BRAINSTOP
Transporting Education For All
Childhood is an enormously important part of growth. The BrainStop gives children more opportunities to learn, more time with loved ones, and fun way to fill time.
The “BrainStop” is an educationally stimulating and physically interactive bus stop. When individuals wait at a bus stop, they are likely sitting there on a device rather than connecting with anyone. The goal of the bus stop is to change that situation and encourage children to interact with their parents while waiting for their bus.
Our Vision
“Remember being a child? Full of unwavering curiosity, wide-eyed interest, and almost completely dependent on everyone else? Children need to have their own experiences, where they can explore, play around, and be free-standing. The Brain Stop provides those experiences, giving young children access to educational and fun opportunities designed for them, and the time to play around in the space. This is the end goal of the BrainStop.
Process Overview 2018 - 2019
Reaching out to the community for insight:
Holding numerous meetings with those associated with Next Door and the Milwaukee City Government
Visiting with adults at Next Door gave insight into how to teach kids
Biggest takeaway: Kids LOVE colors and organic shapes
Interacting with kids gave us insight into who we’re actually serving!
Meeting with Alderman Cavalier "Chevy" Johnson enlightened us as to what constraints we would face during the face during this project and how to tackle those obstacles.
CAD MODEL OF MAZE
designed by Alex Reid
RESULTS!
Current standing
Prototypes finished
Implementation and reiteration needed (community feedback needed)
CAD Models of components
Prototypes
They need their own Arduino, we have the code – equation solver
They need to buy or design bookcase to be incorporated into bus stop structure
Next Door would provide books
Reflections on experiences
Understanding and engaging with the diverse individuals in the area can help us strengthen the whole community.
Space is everywhere, especially where people are. People use what’s close by, and understanding that helps us make more compelling things
What do we want people to get out of looking at our work?
See that it’s possible to have a low-tech solution to an institutional problem. Solve it one bus stop at a time!
We want people to use it!
We want people to give us suggestions!
Make it all open-source!
Would they be inspired and truly understand our vision?
Some who don’t use buses might not see why it’s useful, but hopefully a product demo can change that
About us
MUSKAN is BioMolecular Engineering undergraduate at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. She is from Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, but she was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. As a child, she was intrigued by design, photography, music, math, science, and helping people. However, as she grew older, she realized that while she could continue to play piano and violin at events and selling her art. To help people, Muskan realized that she was interested in the healthcare field. Her interest in math and science led her to pursue BioMolecular Engineering and the University Scholars Honors Program through which she got involved with the BrainStop. She is currently the Community Feedback Specialist for the BrainStop, where she notes interests of stakeholders and brainstorms ideas as to how those ideas can be integrated into the project.
ALEX is an undergraduate Mechanical Engineering student at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. He calls Milwaukee home, but he is actually from a small suburb just south of the city. From youth onwards, his interests have included understanding how things work, and subsequently understanding what he did to make them not work. His involvement in the BrainStop project ranged from acting as the group’s figurehead to working with the mechanical modeling of the BrainStop’s unique subsystems. He has experience working with robotics, automotive and industrial machinery, and other mechanical systems from his internships, as well as through his involvement in several robotics competition teams.
STEVEN is a Milwaukee native, currently enrolled in MSOE’s BioMolecular Engineering program. He served as BrainStop’s Chief Technical Editor, in charge of editing for clarity and concision, and as a design consultant. Involved in FRC and Boy Scouts throughout high school, Steven made a name for himself through strategy and optimization. As naïve as it sounds, Steven’s main desire is to make positive change in the world. The BrainStop provided a perfect way to do that in the community he calls home.
KENDALL is an undergraduate student at the Milwaukee School of Engineering and is involved in the Mechanical Engineering program. She is from Glenview, Illinois, a suburb about half an hour north of downtown Chicago. As a child, Kendall always excelled at math and science, which is what led her to engineering. She was intrigued by this project because she found the challenge of implementing education and other helpful activities into the everyday life of children to be compelling. Throughout the project, Kendall served as the Community Outreach Specialist.
