​​Julian Kingston, a senior Electrical Engineering major and the founding member and President of the Global Innovation Team (now known as CentriSeed Innovations), has a special place in his heart for the iCREATE Innovation Lab. He found iCREATE while he was going through a rough time in his college career when he struggled with his major.

Julian describes the entirety of his college experience as a roller coaster, sophomore year being the steepest hill. “I was dead. My life was school, eat, and sleep.” Going into engineering, he felt as though it was all theory and that it didn’t feel applicable to things in real life, or anything he wanted to do when he originally entered college. Julian spent his sophomore year Spring Break pondering and contemplating plans for the rest of his life before he realized, “I wanted to go abroad and change people’s lives.” His personal and professional journey surrounded his feelings of finding his purpose.

Actively working on building and forming something, Julian pursued forming a new club, at the time Global Innovation Team, with two other colleagues. The Engineers Without Borders chapter on campus was closing and shutting down and all of its eboard members were leaving. Julian wanted to do something more to continue the valuable work they did. Global Innovation Team was born.

“I came and met David [Ecker] at the Innovation Lab and we were discussing entrepreneurship and what ideas I could implement, when suddenly Dave told me to stop talking during the meeting. Dave took the time to show me what others wouldn’t. He saw that potential in me, and that I was someone ready to go do something, but I needed some concrete ideas. I’m never not prepared now.”

Trying to bring a club to life is no easy task. It takes effort split amongst the founding members who push for it, taking up days and nights, and as Julian describes, “like an internship taking up to 10-20 hours a week.”

“I was thinking, ‘I have no idea why I’m in college right now.’ I would’ve dropped out of school. I had no motivation, incredibly hard classes. I didn’t enjoy it the way I thought I would. Becoming an e-board member, being president, having people depend on me, having this responsibility, finding iCREATE’s Innovation Lab – all this gave me meaning to my college experience, and it gave me a purpose to me being here. I thought I was wasting my time in my major.”

iCREATE’s Innovation Lab was where the members of CentriSeed Innovation made their first moves and projects. They have since worked on Roth Pond’s restoration, the Nobel Halls sustainable garden, campus-wide waste management, a bicycle generator, and many others. They have grown on campus and helped to improve the community. “iCREATE’s Innovation Lab was the space of choice to build and work on projects because of it’s open, welcoming environment. There are not many places like that, especially on campus, that will support us. They supported growth, failure, and allowed us to keep trying and working.”

“The worst part of being on this roller coaster is that you don’t know when the bumps are coming, but this is what made me realize – the roller coaster is kinda fun,” Julian said.

CentriSeed Innovation has grown from his original group of 3-4 people in his sophomore and junior year to an average of 30 people who come to each general body meeting now. “It’s a full time job. Starting a club isn’t as fancy or pretty as it sounds.” The name change is to support the growth of the club so that it can continue to expand. “It’s a three part name. It’s the center of innovation, and beginning of new ideas to sprout.” Julian wants Centriseed Innovation to reach and flourish on other college campuses as well.

As Julian graduates this May 2017 with his Electrical Engineering degree, he is excited and confident about his plans moving forward with the skills he has acquired in Electrical Engineering and leadership.

Dr. Yizhi Meng, an assistant professor and researcher for Stony Brook University, could usually be found working in the Heavy Engineering Building. She stumbled across iCREATE in Fall 2016 and was able to produce a few custom-designed well plates for use in her laboratory.

Dr. Meng studies how to engineer 3-D micro-tumors of 50,000-80,000 cells, also known as “cancer on a chip”. As described in her bio, “seeks to study new approaches to developing bio-inspired materials and strategies for tissue engineering”.

What does that mean?

By growing multiple micro-tumors at once, you could perform drug screenings of cancer drugs. Using micro-tumors keeps it as realistic as possible, instead of animal studies. This in-vitro model is less expensive, removes animal variation as a potential error, and allows the trial and test of hundreds of drugs at a time. In short, they aim to create a better target to test different types of drugs, and this requires constant use of a lot of well plates to grow cancer cells on.

This is crucial because of the way these micro-tumors and cultures behave on a hard plastic dish. Even though this is the way we have been studying them, this is not how they would behave when they are in the body. The purpose of the lab is to test these cells in a safe environment where unintentional effects are not exaggerated.

Traditional trays with these wells are made with a hydrophobic polystyrene, a waterproof hard plastic, with a flat bottom. While these can easily be bought from about any laboratory item supplier, the bottom of the wells make it a slippery surface for the cells to grasp onto and they often slip in transport. “This sliding interferes with imaging, and that leads to other difficulties” says Dr. Meng.

Dr. Meng heard of a 3-D printing service on campus through other staff members. At a strong STEM research campus like Stony Brook University, 3-D printers are not unheard of, however, almost all of them are for private departmental or laboratory access use only. Dr. Meng got in contact and came to iCREATE director David Ecker with a question: Was it possible to produce a tangible and simple solution?

