Class: Sophomore Studio  |  Instructor: Kimberly Snyder

Coping with stress successfully is greatly dependent on whether or not the individual believes he or she has the resources to effectively respond to the challenge or stressor. AIDEN is a portable device that aids a user, who is new to psychotherapy, in developing strong coping skills to handle stress effectively long term through encouragement, practice and through the assistance of AI technology. AIDEN is not meant to replace any therapist, but rather, it assists the user in practicing core coping skills in between regular therapy sessions. The coping skills programmed into AIDEN are based on real and applicable cognitive behavioral therapy techniques.

Voice activation summons AIDEN, and through voice command or touchscreen, the user converses with AIDEN as it walk them through each exercise when needed. AIDEN converses with user and improves responses through continuous interaction and machine learning. Handheld and compact, AIDEN can live in the user’s backpack and pulled out when needed.

With an increasing amount of stimulus and in a world of change, new stressors may arise, but the fact is that stress will always be present. What can be changed and encouraged, is the lesson and skills needed to handle stress, no matter if it is in one’s daily lives or in academics or in social interactions or in states of life transitions. AIDEN hopes to assist users in developing strong coping skills to effectively handle the stress in their lives long term.

Group Members: Alyson Lam, Isaiah Trotter, Jason Yang
Class: Intro to Smart Products  |  Instructor: Wei Wang, Yaling Liu, Sang-Won Leigh

With the intent of assisting the user in a positive, healthy grieving process and avoiding complicated grief in their future, Kioku is a smart necklace designed to record and remember memories between two loved ones with the knowledge that one individual is about to pass away.

Kioku is meant to be gifted to an individual with a terminal illness or near death by a loved one with the hopes of recording treasured, audio memories that will provide positive cues to help the bereaved cope and avoid suffering from complicated grief once their loved one passes away. These audio recordings allow the loved one to revisit memories at will, building on the concept of a grief monitoring diary used in grief counseling that is critical for healthily finding closure in the grieving process.

The ill individual wears the necklace and may record any messages they want to leave with their loved one with a simple push of a button on the necklace. Conversations and memories that both parties want to remember may also be recorded and stored in the necklace. Once the person passed away, the necklace is passed on to the living loved one who may then access all audio recordings through the biometric fingerprint set up they created before gifting the necklace. Once unlocked, a supporting app allows the user to navigate through past recordings and memories as well as virtually respond and interact.

Class: Sophomore Studio  |  Instructor: Kimberly Snyder

ThermoMask is a fencing mask tester for high level tournaments that uses infrared thermography to check the safety level of fencers’ masks without hurting the user or mask. Every fencer's mask is put through physical 'punch' test to ensure the metal mesh guarding the athlete's face is not damaged or corroded. Such a test involves exerting 26.5lbs of pressure by a hand tool, and can be fatiguing, as well as damaging to the actual mask over time. ThermoMask harnesses a method of non destructive testing to check for metal damage without straining the mask tester.

The user holds a calibrated, handheld infrared camera and 'scans' the mask for any damage. The infrared image is sent to a portable machine that determines if the area of the mask is safe for tournament use. Any thermal barriers and metal defects would show up as different color from the rest of the mask in the thermal imaging. A custom, nylon compartment protects the devices and allows for even more portability. It is travel friendly and can be taken to any competition.

Form testing and interviews from an expert fencing armorer were conducted to learn more about mask testing as well as finalize tool ergonomics and functionality. Extensive research on various non destructive testing methods and materials sciences to narrow down that step heating infrared thermography could potentially be an effective solution for testing the physical integrity of fencing masks.