As a capstone design project a team of students from Bucknell University created a “Smart Badging System” to monitor use and control access of various Maker Space resources, including 3D printers, a Vacuum Former, Industrial Chiller, Laser Cutter, Vinyl Cutter, and others. This paper reports on the development of the smart badging system that will be installed in summer, 2016 in Bucknell’s 7th Street Maker Space and MakerE. The smart badging system is intended to replace the current system which uses paper sign up sheets and cardboard IDs. The intent of the project is to give each user of the campus network of MakerSpaces an RFID badge that will allow them to access equipment they have been trained to use, allow them to request training for on equipment they have not yet been trained on, and allow administrators to monitor equipment use. The system is based on a user web interface developed in WordPress that allows both makers and administrators to access different features. While makers can submit training requests, search users and resources, and view recent projects, administrators have all the same features with the added ability to view usage logs, add makers or resources, and add student technicians that supervise the maker spaces. The student team designed the system to be based on widely available, open source software with custom hardware components that are based on popular platforms so that expansion of the system can server as a source of Maker projects. This paper briefly outlines the project and the capstone course in which it was developed; the system will be demonstrated at the ASEE conference.
Prof. Thompson is an associate professor in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Bucknell University, in Lewisburg, PA. While his teaching responsibilities typically include digital design, computer engineering electives, and senior design, his focus in the classroom is to ignite passion in his students for engineering and design through his own enthusiasm, open-ended student-selected projects, and connecting engineering to the world around them. His research interests are the application of mobile computing to solve socially-relevant problems and experimental wireless networking. He holds three degrees in computer engineering including a B.S. from North Carolina State University and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Virginia Tech.
Margot Vigeant is a professor of chemical engineering at Bucknell University. She earned her B.S. in chemical engineering from Cornell University, and her M.S. and Ph.D., also in chemical engineering, from the University of Virginia. Her primary researc
Alan Cheville studied optoelectronics and ultrafast optics at Rice University, followed by 14 years as a faculty member at Oklahoma State University working on terahertz frequencies and engineering education. While at Oklahoma State, he developed courses
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