The application deadline for the Student Initiatives Fund has been extended for the 2024-25 cycle. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until Friday, Dec. 20. Applicants will be notified of their application status by January 31, 2025.
Eligibility
The Student Initiatives Fund is open to project teams consisting of a Johns Hopkins Engineering student lead (undergraduate or graduate), and team members who are JHU students in any school (undergraduate or graduate).
Awardees will be given a liaison from the review committee to keep appraised of their progress throughout the spring semester. Awardees will be required to provide a short video and final report on their project. The final report will include a summary and photos of the project. Awardees may also be asked to present on their project at a future Hopkins Engineering Alumni Leadership Committee meeting.
Successful Proposals Projects
- Create opportunities for students to build practical, hands-on applications that may solve real-world problems or are provide fun application of engineering knowledge;
- Are innovative, creative, and self-motivated (i.e., not part of a course or sponsored faculty research);
- Foster a collaborative environment across Johns Hopkins divisions or build community in the Engineering School, the university, or in the greater Baltimore community.
The Fund Will Not Support
- Research in your professor’s lab
- Projects that are required for a course (including senior design, unless as an extension of a required project) or are eligible for academic credit
- Travel expenses
- Events comprising a purely social component
- Student groups’ operating budgets (must be for a specific project or initiative)
Individual students may apply for funding, but preference will be given to group projects. The total funding amount varies each academic year. Projects will receive up to a $2,500 grant; however, proposals with higher budgets may be considered. Students may apply for more than one project per cycle, but only one project per applicant or group will be funded. Students must obtain the support and signature of a faculty adviser.
For questions regarding the fund, please contact [email protected].
Submit Your Application Today
The fund allows engineering students to apply the skills they’ve honed in classrooms and labs and while also using their creativity and problem-solving abilities to pursue new areas of interest. The deadline to submit an application is COB Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. Applicants will be notified of their application status by January 31, 2025.
Past SIF Awardees
American Society of Civil Engineers: Steel Bridge Competition
The Steel Bridge Competition, held in April, challenged students to extend their classroom knowledge by designing and manufacturing a steel bridge that was assessed according to factors such as weight, structural performance, build time, aesthetics and total cost. SIF funds were used for supplies and transportation to the mid-Atlantic regional competition.
AminoArtisans – Snail Epiphragm Protein Project
The project explored the potential of snail epiphragmin mucin as a biomaterial and developed a synthetic substitute for snail mucus. This synthetic snail epiphragmin has applications in anti-tumor drugs, skincare products, and beyond. The primary goal is to create an efficient, mass-produced synthetic mucus while retaining the beneficial properties of natural mucus. This involves purifying synthetic epiphragmin, characterizing its protein function, and devising mutagenesis targets for enhanced characteristics.
AstroJays – Hopkins Rocketry Team
AstroJays competed in the annual Friends of Amateur Rocketry 51025 Competition in Mojave, California in June to design, manufacture, and launch two competition-scale rockets: a two-stage rocket and an experimental solid-fueled rocket.
Blue Jay Racing Baja SAE at JHU
Blue Jay Racing built an off-road vehicle from scratch and raced against 200+ teams from across the world. The team consisted of about 50 students. Blue Jay Racing’s 20XT DAQ project covered a large range of electrical, distributed computation, networking, and robotic-like localization and mapping. Funds were used for parts and data-collection expenses.
Johns Hopkins Undergraduate Brain Computer Interface Society (JHUBCIS)
The established a general multimodal brain-machine interface (BMI) system that allowed for real-time user control and error correction for the purpose of steering an electric powered wheelchair. The group designed a multimodal BMI system that consisted of multi-channel surface EMG for the primary command of maneuvers, and a 16-channel EEG for detecting error related potentials (ErrP), so that errors in the control system could be detected by the user and corrected for. The team competed in the NeurotechX Student Clubs competition.
