Design Hub Projects
Spring 2024 - Present
Client Based Projects
Design Lead
Isaac Rately
Skills
CAD, Electronics, Waterjet, Laser Cutting, Shopbot, Acrylic Bender, Crochet, Sewing, Embroidery
What is Design Hub?
DesignHub is a student-led team of engineers and designers housed in Duke’s Innovation Co-Lab that helps clients within the Duke community fulfill their design and prototyping needs. DesignHub provides everything from computer modeling and prototyping to final product small-scale manufacturing.
CAD: We produce computer-modeled 3D files ready for manufacturing using 3D printing or conventional subtractive manufacturing.
Prototyping: We use rapid prototyping technologies including 3D printing, laser cutting, and more to generate prototypes and iterate on designs.
Manufacturing: We help determine the optimal path to small-scale manufacturing by helping with material selection, sourcing, and manufacturing method selection.
Hairline Guide
Motivation + Design Criteria
The client wanted a hair-cutting guide that always creates the perfect at-home haircut. He provided us with simple CAD pictured on the right.
The guide should fit the average adult head, with adjustable, removable attachment pieces for the sides of the head. It is also crucial that the guide stays in place during the cut.
Prototyping
I chose to laser-cut rubber to create a flexible band instead of 3D printing the device. In the first prototype, I cut flaps in the rubber and inserted the edge pieces into them. However, after testing with friends, I found that the pieces were difficult to insert, and the flaps reduced the guide's stability.
Final Design
The final design featured a rubber band with lines engraved at every half inch. The band was secured using velcro to allow the size to be adjusted. I made two sets of edge pieces with different end shapes. The edge pieces were attached using alligator clips.
The client loved it!
Microscope Stand
Project Overview
The Sherwood Lab approached us because they have large microscope stages that they use extensively in their lab. The stages that they use now are no longer being manufactured, so they wanted to see if we could make them at the Co-Lab. We were able to recreate them by cutting the acrylic on the Shopbot CNC and bending them with an acrylic bender.
Sherwood Lab—“The Sherwood lab uses the C. elegans nematode worm animal model system to explore cell-extracellular matrix interactions, particularly how cells invade through extracellular matrix to understand cancer metastasis. The stereomicroscopes shown are used to main C. elegans strains and set up genetic crosses. The plexiglass extensions on the stage of the microscope allow researchers a more ergonomic platform to view and transfer worms.”
The old microscope stage is pictured on the left and the stage I created with design lead Isaac is pictured on the right
Library Cart Wheel
Motivation + Design
A wheel on a library cart at Perkins, Duke’s main library, broke, so the librarian came to the Co-Lab to request a replacement. I created a CAD replica based on the pictures and measurements she sent us. The actual wheel is pictured on the left, the CAD in the middle, and the 3D-printed replica on the right.
Crochet Workshop
The Co-Lab offers free workshops to the Duke community via the Roots Program. From their website “Innovation Co-Lab's Roots Program is our series of technology learning experiences, including both live and self-paced workshops. The program is free, non-credit, open to anyone at Duke (student, staff, faculty).” As part of my work with Design Hub and the Co-Lab studio, I taught an intro to crocheting roots class.
