BTU

T9 Hacks challenges students to invent healthcare solutions

Michael Kwolek — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 17:37:15 +0000

T9 Hacks challenges students to invent healthcare solutions Michael Kwolek Tue, 02/11/2025 - 10:37

Michael Kwolek

For many of us, healthcare is top-of-mind. The healthcare industry offers major opportunities for applying technology to improve access, care and outcomes. Now CU 糖心Vlog破解版 students can design solutions of their own.

T9 Hacks, a student-led organization at ATLAS, creates an annual opportunity for newcomers to participate in a hackathon aimed at addressing timely and relevant challenges. The hackathon format empowers participants to work together to rapidly conceive, design and develop a response to a specific prompt.

As a key source for interdisciplinary research and academics across campus, the ATLAS Institute is the perfect place to host T9 Hacks each year. Student teams are encouraged to leverage their technical skills and express their creativity in exploring solutions.

Kira Velez, T9 Hacks president, notes, 鈥淥ur goal is for students to walk away with not only new technical skills but also a sense of confidence in their ability to solve real-world problems. We hope they learn the value of collaboration, creativity, and pushing beyond their comfort zones to bring ideas to life.鈥�

The 24-hour hackathon, sponsored by Medtronic and ATLAS, starts on Friday, February 14, and runs through the following afternoon.

This year, teams will design and build solutions focused around healthcare, choosing from three categories: AI in health, cybersecurity and patient safety.

Velez explains, 鈥淗ealthcare is a field where technology has the power to make a real difference in people鈥檚 lives. We wanted to challenge participants to think critically about how they can use their skills to improve patient care, accessibility, and innovation in the medical space. Given the increasing role of tech in healthcare, we felt this theme would be both timely and impactful.鈥�

The T9 Hacks mission is to 鈥渃reate a welcoming and safe place for women and traditionally underrepresented students to explore hackathons鈥� to bolster broader participation in hacking culture, but is open to all CU students. It鈥檚 simple: the more creative minds on a problem, the likelier we are to uncover transformational solutions.

鈥淭9 Hacks is more than just a hackathon鈥攊t鈥檚 a space designed to be inclusive and welcoming, especially for those underrepresented in tech. We focus on creating a supportive environment where participants of all skill levels can collaborate, learn, and build something meaningful.鈥�

To learn more and register for this year鈥檚 hackathon, visit the T9 Hacks website.

T9 Hacks Hackathon
February 14-15, 2025
Check-in starts at 4:30pm on Friday, 2/14

Event is free and includes food, swag & prizes!

The 2025 T9 Hacks hackathon empowers students to work together over 24 hours to tackle a pressing design challenge. This year鈥檚 event, sponsored by Medtronic and the ATLAS Institute, focuses on healthcare in three tracks: AI in health, cybersecurity, and patient safety. Open to all, T9 Hacks aims to expand the audience for hackathons and bring a broader set of creative minds together to solve problems.

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ATLAS Expo 2023: Our Biggest One Yet!

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 22:48:24 +0000

ATLAS Expo 2023: Our Biggest One Yet! Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/26/2023 - 16:48

Michael Kwolek

If you go

Who: All are welcome

What: ATLAS Expo

When: Thursday, May 4, 2023, 4鈥�6p.m.

Where: Roser ATLAS Center, 1125 18th St., 糖心Vlog破解版

Cost: Free!

ATLAS Expo is back and, with over 120 student research projects included, it promises to be the biggest and most exciting Expo we鈥檝e ever had.

This annual event highlights innovative work by graduate and undergraduate students in the College of Engineering and Applied Science studying Creative Technology and Design (CTD). Those attending the event can go hands-on with a rich array of games, interactive experiences, art installations, electronics and more.

Radical creativity and invention are the key concepts that bond the ATLAS community. It鈥檚 a place where engineering, computer science and design meet art and expression鈥攁ll of which will be on full display at Expo this year.

