An Alarm Clock that Hides From You is Highlight of MakeNJIT Competition

A robotic alarm clock that hides from you, so you have to get out of bed anyway if you wish to silence it, was the star Highlander entry in the spring 2025 edition of the MakeNJIT hardware hackathon.

The clockmakers earned third place overall among 47 teams from several universities. Members of Team Daniel knew that many tinkerers have built such devices, but they designed their own version just for the fun and education of it.

Daniel's roster included mechanical engineering major Jiro Dela Cruz, his fraternal twin brother Juno who studies computer science, Andrey Diaz-Ortega also in computer science, Angel Paredes-Balbuena in electrical engineering and Stevens Institute of Technology's Christian Lencsak in computer science. Jiro Dela Cruz said "Daniel" is their real-life mutual friend and the team name was a backronym for, "Don't attempt napping, I'm everywhere, loser!"

"My group was very inexperienced with the hackathon, using the resources in the makerspace and even programming microcontrollers. We're pretty surprised we got this far," Dela Cruz said. "What we really chose to focus on is just how fun the whole experience was and how fun the product was. A lot of people were making things that were honestly stuff I'd much more want … If you take the product seriously, then you know you're missing the point!"

"What was the most fun is getting to connect with everyone, stay up and learn how to use all these things, and then apply it towards the project."

Dela Cruz said their challenges included learning how to use new machinery on a tight deadline, dealing with their invention's short battery life and the cruel twist of shortened development time because some team members overslept. Now, their new challenge is to determine how to spend their $500 prize. Dela Cruz said he'll save his share, or use it to buy food.

The event was produced by NJIT's student chapter of the IEEE and led by Haady Tariq-Shuaib, an electrical engineering major, and Joseph Hovick, an electrical engineering graduate student.

"I think logistically, this is the best event we've held," with record amounts of entrants and completed projects. About 200 people overall participated, Hovick said. All teams had to choose between two categories - smart home technology and security systems. The IEEE branch provided a components pantry and access to the NJIT Makerspace equipment, which is also where the event occured.

Hovick said he was impressed with another NJIT team, MOSS: Modular Open-Source Security, by Naishadh Patel and Krishan Trikha. They built a Google Home clone using the Home API and cheap off-the-shelf hardware, earning them fourth place in the competition.

The IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society, IEEE North Jersey section, and a German startup company called CELUS all provided guest speakers and demonstrations.