This webpage is an overview of the projects done in Neil Gershenfeld's class How to make almost anything at MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms in 2008.

Nadya Peek is a first year grad student in the Computing Culture group at the Media Lab.

First week: model a final project.

What if your clothes knew what you were carrying with you, and could tell you if you were forgetting something?

Second week: make a press-fit kit with the laser cutter

A cardboard geodesic dome

Third week: make a simple PCB and stuff it.

This is a circuit of flexible copper traces cut on the sign cutting machine. It is stuck to a heat-enduring sticker, which I can put anywhere! Including my fridge.

Other methods for PCB fabrication are milling and sewing.

Fourth and fifth week: microcontroller programming.

We programmed Atmel's tiny 44 and tiny 45 this week.

Sixth week: Design a PCB and fab it

I designed a breakout board for the Telit GE-863, which is basically a phone without a screen or keyboard. This is a vinyl cut version, but after several different attempts, I've settled on the Modela for this board.

Seventh week: 3d scan an object and 3d print it.

I decided to scan a Dorrance hook, which is a very simple hand prosthesis. The scan was not super successful, this week the documentation is mostly about software and techniques I tried that did not work.

Eighth week: play with input devices.

I built the boards for 5 of the input devices and played with the data they gave. I modified Neil's microphone visualization to count the number of times you scream at the device.

Ninth week: make something really big.

I decided to try to build a small rowboat with the shopbot and half inch plywood. Designing a boat proved to be pretty time consuming though, and although this week was about making something really big, I mostly learned more about designing really big things.

Tenth week: map an input device to an output device.

I connected a button to a linear actuator, powered by 9v batteries.

Eleventh week: mold and cast a part.

This week I cast a new gasket for my cafetiere, using the cad.py to design the part and the modela to mill out the cast from wax.

Twelfth week: build something that talks to something else.

This week I built two hello radio boards which can talk to each other. They use the IA4421 radio chip, and to fab them I used the laser cutter, the modela AND the vinyl cutter.

Final project planning for the last week.

For my final project I will try to integrate custom LC resonators into everyday objects to be able to do short-range recognition.