2020 Kickbox Projects
Meet the 2020 Kickboxers
Elon students are researching, prototyping, building, and revising their Elon Kickbox project this Spring. Below is a summary of each idea.
Progress Updates – Spring 2020 
Kickbox students continued working on their projects this Spring. Click here to view an interactive report and hear directly from students about their progress. The link includes videos, images, and text from the students about their projects.
3D Printed Pole Vault Spikes
Primary Investigator: Madison George
Major: Engineering
Sponsor: Kyle Altmann, Associate Professor of Physics
Madison is a pole vaulter on Elon’s Track team and is exploring ways to make shoes personalized to an athlete’s foot. Learn more about Madison’s project here.
Autonomous RC Car
Primary Investigator: Haydn Stucker
Major: Engineering
Sponsor: Scott Wolter, Associate Professor of Engineering and Matthew Banks, Engineering Lab Manager
Haydn is customizing an RC car with components and sensors to allow it to drive by itself on a path.
An Indoor Composting Solution
Primary Investigator: Rebba Maylone
Major: Physical Therapy
Sponsor: Janet Cope, Professor of Physical Therapy Education
Rebba is exploring composting bins and making one that is clean enough to keep inside an apartment or house and small enough to fit under a kitchen sink.
STEM Game for Young Girls
Primary Investigator: Mikayla Ford
Major: Communication Design
Sponsor: Elena Kennedy, Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship
Mikayla and her teammates are designing a custom board game to introduce STEM-based careers to elementary-aged girls.
Video Game Cabinet
Primary Investigator: Bradley Soll
Major: Communication Design
Sponsor: Joy Meyer, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art
Bradley is constructing a classic-style arcade cabinet and coding and wiring a small computer (Raspberry Pi) to a monitor, game controllers, and buttons to create an arcade that can play classic video games.
HIPPA-Compliant Chart Holster
Primary Investigator: Charles “Gus” Franceschi
Major: Physical Therapy
Sponsor: Melissa Scales, Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy Education
Gus is exploring a way for health care practitioners to carry medical files and papers on the hospital floor without compromising their security. Current solutions focus on containing the papers but require practitioners to set them down if they need their hands free on short notice.
Knee Phantom
Primary Investigator: Hannah Morris and Casey Rodgers
Major: Physician Assistant
Sponsor: Cynthia Bennett, Assistant Professor of Physician Assistant Studies
Hannah and Casey are exploring an affordable ultrasound-friendly knee model for medical student education and training. Current models cost around $3,000 each, and that expense can limit the amount of practice students have practicing essential skills.
Disc-abled
Primary Investigator: Connor Vice
Major: Physical Therapy
Sponsor: Srikant Vallabhajosula, Associate Professor of Physical Therapy Education
Connor and his team are exploring a device to help individuals with upper extremity amputations to play frisbee golf.
Embedded Piano Controller
Primary Investigator: Ryan Lewis
Major: Computer Science
Sponsor: Ryan Mattfeld, Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Ryan is taking his experience playing the piano to hack an electronic piano keyboard so it can control an output (like turning on a light) instead of playing musical notes. He is interested in learning more about how data is transferred and reinterpreted from music to commands.
Sustainable Spray Paint
Primary Investigator: Sara Spicker
Major: Biochemistry
Sponsor: Jen Dabrowski, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and A. L. Hook Professor of Science and Mathematics
Sara is exploring spray paints made from natural ingredients. The goal is to create something that kids, pregnant women, and others can use for creative expression without exposure to harmful chemicals.
Powered Mobility Cart
Primary Investigator: Andrew Mantenyohl and Raina Stevens
Major: Physical Therapy
Sponsor: Nim Bachelor, Associate Professor of Philosophy
Andrew, Raina, and their team are exploring a way to give children with disabilities independent mobility. Unlike a wheelchair, kids would be able to control the cart themselves, without help from an adult.
Smart Dish
Primary Investigator: Cecilia Nelson
Major: Theatrical Design and Technology
Sponsor: Svetlana Nepocatych, Associate Professor of Exercise Science
Cecilia is working on dinnerwear like plates and bowls that feature measurements to inform the user about the amount of food they are consuming.
Tempescope 2.0
Primary Investigator: Jared Rosbrugh
Major: Biochemistry
Sponsor: Joel Hollingsworth, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science
A tempescope physically recreates the weather outside inside a container. For example, you’d know it was raining outside because moisture would start to fall inside the tempescope. Jared is exploring how to recreate different types of weather and phases of the moon inside his tempescope.
Cyber Empress
Primary Investigator: Alaa Suleiman
Major: Computer Science
Sponsor: Ryan Mattfeld, Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Alaa is exploring sensors embedded into clothing to help monitor blood glucose levels of the wearer.
Animal Shelter Toys
Primary Investigator: Lauren Bowman
Major: Digital Art
Sponsor: Terry Tomasek, Associate Professor of Education and Director of the Elon Academy
Lauren volunteers at the local animal shelter. She is exploring creating toys for cats and dogs that are resilient and long-lasting, so the animal shelter doesn’t need to replace them frequently.
Versatile eGPU Enclosure
Primary Investigator: Henry Chance
Major: Engineering and Physics
Sponsor: Ryan Mattfeld, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Matthew Banks, Engineering Lab Manager
Henry is exploring affordable ways to add a high-power graphics card to a laptop without needing to modify the internals of the computer. A standard graphics card is adequate for basic tasks, but 3D design, video editing, and gaming is more productive with a more powerful graphics card.
Thermal Feedback Within Hand Prosthetics
Primary Investigator: Cole Kocjancic, Matt Del Valle, and Nick Duff
Major: Biomedical/Biophysics Engineering
Sponsor: Jonathan Su, Assistant Professor of Engineering
Cole and his team are exploring ways to add feeling to a prosthetic hand. Specifically, they are interested in detecting dangerously high temperatures (like a stove-top) and providing feedback about the heat to the prosthetic user.
Smart Cane
Primary Investigator: Sasha Bergelson
Major: Experience Design
Sponsor: Joseph Rich, Solutions Architect
Sasha is exploring ways to provide useful feedback about surroundings to visually impaired and/or hearing impaired persons using a walking cane.
Multi-purpose lawn mower
Primary Investigator: Owen Johnson
Major: Accounting and Entrepreneurship
Sponsor: Karen Neff, Associate Director of Academic Support for Athletics
Owen is exploring ways to combine functions of a mower, leaf blower, and trimmer into fewer machines that need to be transported to a job site.
Hand-bound Art Books
Primary Investigator: Laura “Clarky” Clarkson
Major: Communication Design
Sponsor: Samantha DiRosa, Associate Professor of Art and Environmental Studies
Clarky is exploring ways to make paper and bind them using traditional bookbinding techniques.