In July of 2018, I competed in a maker competition called Red Bull Creation, which was sponsored by the energy drink company. The theme of the competition was “Bridges Over Walls” and each team was tasked with creating an interactive structure that promotes interaction between strangers. In keeping with the spirit of the competition, each team was also composed of strangers, and I was lucky enough to be paired up with Zonker Harris, and electronics expert, and Brandon Murphy, a great welder and fabricator. We were given a budget of $1000 and a time limit of 72-hours to finish our project, so we spent very few hours sleeping over the long weekend.
Our idea was to make a high five machine that requires two people to activate. As the participants each sit in their chair, they each have a button that sits temptingly to their side. When both of them press their button at the same time, the electromagnets release and they slide down the track, meeting in the middle for a powerful high five! The machine also has coil springs attached to the chairs so they slide back up the track by themselves.
While we all had to work together to finish the project under our crazy time constraints, Zonker focused on the electronics and wiring, Brandon spent most of his time welding up the frame and I mostly worked on designing the carts and retraction springs. I had a blast working with my teammates and especially enjoyed learning new skills from them, like how to properly use a plasma cutter from Brandon and how to be diligent about wiring from Zonker.
I don’t think any of us expected to win going into the competition, we were just excited to collaborate and have Red Bull give us money to build something cool, but lo and behold, we won the Judges Choice Award!
For more info on the competition and some of the other teams’ projects, check out this article in from Make Magazine: https://makezine.com/2018/07/03/red-bull-creation-returns-high-five-machine-9-crazy-contraptions/