鈥淎s engineers and designers, we鈥檙e often heads-down in research. Expo is always exciting because our research labs and CTD students get a chance to show off the brilliant work they have been immersed in all year,鈥� said Mark Gross, ATLAS Director.

From practical solutions to immersive experiences, ATLAS students will showcase a staggering range of concepts at Expo. Here is a small sample of what to expect:

Scopaesthesia by Miles Lewis, Logan Turner and Sam Lippincott 鈥� An interactive installation featuring animatronic eyes powered by computer vision to merge the effects of scopaesthesia induced by human eyes with an awareness of digital surveillance.
Solar Stones by Kai Hughes, Chris Gaines and Caileigh Hudson 鈥� 3D tactile replications of stellar rock carvings made by the Ancient Puebloan people in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, developed in collaboration with NASA's PUNCH team and FISKE planetarium.
The Rental Set by Annika Mctamaney 鈥� An open-source project using CNC technology to help renters own stylish, hardware-free furniture that is easy to move homes with and fun to create.
Storm Drain by Timon Hume 鈥� An atmospheric game level that takes the player deep inside a maze of dark pipes where they try to survive long enough to retrieve something valuable that has been washed away.
Notes on Growing by Brie Musser, Riley Meere and Zander Gilbert) 鈥� An interactive audiovisual experience designed for students to meditate on the time and effort they put into their college career and enjoy the fruits of their labor.
HookBook by Ryan Monteleone and Tomas Garcia 鈥� A mobile-first web application designed for fishermen that makes logging personal catches & accessing lake reports, efficient and simple.
A Parting Gift To My Perfect Self by Nancy Yoder 鈥� A stop-motion animation abstracting one鈥檚 personal journey of overcoming chronic perfectionism through the use of collage.
Rally by 鈥嬧€婮ordan Evans, Olivia Blankenship 鈥� A social app that flips the script on social media, encouraging face-to-face interaction and the making of memories rather than isolation and app addiction.
spect by Frank Chytil and Anna Lowrimore 鈥� An installation featuring live footage of the audience鈥檚 eye on an arrangement of CRT TVs, evoking the reflection and dissection of oneself that occurs with digital interaction.

The two-hour event kicks off at 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 4, and is open to all. Free registration link above.

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Maker Made 2022 features work by ATLAS community

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 16:52:05 +0000

Maker Made 2022 features work by ATLAS community Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 02/22/2022 - 09:52

Zack Weaver, an ATLAS lecturer who played a key role in establishing the ATLAS BTU Lab, stands in front of Maker Made 2020. Weaver is a creative technologist at BLDG 61: 糖心Vlog破解版 Library Makerspace and a curator for Maker Made.

A group of six artists and technologists connected to the ATLAS community contributed to 糖心Vlog破解版 Public Library鈥檚 Maker Made 2022, which runs through March 28.

If you go

Who: Everyone is invited

What: Maker Made 2022, a gallery show celebrating the diverse and inspiring work by local makers.

When: Runs through March 28. The exhibit is open whenever the library is open.

Where: Canyon Gallery, 糖心Vlog破解版 Public Library, 9th Street and Canyon Boulevard, 糖心Vlog破解版

Cost: Free

The fourth annual gallery show celebrates the diverse and inspiring work by local makers, representing the collective energy and ambition of a community of inventors, designers, engineers, artists, craftspeople and tinkerers.

鈥淭here鈥檚 no better way to celebrate a period of creative output than a party and a show-and-tell, and that鈥檚 what Maker Made has become,鈥� says Zack Weaver, one of the show鈥檚 curators and a creative technologist at BLDG 61: 糖心Vlog破解版 Library Makerspace. BLDG 61鈥檚 makerspace provides maker education to the public for free in an 鈥渋nspiring and inclusive environment.鈥�

Weaver, an ATLAS lecturer who played a key role in establishing the ATLAS BTU Lab, says inspiration for Maker Made dates back to his days as a Carnegie Mellon student of Professor Mark Gross, now director of the ATLAS Institute. Gross, along with university colleagues organized annual exhibitions, similar to the ATLAS Expo, Weaver says.

