SBU Innovation Lab Annual Report 2015

Message from the Director of Research
Technologies and Innovation,
David Ecker
It has been an exciting and innovative inaugural year for the SBU Innovation Lab. As the Director, I am
thrilled to see our progress, and look forward to the opportunities that are available to us. The energy and
excitement that is spreading throughout the Innovation Lab is contagious. Our mission is to develop and
utilize a cross discipline approach toward innovation and entrepreneurship on the campus and is meant to be a
resource and development space for all Faculty, Staff and Students.
The plan for our first year goal was to develop an innovative facility where we could house the latest
technologies and equipment that would foster the interdisciplinary maker focus that is in our core. To do this,
we opened in the Spring 2015 semester with one 3D printer, a sewing machine and some hand tools. We were
fortunate to receive lots of support from many people and departments on campus who donated various
supplies and tools that helped us open strong. After this, I noticed that that we needed more equipment to
make our facility even more of a success. We were fortunate to have significant support from the College of
Business and Division of Information Technology so that we could purchase silk screen supplies, additional
3D printers, and various other tools. Jim Quinn from Engineering donated soldering supplies and a vinyl
cutter, and George Hart donated an additional 3D printer. Thank you to everyone that helped to turn this
vision into a reality.
The facility itself was only one aspect of our plan. We knew we would need to create a unique environment, a
positive place that encourages all members to take a risk,. Our environment supports the thought process of
‘it’s okay to fail, sometimes it is just part of the process.” To accomplish this, I worked to find the right
student staff, people who could bring energy and passion to the Innovation Lab. I am most proud of all the
staff’s dedication, supporting our vision of creating and developing this lab.
I felt we needed to offer informal learning experiences in the form of workshops and expert seminars to
educate students, faculty and staff. Our positive atmosphere in the facility helps students better understand and
communicate the culture of the Innovation Lab. Were able to offer various student workshops that helped
educate the community on the application of their knowledge (see list enclosed). We have had four expert
workshops this year, each having large attendance and generating enthusiasm from the attendees and
presenters - all of the presenters who volunteered their time have asked to return for future workshops.
At the beginning of the Fall 2015 semester, I was delighted to announce that the new SUNY Intellectual
Property Policy that had been approved by the SUNY Chancellor now covers our Innovation Lab. The policy
is a more favorable policy toward undergraduate students ensuring that they retain ownership of their work
created in the space.
In this annual report, you will find a number of highlights from workshops, demonstrations, events and
projects.
I would like to thank the Division of Information Technology, the College of Business, the VP of Economic
Development and IREP for their partnership and contributions to make this undertaking a success. Finally, I
would like to thank the dedicated student staff for their hard work, and for being a pleasure to work with. I am
honored by their enthusiasm and energy.
History
In the Summer of 2014, there was a meeting of various researchers to discuss their need for 3D printing on
campus, and at the same time there were on-going discussions about how to create an
interdisciplinary location that would promote innovation. At that time, we decided to merge these
ideas into what we came to call the SBU Innovation Lab. The SBU Innovation Lab is a cross between a
makerspace, a development space and innovation facility, with an entrepreneurial spin. This space is
meant to foster and empower our Faculty, Staff, and Students to take their ideas to the next level.
To assist in this endeavor, we knew that we needed to design the right facility, one that would encourage
the spark of innovation. Meetings were held with the College of Business, the Division of Information
Technology, IREP and the VP of Economic Development to discuss our distinct needs and how we could
work together to create a central innovation facility where prototypes could be developed, workshops
could be run, and events would take place. This was the genesis of what has become the Innovation Lab.
The Innovation Lab is located in what had been an old Physics classroom 30 years ago, and contained the
original paintings, science benches, chairs and gas for the Bunsen burners necessary for those classes. We
pondered how to make update but also incorporate the existing furniture into our plans. We reached out
to colleagues across campus to see if they could provide us with any donations and suggestions. Luckily
for us, we had numerous donations from departments and professionals to help move the idea to the next
level. We received Mac desktops, wire, hand tools, tables, boxes, graph paper, and art supplies. This
wonderful support helped us incorporate these materials into our core mission of “donations” - giving back
either through supplies and equipment or with spending our time to support another person’s ideas and
projects.
