Under the aegis of the Georgia Tech branch of the Intel Science and Technology Center for Social Computing, my PhD student Tom Jenkins and I have spent the year thinking about and making what we call “tinkering platforms”—those simple hardware prototyping systems like Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and so forth. Our gripe about these systems is that they are too expensive, too full-featured, and too much like fashion or identity statements to become really viable, general purpose, hardware-store like physical computing systems. (Tom and I have written an extensive survey article on this topic which we’ll be publishing soon.)

So we’ve started to make alternative platforms. Our goal: insanely, ridiculously cheap low-power sensor-based computers for use in field applications. Think Arduino or Raspberry Pi or Twine or the like if they were actually meant to be used and thrown away rather than just to be talked about and backed on Kickstarter. The $1 computer, if you will.

Here’s an example of our current prototype system. I know, it doesn’t look like much, but that’s exactly the goal!

I’m looking for Georgia Tech undergrads in computer science, computational media, or electrical and computer engineering who want to work this summer with me on the project. Experience with electronics, board layout and prototyping, low-level programming (that means assembler, not C; it’s not hard to learn if you’ve never done it). Students will be paid hourly, and part- and full-time work will be considered, so if you’ve already got something going on over the summer, it’s possible to work on this in addition. There’s also the opportunity to continue working with us during the regular academic calendar year in the research lab and or on PURA.

If you’re interested, contact me directly (not in the comments below). Send links to a CV or resume as well as links to one or two relevant projects. If you can’t figure out how to contact me, then we’re not a match anyway.

published May 5, 2013