Discovery Museum: Energy

A father and two young children racing slot cars on an exhibit table

Visitors on the Energy exhibition floor, with the Energy Portfolio tubes at center

A teenager interacting with a glowing horizontal tube exhibit

The Reactive Wall: a circular mirror ringed with colorful light tubes on a black wall

I collaborated with team members to create a project schedule, which was then translated into this Gantt chart.

Gantt chart: ten exhibits scheduled across 31 weeks through design, prototyping, review, build, and handoff phases — Fig. 01Build schedule for all ten exhibits.

From there, I ensured that everyone was informed about their tasks and timelines. I also contributed to the build process, with the Energy Portfolio being one of my favorite exhibits. My role primarily involved ensuring that team members had the resources they needed to continue their work, and I assisted in the build process for most of the exhibits.

Fig. 02Reactive Wall proof of concept.

Fig. 03Slot car speed testing.

Fig. 04Reactive Wall ultrasonic sensor testing.

I traveled to the museum ahead of the installation to receive the exhibit deliveries and help with the final installation and testing. Unfortunately, due to an incident with the shipping company arranged by the client, some exhibits were heavily water-damaged. In order to meet the opening deadline, I was immediately tasked with temporary replacement of the damaged PCBs and IO devices, using locally sourced parts and expedited shipping.

Emergency repairs

Replacement wiring and a small controller mounted inside an exhibit table — Fig. 05IO board to turn on and off power to lights and devices as input connections are made on the top of the table.

A stacked development board with relay modules on a workbench — Fig. 06Board to trigger power to groups of fans based on inputs from touch sensors.

Two small development boards wired to relay modules on a workbench — Fig. 07Board to trigger power to groups of fans based on inputs from touch sensors.

An Arduino Mega and breadboard mounted on plywood with three RJ45 jacks, held in hand — Fig. 08Controller to interpret multiple ultrasonic distance sensors over UART as input to trigger Reactive Wall animations.

This period was extremely stressful for my team, but I am proud of the emergency repairs we managed to complete. The temporary electronic fixes, made with development boards and parts from hardware stores, functioned as intended and were hidden from view.

Overall, this project was both fun and challenging. I gained new skills and thoroughly enjoyed working on a project that would be appreciated by a wide audience.