who?
Hey there, I'm Chris. Instead of writing a few paragraphs about myself, these are some things we could talk about if we ever meet. What's your list look like?
- Olin College
- Robots
- Being an R2 @ Olin
- FIRST Robotics & The Blue Alliance
- How I Met Your Mother
- Defunct Amusement Parks
- Subway Systems
projects
I've had a really cool project-based education at Olin. These are some of the particularly cool things I've worked on, both in and out of class. Projects with »'s listed have external links.
Facebook Privacy Interactions »
Human Factors and Interface Design, Fall 2010
My project team decided to look at privacy interactions on Facebook for our semester's project. Through ethnographic research, prototyping, and user testing, we produced a non-functional prototype of redesigned Facebook privacy settings interactions. Go check out the prototype!
The Blue Alliance »
FIRST Robotics, 2007-Present
In 2007 I co-founded The Blue Alliance with my brother, a website for archiving videos from the FIRST robotics competition. It sees about 350,000 visits per year, and has had over 600,000 unique visitors since launch.
aboutFace Clocks
Real Products, Real Markets, Spring 2011
As an introductory class project in product design and entrepreneurship I worked on a team that developed a concept and brand for a task-based clock where users place iconographic magnets around it to represent events. We prototyped, manufactured, and sold clocks in a half-semester.
exeCUTEables »
Real Products, Real Markets, Spring 2011
For a final project I developed a concept for a line of "geek chic" jewelry. I prototyped and set up manufacturing for a dozen designs in both copper and steel and launched an online store. After making sales for class, I put the project on hold, but am keeping the brand around for the future.
Robotics Projects
Olin College, 2010-present
Designed 3D printed components to convert an RC car into an autonomous boat and wrote machine vision code to guide it through a race. Separately worked on a team that weatherproofed an existing vehicle for research, converted it to a real-time FPGA-based control system, tested a pre-production 2D LIDAR sensor, and prototyped a neuro-inspired software architecture.
XKCD Auto-Generator
Software Engineering, Spring 2011
For a final project in software engineering I worked with two others to create a web app that generates pseudo-random XKCD comics using Markov chain text analysis in Java. Using a custom MapReduce infrastructure it fetches and analyzes new comic texts, and generates final images using HTML Canvases. Deployed on Google App Engine, but removed it after pricing changes.
Constitutional Rewrite
Olin Student Government, 2009-2010
In 2009 I proposed an amendment to the Olin College constitution which deleted the entirety of its text and mandated a rewrite within the year to better serve current students. A small group of us worked all year, prototyping structural changes and seeking student feedback. The resulting Constitution was approved, and more importantly, managed to finally be shorter than the US Constitution.
Rapid Prototyping Projects
Mechanical Prototyping, Spring 2010
Worked on three teams over the course of the semester to learn rapid prototyping techniques in manufacturing. Over four week sprints, we created a motorized model of an eel out of sheet metal, a motorized and 3-D printed sea turtle, and a miniature high-precision clockcage-style transmission.
resume
I’ve got a resume. That's a fairly up-to-date copy of it.
contact
The best way to get in touch with me is through email. You can also find me a variety of various social networks, though. I can be reached via chris.marra@gmail.com.