Project gallery

Our students have delighted us with a cornucopia of creative projects each quarter. This gallery shares a sampling of that awesomeness. What cool thing will YOU be inspired to create?

Below are two short highlight reels from the project demos.

Spring quarter 2017 (Raspberry Pi)

Fall quarter 2024 (Mango Pi)

Here are short descriptions of some projects from past years:

  • Magic mirror
    • Selfie with animations displayed on a mirror-monitor
  • Recording chessboard
    • Hall-effect sensors read positions of pieces, record & visualize moves on monitor
  • Threading system
    • Multi-threading system so Pi can simulate running code in parallel
  • Sunlight lamp
    • Lamp that mirrors natural sunlight intensity throughout day
  • Drum hero
    • Electronic drumset with piezoelectric vibration sensors
  • SPI network with device-device communication
    • Communication between Pis (display received data, store to memory, run received code)
  • Fruit Ninja
    • arcade game controlled by user hand gestures read using ultrasound sensors
  • Visual Theremin
    • Translate time-of-flight distance to pitch, output sound and visualization
  • Finger piano
    • Synthetic instrument using piezo sensors on fingers, and output sound and visualization
  • Light-up dress
    • Dress which lights up with electroluminescent wires when you move (based on gyroscope)
  • Etch-a-sketch
    • Knobs, accelerometer, and push buttons used to control paint program
  • ArduCAM library
    • Library to capture still images from ArduCAM
  • Robo-turtle
    • Robotic turtle with servo motors and ultrasonic sensors, controlled by NES keypad
  • Raspberry Pi GPU
    • Assembler for Pi GPU, guide to using GPU from bare metal
  • Intruder detection system
    • Detect motion using network of passive infrared sensors
  • DMX lighting console and receiver
    • User interface to set/read theater lighting controls
  • 2-player basketball arcade game
    • Sensors detects when ball goes into basket and which player to award points (by color of ball)
  • Analog sensor visualizer
    • Dashboard visualization of analog signals read by MCP3008 ADC
  • Clappy bird
    • Arcade game controlled by sound
  • Finger-spelling recognition
    • Recognize letters spelled while wearing sensor-equipped glove
  • Walking weatherman
    • Wearable shirt with environment sensors and informational display via leds
  • Post-it printer
    • Use mouse to draw picture which is then replicated on Post-It using a pen controlled by stepper motors
  • Vintage boombox
    • Plays music through a refitted vintage radio case with LED visualization
  • LED leggings
    • Leggings with sewn-in LEDs that respond to movement of wearer
  • Magic organ
    • Multiple stops that shape frequency signature of sound akin to pipe organ
  • Gesture-controlled car
    • Car is wirelessly controlled via a glove outfitted with sensors
  • Text-a-sketch
    • Pi receives texted photo and drives stepper motors to dial a physical Etch-a-Sketch to replicate photo
  • PiCycle
    • Automatic brake and turn signals for your bike
  • Boba maker
    • Swipe your Stanford ID and receive your preferred beverage mixed to order
  • Gun of the sentry
    • Nerf gun that tracks and shoots at moving target using ultrasound sensors and servo motor
  • Pi-rat
    • Sensing and mobile robot that can autonomously solve a maze
  • Laser harp
    • Strings of made of light that you can pluck
  • POV sphere
    • Rotating circle of led strip lights to create illusion of spherical image
  • Workout buddy
    • Wearable sensors to count reps at the gym
  • Dance steps arcade game
    • Step on pads in correct pattern/timing to win game
  • Lie detector
    • Biometric sensors evaluate truthfulness of speaker
  • Custom font
    • Create custom handwriting font by drawing letters with a mouse
  • Midi stepper synth
    • Midi from piano keyboard is visualized on screen, drive stepper motors to sound notes of correct frequency
  • Bop-it game
    • Sensors to detect various actions (sound, force, motion)
  • Lego printer
    • Print image via pick-and-place of lego pixels on grid board
  • Jelly bean sorter
    • Use color sensor and servo motors to sort jelly beans by color
  • Escalating challenge snooze
    • Each use of snooze alarm is harder to shut off
  • Gesture tetris
    • Game controlled via hand gestures read from accelerometer
  • Zen garden
    • Use stepper motor to drag magnet in sandbox to trace out patterns
  • Midi-controlled music box
    • Servo motors used to pluck tines and play midi input
  • Drawing stylus
    • Track moving magnet atop field of analog Hall effect sensors and use as input device
  • Obstacle avoidance bike
    • Servo motor applies brake when dangerous situation detected by accelerometer and ToF sensors
  • Graphing calculator
    • Handheld with integrated LCD display, keypad, battery power, sd card boot
  • Firefighter guidance system
    • Wearable vest with IR/ToF sensors and haptic feedback to guide rescuer to trapped person
  • Laser communication
    • Full-duplex transmit/receive using custom encoding
  • Mediation buddy
    • Lighted, moving flower that provides biofeedback on heart and breath rate
  • "Beat saber" arcade game
    • Swipe in time to the music to score points
  • Audio visualizer cube
  • "Way-less" RC car
    • Using lidar for object detection/avoidance
  • "Watch your back" posture monitor
    • Graphic visualization of spine curvature read from wearable strip of accelerometers
  • Kinetic dino game
    • Jump, crouch, and run to play a version of Chrome's Dino Game
  • Accessible mouse
    • Trace mouse movement and provide haptic/sound feedback to user
  • Laser guitar