For students majoring in Creative Technology and Design, the Capstone course sequence is the culmination of their undergraduate careers, asking them to draw from the full spectrum of their technical and design skills to conceive, plan and build a project that challenges them to reach outside their comfort zones and create. In many cases, it's the most complex and challenging work of their careers at CU Boulder.

In the presentations listed below, students are sharing their work with a wider audience for the first time. Each student presents for no more than 5 minutes, after which commentary is provided by the reviewers detailed below. You are invited to attend some or all of these presentations, which have been broken up into four sessions, all of which take place on Sunday, May 1. 

Watch all the capstone presentations (same link used for all sessions).

See below for the complete schedule, including descriptions of this year's amazing student projects!

Session 1

Sunday, May 1, 9 – 10:45 am MT

Watch Session 1

Reviewers:

Matt Bethancourt develops experimental games and interactions that explore the limits of what a game can be and how games create opportunities for reflection. He has taught audio production, sound synthesis, sound design, game design and development, web design, physical computing and installation/performance with Max/MSP. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Design and Technology from Parsons School for Design.

Nicky Britt used his passion for entertainment as a North Star, he entered gaming as a QA lead for Aspyr Media in Austin, Texas, managing teams on titles such as Star Wars: KOTOR, Bioshock Infinite, and Civilizations V. After cutting his teeth on project management at various tech companies, including the mobile-development firm Wunderman Thompson Mobile (leading teams that created apps for Ice Network and PGA tour, among others), he opened his own mobile game studio. Now entrenched in the local game scene, Nicky Britt is the sole producer at Sunblink Entertainment and firmly believes in process, fun, and honesty for team success.

Project Student(s) Description Recordings
Oasis Lana Sardar, Lizzie Bartholemew, Nick Schine OASIS is an immersive nature video game experience that uses carefully crafted graphics, narrative, and sensory stimulation to seduce an audience with the novelty of immersive design, only to then push them away with its dull gameplay. We are critiquing how humans focus on further developing technology to escape reality, when we could channel resources toward preserving the beauty of our natural reality. Watch
Ludo Jason Warrick An online arcade with accessible games and tutorials designed for non-gamers. Ludo encourages everyone to play games, because no one should miss out on the various psychological benefits they provide. Watch
The Gremlinizer Evan Lauki, Rachel McMinn, Ally Rodunsky The Gremlinizer is an online, social word game that pushes players to think fast and avoid the Gremlin's CHARAC-TERROR! Watch
Zombies of London Gregorio Figueroa, Ellie Wright Zombies of London is a competitive board game where players gain allies and gather resources while exploring the iconic landmarks of a post-apocalyptic London. Watch
Queerland, TX Alexa Primani, Mandi Wilner Play as a faction leader working to take over the nightclub scene in Queerland, TX, in this competitive strategy board game. Watch
Carbon Zero Home Design Alec Ebner A game that teaches people how to live with a lower carbon footprint by designing and remodeling their own home. Watch
The Primrose Garden Path Brendan Abernathy, Abby Barnes Primrose Garden Path is a UI-based game that situates players amidst sinister corporate forces in the context of meaningless office mundanity. Watch
Ward7 Calvin Logan, Dani Emrich Ward7 is an interactive storytelling experience centered around disability and magic. Watch

Session 2

Sunday, May 1, 10:50 am - 12:35 pm MT

Watch Session 2

Reviewers:

Megan Gross has a wide range of interests and skills fueled by a strong desire to understand the world. She has a BFA in sculpture from the University of Colorado and has worked as a custom metal fabricator making architectural, ornamental and structural projects out of steel, stainless steel, aluminum, copper and bronze. For the past five years, Megan has worked as a software engineer building projects for organizations and companies like the American Red Cross, FEMA, Google, Future Engineers, Roblox, and the Colorado State Government. She plays piano, a variety of other instruments, DJs, and fiddles with electronic music production. Megan is also interested in all things involving nature, from biology to adventuring in it.