The facility opened for use by all of the SBU Community on February 2, 2015. Since the beginning, it
began to draw in people who were curious about joining the community and those with a creative or entrepreneurial spirit. We offered an Open House on March 11th to highlight specific demonstrations. From
the beginning we have believed that collaboration is crucial to our success. This will allow innovators to
be exposed to all aspects of developing their idea to fruition and prototype. We are excited to work with
innovators on all levels to go from idea generation to design to the printing of a prototype, and then having
a team work together to bring the product to market.
Before the Innovation Lab
Innovation Lab Open House 2015
In the News
The Innovation Lab has been making a name for
themselves. Several articles have been written about the
Innovation Lab. We were mentioned for the first time in:
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Newsday Article, “Long Island Maker
Festival: 6 things to check out”, published on
June 14. 2015
A Long Island Ad Agency mentioned the Lab, which
was then recognized in SBU Happenings!
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Innovation LI, “Harriman Hall, Retooled For
Innovation”, published on July 21, 2015
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This article stated that, “The Innovation Lab
not only gives inventive students a place to
flex their creativity but literally teaches them
the tools of the trade by hosting a series of
workshops instructing the basics of soldering
irons, complex software packages and other
equipment and programs inventors need to
know.”
Additional newspaper articles:
 Newsday Article, “Wolfie Tank to give Stony
Brook a taste of ‘Shark Tank’”, published on
September 13, 2015.
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Orientation Leaders at Innovation Lab
The Statesman, “Wolfie Tank brings invention
and innovation to SBU”, published on
September 29, 2015
Lastly, we were recognized as a makerspace on:
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Oswego MakerBridge Blog, “Stony Brook
University Innovation Lab” published on
October 5, 2015
Student Workshops
We designed a program called “Workshop
Wednesdays” where students design and teach
workshops during the Stony Brook Campus Lifetime.
These workshops are to engage students to learn
something new. These educate about what it means to
be innovative and what the Innovation Lab has to offer.
We gave these successful workshops during the Spring
2015 semester.
 MatLab Robotics Workshop
 Market Yourself
 Programming an Arduino
 Building a Solar Car
We expanded the selection in Fall 2015 semester with
workshops that included these:
 Maker Mentality
 Marketing Yourself
 Screen Printing
 Image Editing
 3D Design Tools
 Intro. To Arduino
 Basics of App Development
 Intro. To Web Development
 Interactive 3D Printer Build
 All about Drones
Expert Workshops
We always wanted to include expert workshops
where professionals come to present what they
specialize in to educate students, faculty and staff
on campus. Bringing experts in the field to share
their first hand experience with the Innovation
Lab community enhances the creative nature that
we are instilling in all our members. We asked
these 3 distinguished experts to offer workshops.
 “Intellectual Property – Do’s and
Don’ts” by Allison Singh, a IP lawyer
at Perfumania
 “Paper Math Construction” by George
Hart, a renowned Mathematician and
sculpture
 Lastly, “How to take an Idea and make
it a Business” by Paul Trapani, Vice
President of LISTNet
Comments we received from participants:
“George Hart is really cool and fascinating teacher.
I enjoyed learning how he things and coms up with
ideas for new sculptures and patterns. The handson aspect was also really fun and interesting.”
“Paul Trapani, I liked as a speaker that actually has
this experience and that he can tell from his
experience what is important. The workshop is
helpful.”
Events and Tours
The Innovation Lab gives tours and demonstrations
to classes, groups and departments allowing them to
see our facility. This gives them an interactive place
to go to when they want to plant their ideas. A
sample of these tours and demonstrations this year
are:
 ADV 101 Intro. Class
 Global Health Club
 Lunch
and Learn from College of
Business Faculty/Staff
 Philip Baldwin, a Professor at Stony
Brook group sessions with students
 Local Girl Scouts troop
 Philosophy for Engineer classes
 Undergraduate
College
Science
and
Society
 CSTEP
 WISE Workshop to 7th grade girls
Events where we had interactive tables to highlight
the many technologies and ideas that are happening
at the Innovation lab:
 CEWIT Conference
 Computer Science Job Fair
 Long Island GIS Conference
 Long Island Maker Festival
 STEAM
Conference
at
Huntington
LaunchPad
 TEDxSBU
 Earthstock 2015
Presentations from the Innovation Lab team this
year:
 “Innovation at Stony Brook” at STC 2015
 “Ideas for Innovation” at CEWIT 2015
Wolfie Tank a pitch competition similar to the NBC hit show Shark Tank, was
brought to Stony Brook University for the very first time on November 2, 2015.
