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Little Inventors

Making blog

All the latest news and updates from our incredible inventors and magnificent makers
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3D Model
Posted by Kolin Baker about Sydney's The Sticky Boots

I worked in Rhino, a 3D modelling program, to bring Sydney's idea into a 3D space.

Refinement
Posted by Kolin Baker about Sydney's The Sticky Boots

I took some of the forms I sketched out in my ideation phase and explored them further in my refinement phase.

Ideation
Posted by Kolin Baker about Sydney's The Sticky Boots

From our first meeting, I did some thumbnailing on possible forms for the boot. All of these ideas are very rough, but they help me feel out where the project may go.

Meeting One
Posted by Kolin Baker about Sydney's The Sticky Boots

Meeting one with Sydney happened on May 8th. We discussed some of her inspirations, as well as her vison for various colors, aesthetics, and a target market! It was helpful to hear her story behind the boots, as well as get some specifics as to how some of the functions of the boot were supposed to look.

Form exploration for the Power Shoe!
Posted by Abigail Carballo about Xander's Power Shoe

Made some cool sketches for the Power Shoe and where the fan of the shoe would be placed in it! I also added some cool pictures of the Black Panther comic book series as inspiration.

The final touches!
Posted by HTI Cybernetics about MIchael's Pressure Energy

It has been an amazing couple of weeks bringing the Pressure Energy to life! From using an engineering software to do a 3D rendering to using electric circuits in a city built out of Legos, the team has done a great job bringing it all together! We are excited to unveil the final product tomorrow at the event.

How can Andrew's idea work? Step one: research
Posted by Milena Pukalo about Andrew's Tree-Winder

To begin, Andrew wanted to bring his idea of a tree-like object in parks and cities that can power people, their phones, maybe their EV's and bikes. His concept surrounded a solar powered and 'wind-sucking' leaves that can harvest and keep energy. First, I set guidelines based on what Andrew said and how he envisions his Tree- Winder: for who, how, what and why. Then, I decided to look into how we can make this possible with the technology we have now... taking some notes, looking into some articles, and highlighting key points so we have a scale and understanding of what we would need to make it work before sketching. I found this concept called 'piezolelectricity' which basically does exactly what Andrew said. Particles rub together and create energy- which can be kickstarted by wind, basically. This allowed name to brainstorm how we can make it work and where- a system of leaves, tied onto 'branches' which collect that energy than harvest it into the base and keep it in a reserve in the 'tree'!

Name & Fan in Action
Posted by Caitlin Warren about Olivia's Flower Fan

I noticed that that you didn’t have a name for your fan! I filled it in with a filler name “SunBloom”. This isn’t the full poster, but I thought it would be nice for you to see the fan in motion before the big day. Had fun working on this!

TARUS hosts a field trip by Krause Elementary School
Posted by TARUS Products about Ariana's HammoGlow

We were delighted to host Krause Elementary School to showcase the construction of Ariana's idea for HammoGlow! Ariana's parents also joined us for the field trip.

We showed various areas of our operations, from engineering design in CAD (Computer Aided Design), machining, waterjet (which cuts sheet metal into parts using a very high-pressure stream of water), fabrication, paint and more. 

The students were given an overview of TARUS and given gift bags as a thank you for their visit. We hope the students gained a better understanding of how a project like HammoGlow is created from an idea, designed, manufactured, and assembled. Thank you for coming!

3D Model Progress
Posted by Caitlin Warren about Olivia's Flower Fan

The 3D model of my fan is still a work in progress, but it's almost finished! I recently adjusted the number of petals to improve its functionality and performance, and the overall structure is coming together really well. The last major step is adding the solar panels to the base pot, which will provide sustainable power to the fan. Once that’s complete, I’ll be ready to move on to rendering and bringing the final design to life.

Starting the build process of Hammoglow!
Posted by TARUS Products about Ariana's HammoGlow

TARUS is in the first stage of creating Ariana's HammoGlow idea! We are welding a bracket and machining a foot pad. More to come!

3D modeling
Posted by Alexander Lauxmann about Chase's Electric Stepper

Using a program called Rhino 3D, I 3D modeled the panels for the walkway as well as a battery housing design to store energy generated by the walkway during the day. This a screenshot from the program using a rendered view.

First Textures and more Animation
Posted by Anton Steenken about Chris's Super Wings

It is the end of day 4 working on this amazing invention, and we are making big steps toward the final result! I have spent a lot of time working on the bigger chunks and will now start working on details, post work (like speech bubbles) and sound. It is still a long way to go and a lot of details to iron out, but I am super pumped to make this happen for Chris!

Follow up and refinement
Posted by Lauren Hinzmann about Nevaeh's Porta-plug

Spoke with Neveah again to check-in with what I was working on so far, if she liked the direction, and any extra details she wanted added to the models before I moved on to printing and finalizing.

1st Meeting with Little Inventor
Posted by Lauren Hinzmann about Nevaeh's Porta-plug

Meet with Neveah who was incredibly sweet and helped me figure out exactly what she was looking for. Talked over colors, shapes, what fidgets to include on it and a few additional features that she would like to have. She had her idea very well thought through and I was really impressed by many of her ideas. Did a few quick doodles afterwards for fidgets to begin working.

Road Model
Posted by Ascent Aerospace about Neyla's Drive-O-Meter-3000

Our Shipping/Receiving and Box Building team have been working on the road for the Drive O Meter 3000! It is a work in progress, there will be some modifications made to it soon. More pictures to come.

Ideation Sketches
Posted by Emily Hickman about Claire's The Handy Helper

Showing the Handy Helper in use and thinking about how it will charge. Maybe it hangs in the window to absorb solar power.

Digitized Ideation sketches
Posted by Alexander Lauxmann about Chase's Electric Stepper

I took my pen and paper sketches and inked them in a program called Clip Studio Paint. It includes ideas for the walkway itself, some features like lighting and materials, and designs for a battery housing to store electricity generated during the day.

First Timing Test
Posted by Anton Steenken about Chris's Super Wings

It's day 2 of working on this amazing project from Chris, and the first block-out and timing test is done. I do these to make sure the composition and timings work, but the style and look of the animation will of course be made way more beautiful with actual characters and the Super Wings later on! 
These tests showed me that the timing was still a little too fast, so I will work on that before going deeper into animation and the Super Wings.

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