Caleb Wright graduated from CU Boulder with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering with a major in Creative Technologies and Design and is pursuing a master’s degree in electrical engineering. Caleb has a background in creative technologies and user-centered design, fabrication, and experimentation, as well as a broad knowledge of makerspace culture.

Sasha Novack, who hails from Brooklyn, New York, attended LaGuardia Arts High School where he studied cello performance. He then moved to Baltimore where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Physics and a minor in music from Johns Hopkins University and the Peabody Conservatory. After spending six months working on a telescope array in the Atacama Desert in South America, Sasha is bringing his focus back down to Earth to work on affordable prosthetics and bioplastics with variable pressure resistivity.

Project Student(s) Description Recordings
REWEAR Hannah Curran REWEAR is a collection that represents a transparent, sustainable future for festival fashion. Watch
Merkaba Meditation Chelsea Ramos Merkaba Meditation is an interactive structure that deepens meditation and brings about an elevation of consciousness and an aligning of chakras through the use color visualization and sound healing. Watch
Mycorrhizal Mary Yoder, Ayesha Rawal, Josh Greenburg Mycorrhizal is an exploration of human connection through the metaphor of fungal biology. As the audience explores the interative installation they discover how they participate in the web of human connection expressed by the mycelium networks underground. Watch
V0ID P0RTAL Charles Keely V0ID P0RTAL is an installation in which a push of a button sends you through various portals to the surrealistic beyond. Watch
The Black Spot in the Basement Kaj Harvey The Black Spot In The Basement is a 2 minute animated short film about mental health & depression, told through the lens of childhood relationships. Watch
Unheard Voices Patrick Gaffney Unheard Voices is an originally composed electronic music set performed with live instruments and recorded at Chautauqua park in Boulder, Colorado. Unheard Voices intends to increase awareness of and raise money for youth homelessness. Watch
C A L L O S U M Reese Turney, Ryan Vandersmith CALLOSUM is an interactive installation and workbook that teaches you the brain science behind why you love your favorite music. Watch
GNFT Patrick Mardis GNFT is a web app that lets you create, mint, and collect generative art NFTs by combining a P5.js playground with a Polygon NFT wallet and marketplace. Watch

 

Session 3

Sunday, May 1, 12:40 - 2:25 pm MT

Watch Session 3

Reviewers:

Keren Megory-Cohen works as a senior creative technologist at a digital agency helping to ideate and build immersive installations and events for companies, such as Google, Meta, Verizon, VMware and more. She has a strong background in web, and is always looking for the next creative challenge to mix and match digital and physical technologies in order to create something uniquely inspiring.

Casey Hunt is a second-year PhD student at the THING Lab in the ATLAS Institute. She creates networked tangible and embodied interaction systems to explore how we can better create and connect using systems that de-center/supplement screens. Her work focuses on engaging the wider community in designing 3D interfaces utilizing participatory design practices and toolkit design.

Project Student(s) Description Recordings
FemmeFit Kyra Moran FemmeFit is a mobile app that serves as a tool for women getting into strength training. The app provides custom workout plans, a community page where women can connect, and a list of gyms to allow women to find a comfortable space to workout. It also provides educational information and videos to teach the basics of strength training. Watch
Open3D Car Parts Ryan Jeffries, Teddy Robinson

Many owners of older vehicles have difficulty finding replacement parts for non-structural interior pieces either due to cost or scarcity. By giving access to open sourced files for drivers to 3D print, Open3D Automotive allows consumers a new way of maintaining their prized vehicles while saving money.

