Hey guys, my name is James and I'd like to enter my home-made exoskeleton project into the Boca Bearings 2014 Innovation Contest! I'm building this exoskeleton, vaguely based off of the one in the movie Elysium starring Matt Damon. I like to think I'm kind of like a poor man's Tony Stark, because I love making things in my garage. There's a lot of really great cosplay costumes of this kind of thing out there, but the stuff I'm making is actually functional!

I would classify my project as functional art, since it is designed to be a human powered transportation device and is sculpturally pleasing to the eye. This was in my head for some time, as I built a similar model of it 15 or so years ago.

I´ve designed and built a gas turbine motorcycle that I some day will take to Bonneville Speed Week to try for the land speed record in the class APS/Omega. I´ve built the entire bike from scratch, the engine is built entirely by myself on my manual lathe and mill and the chromemoly bike frame is designed and made in my workshop. The engine has been bench run several times and all kinds of gremlins have been sorted out, the video is from my first road test of the bike where I just flip the throttle a couple of times to see how things hold up. You can find many more videos on my youtube channel, username "Anders811017" and I have a quite lenghty build thread going at the JATO community. http://www.jetandturbineowners.proboards.com/thread/53/landspeed-bike-diy-gas-turbine

Charon is a 32’ tall vertical life sized 3d stroboscopic zoetrope. This is a truly unique project that that blends technology with art.

The Serpent Twins created by Kyrsten Mate and Jon Sarriugarte are a work of art and mythology. The Jormungand (Midgard) and Julunggul (Rainbow) serpents sit between 2 worlds; the old world that needed and revered them and the present which has shunned such monsters as fears metamorphosed into mythical form. Our hope is to show how new technology can shed light on our past invoking our curiosity and fears of the unknown. http://www.serpenttwins.com

The Clock Ship Tere is a kinetic art vehicle. We like to call it "engineered art". The idea was to expose the workings of a large piece of machinery. From a distance she looks like a land pirate ship, but as you get closer you begin to see the gears that make the ship come alive. She was designed by Andy Tibbetts in Portland, OR. As construction of the ship moved forward many people volunteered their time to work on the ship. This project functions not only as a work of interactive art, but also as a means to teach people new skills as well as allow those with engineering and construction talents to explore new ways to use them. The C.S. Tere ignites the imagination of everyone that interacts with her.

MorpHex is mostly a work of art and goes in the category of hobby robotics. It’s a remotely operated robot. I believe it could be used in animatronics as a transforming robot as well.

The Walking Beast by Moltensteelman is a kinetic work of art that tests the limits of large scale mechanical locomotion using applied math, science, engineering and technology.

This is a hybrid robot capable of both aerial and terrestrial locomotion. A unique compliant mechanism design makes it possible to use a single actuator set for both walking and flying. This is advantageous because it reduces both the total weight of the system and the control system complexity. The basic structure is similar to a quadrotor aerial vehicle, i.e. four brushless DC motors provide the required thrust for flying. The desired leg motion is derived from two separate linear movements. Horizontal motion of the leg is achieved by driving the main actuators in reverse. A second linear actuation unit, which is set into motion by shape memory alloy (SMA) wires, enables vertical movement of the leg during terrestrial locomotion.

This is both a work of mechanical art and a human powered transportation device. Beyond that, the interactive nature of the Dicycle requires ‘thinking beyond self’ to operate. My hope is that the teamwork and communication it takes to propel and maneuver the Dicycle will speak to both of these increasingly rare qualities.

It's a work of participatory art - A Cavallo, the Carousel, is a rolling Coney Island pirate ship with steel horses galloping, a stage on the back, and shooting musical fire up above; celebrating life, art and performance along the way. An interactive, not-for-profit art experience, A Cavallo is a unique piece of public art, above and beyond the band of horses - its a roving, powered stage for circus performers, musicians, fire artists, DJ’s, aerialists, and others who want to share their talents. It re-debuts this year at Burning Man, after which The Carousel will roam - bringing art to communities around the country. What is it? The carousel is a rolling, transformative metal ship. We're remixing the materials, parts and pieces of the original carousel into a new, infinitely more flexible version, designed for ease of transport and setup, enabling it to play events and parades the world over. www.acavallo.org

This electric bicycle was built due to the expensive public transportation fees. Its main purpose is to get you from A to B.

Primal 2 is a speedbike (human powered vehicle) designed for world speed record attempts. An enclosed, recumbent streamlined bicycle. It is powered solely by one person pedaling, with no stored energy of any kind. It is also used to demonstrate advanced technologies applied to the familiar workings of a bicycle. Primal 2 has been shown at car shows, museum exhibits and school visits to encourage teenagers to start building their own creations and to pursue careers in technology and science.

The Gamera project aims to design, build, and fly the first human powered helicopter to meet the requirements of the 32 year-old American Helicopter Society (AHS) Sikorsky Prize (www.vtol.org/hph). The prize requirements are to hover for 60 seconds, momentarily reach an altitude of 3 m (about 10 ft), and stay within a 10 m X 10 m area during flight. Since the challenge began in 1980, no individual or team has come remotely close to meeting these requirements, despite many serious attempts. Several in the rotorcraft community have said the requirements are nearly impossible. In August 2012, the Gamera team was able to accomplish hover durations of 65 seconds and altitudes of 9 feet (2.7 m), separately. These achievements have erased many of the doubts in the community, and raised the level of excitement surrounding the challenge. Team Gamera consists of engineering students of all levels, Freshman through PhD, at the University of Maryland’s Clark School of Engineering and Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center. The purpose, beyond winning the prestigious AHS Sikorsky Prize, is to push the envelope of lightweight design, to provide a unique educational experience for all the students involved, and to inspire the next generation of engineers.