I began surfing about 10 years ago, and have developed a love for the sport as well as the ocean. I would like to explore surfboard design and construction, by looking at alternatives to traditional methods. Among the areas of investigation would be fabrication materials, portability and flexibility, along with the goal of integrating sensors. The majority of modern surfboards are produced with a foam core, which is arguably not very sustainable, so there are oportunities to utilize wood or cardboard to create a lightweight, hollow skeleton. Whether walking to the beach or through the airport, a board is generally a large object and I would like to create a divisible surfboard which is foldable or collapsible for easy transportation. A multi-part board would also lend itself towards interchangeability so a short board could possibly become a long board by replacing a few sections. I am also thinking about embedding an accelerometer which would be able to log information about the number of rides, length of ride, and speed to be reviewed after the session. As a long shot, I would like to integrate a water quality sensor that would feed into a database to help raise awareness about water pollution.

September 23 2015

I would also like to explore the potential for creating wearables that would provide haptic feedback during a virtual reality experience. This idea proposes the placement of many small coin vibration motors around a long sleeve shirt and within gloves which would become activated based upon the user's interaction with the environment or with other users in the virtual space. There would also be opportunities to take input from the user with temperature sensors and accelerometers.