We had 4 distinguished judges from off campus:
 Paul Trapani, Founder of PJ T Consulting, LLC and Vice
President of LISTNet
 Derek Peterson, Senior Executive of Intelligent Pr oduct Solutions
 Andrew Hazen, Vice Chair man of the Long island Angel
Network, Advisory Board Member of BDS Capital, and Board
Member of LISTNet
 James Keane, Global Dir ector of Disr uptive Gr owth Explor ation
at Anheuser-Bush InBev
We received many applications to present at Wolfie Tank and were only able to
choose 7 to present. The presenters are:
 Brian Ton, pr esenting the use of electr onic tinting in the eyewear
industry
 Chris Conrad, pr esenting CEVTA, a device designed to r educe
exhaust turbulence of wet/dry vacuum cleaners with minimal
reduction in suction efficiency
 Ruchi Shah, pr esenting Mosquitoes Be Gone LLC, an all-naturallow-cost mosquito repellent
 Stony Brook Web and Application Development Club,
presenting an online freelance marketplace
 Maxwell Fayans, pr esenting RipSense, a br acelet-like device for
children and teens to wear in the water
 Peter M. Small, MD, pr esenting a sound r ecor ding device that
can recognize, monitor, and report coughing
 Nathaniel Hobert, pr esenting Fantasy Pr ophet, a fantasy spor ts
destination that provides a fair playing field to maximize the player’s
chance of winning money
Here are what other’s had to say about the event:
 “It was an exciting event and I think everyone benefitted from it!”
said by Benjamin Conard.
 “I thought the event was amazing and a great learning experience and
also feel that it can be used for networking even further.” said by
Maxwell Fayans.
 “Honestly, I believe that the event was really good, and that I could
not have done it any better.” said by Brian Ton.
One of Various Projects
Going On In Lab
Paul Philipsberg, a biomedical engineering major on the pre-med
track graduating this December 2015, is student working on one
of the unique projects only found at the Stony Brook University
Innovation Lab. Since September, the last few months he has
been able to assemble a brain-controlled drone using a Mindwave
headset, an Arduino board, a wireless module, Xbox 360
controller, and a quadcopter drone – all connected to a laptop.
This is wirelessly connected to the laptop, which is directly
connected by a wire to an Arduino board and the Xbox 360
controller. When the sensor detects the brainwaves, it sends the
information to the laptop. Upon receiving values, the computer
checks the level of relaxation to set a different value for the
throttle and sends it to the Arduino board, where the wireless
module communicates it with the quadcopter. To control the
movements of the quadcopter, Philipsberg practices control of his
current emotional states that affect the brainwaves. When calm,
the quadcopter rises off the floor and is capable of hovering if he
maintains that composure.
It took Philipsberg several versions such as a remote control toy
car to test how it worked before the quadcopter. Currently,
Philipsberg is working on improvements such as using an open
VCI – a file extension to refine its performance. Ideally, he wants
the quadcopter to have more sensors, because it would be capable
of balancing and controlling movement better if it were “aware”
of itself in XYZ space.
Philipsberg sees potential in this project to build up to the
technology that’s necessary to making 3D gaming happen or
wireless IP security cameras. It would need to be a joint effort of
brain control and muscle control. For 3D gaming, it would be
necessary to include things such as a gyroscope or an
accelerometer. For the security cameras, simple but distinct arm
motions could be used to the control the way the cameras move.
Philipsberg took up this project as a personal challenge while
working in the Innovation Lab along with several other projects,
but found this to be most interesting and relatable to the career he
wants to pursue in neuropsychology. Written By: Tiffany Huang
Technology/Tools
 3D Printing:
 Our members, students, faculty, and departments are
passionate about our 3D printing. We have many
requests for a 3D print objects.
Sometimes the
community wants to create their own for projects or for
fun!
