prototype | Made At HAL

Projects from the Hack Arts Lab, University of Chicago

Vacuum Chamber with X-Carve

Michael Junkin, a scientist with the Institute for Molecular Engineering, recently used our X-carve to create this project. He says, “the project was to machine a few pockets and an o-ring groove for a plastic (acetal) chamber that is used as a vacuum chamber to treat silicon wafers for making microfluidic chips used in systems…

Smart Lamps for Energy Engineers

The Energy Engineers Pilot Program at Dunne Technology Academy, a program of RDCEP and the Computation Institute (one of HAL’s main sponsors) recently wrapped up. Students were tasked with building and programming the desk lamps’ Raspberry Pi controllers, which permitted the lights to respond to data streams. This project grew out of earlier CI work…

Model Printing Press

This project, by Uchicago undergrads Evan Mayer and Andrew Jaffe, was a class assignment for HIPS 17400: Science, Culture, and Society with professor Adrian Johns. Evan says: “Andrew Jaffe did all of the 3D modeling except for the movable type (by me). His design is based on a combination of a few types of 17th…