Example DIG Projects
carry-on bag tester concepts
A small team of students worked with the Innovation Team at Southwest Airlines to explore ideas, design concepts, and build prototypes to help passengers better visualize if their carry-on bag would fit in the overhead bins of aircraft. These were tested in LAX and ATL airports.
Annual Haunted House
Each year, the DIG student staff imagine, design, build, and execute a haunted house. They choose a theme in the winter after they’ve finished the previous haunted house. Following a design process, they create prototypes for the experience, props, and costumes. Learning project management skills, they complete the haunted house in time for October 31st (or the closest Friday).
High Tech Foosball Table
A team of 16 students, 4 student coaches and 3 staff and faculty worked together every Tuesday night for two months to imagine, design, prototype and build a regulation foosball table. By the time they were done, they had not only created a full-sized foosball table, but also decked it out with SMU-themed and 3D-printed horsetail-shaped handles and mustang players. LED lights brightly illuminated the table’s field, framed by a sensor-based score advancing system. Built-in speakers pumped tunes from a smartphone for a game time soundtrack.
Immersive Design Challenge
The DIG hosted a seven-day Immersive Design Challenge. Immersive Design Challenges (IDCs) are client-driven, open-ended projects our students intensively work on for 5-7 days. We recruit both corporate partners and projects with social impact, and craft a challenge for a student team to build something for the real world. Students thrive on the intensity of these projects, sometimes voluntarily working through the night. Students often cite IDCs as one of the most impactful experiences from their time at SMU.
Foldable Human-Powered Boats
Students at the Lyle School of Engineering endeavored to solve a problem: how can a student who loves kayaking but doesn’t have a car still get off campus and out on the water? From this simple problem came a challenge. Could we design and build a fully-functioning foldable human-powered boat that cost less than $100 in materials and could be carried on a bicycle for the ride from campus to White Rock Lake (a 4 mile ride)?