Calling all students
Win $1000 in the MoMath Shapes Challenge
MoMath is the only museum in America dedicated to sharing the joy of mathematics with visitors of all ages through over 40 engaging and interactive exhibits. One visitor favorite exhibit, the Wall of Fire, demonstrates cross sections of three- dimensional geometric solids by shining lasers through translucent versions of these shapes. The solids are made of durable plastic and must strike exactly the right balance of light transmission and diffusion to achieve the visual effect.
With over 150,000 visitors a year interacting with the exhibit and with its traveling version, the Ring of Fire, the plastic shapes need periodic replacement. The current method of manufacturing the shapes is inefficient and costly, and we are are looking for a new design which will be easier to manufacture without compromising durability or the visual effect.
We would also like to develop a portable version of the exhibit for use in schools across the country. This will require much smaller solids that are cheaper to produce in larger quantities (several hundreds or thousands) but that again do not compromise the visual effect.
And this is where you come in. We’re opening up the design process and issuing a challenge to design and engineering students: can you design a better set of solids? If so, you could win a $1,000 prize, a custom trophy, and the glory of seeing your design used in a real-life exhibit used by hundreds of people every day.
The challenge is open to individuals or teams who are registered students at any academic institution in the United States. The deadline for entries is April 30, 2019, so don’t delay: form your team, download the full design brief, and start working on your winning design.
