Developing Leaders in Innovation

GIX has begun production of critical personal protective equipment (PPE) such as 3d-printed face shields and ventilator components to provide immediate relief for the shortage in the UW Medicine hospital system. In partnership with UW Medicine, UW College of Engineering, Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, and Design that Matters, GIX is on track to produce at least 40 shields per day in its makerspace. Eventually, joint facilities are expected to reach nearly 250 per day. “We’ve got ten printers running, and each printer can do one shield every three hours,” said Paula Sigala, makerspace design specialist. The team is currently producing face shields, and is beginning further work on prototyping and production of needed gowns, aerosol boxes, and ventilator valves. “I didn’t expect to be doing this, but everyone is responding so quickly,” said Yun Liu, makerspace student crew. “We’re adjusting every day, and it’s great to be able to help.” All models will be approved by UW Medicine prior to production, ensuring best utilization of limited resources and maximum benefit to medical personal. Further, the plans and instructions for all projects will be open-sourced and shared for broader adoption throughout the US and world.

Interested in learning how you can help? GIX cannot use its educational funds to cover the required expenses. We are seeking funding for raw materials and the adaption of educational facilities to support these efforts. Learn more about the developing project and ways you can support the relief effort at the link in our bio. #coronavirusrelief #coronaresponse #covid19relief #covid19relief #facemasks #faceshields #ventilators #3dprintedmasks #MadeAtGIX #MadeInSeattle #Makerspace #DesignThinking ...

Congratulations to Team SnapSort! for being selected as one of ten @microsoftimaginecup Americas Regional Finalists! Chun-An Ku, Yun Liu, and Joey Wang have created an AI trash sorting assistant that uses computer vision and machine learning to help people sort compost, recyclables, and trash in real time. Waste generation in the U.S. is three times higher than global averages, and despite recycling campaigns, recycling rates haven’t improved in over 20 years. In initial testing at GIX, SnapSort! improved recycling accuracy from 45% to 82%. ⁣
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“We spent the whole winter break working on this project and kept improving it this quarter,” said Yun. “This is a rewarding experience for all of us. We highly appreciated all kinds of support we got from GIX in the process, especially constructive advice from faculty and peer students, hardware prototyping resources from the makerspace, and flexible meeting spaces in the building.”⁣
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The team will travel to Mexico City for the regional finals on March 29, where they will compete for $20,000 in prizes and the last two spots in the 2020 World Championships. Congratulations Yun, Joey, and Chun-an! ⁣
➡️ Learn more at the link in our bio
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“People with mild cognitive impairment often have a problem finding things in grocery stores, because stores are large and complicated to navigate,” said Lu Wang. “We wanted to help them.” The team is one of about a dozen working on a variety of projects, the majority of which address a social need and use technology to improve the health, wellbeing, and livelihood of users. Many teams are partnered with researchers and subject matter experts at UW. Students are responsible for creating the hardware and software necessary to create working prototypes; for Milestone 3, many teams will perform usability testing with real audiences to better refine their solutions.
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The GIX Student Association hosts bi-weekly tea times to give students a chance to relax! Last week, they played Mario Kart on the large network wall while drinking boba tea. “My favorite part is seeing everyone hanging out and having fun. It’s a great opportunity to help people take a break,” said Yun Liu, who helped organize the event. “GIX is very supportive of us, and we want to take advantage of all the resources available to us.” “I loved playing the games,” said CJ Ngeh. “I found out there are more students who play the same ones!” 📸 @joey840404 @liuyunsavi

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"When thinking about what materials to use for our project, it just so happened that one of our teammates, Ken, had some reclaimed wine staves at home," said Cohort 3 student CJ Nghe. "We thought that it would be cool to have the stained wood as part of our project." In the Rapid Prototyping and Fabrication class, CJ and team (made up of Ken Christofferson, Kelsey Guo, and Zhan Shi) decided to create a light-up painting that was comprised of a custom easel made from reclaimed red wine barrel staves and a plywood frame. When connected, the engraved acrylic painting lights up accentuating the hand-painted features. "We faced a lot of challenges because manufacturing with wood requires more hands-on time than 3D printing or laser cutting. The wine staves were harder to work with because they had no right-angles and are curved in more ways than we had initially thought. We managed to overcome these obstacles by building some custom jigs to hold them at the correct angles before cutting them to the size we want." #DesignBuildLaunch⁠
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Cohort three presented their first course milestone update today, with projects including drone-mapping to track crop health, automatic snore classification for better treatment outcomes, a machine-learning enhanced camera for recycle/compost/landfill classification, and more. The projects all exist in a working prototype stage, and students will further develop and refine their projects through the rest of the quarter. Next is user testing, focus groups, and higher-fidelity prototyping!
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