Hackatown: Disruptive Education to Solve City Problems Through 3D Printing and Robotics Projects

Purpose & objective

Educational or infrastructure challenge/situation

The educational situation that the student presenters will carry out focuses on demonstrating how they used technology to solve a problem in their city and that is applicable to other cities. Based on this premise, the team that developed the project will present their prototype, assemble it and present it to the public using English as their second language and visual technology that will allow them to show the process of how they came to complete this prototype.

Technology intervention

The technological curriculum that the school follows, with students in 10th and 12th grades, contemplates teaching and certification in the domain of different technological software, such as:

The Microsoft Office Specialist certification, where they use Word, Excel and PowerPoint as writing tools, calculate costs and presenting projects visually.

Autodesk Fusion 360, used to design 3D structures and thereby generate STL files that allows 3D printing and thus generate the necessary structures to develop their prototypes from the digital to the physical.

Robotics VEX IQ, one of the robotics sets that are carried in the school curriculum and that may make use of sensors, servomotors, wiring and gears that allow them to automate their prototype and through the C # software they generate the necessary code so that their prototype is robotically automated.

Web Design: students learn the Python programming language, with which they develop a website with a home page, and other sections for the description and progress of the project and in this way upload all the evidence on their site so that they can dynamically demonstrate the complete progress of their project.

Models employed

At the presentation, students will bring their 3D printed prototype, which they will assemble on site. This printed model will allow the audience to interactively engage the audience. The project that was selected for the presentation created an automated underground parking space under a plaza in the Historic Center of the City of Zacatecas and that in turn will create an adaptation for Plaza Duncan in New Orleans, with which they will test that the model is adaptable to any city and that it preserves the beauty of any city, optimizing parking spaces and generating an impact on tourism and the local economy.

The educational strategy used includes:

Using Microsoft Office tools
Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Students use their skills to explain the project in written form, calculate prototype costs, and create presentations of the prototyping progress sequence.

Learning the curriculum for Autodesk Fusion 360, a software for creating digital models in three dimensions. Manipulate shapes and figures to generate STL files and pass it to a 3D printer to generate the structures that will make up the automated underground parking lot.

VEX iq Robotics Learning, this curriculum teaches how to build and program robots that are capable of operating servomotors, sensors and mechanisms to automate parking.

Python language teaching, programming code focused on creating a website is taught. Where students design the structure of a site and the ways of interacting with it, such as buttons, links, multimedia. This will be used to present a platform that shows the project on a complete site.

Evidence of success.
Evidence of the success obtained can be viewed on the site created to present the project once it is completed in December. In the presentation, the students will take the prototype for the audience to interact with the prototype by simulating entering the parking lot with a scale car. The public will be able to experience the automated operation both to leave and retrive their vehicle.

Supporting research

References for the investigation of the technological development of Design and 3D printing

Robotics, 3D modeling and augmented reality in education for the development of multiple intelligences.

Martínez, N. M. M., Olivencia, J. L., & Meneses, E. L. (2016). Robótica, modelado 3D y realidad aumentada en educación para el desarrollo de las inteligencias múltiples. Aula de encuentro, 18(2). Retrieved from: https://150.214.170.182/index.php/ADE/article/view/3191

Proposal for a Teaching Unit in Technology for the 4th Year of Compulsory Secondary Education: 3D Printing

Nuñez-Ircio, J. (2017). Propuesta de Unidad Didáctica en Tecnología de 4º Curso de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria: Impresión 3D (Master's thesis). Retrieved from: https://reunir.unir.net/handle/123456789/5124

Creation, Visualization and 3D Printing of Online Collections of Three Timensional Educative Models with Low-Cost Technologies.Practical Case of Canarian Marine Fossil Heritage.

Saorín, J. L., de la Torre-Cantero, J., Meier, C., Díaz, D. M., Castillo, C. R., & De León, A. B. (2016). Creación, visualización e impresión 3D de colecciones online de modelos educativos tridimensionales con tecnologías de bajo coste. Caso práctico del patrimonio fósil marino de Canarias. Education in the Knowledge Society, 17(3), 89-108. Retrived from: https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/5355/535554763006.pdf

References for the investigation of the phenomenon of underground parking for the optimization of vehicular movement

Construction of a three-level underground parking garage and multipurpose plaza

Taranto, J. F., & Bombelli, J. J. (2019). Construcción de estacionamiento subterráneo de tres niveles y plaza multipropósito. Retrived from: https://ria.utn.edu.ar/handle/20.500.12272/4173

Analysis and solution of the parking problem in city centers

Vicente, M. (1983). Análisis y solución del problema de estacionamiento en el centro de las ciudades. Informes de la Construcción, 34(349), 5-15. DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3989/ic.1983.v34.i349.2029

Technical - Economic Feasibility of the Construction of Underground Parking for the Central Vega

Arce Riveros, D. S. (2008). Factibilidad Técnico–Económica de la Construcción de Estacionamientos Subterráneos para la Vega Central. URI: http://repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/103171

Underground parking systems and their influence on traffic congestion in the historic center of Moquegua, 2017

Sánchez Salazar, F. D. P. (2018). Sistemas de estacionamientos subterráneos y su influencia en el congestionamiento vehicular en el centro histórico de Moquegua, 2017. URI

http://repositorio.ujcm.edu.pe/handle/20.500.12819/562