BLOG > How I connected my Graduation Cap to the Internet

This project was featured on Engadget.com on 05/30/2013
This project was featured on the Readyforce Blog on 05/30/2013
This project was featured on hackaday.com on 05/31/2013
This project was featured on the MAKE: blog on 06/03/2013
This project was featured on 3ders.org on 06/04/2013
This project was featured on the Adafruit Blog on 06/04/2013
This project was featured on the Dangerous Prototypes Blog on 06/05/2013

Control my Cap
Sporting my LED Cap and my Raspberry Pi Wrist computer on graduation day

In 2012, when I completed my undergraduate degree at Cornell University, I had a last minute idea to put an LED array on my graduation mortar board. The night before graduation I wired up a bunch of LEDs to a protoboard and an Arduino. The resulting product worked well, and garnered all kinds of excited remarks from friends and onlookers.  But, it wasn’t bright enough in the outdoor sunlight, and it left me yearning to do something a bit more … intense.

Lucky for me, I stayed at Cornell for a fifth year to get my Masters degree in Electrical Engineering, and I therefore got to graduate again.  This time, I was determined to do something over-the-top. Utilizing the super-high-intensity LED circuit board that I had designed for my masters thesis on Hybrid Fiber Optic LED Lighting, I built a web-connected LED graduation cap that would be truly ridiculous.  Graduations can be a bit boring, so I wanted to develop an interactive platform (on my head) that others could fiddle with during the ceremonies. And thus, the “Control my Cap” project was born.

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Watch the video below, then head over to my portfolio page for a detailed rundown of the system, a photo gallery, and links to the source materials.

Learn more about the “Control my Cap” Project in my Portfolio

9 comments

  1. I think you pretty much hit your target of “ridiculous.” This is a lot of fun. Thanks for the video and writeup, Jeremy!

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