic equalizer with a laser light display. Students created a laser-powered harp musical instrument that plays in numerous scales. 

He said classes offered by The Ohio State Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering provide great theoretical knowledge, but there are times when some students want to get more hands-on. He said that's where the Electronics Club comes in.

The judging for the 2015 Makeathon was handled by ECE professors Jin Wang and Liang Guo and MAE professor Sandra Metzler, who is also the faculty advisor of the D4 Maker's Club at Ohio State. Prof. Mohammed Ismail, former ECE professor and now Chair of ECE at Khalifa University, completed the faculty judging group. Industry judges involved were Jeff Becker from Awareability, Brian Sherwin from Microsoft and Eric Troth. Dr. Shane Smith from Physics was an Ohio State staff judge and ECE grad student judges were Salma Elabd, Brandon Mathieu, Mark Scott, David Du and Luke Duncan. Texas Instruments helped with sponsorship as well. The event was made possible through financial support from The OHI/O Hackathon Program

For more information, check out the Makeathon online.

Category: Students