Etch-A-Sketch Clock
The Etch-A-Sketch Clock is pretty much what it looks like- the toy is rigged up to sketch out the time and then erase itself every minute. Stepper motors drive the X and Y axis of the stylus inside the enclosure as well as the flipping motion which serves to erase the screen. The system utilizes the Arduino platform to control the motors. This project was a lot of fun but the toy's inherient lack of percision nearly drove me insane. I should mention that there are a ton of cool computer controlled EAS projects out there. Scott Ferguson has a great one, in fact, I copied his method of mounting the steppers. Neil Fraser's project is another good one.
Mini Baja
Mini Baja is an intercollegiate design competition sponsered by the Society of Automotive Engineers. The purpose is to design, build and test a recreational off road vehicle around a stock engine. The actual competition, held at the end of the school year, consists of serveral events including a hill climb, a sled pull, and, of course, an endurance race. I participated in the competition while I was an undergrad at SUNY Stony Brook. I had the role of chassis team leader for two years, allowing me to hone both my TIG welding skills and my ability to power nap in virtually any envrionment.
Trike
The trike was my senior design project while at Stony Brook. The project was designed for a young, handicapped girl with very limited mobility of the arms and no use of her lower body. The trike moves forward by moving the torso back and forth in a rowing motion and steers by turning at the waist. You can see my teammate for the project, Kadiffe Samuels, in the photo above. He clearly dwarfs the vehicle but if you can imagine him as a 5-8 year old, you'll have a better idea of what the intended user would have looked like.