LESTRADE (Lateral-flow Enhanced Self-test for Tuberculosis Rapid Assessment and Disease Evaluation)
This team created a rapid, molecular diagnostic point-of-care self-test through an affordable microneedle patch for Tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease estimated to have infected a quarter of the global population and the thirteenth leading cause of death worldwide.
Currently, TB diagnostics test patient sputum, which can be difficult to acquire in TB-positive patients. The goal was to create a new rapid molecular diagnostic test that could accurately detect TB even in HIV-positive patients, who are most at-risk, and be able to provide it in underserved regions. An ideal mechanism would be similar to a COVID-19 rapid test: a cheap, low-maintenance diagnostic test that a patient could self-apply to determine whether they likely have tuberculosis.
Mars Rover Team at Johns Hopkins University
The Mars Rover Team competed in the University Rover Challenge (URC), a premier international robotics competition for college students. To complete four different missions, the team was organized into five different sub-teams; one non-technical, business, and four technical, mechanical, electrical, software, and biochemical. For the mission, the rover collected soil and completed an on-board analysis of the sample.
Whisper
This team developed a haptic communication device (HCD) prototype to improve digital accessibility for blind individuals. The HCD allowed users to receive messages through vibrations on their skin, meaning even blind-deaf users could seamlessly use it. The goal is to build a robust and adaptable prototype, featuring elastic bands, that we can bring to educational institutions serving blind people (i.e. The Maryland School for the Blind in Baltimore, Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind in Washington DC) to understand if this method of communication is a viable long-term solution for improving blind individuals’ access to digital content and enhanced autonomy.
Engineers Without Borders Guatemala Team
The Engineers without Borders team traveled to Guatemala to continue a long-term project to implement a water distribution system in the Chicorral community that would be financially, and technically sustainable water system. The project began in 2014 and in 2023, the group returned to install a second water pump and five solar panels to increase the system’s capacity to serve 200 residents.
Glow and Sew
The Glow and Sew team developed a novel, near-infrared fluorescent (NIRF) suture to enable surgeons to have constant visualization of a suture line during anastomosis (i.e, the process of connecting tube-like structures in the body). The Glow and Sew suture is coated in fluorescent powder, able to penetrate through the blood and tissue, allowing surgeons to always see where their stitches are.
Hempbrick by JJ Innovative Materials
JJ Innovative Materials developed innovative construction materials that are not only less carbon intensive, but also serve as a carbon capture and storage process, using sustainably sourced materials. Prior to their development, cement, a key component in concrete, accounts for around 8% of global carbon emissions. This new material replaces the use of sand in concrete with hemp hurds.
iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine)
The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) team represented Hopkins at the annual synthetic biology competition in Paris that hosted hundreds of universities and students, academics, policy makers, investors, industry representatives, and journalists from around the world. The team developed a comprehensive synthetic biology project to address a real-world problem, applied and advanced scientific understanding, and demonstrated both engineering success and community impact.
ICPredict
ICPredict is developing a machine learning algorithm for predicting intracranial pressure (ICP) non-invasively (a project that is still in progress as of fall 2023). The current gold standard of monitoring ICP is inserting an invasive probe (intraventricular catheter) which requires a hole to be drilled at the base of the skull. This new algorithm will use extracranial vital signs, such as mean arterial blood pressure (MAP), electrocardiogram (EKG), and photoplethysmography (PPG) waveforms, all of which are routinely monitored in the intensive care unit.
Team Toefu
Team Toefu worked to develop an intelligent natural language processing (NLP)-based extension to convert dense and technical electronic health record (EHR) free-text into useful schematics and visuals, to facilitate more effective exchange between patients and healthcare providers. The goal being for such a tool to improve the quality of patient care and safety, and to modernize the electronic medical infrastructure.
Artista versátil
By developing an intuitive, touch-screen-based interface which allowed users to paint in the style of a famous painter, and therefore learn the nuances of a painter’s style, Artists Unlimited worked to democratize art education.