The ATLAS Connection
Creative Technology and Design graduates Luciano Mejia and Chaz Golin helped curate Maker Made 2022. Hired as "Contract Killer Creative Technologists" in late 2021, the two were major contributors to the show鈥檚 success. For exhibits by members of the ATLAS community, see below.

A group of six artists and technologists connected to the ATLAS community contributed to BLDG 61鈥檚 Maker Made 2022, which runs through March 28 at the 糖心Vlog破解版 Public Library. Zack Weaver, who played a key role in establishing the ATLAS BTU Lab and the show鈥檚 curator, says the inspiration for Maker Made goes back to his days at Carnegie Mellon with ATLAS Director Mark Gross.

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Podcast Episode "Open Source Hardware: Makers Unite"

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 19:46:58 +0000

Podcast Episode "Open Source Hardware: Makers Unite" Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/07/2020 - 13:46

ATLAS BTU Lab director Alicia Gibb speaks about open source hardware on Command Line Heroes Podcast, presented by Red Hat.

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Danny Rankin to speak at next TEDx MileHigh event on Nov. 16

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 15:38:17 +0000

Danny Rankin to speak at next TEDx MileHigh event on Nov. 16 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/24/2019 - 09:38

Danny Rankin spoke at the TEDx MileHigh event, "Imagine" on November 16, 2019. Rankin directs the ATLAS Institute's Whaaat!?! Lab for game design and is a mentor at ATLAS鈥� BTU Lab.

[video:https://youtu.be/iagWhasv6cI?si=qWEO3goVUo6rKdBC]

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OSHWA's certification platform attracts hundreds of projects worldwide

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 18:18:55 +0000

OSHWA's certification platform attracts hundreds of projects worldwide Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/02/2019 - 12:18

One year after its certification platform was unveiled, the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) has certified more than 250 certified open hardware projects worldwide from a variety of domains. OSHWA, directed by Alicia Gibb, who also directs the ATLAS BTU Lab, developed certification project with help from a $56,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation "to support the development of a dynamic, web-based platform to facilitate the adoption, licensing and improvement of open source hardware."

The certification offers a new option in the landscape of Intellectual Property for hardware, and the new website includes a directory of open source projects, Gibb says. There is also an educational component for new users to understand what it means to open source their hardware.

"The certification intends to empower the open hardware community to follow the open source hardware definition with a licensing structure behind it, making it bear more weight through trademark law," she says.

Hundreds of projects from across the globe have been certified by the new certification platform of the Open Source Hardware Association, directed by Alicia Gibb.

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Meet BT-U-GO, the new tour guide inside ATLAS

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 17:48:18 +0000

Meet BT-U-GO, the new tour guide inside ATLAS Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/10/2019 - 11:48

Can't find the BTU Lab? Just ask BT-U-Go. The friendly robot, built by high school student and this year's BTU intern, Isabelle Eichhorst, guides newcomers from the ATLAS lobby to the BTU Lab.

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Safecracking class teaches engineering skills, ethical hacking

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 20:40:09 +0000

Safecracking class teaches engineering skills, ethical hacking Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 12/17/2018 - 13:40

Students in a new ATLAS class are stretching their technological and design skills by taking on a challenge straight from a heist movie.

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Alicia Gibb featured in Red Hat video

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Oct 2018 19:01:28 +0000

Alicia Gibb featured in Red Hat video Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/05/2018 - 13:01

Alicia Gibb

Today, Alicia Gibb is an ATLAS instructor, director of the ATLAS Blow Things Up (BTU) Lab and a nationally recognized champion of the open source hardware movement, but her journey started out with a very different trajectory.

