USC Makers Showcase 2026 (Credit: Emily Liu, Alexandra Somodi, John Peng, Vardhan Jain)
A self-playing guitar. A sleep mask that analyzes sleep. TARS from Interstellar brought to life. And USC Makers’ new robot mascot making its first appearance.
This year, USC Makers presented 10 unique projects offering 10 solutions to everyday problems, built from scratch by 10 student teams at the Spring 2026 USC Makers Showcase earlier this month.
Each project was led by a project manager who began brainstorming ideas last summer and spent the past year bringing them to life alongside their teams.
This year’s showcase was held May 1, 2026, at USC’s Ronald Tutor Campus Center, drawing more than 130 attendees.
The showcase featured project presentations, live demonstrations following the presentations, a leadership transition welcoming new executive board members, and an award recognizing the organization’s most active new member.
USC Makers is a student organization for undergraduate and graduate students across engineering disciplines — particularly electrical engineering, hardware and computer science — focused on turning “wild ideas into real engineering projects” that blend technology, art and creativity to solve real-world problems.
Founded in 2016 by three engineering students, the organization creates a space where students can apply engineering concepts outside the classroom through hands-on projects. The project-based organization allows students to work together from conception to execution before presenting their work at the annual showcase.
Incoming co-president Nelson Vo at the showcase (Credit: Venice Tang)
This year marks the organization’s 10-year anniversary as USC Makers continues to embrace its philosophy of “making for the sake of making,” encouraging students to push beyond textbook theory and turn ideas into physical realities without limits.
With projects fully sponsored by the Ming Hsieh Institute, USC Makers is housed within the USC Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The organization is also supported by industry partners including Qualcomm, Microsoft and Tesla, along with faculty advisors and mentors Rob Parke, Alan Weber and Elizabeth Weiss, as well as PhD student advisor Ray Sun.
Students participate in projects entirely voluntarily as an extracurricular activity, without class credit, on top of demanding engineering course loads.
The student organization was led by president Jacob Rojit during the 2025-26 academic year, with Nelson Vo and Marios Tsotras stepping in as co-presidents for the upcoming academic year.
USC Makers outgoing president Jacob Rojit (left), and incoming Co-president Marios Tsotras (right) at the 2026 USC Makers Showcase (Credit: Venice Tang)
Project Overview
Below is an overview of all the projects, what each of them offered and the team members involved. Project managers are listed in bold.
Battling food waste from forgotten groceries with new AI fridge tracker: FIFO
Raksheta Kulkarni, Ruth Thomson, Alicia Grechu, Hannah Lee, Juan Moreno, Jiwen Li, Sridershani Anandraj and Li Ho
Ever forgotten about an expired tomato rotting in the corner of your fridge for months?
Project First In First Out (FIFO) was created to solve that exact problem with an attachable machine learning fridge system. The smart fridge attachment uses AI to track what food people have in their fridge and sends reminders before items expire.
Designed to reduce food waste through automated tracking and gamified reminders, the team built a system that uses Google Paligemma VLM to identify brands and categories from cropped images to maintain an inventory counter. The team also developed a unity-based game system that rewards consistency and motivates users to use products before they expire, encouraging consumers to waste less.
Team FIFO at the USC Makers Showcase 2026 (Credit: Emily Liu, Alexandra Somodi, John Peng, Vardhan Jain)
Battling separation anxiety and loneliness with new pet AeroPet
Kaylee Hou, Mason Marshall, Hansini Ramachandran, Abdelaziz Abdelrhman, Akshay Vadlamani, Cedar Rose Leach and Kenny Nguyen
Many people today experience separation anxiety from their pets and struggle with loneliness. Hou led her team in developing a gesture-controlled drone companion that behaves like a pet, responding only to authorized users’ movements to provide interaction and comfort.
The team designed and 3D-printed a custom structure optimized to remain lightweight and balanced. They also trained AI models to recognize gestures in real time directly on the device, without relying on the cloud or an internet connection. The models were converted into a lightweight format so they could run efficiently on the hardware.
Team AeroPet at the USC Makers Showcase 2026 (Credit: Emily Liu, Alexandra Somodi, John Peng, Vardhan Jain)
Team AeroPet at the USC Makers Showcase 2026 (Credit: Emily Liu, Alexandra Somodi, John Peng, Vardhan Jain)
Struggling to make your bed? Jeeves is your personal robotic housekeeper
Vrinda Gandhi, Anoushka Narayan, Kelly Cai, Nelson Vo, Noah Skoog and Samuel Street
Making a bed is not a fun or easy task for many people, whether due to busy schedules or mobility limitations.
