Engineering Design Workshop
About the Exhibition
Engineering Design Workshop: Powered by MathWorks is a permanent 2,000 square foot exhibition at the Museum of Science, Boston. The exhibition is filled with creative expressions of engineering. From the large-scale sculpture along the exhibition’s ceiling, to the engineering story videos and artifacts that highlight creative engineering solutions, to the design of the space, and especially the countless expressions of creativity shown by visitors as they design their creations, Engineering Design Workshop: Powered by MathWorks is an active embodiment of the role that creativity plays in engineering and computer science.
The exhibition will feel different for visitors each time they visit. Through a range of rotating programs, and a design strategy that allows the space to be “skinned” or themed differently via projections, lighting, and simple design tweaks, the exhibition offers something new even for frequent guests.
About the Software
Engineering Design Workshop: Powered by MathWorks has four interactive software experiences and one scenic software experience. I collaborated closely with a cross-disciplinary team of educators, developers, designers, and researchers to develop two of these experiences. As software development lead, I coordinated the work of two Museum software developers and two MathWorks software developers. I also developed a shared library and remote-control app used by all activities for common startup, settings configuration, and communication functionality.
Exhibit Interactive Software Experiences
Created using Unity and Visual Studio with C# or RealFlow with Python
Dive & Splash
A modeling and simulation engineering design lab where visitors design, build, and virtually test a model of a diver to create a splash and dive to a certain depth. Visitors physically create divers by stacking differently colored and shaped blocks onto a base, and then scan their design with the testing equipment. A large display shows the simulation of the diver splashing into water, alongside measurements of the splash and dive. Visitors can choose to try to accomplish the deepest or shallowest dive possible; or they can try to create the biggest (widest or highest) or smallest (narrowest and lowest) splash with their diver.
The software development work for this activity was shared with both Museum software developers and one MathWorks software developer. I created the water simulations for the 3,465 splashes and the real-time rendering system to measure and display the splashes. The Museum developers created prototypes and the data table for viewing/sorting measurements. The MathWorks developer created the computer vision system to read the physical diver created by the visitor.
Design Challenges Hub
The center of the exhibit is the new home for the long-running facilitated Design Challenges program. This staffed space provides at least six hours of educational programming each day, offering a rotating suite of challenges. The build space can accommodate a field trip group of students (~20 students at once) and a throughput of ~100 visitors per hour. The Hub facade is "skinned" with lighting and projections that match the current Design Challenge activity or the exhibition theme. Design Challenges with leaderboards have their results projected on The Hub as they are entered into the remote-control app.
