Meet the EnVision Arts and Engineering Maker Studio Coordinator

Meet Colin Zyskowski, a graduate student in computer music. Colin is Jesse’s right-hand man. We asked him, “What exactly do you do?”

I oversee the undergraduate staff, help maintain the equipment, assist classes with the tools, and I assist Jesse with his mountain of day to day tasks, including the website. We’ll have a new project demonstration and tutorial page up soon.

How did you end up in this position?

I worked with COSMOS over the summer teaching the music technology cluster in EnVision. That was my first exposure to the space. I had been looking for a place like that since I started my PhD at UC San Diego. I started volunteering the following quarter.

What is your goal?

I want to go into academia. I really like the atmosphere – being around a group of people on the cutting-edge of research.

Do you feel like your time at EnVision fits into that?

Oh absolutely. I like that it’s geared towards prototyping. I myself do a lot with hardware design.

What is your dissertation on?

Audio processing on mobile robotic networks - I'm researching various methods and applications for processing audio on groups of robots. These robots communicate with each other via wireless networks that I have built. The audio processing takes place on small computers or microcontrollers including the Raspberry Pi, Beaglebone Black, and a board that I designed and fabricated. The applications that I have focused on are musical performance, sound-source localization, dynamic audio spatialization, and positional determination. The network also has various functions, such as streaming audio, spatial mapping, group learning, and cooperative performance. I'm currently in my fifth year of the PhD program, and am planning to graduate in the spring of 2018. I work primarily with Miller Puckette (music) and Mauricio de Oliveira (mechanical engineering).

What else are you working on?

I also play music (guitar, drums, piano, bass), work as an audio engineer, build quirky electronic instruments, and do a lot of woodworking.    

You can see some of Colin’s projects here.

UC San Diego Student Motorizes Bike

Do you ever find yourself hitting the snooze button over and over, and then wishing you could fly or had roller skates for feet so you could make it to class on time? James Yao, a first year Visual Arts major, solved this problem by building an electric bike.

Yao came to UC San Diego to build his bike.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile, ever since I first saw electric bikes in my junior year of high school,” said Yao. “I designed the bike over the summer but I didn’t have the time or money to hire someone to machine the parts. My top two choices for schools were the University of Washington or UC San Diego, but my design wasn’t good for the rainy weather.”

When Yao arrived at UC San Diego, he asked his orientation leader about resources for makers on campus and heard about EnVision. When he saw the photos of the space on the website, he knew he could finish the project.

Yao used the 3D printers to prototype brackets for mounting his electric motor and the soldering stations to build the electronics.

According to Yao, the 3D printers provided the biggest benefit. “At first, my design didn’t work – the bracket wasn’t strong enough,” said Yao. “I was able to iterate on the design by printing versions.”

Yao’s bike goes up to 25 mph, which helps him get from Warren to his 8:00 a.m. class on the other side of Peterson Hill! Jealous? Who knows, maybe he’ll help you build one!