Giancarlos, one of our iCREATE staff members, assisted with Dr. Meng and her laboratory staff. After several iterations of working out and rendering the details and dimensions of the file, the print of the trays took about one day to complete in our iCREATE facility, using the Form 2 3-D printer. This printer is unique from the others because it uses resin to produce a detailed, denser, and smoother end product.

There were two versions designed that differed by the shape on the bottom. One was ice-cream cone shaped, and the other was like rounded hemisphere. These little indentations allow the cells to stay stable in the center during transport without sliding.

Above: This well plate has the ice cream cone shaped bottom.

Above: This well plate has the rounded hemisphere shaped bottom.

Currently, the resin material that the trays are printed with is still being tested for its biocompatibility but so far, Dr. Meng says they have been working well. “The material is not killing them, and the cells are healthy. It appears to be biologically inert.” The well plates can be sterilized for reuse when needed.

“Now, I have so many ideas of what other things to try to make,” Dr. Meng said, “It’s like bypassing the big suppliers. An idea can move from a CAD file to a physical object.”

From left to right: Giancarlos, Dr, Meng, and her graduate student lab assistant Weiyi Li

Dr. Meng (left) with Weiyi Li (center) and Vincent Alford (right). Weiyi is a graduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, and Vincent is a graduate student in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology.

Philip Baldwin, a tenured professor in the Theatre department and international grant recipient, is a firm and passionate believer in changing “STEM” to “STEAM”. A frequent visitor of the iCREATE spaces, he is always spotted trying something new.

Professor Baldwin has hosted numerous classes each semester, each in something different like “Human-Computer Interfaces”, “Immersive Spaces”, and “The Telepresent Self”. Several of his classes took place and met regularly each week in iCREATE’s Innovation Lab and incorporated the use of inexpensive but pioneering technologies.

By working to incorporate creative, innovative thinking with cutting edge technologies into his classes, Professor Baldwin is promoting thinking out-of-the-box to his students so that it’s relevant to all audiences – not just the engineers and the researchers. “ The cool people should get a hold of this first. We’ve created a schism between the scientists and the humans.”

Unlike some professors, he doesn’t try to make it a difficult course for the students, but focuses on the learning experience itself. “It’s about the cultural health of the individual,” he says, “This stuff is so new, even I don’t know it. I come from four generations of professors, and students are my colleagues.”

Using iCREATE’s Innovation Lab and its technologies has been an integral part of what he teaches to his students, and the mindset that he tries to promote in all his work. “We are should be trying to find the next Steve Jobs by heightening innovation with college students to see beyond the numbers at Stony Brook. It’s about the ability to see in a different way, and the sense of ‘play’.”

Much like the rest of us, Matt Martini felt like he never had the time or resources to work on his kitchen utensils. “I wanted to organize my utensil drawer. All the silverware was a mess.”

Matt is a Cornell graduate with a degree in engineering and currently a student at the School of Professional Development at Stony Brook University. With the iCREATE spaces, he was able to work on a kitchen utensil holder using the paper cutter, and laser cutter.

Matt heard about the Innovation Lab through David Ecker, the director of iCREATE at one of their DoIT staff events. He started on the project about two months ago, working on it in his spare time in brief several hour intervals. He says he spent maybe up to a total of eight hours on the entire holder so far, and it is almost at its final step. The utensil holder functions like a tray and has each of the utensils stacked on it.

To produce his utensil holder, Matt photographed each of the utensils with measurements to get an accurate image of the size and shape of each one, which he manipulated and clarified on Adobe Photoshop to mark the outlines. This design was then moved to the paper cutter. Then, he experimented with using the Innovation Lab’s paper cutter to make two prototypes before he moved on to the laser cutter, which he is considering testing with foam first.

Above: An example of the images he took of each utensil with a measurement.

Above: One of his PSD (photoshop file) templates for how the utensil holder will look.

His end result is going to be a wooden holder that will be positioned and designed exactly the way he wants.

Above: The paper prototype with the utensils laid out on it.

Matt said, “I had this project in my head from way back, but I never had the equipment possible.”

Luca Agozzino working on his project.

Evan said, “In both cases I realized them for the fun of a DIY project and because buying them would have costed me several hundred dollars, without any possibility of personalization. The Innovation Lab was crucial to realize it, because I needed 3D printed components (though I wish I could set up the printing myself to fine tune it) and especially to solder all the parts.”

The printed wrist brace is put into boiling-hot water to make it soft and pliable.

Skolnick has plans to work in higher education, preferably in academic advising or career counseling. He became interested in it through helping his older sister with course selection when she was a returning student at Suffolk Community College. He enjoyed guiding her through the process of figuring out what she wanted to do, and what she could do to achieve those goals. Skolnick looks forward to graduating with his Master’s degree in December and obtaining a job where he can help other students.