Watch
Ecolyze Kareena Arora Ecolyze is a mobile app designed to help you personally take action towards climate change by creating and tracking sustainable habits. This app motivates users by quantifying the amount of carbon saved as they integrate each new sustainable habit into their lifestyle. Watch
Design Patterns Al Santillan Coding is messy, design patterns are clean. Our iOS app can help you learn how to organize your code. Watch
Beholder Nexus Xuedan Fillmore Beholder Nexus is a centrally accessible point of contact between alternative controller game developers and their players, and the seed for fostering a wider community around this common interest. At its initiation, it is a unified and easily navigable resource for how to build a Tinycade cabinet and access the games available to Tinycade players. This website was developed using industry-common approaches including React, Node, Docker, and a SQL relational database. Watch
Pet Home Alone Pratyusha Gunturu You can’t contact someone to go take care of your dog if you are physically not able to! There is nothing out there that automatically contacts someone to go take care of your dog.  So I made the UX of an app that would automatically notifies someone if your pet needs to be taken care of. Watch
Make Your Mark Skyler Hoeger, Claire O’grady, Katie Rudoff Time to consider is an auto-destructive art piece meant to give a qualitative aspect to time via quantitative means. This clock allows the observer to evaluate the time they spend in the virtual world versus reality. Watch

Session 4

Sunday, May 1, 1:30- 4:00 pm

Watch Session 4

Reviewers:

Karen Crofton is an active startup investor who is currently entrepreneur-in-residence at the College of Engineering and Applied Science at CU Boulder. She was previously a principal at the Rocky Mountain Institute dedicated to the transformation of energy systems. She spent 15 years at Air Products & Chemicals in roles from project management and product innovation to corporate new business development. She holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Bucknell University, an MBA from Rice University, and a master’s in Data Analytics from CU Boulder. Karen has also been a lecturer at the Leeds School of Business, was on the Board of Rice University (2014-2020) and was on the City of Boulder’s Environmental Advisory Board (2015-2020).

Erika Palmer is a medical device consultant and entrepreneur. She has worked in the medical device industry for over 17 years, with a focus in orthopedics and gastroenterology. Erika’s passion is in defining unmet clinical needs and developing solutions to meet these needs. Her current research focus is on polypharmacy in adults over 65. Erika received her master’s in mechanical engineering from the University of California and a Ph.D. in bioengineering from a joint program between the University of California and the University of California San Francisco. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford Byer’s Center for Biodesign.

Project Student(s) Description Recordings
Gait-Keeper Mallory Benna, Elijah Sensibar, Elsy Meis Gaitkeeper is a sensing knee brace that informs the wearer when they consistently fall short of normal gait in their daily activities by measuring knee range of motion. It is built by attaching various sensors and feedback mechanisms to a hinged brace. When the wearer does not walk properly, the brace will notify the wearer so they are aware of the bad habit and can fix it. The data produced by the brace is shared with the physical therapist for monitoring. Watch
SimpleServo Chaz Golin Simple Servo is a PCB that allows students to control servo movement without needing any programming knowledge. The schematic and design are open-source to enable community iteration. Watch
Teeth to Teach Daniel Reardon The project is a set of 3D Modeled teeth that will give dental students easier access to realistic teeth, allowing them to operate more often and give them a better education overall. This address current deficiencies in their dental training that are caused by not having enough models to practice on. This set of modeled teeth would be used with either haptic simulators or would be 3D printed and physically given to students. Watch
Autonomous Perception and Exploration Drew Betheard Autonomous Perception and Exploration is a collection of research-based projects exploring various methods for mobile robot perception and mapping. This Capstone project includes various areas of research including a software tool for visualizing 3D environments recorded by autonomous systems; a research publication in novel methods for more efficient point cloud maps using Iterative Closest Point; supporting role in CU's Autonomous Robotics and Perception Group RestoreBot for autonomous vegetation restoration; and finally a small rover with autonomous mapping and navigation capabilities. Watch
Here Comes Ralphie Carlie Charp “Here Comes Ralphie” is a children’s book accompanied by a motion design animation aiming to teach children the importance of integrity, resilience and self-esteem. This book is published, licensed and available for sale in bookstores around the globe. Watch
Willie the Wolf Percy Suchanek, Alexandra Charland Willie the Wolf is a children's pop-up book featuring interactive paper circuits with a story that aims to connect with children on the topic of cyberbullying while sparking their interest in circuits and STEAM education. Watch