Ph.D. alum helps make robotics and programming accessible

As a Ph.D. student at the Jacobs School of Engineering, Nick Morozovsky built many robots, including SkySweeper, a power line inspector, and Switchblade, a roving and balancing robot. And he worked on bringing robotics to everyone, especially young students.

Morozovsky worked with Solana Beach-based Rokenbok Education on a robotics kit that teaches children as young as 8 how to program Arduino microcontrollers. The ROKbuino Programmable Robotics Set is now available on Kickstarter for $99 off its retail pricing. Morozovsky designed the original prototypes on a low-cost 3D printer. Rokenbok is now seeking funding to mass-produce the kits by using injection molding, which is much faster but requires a significant upfront capital investment. The company hopes to bring the sets to homes across the country as well as under-served schools where children have limited access to STEM opportunities.

The kit allows students to connect motors and a variety of sensors to build and program a beetle bot, a scorpion hunter and a Ferris Wheel. It includes more than 400 building components. The Kickstarter campaign runs until June 30.

After earning his Ph.D. in 2014, Morozovsky co-founded start up Accel Robotics with fellow Jacobs School alum Marius Buibas. 

Morozovsky with SkySweeper, a robot designed to inspect power lines.

Alum launches Kickstarter for new and improved GoPro mount

A Jacobs School alum has launched a Kickstarter for a GoPro mount for bikes, canoes, and more. Yohei Yamamuro graduated with a bachelor's in mechanical engineering in the mid-1990s before earning an MBA from USC.

An avid mountain biker, he came up with the idea for the mount, called Talon, while trying to position and hold a fluid dispensing nozzle. The Kickstarter project, which has 27 days to go, is currently at about $3,400 raised of its $20,000 goal.

This is what Yamamuro told us about this experiences as an engineering student at UC San Diego:

In hindsight, MAE 156A&B prepared me tremendously for the “real” world. Since we had one project, a miniature outdoor blimp with a gyroscopic camera, the class divided itself into teams. We had design teams for the major components such as chassis, engine, camera systems, and blimp. I chose to be on the project management team—and it was quite a revelation where up to that point most academic activities focused on individual versus collaborative performance. Managing a team effort and all of its advantages and perils helped lay the foundation for who I am today, a technology commercialization and industrialization leader. I am a lifelong learner therefore I have had many favorite classes and professors including: Instructor Dave Tribolet for MAE 156A&B, Professor Vecchio for MAE 11, Professor Hegemeier for MAE 121A (Statics), Professor Pao Chau, Professor Nemat Nasser for Differential Equations, Professor Miller for Thermodynamics, and many, many more.

Don't drink and drone: Jacobs School alumns launch Kickstarter to create drone pilot flight school

"Don't drink and drone!" That's the advice in this fun video produced by SparkAerial, a start-up co-founded by Jacobs School computer science alums Radley Angelo, Kurt Selander and Austin Hill. The company bills itself as a full-service UAV shop and offers for example custom-built quadcopters and other flying UAVs and aerial cinematography services.

The team got their start in the Engineers for Exploration program here at the Jacobs School. Their got to accompany researcher Albert Lin on his expedition to find Genghis Khan's tomb in Mongolia. Since then, their work has been featured on CNN, Good Morning America and the National Geographic Channel, among many others.

They have recently launched a Kickstarter to create a drone pilot school. So far, with 26 days to go, backers have pledged $3,115 of a $5,000 goal. The money would go to creating an aerial cinematography video training series and an online resource center for aspiring drone pilots.
According to their Kickstarter page:

Our goal here is simple; we want to teach the world how to have fun, fly safe, and capture amazing content. The series covers everything from the basics, like choosing a copter and taking off for the first time, to more advanced piloting maneuvers that will make your video the talk of the town.