Bigger than a Viral Hit

If you’ve been around the social media sphere lately, you may have seen Olin’s viral hit about the self-balancing bicycle. With over 3 million views, we’d be surprised if you missed it. 

Constructed by Justin (Jonghoo) Yoon, Pia Swarup, and Aryan Banerjee (all ’29, first years at the time), the trio built this model based on research under the advisement of Dr. Victoria Preston (’16), and it took the internet by storm.

However, that’s not the only incredible project or research being done on our campus. Our students are active in their learning and studies, allowing them to gain experience that others may only receive once on the job.

Here is a small sampling:

• Redesigning a fabric chute that makes the production process easier and more efficient in the textile field
• Sizing and selecting new boilers as part of decarbonizing the campus by 2029
• Creating fault detection software that informs the campus Facilities team about malfunctioning equipment and identifies equipment that could be running more efficiently
• Optimizing building-wide air handler units for added efficiency
• Growing mushrooms to show the importance of sustainability in the food industry.
• Developing a robotics system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to improve farming practices by limiting reliance on harmful herbicides in weed management
• Creating and using uterine tissue-mimicking optical phantoms to better represent different skin tones, genders, and body types.
• Working with third-party data on a range of sustainability projects such as which waterways wastewater plants around the world flow into and what kinds of vegetation grow there
• Designing mechatronic systems
• Producing assemblies built from injection-molded parts
• Researching technical and policy implications of different communications systems coexisting
• Coding and shift-register implementations to CPU design
• Innovating bio-inspired games, graphics displays, digital audio, and much more!

Olin College is no one-hit wonder. We’ve been making an impact in research, through our projects, and the work of our alumni for decades. Now, it’s time for you to make an impact and visit our campus to see how Olin could provide for your future in engineering.