Student and Intern Work Benefiting Rare Species
Conservation Design courses taught for K-12 and masters- and PhD-level students culminated in projects designed to benefit threatened species.
I had the opportunity to co-create and teach Conservation Design and Technology for junior high (Nuvu School, Cambridge, MA) and graduate school courses (MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA); Parsons School of Design, New York City, NY) in collaboration with Professors K. Slavin and H. Sareen. Students astounded me with their creative engagement and talent. I have also been fortunate to work with stellar summer interns, many of whose work is shown here.
Empathy machine: user must vocalize in order to see, emulating an aspect of bat echolocation.
Empathy machine: Matching tapping speed and intensity with an Aye aye (long-fingered lemur) (Y. Zhang).
The Endangered Orchestra concept (illustration by N. Zahn).
Configuring board.
The Endangered Orchestra is a touch-sensitive device designed to allow users to create beats and rhythms with the sounds of endangered species. Over time, the volume of each animal changes in proportion to its wild population size (N. Haleftiras).
Refinement of miniature camera system for placement on California Condors in flight (V. Sardo).
Puzzle feeder design for the honey badger (V. Sardo).
Deployment of puzzle feeder for Cookie, the honey badger.
Hyena collective feeding device, encouraging natural cooperation found in the wild (S. Von Hauske and C. Melo).
A module for interactive orangutan enrichment.
Using simple pipes, a reconfigurable system for orangutan food puzzles (M. Klein).
Unique plant empathy concept: a dress embodying the fragile beauty of the lace cactus, endangered due to its attractive patterns.
Each year more than 250,000 sea turtles are caught in nets and unable to reach the surface, drowning. This wearable restraint recreates the feeling of being unable to move due to nets.
Empathy machine: becoming a bluefin tuna caught on a line. As you pedal, you experience increasing resistance.
Climate leaf- a concept for teaching about solar power (V. Sardo).
Smart birdhouse - counts entrances and exits.