Today is National Inventor’s Day and DSU’s Atwood Innovation Plaza is full of inventors. Innovation Plaza is the ultimate hub of resources for students and community members alike. Whether it’s receiving help with a patent or 3-D printing, Innovation Plaza can help you do it all.
The Business Resource Center provides startups and innovators no-cost technical support from planning and formation to developing pitches and more.
The Makerspace is a 8,000-square-foot room dedicated to prototyping and manufacturing equipment. It is one of the largest maker spaces in the state of Utah. The Makerspace includes 3-D printers, sewing machines, laser cutters, wide format printers, and other useful tools.
With all of these resources, bringing inventions to life is made possible. One student inventor, Ryan Hardin, is Trailblazing his way into the future with a prototype for a mechanical obstacle avoidance system that could potentially become a rover that would explore Venus.
Ryan is a junior mechanical engineering major with a minor in computer science. He is currently interning at Innovation Plaza as their Computer-Aided Design (CAD) & Prototyping Instructor. “I’m super passionate about anything spaceflight or space exploration related,” Ryan said. “I hope to someday work for NASA at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.”
Putting a rover on a planet is no easy task, and Venus comes with a special set of obstacles. Venus experiences 900-degree surface temperatures, making it virtually impossible to navigate a rover using electronic sensors. However, Ryan’s prototype uses springs and gears, similar to a clock, that could withstand the high heat of Venus.
Ryan’s inspiration for his prototype is a design by Youssef Gali, an Egyptian architect and product designer who won NASA’s Exploring Hell competition last year. Ryan’s design focuses on a system that would alert the rover to obstacles in its path, like rocks and holes, to avoid any damages.
Ryan says he still has a long way to go, but with the help from Innovation Plaza anything is possible. To learn more about Innovation Plaza, visit innovation.utahtech.edu.