EEE
A drawback of widely used neuroscience research imaging is that it is tether-based, and therefore limits animal movement when imaging neural activities on freely moving rodents. EEE developed a novel, head-mounted fiberscope device so that mice can walk and move more freely during the imaging process, thus improving research results.
HAIKU
By integrating hands-on, artificial intelligence project modules into the four core courses of English, history, math, and science, the Hopkins Artificial Intelligence in K-12 Education (HAIKU) program pioneered an innovative teaching model for K-12 students.
The Magnes team constructed a device that allows emergency room doctors to detect the presence of magnets in pediatric patients. This device improved diagnostic accuracy for life-threatening ingestion of various sized/shaped magnets which can cause critical issues, such as bowel perforation and loss of blood flow.
Project Raman
Project Raman created a low-cost Raman spectroscope to enable middle school students and teachers to learn about the diversity of the microscopic world. By allowing the use of frugal science tools to monitor changes in the environment, these communities are now able to participate in a global classroom by engaging and connecting with their similarly engaged peers around the world.
A team of computer science students from the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering and the Georgia Institute of Technology created a custom search engine—Searchin’—to provide young students with age- or education-appropriate information.
JHU Deliver Bot
Students will design and build an autonomous food delivery robot for use on the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus. The robot, which will consist of entirely student-designed systems and software, will conveniently deliver meals to busy students.
Toob
Students will attempt to break the world record for the furthest throw of an object by a human (not self-propelled). To accomplish this, they will apply engineering principles in aerodynamics, kinematics, rotational dynamics, as well as computational fluid dynamics and materials selection software, to design an object optimized for human throw.
OpiAid
A team is developing a low-cost, noninvasive patch capable of monitoring opioid levels in sweat.
A group of six third-year undergraduate students at Johns Hopkins University is designing a leak-proof mask that can be used with ordinary CPAP machines to deliver breathing relief to hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
GreenHacks is the first and only sustainability hackathon at Johns Hopkins. The hackathon offers a platform for competitive ideation and creativity to spark innovative and sustainable solution design. Their first virtual, multi-day mini-hackathon was held in May 2020. The hackathon had nearly 60 individuals in attendance, with 12 different teams competing from JHU and around the world.
Design, Build, Fly at Johns Hopkins
The Design, Build, Fly team planned to build a remote-controlled airplane to fly in the annual American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Design/Build/Fly intercollegiate design competition, which was scheduled to be held in April 2020 in Wichita, Kansas. In response to the pandemic, the competition shifted to a virtual format and instead judged teams based on their design reports. The JHU team placed 17th out of 101 official submissions.
BioSwift
Bioswift is a student-led design team comprising students from the Whiting School of Engineering and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The team developed FlowMate, an attachment for dry powder inhalers that ensures pediatric patients, as well as adults with limited lung capacity, receive their full dosage of medication in order to alleviate chronic respiratory symptoms
The AstroJays rocketry team is a multidisciplinary group of students that design, build, and launch high-powered rockets. The team is divided into four main subsystems—avionics, propulsion, recovery, structures—that each work on one major sector of the rockets, which are then integrated with each other to produce a finished product.
Through Mini-MedHacks, Baltimore City high school students who are part of MERIT Health Leadership Academy learn about technology in medicine by participating in a one-day simulation of a medical hackathon. Mini-MedHacks is part of MedHacks, a student-run annual hackathon.
Engineers Without Borders at Johns Hopkins
Students in the Johns Hopkins chapter of Engineers Without Borders partner with low-resource communities to improve their daily quality of life through the implementation of environmentally and economically sustainable engineering projects while developing internationally responsible engineering students. The EWB-JHU team worked on projects in Guatemala and Ecuador—focusing on a bridge, water, and the social needs of several communities.
Hopkins AI Robot Squad
A team of student robotics experts put their artificial intelligence skills to the test at the 2019 International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Montreal. Students equipped robots with LIDAR and camera sensors to follow the location of “enemy” robots and demonstrate more precise aiming and targeting of armor packs.