ESU Student Ed Nufrio Designs Winning Trophies for MIT Hackathon

Posted by: admin on November 4, 2014, No Comments

A senior at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania worked on a short deadline to design awards for a national competition.

Ed Nufrio, a senior art and design major from Andover, N.J., designed the trophies for this year’s MIT Hacking Pediatrics, a marathon event where computer programmers, researchers, and doctors gather to create and develop designs and strategies for healthcare solutions in pediatrics over a 24-hour period. Three individuals with the best ideas received Nufrio’s trophies. The “Hackathon,” held in coalition with Microsoft, Google, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University, took place in Cambridge, Mass. in October.

When David Mazure, assistant professor of art and design, was approached by sponsor of the MIT Hackathon Chuck Stewart of Computer Techies, a Stroudsburg based computer systems, seeking student interest in designing this year’s trophies, he reached out to Nufrio, who jumped at the chance. Nufrio was responsible for the entire process, from the initial sketches to the final 3-D printed product. He had eight days to complete the project.

This undertaking gave Nufrio the opportunity to work with 3-D printing, which is a relatively new technology in the design field. He said it was “awesome” to experiment with a new medium. The trophies were 3-D printed in ESU’s G3Design lab.

“I had a ‘whoa’ moment when I saw a picture of my trophy next to the Microsoft logo on the podium at the event,” Nufrio said. “I have never worked on a project on this large of a scale before.”

For more information on what is happening in the art and design department at ESU, contact Joni Oye-Benintende, associate professor and chair, at 570-422-3216, or jbenintende@esu.edu.