“The most disabling aspect of a disability is the environment. Whether it be ramps, peoples’ attitudes, or just plain lack of expectations,” Skolnick explains, “Overall, one thing I think it teaches us is how to adapt and think outside the box, working around it to just do anything anyone else could do. This is especially true for someone who has experienced it since birth. It is something I have always known and experienced. This is our idea of normal, and I am proud of how I am.”

Earlier this month, Ruchi Shah, a member of the SBU Innovation Lab, was recognized in Glamour Magazine as one of the 2016 College Women of the Year.

The full article can be found here.

The featured photo of Ruchi Shah pictured here is right in our own lab!

Yesterday, March 24, the Innovation Lab visited Stony Brook Hospital Pediatrics and got to meet with young children and talk to them about 3D printing. We were also able to unveil a 3D printer to the children and adults in the area.

FiOS1 was present for the event, and the video can be viewed on the following link:

FIOS1 Video Story

Great news and and update to those who are interested in 3D printing at the Innovation Lab;

Our printing manual has just been updated and posted on our website at this link. It is on our Stony Brook University Innovation Lab page, under “Facility” and “Tools and Resources”.

This manual thoroughly goes over all the steps necessary to start a print, from the request form procedure, to the preparation of the design and 3D model, to the actual print itself! Feel free to contact any member of the 3D print team in the Innovation Lab for any further clarification or explanation.

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(c) Can Stock Photo Inc. / alexmillos

AV services, a part of Department of Information Technology (DoIT), teamed up with the Innovation Lab earlier this month to work on a special project – creating new stencils for its equipment. Rich Fantasia, a part of the AV staff at Javits center works to provide instructional support to faculty and staff with the various classroom equipment and technology. He also maintains both the old and new equipment as the department gets new items to freshen up the inventory periodically.  There is a standardizing procedure that all equipment needs to go through. Each item is entered into the system, given its own control number, and labeled under AV Services.

After using the same, old, worn cardboard stencils over and over again, Rich Fantasia decided that it was time for an upgrade. The cardboard stencils were worn from being cleaned over multiple uses, and did not work as well. It also took a very long time to individually label each number onto the equipment, because multiple numbers needed to be put onto each piece of equipment. The ideal product of this sounded simple: something durable and flexible, easy to clean, and shuffle around numbers. First, he looked into TLT Media Lab, another subdivision under DoIT, only to realize that they specialized in different areas than from what he needed. Then, the Innovation Lab came to mind, from its e-mails and growing presence on the campus. He came in with his concern, consulted with our staff, and was able to work with Taylor Campbell to find a solution.

Taylor Campbell is one of the Innovation Lab staff members. She is a junior and mechanical engineering major who started working at the lab over this past winter 2016. Taylor is a part of the 3D print team – responsible for handling the print queue, printer-related problems, and help on special projects. Working with the stencils for AV Services was her first project at the lab.

The Innovation Lab’s vinyl cutter, and its respective sign on the wall of the lab.

To make the stencils, Taylor learned to – and successfully – use the Innovation Lab’s vinyl cutter. Rich Fantasia was able to provide a PDF file of what he wanted the stencils to look like, with the words, numbers, and sizes needed for each. Taylor manipulated the file in the program and printed out samples on cardstock. This also allowed her to get familiar with the program for the vinyl cutter, as well as to test out how it printed. It takes some level of familiarity to be able to adjust the vinyl cutter to cut into the material correctly due to its specificity on the thickness of the material it is cutting into. After the successful run-through with these cardboard duplicates, she switched to a durable, flexible medium-weight plastic. They would last longer over time than cardboard, and would make it easy to clean and wipe off after use. It was also flexible enough to wrap around rounded surfaces – another limitation the cardboard stencils struggled with.

Taylor demonstrating how the vinyl cutter was used.

Some examples showing several  different designs of the stencils that were made.

Aside from the plastic stencils themselves, Taylor also specially designed and 3D printed a holder to fit the number stencils. She designed it so that could hold two number stencils at once while still allowing the user to shuffle them out easily as needed. This would resolve the issue with the tedious time commitment previously required to label equipment with numbers. When Rich Fantasia saw the final results of the stencils, he could not be more satisfied. “It’s amazing; it’s exactly what I had in my mind. It’s beyond what I asked for, because she invented something to solve what I asked for.”

Taylor’s custom printed number stencil holder. In the first picture, we see the slot for how the stencil is inserted and removed. In the second picture, we see an example of how it would look with a number stencil in it.

After seeing the tour, and the work that has been done so far, Rich Fantasia says that he believes the Innovation Lab is a great resource on campus, and that he would definitely see the lab again for future projects and/or problems that come up.