Academic 2020-2021 Make to Innovate Projects
The following is the list of active M:2:I Projects for the 2020-2021 academic year. All active projects also have a website that you can find both in the table and in the drop down menu above.
| Project Logo | Project Name | Faculty Advisor | Project Leader | Project Type | Mission Statement | Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NIFTE (was AABL STING) | Travis Grager | TBA | Research/Course | This project is to design, build, and test a new sting for testing small UAVs in the AABL wind tunnel. Upon completion, the sting would be available to students in M:2:I and the senior design courses for testing their UAV models. Ideally, the sting would allow for precise powered rotation about all three aircraft axes to align the aircraft in any desired position, support the JR3 load cell that is currently being used for testing, update sensors used in the wind tunnel for measuring wind speed,and provide logging capabilities of the force, moment, aircraft orientation, and wind speed. | ||
| BIG Idea | Matthew Nelson | Alexander McEnery | Competition/Research | This project will be focusing on the BIG Ideas challenge released by NASA through the NIA and space grant consortium. Students will work on a payload that will be used on the Lunar polar region. Students will assist faculty in writing a proposal to obtain funding from the BIG Ideas challenge. | ||
| Boeing Electric Flight | Matthew Nelson | TBA | Industry | The mission of Boeing Electric Flight is to determine the viability of producing a modern, 737-sized commercial aircraft powered with batteries instead of traditional fossil fuels. At the conclusion of the project, with the help of faculty and technical advisors, the project hopes to produce a document which can be delivered to Boeing that outlines the types of technical advancements which would be required to produce an electric aircraft, as well as what steps would be necessary to transition the commercial market towards greener electric aircraft. | Boeing Electric Flight Website | |
| Boeing Manufacturing | Matthew Nelson | Grant Idleman | Industry | The mission of this project is to create an automated system that is capable of a quicker and more efficient wing to fuselage connection process, all while safely and securely holding a wing. Our project works and communicates directly with our Boeing representative, Dean Hawkinson, and many other faculty such as Matthew Nelson & Christine Nelson, Professor Dayal, and others. Although, outside of what our team does, this project gives students the opportunity to work in a team and get some legitimate, real-life engineering experiences.This project allows members to understand the obstacles and amount of work needed for a team to be successful | Boeing Manufacturing Website | |
 | Cardinal Flight | Bella Kim | Kyle McKinney | Service | Cardinal Flight is a UAV design and build team that focuses on VTOL/Transition wing aircraft. Fall semesters are design semesters, used for improving previous designs, while spring semesters are build semesters, used for constructing and testing the previous semesters design. | Cardinal Flight Website |
 | CySat | Matthew Nelson | Kelly Thompson | Service | CySat aims to create a 3u CubeSat in which will conduct a technology demonstration mission in low earth orbit (LEO). It teaches students concepts relating to systems engineering and testing, which are valuable in the space industry and any engineering profession later on. CySat has predicted a remainder of two semesters of work as of July 27th, 2019 and will use this time to integrate the entire CubeSat and test for mission functionality before final hand off to our launch integrator, NanoRacks. CySat works in conjunction with NASA, NanoRacks, and various commercial and federal entities to make this possible for undergraduate students. | CySat Website |
 | Eagle Eye | Matthew Nelson | Research | Eagle Eye’s main goal is to make a proof of concept vehicle that will be able to operate in the Martian atmosphere. This vehicle will be able to collect data related to the Martian atmosphere and will be relatively cheap to fabricate. We have three teams within Eagle Eye. The first team is the Mechanical Design Team, which is responsible for completing the theoretical design of the vehicle. This would include calculations, analysis, and general design of the vehicle. The next team is the Mechanical Fabrication Team, which is responsible for the fabrication and assembly of the vehicle. This would include material selection, construction, and mechanical testing. Our final team is the Flight Systems Team, which is responsible for the preparation of all avionic components and flight software for future flights. | Eagle Eye Website | |
| HABET | Matthew Nelson | Parker Coulter | Service | HABET provides a high-altitude platform for researchers at Iowa State, other M:2:I teams, or anyone interested to conduct research. | HABET Website | |
| JARVIF | Bella Kim | Cole Burkle | Research/Course | This project is to provide the service for AERE 355 / 331. These classes will have various projects such as the UASs manufacture, developing thedynamic modeling, andflight-testing. M2I project is also designated as the part of the Miller faculty fellowship project during next 12 months. | ||
 | MAVRIC | Matthew Nelson | Austin Schmitz | Competition | MAVRIC builds an analog Mars rover to compete against teams from around the world in the Canadian International Rover Challenge(CIRC) in Drumheller, Canada. It must be able to complete a variety of tasks such as analyzing soil samples for a specific substance, manipulating tools to complete repairs, drilling into the ground, and driving autonomously. These tasks are meant to represent what an actual Mars rover would be expected to do when astronauts land on Mars. | MAVRIC Website |
 | Micro-G | Tomas Gonzalez-Torres | Joseph Weikert | Competition | Students in this project will be competing in the Micro-G challenge from NASA. As part of this challenge students will work on developing tools that can operate in a zero-g environment. These tools will then be tested at the pool facility in Houston, TX. | Micro-G Website |
| RAFF | TBA | Hayden Hill | Service | This project aims to provide a platform for testing free fall environments by the use of high-powered model rockets. In theory, a rocket could provide double the free fall duration of a high altitude drop. |
Archived Projects
The following are projects that are no longer active in Make to Innovate. They have been archived here.