In college, she studied art education and her first job was as a librarian. It was while she was completing one of her two master鈥檚 degrees鈥攍ibrary science and art history鈥攖hat she found her calling after learning to write code and build websites.

鈥淚 just fell in love with open-source software,鈥� says Gibb. 鈥淎s librarians, we were taught that freedom of access and freedom of information is paramount to libraries and protecting it is a librarian鈥檚 duty. These same freedoms drew me to open source.鈥�

Soon after, Gibb learned about open-source hardware (OSHW)鈥攄evices whose designs had been released to the public so that anyone could make, modify, distribute and use them鈥攁nd she was similarly attracted.

This week Red Hat, a publicly-traded, multinational software company providing open-source software products, recognized Gibb's influence in the OSHW movement by releasing a documentary-style video about her. She was a keynote speaker at the Red Hat Summit in May in Boston, where she spoke to 4,000 attendees about why OSHW is crucial to innovation.

In 2010, Gibb organized the emerging OSHW conference with Ayah Bdeir, founder of littleBits, and in 2012 she formed the nonprofit, Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA), which aims to educate and promote the use and adoption of open-source hardware. A year ago she introduced the association鈥檚 new OSHW certification program, an OSHWA product logo that protects consumers by ensuring that certified products meet a uniform and well-defined standard for open-source compliance. This week OSHWA released a certification app.

鈥淚n Europe, people have no problem understanding the concept of open source,鈥� says Gibb, who also spoke about OSHW in Stockholm and Croatia. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very much a part of their culture. In the United States, most people don鈥檛 want to share the source of what鈥檚 making them money, but when you share, you make more money.鈥�

Gibb ticks off the reasons why OSHW is important.

Gibb directs the Blow Things Up (BTU) Lab at CU 糖心Vlog破解版's ATLAS Institute.

Historically, engineers usually don鈥檛 receive royalties or recognition for product patents owned by their employers, she said. And companies spend millions of dollars defending their patents, such as when Apple and Samsung engaged in a $400 million patent infringement suit over the design of cell phones and tablets, with costs being passed onto consumers.

鈥淧atents themselves are expensive,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t costs $50,000 to get a patent, and if you have 50K to start a company, you probably don鈥檛 want to use it for that.鈥�

With OSHW, the engineering community returns the favor of free hardware design by offering free product feedback. And anyone can incorporate another person鈥檚 improvements into their products.

As the founder of Lunchbox Electronics, an education-related open-source hardware company, Gibb is practicing what she preaches. Her company makes electronic components that are compatible with Legos, and consumers are free to design new parts for the toys and sell them without worrying about patent infringement.

鈥淭his is the beauty of OSHW,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he potential for innovation and creativity is limitless.

鈥淧atents make you lazy. You depend on lawyers, and meanwhile you stop innovating. As a consumer, you want the most innovative product on the market.鈥�

Open-source hardware (OSHW) is not a household word, even among engineers. But times are changing, and the OSHW revolution has much to do with ATLAS instructor, Alicia Gibb.

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BTU Lab hosts CU Science Discovery camp

Anonymous — Mon, 27 Aug 2018 21:16:19 +0000

BTU Lab hosts CU Science Discovery camp Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 08/27/2018 - 15:16

This summer, the ATLAS BTU Lab hosted CU Science Discovery Robotics Engineering Academy and camp for high school students, instructed by ATLAS Lecturer Wayne Seltzer, along with Cicada Scott, teaching assistant and BTU lab assistant.

"The campers enjoyed their time in the BTU Lab, making great use of resources such as the laser cutter, 3D printer and electronics tools," said Seltzer. "We're looking forward to seeing some of these talented summer campers return as ATLAS undergraduates."

Sparkfun's Inventor's Kit for RedBot provided the platform for the camps, enabling students to learn Arduino programming skills, controlling robotic sensors and actuators. One of the student groups developed soccer-playing robotics, in honor of the FIFA World Cup and the home countries of some of the international students.

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