 Students come up with different creations and make
various prototypes such as:
 Anatomical Heart
 A Car (fully functioning with wheels)
 Einstein
 Prosthetic Hand
 Screen Printing:
 Is a technique where you use a screen made of fine
material to transfer ink forcefully onto a surface to create
a picture or pattern.
 Students, clubs, and organizations come to the Innovation
Lab to use and make silk screens to print t-shirts.
 Recently, the dance team came in to make screen print
t-shirts for their event.
 Soldering:
 Involves a material called solder that melts when placed
on a hot object; the melted solder cools and forms a bond
between two items. Your most basic soldering tool is a
soldering iron with a soldering station. The solder cools
and hardens onto the metallic surface, creating a surface
for electricity to be conducted. In the lab, soldering is
most commonly used to build projects and class
assignments.
 We have seen numerous members of the community use
our soldering stations from designing robots, fixing
equipment or building their own designs.
For more information on our technology and tools, you can visit us
on our website: www.stonybrook.edu/innovationlab
Advancements in Medicine
3D Printed Prosthetic
Ellie Evans is a student intern who printed and assembled a
prosthetic hand using Innovation Lab’s 3D printer. The idea
came up as an e-Nable project. E-Nable is a global community of volunteers who use 3D printing to create assistive
hand devices for those in need. Ellie is a political science
major at the University of Rhode Island, who became
interested in the technologies available at the SBU
Innovation Lab and interned there during the summer of
2015.
Ellie learned the basics of how to use a 3D printer, such as
adding the filament and fine tuning it to print larger
objects. One of the challenges she faced while assembling
the pieces was figuring out how tension worked in a human
hand. This was necessary so that the 3D printed hand’s tension would mimic a real hand. Ellie adapted the concept of
“Tunnel Vision”, while working on her 3D printed
prosthetic. Ellie describes “Tunnel Vision” as knowing
when a piece is supposed to go together a certain way, but
not being able to figure out why it won’t work. The project
was difficult, but Ellie said that this project was made possible with her great colleagues in the lab, who were always
available to lend a hand or share a different perspective,
making her job a little easier.
Data and Statistics
Thank You
We would like to thank all who have helped to make this vision possible
Student Staff from Research Tech.
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Akshay Asok
Allisha Parvez
Alysha Bullock
Chris Tasso
Edward Qiu
Ellie Evans
Halaa Menasy
Jenny Chen
John Feinberg
Kelly Smith
Kelsey Price
Miguel Perez
Morgan Kelly
Ai Tai Zhen Wu
Nicholas Olynik
Peter Ledeoux
Samiha Shakil
Sneha Chittabathini
Veronica Burnett
Erickson Reyes
Kelly Liu
Yakov Gaberman
Elizabeth Lyton
Tiffany Huang
Christina Scalice
 Thank you to the Division of
Information Technology and Partners:
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College of Business
VP of Economic Development
IREP
CEAS
 Thank you to the various donors who have
contributed to the Innovation Lab:
 Athletics
 Bio Engineering
 CEWIT
 Chemistry
 Geosciences
 Jim Quinn, Material Science and
Engineering
 Thank you to the Innovation Lab community
for their involvement and excitement.
 Thank you to the countless other students and
clubs that have amazing ideas!
Thank you for Partners that Contributed to our success:
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Allison Singh
George Hart
Paul Trapani
Owen Evans
Jennifer Adams
Philip Baldwin
Anurag Purwar
Helmut Strey
Alexander Orlov
Marie McCallion
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Margaret Schedel
Robert Crease
Richard Chan
Marypat Taveras
Rita ReaganRedko
Amy Milligan
Joseph Barry
Gary Van Sise
Phil Rugile
Alissa Betz
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Chuck Powell
Andrew White
Manuel London
Nancy Goroff
AnnMarie Scheidt
James Quinn
LIGIS
CEWIT
Contact Us
The SBU Innovation Lab is run by Research Technologies, part of the Division of
Information Technologies at Stony Brook University.
David Ecker, Director Research Technologies and Innovation
[email protected]
631.632.1156
Facebook us @sbuinnovationlab
Instagram us @sbuinnovationlab
Email us: [email protected]
The SBU Innovation Lab is located in Harriman Hall room 210.