DAAP students turn design skills into robotic solutions

Owen Eklund explains the thought process behind their bracket system. From left to right: Owen Eklund, AJ Martin, Elliot Tolund, Jaylie Parr and Caden Conrad. Photo: College of Cooperative Education + Professional Studies.

The semester-long project gave students an opportunity to work alongside industry professionals, respond to real-world constraints, and develop a solution to a problem that engineers are actively working to solve.

The students - Caden Conrard, Owen Eklund, AJ Martin, Sidh Parekh, Jaylie Parr, Samrudh Prasanna, David Salisbury, Jacob Samuels, UiYoung Song and Elliot Toland - just wrapped up their second year of industrial design at DAAP.

UC's Experiential Explorations Program is a self-directed option within the school's renowned cooperative education (co-op) curriculum. As pioneers of this unique experiential learning model, the University of Cincinnati offers a nationally ranked co-op experience that works with over 1,700 employer partners. Last year alone, UC had 9,614 co-op placements.

The experiential program gives students options beyond traditional co-ops. A semester can fulfill one co-op credit while offering students a different kind of workplace experience.

"The Experiential Explorations Program is a flexible and valuable option for fulfilling their required co-op credit," says Amanda Bergman, assistant professor and adviser for the industrial design co-op. "The program combines technical upskilling, professional networking and a design challenge that strengthens their portfolio."

UC students use actual robotic arm to demonstrate their mounting system and sensor placement. From left to right: AJ Martin, Jaylie Parr, Elliot Tolund, Owen Eklund, Caden Conrard. Photo/UC College of Cooperative Education + Professional Studies.

Unlike a traditional classroom assignment, this project came with a real client, real constraints, tight deadlines and actual feedback. Students met weekly with Sensory Robotics chief operating officer Mark Gagas and Tristan Fogt, co-founder and chief technology officer, to review their process, discuss technical considerations and determine next steps.

For Toland, learning to respond quickly to that feedback was one of the most valuable parts of the experience.

"After our calls, Owen and I would implement the feedback and insights Tristan shared, so it was important for us to recalibrate and make adjustments quickly," he notes.

That ability to adapt is precisely what the Experiential Explorations Program is designed to develop.

"Students have the opportunity to practice all the soft skills we talk about in our professional development courses, such as punctuality, client-facing presentations and expanding their professional networks. They are thoughtfully incorporating client feedback to refine and strengthen their work, while managing multiple projects and priorities and collaborating effectively within a small design team," says Cat Jonas, assistant professor of the industrial design co-op. "Our 1819 employer partners like Sensory Robotics, Kao and P&G provide a safe, educational environment with direct mentorship to our students while also challenging them to meet the high expectations of the broader design world."

The students also had to learn how to manage themselves. Toland said one of his biggest takeaways was learning how to structure a student group around a shared objective. What began as one team evolved into smaller groups focused on areas such as sensor coverage and physical design.

"We had to manage a large group of people for the end project goal, the budgeting and financials, while making sure everyone was getting their work done and keeping everyone on schedule," Toland remarks.

Those are lessons that don't necessarily come from a textbook but are essential in a professional design career.

Sensory Robotics' suite inside the UC 1819 Innovation Hub. Photo/Greg Glevicky.

For students, the experience offered something beyond a grade: evidence of what they can do.

For Eklund and Toland, each were recognized for their outstanding contributions to the project.

Owen Eklund received the Design Innovation Award for his curiosity, determination and willingness to tackle unfamiliar engineering concepts, while helping keep his team focused and engaged throughout the Sensory Robotics challenge.

Elliot Toland received the Design Leadership Award for his professionalism and ability to lead a team of 10 designers, creating an effective communication system and consistently incorporating partner feedback to refine concepts and prototypes.

Both students demonstrated the collaboration, adaptability and iterative problem-solving that defined the summer's design challenges.

Each student participant left the program knowing how to work with an actual company, respond to client feedback, collaborate across disciplines, and develop a product concept for real-world application. That experience can become part of the professional portfolio they carry into their next co-op.

"Co-op, I think, is super valuable," Toland notes. "It's great to be 25 with three years of actual real-world job experience right out of college."

He also sees the value in being able to point to specific projects when applying for future opportunities.

"I can put in my portfolio that I worked with P&G, Molton Brown and Sensory Robotics, and it shows that you know how to work with people and teams and navigate the workplace, exceed deadlines and meet company expectations," Toland says.

For Eklund, the combination of the Experiential Explorations Program and co-op creates an opportunity to repeatedly connect classroom learning with professional experience.

"We're getting to work with real companies. We're getting to create a real product and media assets of work we can then include in our own portfolios and showcase the work we did and also where that work landed and the impact it had on the company," he says.

Mark Gagas, Chief Operating Officer, Sensory Robotics. Photo/Greg Glevicky.

The Sensory Robotics project is one of three real-world design challenges students completed during their Experiential Explorations Program semester, alongside ones from Procter & Gamble and Kao brand Molton Brown. Together, these projects gave students a chance to build technical and professional skills, expand their networks and gain confidence before stepping into their next co-op experience.

For Bergman and Jonas, that's the ultimate goal.

"Students gain an incredible educational experience that raises the bar for their future co-op terms," they say. "The students leave the semester feeling more confident and capable as they pursue their next co-op."

And for industry partners like Sensory Robotics, the benefit goes beyond mentoring the next generation of talent.

As Gagas puts it, Sensory Robotics' partnership with the 1819 Innovation Hub gives the company "direct access to talent we can actually develop, not just recruit."

"Robotics advances fastest when industry supplies the real-world constraints and universities supply the research depth," Gagas explains. "Neither side gets there as quickly alone."

For these 10 DAAP students, that collaboration turned a classroom project into something much more tangible: a chance to solve a real problem, work with professionals and see their ideas take shape through robotics.

And that's exactly where experiential learning starts to look a lot like the real world.