CSE students captivate next generation with cannon demonstration

Jake Rutowski and Zhen Rong Huang show students how a pneumatic cannon works during Alden Middle School’s STEAM night. The students were able to operate the electronic control box to fire tennis balls at a target, and could repeatedly make adjustments and corrections until they hit the target.

Jake Rutowski and Zhen Rong Huang show students how a pneumatic cannon works during Alden Middle School’s STEAM night. The youngsters were able to operate the electronic control box to fire tennis balls at a target, and could repeatedly make adjustments and corrections until they hit the target.

by Jane Stoyle Welch

Published May 16, 2016 This content is archived.

"Arm the cannon, adjust the target, now lets turn on the pump and add some pressure. Its like blowing up a balloon; tell me when you want it to stop."

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"We wanted to use our class project to create something that could teach the youngsters basic science concepts in a fun and interesting way."
Jake Rutowski, computer science and engineering student

These were the instructions that Jacob Rutowski patiently gave to each and every child who waited for the chance to use the cannon to fire tennis balls at a target about 25 feet away in Alden Middle School's auditorium.

Ivaylo Parankinov and Zhen Rong Huang helped the young scientists operate the cannon, while Joseph Morrello and William Clark served as the safety patrol, collecting the fired tennis balls and keeping the crowd away from the target.

"We wanted to use our class project to create something that could teach the youngsters basic science concepts in a fun and interesting way," said Rutowski.

All five said that they were influenced by a teacher or other adult while in grade school and wanted to pay it forward for the next generation. They teamed up on the project as part of their computer engineering capstone design course, CSE 453 Hardware/Software Integration Design, taught by Kris Schindler, teaching associate professor of computer science and engineering.

"The team had a few scary moments leading up to this demonstration," said Schindler. "Two days ago, they decided that the prototype was not good enough and rebuilt it from scratch to be ready for tonight's demonstration."

The cannon project is designed to be a physical realization of the Projectile Motion PHET Interactive Simulation developed by the University of Colorado Boulder. Schindler partnered with Chris Shively, assistant professor in elementary education and reading at SUNY Buffalo State, to develop the project to promote STEM, increase K-12 student interest in STEM, and provide a hands-on learning experience for K-12 students to help them reinforce basic math and science concepts.

The demonstration was part of the Alden School District's STEAM night, which featured a variety of stations designed to interest young students in science, technology, engineering, arts and math. It was open to all K-12 students and their families, and was held on April 20, 2016.

From left: Jake Rutowski, Zhen Rong Huang, Ivaylo Parankinov, Kris Schindler, William Clark and Joseph Morrello pose with the pneumatic cannon, created as part of a computer engineering capstone design project.

From left: Jake Rutowski, Zhen Rong Huang, Ivaylo Parankinov, Kris Schindler, William Clark and Joseph Morrello pose with the pneumatic cannon, created as part of a computer engineering capstone design project.