This team built Jeeves, a robotic butler that automatically finds blanket corners and pulls sheets into place to make a bed without human effort, providing users with a perfectly made bed. Jeeves was designed using a microbot that utilizes UWB (Ultra-Wideband) ranging and triangulation to navigate to four points on a bed frame.
It operates in “anchor” and “tug” modes, using servos, which is a motor-driven system equipped with a built-in sensor that continuously measures its own position, to lift wheels and steppers to pull blankets into place.
Team Jeeves at the USC Makers Showcase 2026 (Credit: Emily Liu, Alexandra Somodi, John Peng, Vardhan Jain)
Hydro: Self-driving delivery cart navigates crowded spaces while delivering items efficiently
Evangelos Neophytou, Alex Ambite, Ibsa Abadiga, Katherine Zhou, Ahmed Ataelfadeel and Vardhan Jain
Ever waited forever for your airplane meal to arrive or had a flight attendant almost spill your drink on you?
A demo of project Hydro at the USC Makers Showcase 2026 (Credit: Emily Liu, Alexandra Somodi, John Peng, Vardhan Jain)
Hydro is an autonomous delivery cart designed for airlines and aviation crews to interact with passengers and deliver items such as blankets, drinks and snacks more efficiently while navigating crowded cabin spaces.
The team built a 3D-printed frame with an elevated internal platform to separate storage space from the Arduino-based electronics. The team focused on enabling safe navigation through flight cabins using real-time ultrasonic sensors for obstacle detection.
Team Hydro at the USC Makers Showcase 2026 (Credit: Emily Liu, Alexandra Somodi, John Peng, Vardhan Jain)
Struggling as a guitar beginner? AutoChord makes learning easier
Hannah Fonseca, Brianna Huynh, Emma Howard, Jack Nutall, Joel Aziangli, Namirah
Led by Fonseca, the team developed AutoChord, a mechanical guitar attachment system and software application designed to automate chord changes for players.
Team AutoChord at the USC Makers Showcase 2026 (Credit: Emily Liu, Alexandra Somodi, John Peng, Vardhan Jain)
The team built hardware consisting of finger and rail assemblies that use fretting motors to press strings based on chord diagrams. The accompanying app allows users to select songs, visualize lyrics and synchronize motor movement with the music’s tempo and strumming patterns.
With AutoChord, guitar beginners can change chords in sync with songs and focus more on rhythm, lyrics and learning music.
A team member from AutoChord doing a demo at the USC Makers Showcase 2026 (Credit: Emily Liu, Alexandra Somodi, John Peng, Vardhan Jain)
SkateMo: Self-driving skateboard helps students navigate campus
John Peng, Alanna Nowlen, Emily Liu, Hannah, Jacob Rojit, Justin Jiang, Reina Mitra and Ryan Skidmore
Are you a victim of campus traffic, struggling to get to class on time while navigating USC’s crowded Trousdale Parkway?
Peng’s team designed SkateMo, an autonomous self-driving skateboard created for point-to-point navigation across the USC campus. The board utilizes a front-mounted iPhone for GPS navigation and decision-making while steering through linear actuators and a custom propulsion system. Actuators are the part of a machine or system that is responsible for moving.
The team focused on obstacle avoidance and control sequencing to allow the board to ride like a real skateboard while navigating around pedestrians.
Team SkateMo at the USC Makers Showcase 2026 (Credit: Emily Liu, Alexandra Somodi, John Peng, Vardhan Jain)
Smart sleep mask aims to improve sleep quality and stop grumpy mornings
Clay Koessler, Anabel Kustedja, Evy Chan, Jack Cappo, May Khan, Minseo Choi and Paula Arias
Poor sleep quality can dampen, or even ruin, people’s days, starting with groggy and grumpy mornings.
Koessler’s team developed Sunshine Sleep Mask, an electronics-integrated sleep mask aimed at improving users’ rest and overall well-being. The device integrates electronics designed to optimize sleep quality for users. He emphasized that the solution was born from a passion for sleep and its importance to overall well-being.
Team Sunshine Sleep Mask at the USC Makers Showcase 2026 (Credit: Emily Liu, Alexandra Somodi, John Peng, Vardhan Jain)
Meet “Rocket the Robot,” USC Makers’ new mascot designed to cheer up members and welcome visitors
Zach Olson, Komal Kackar, Jordan Yambao, Ishita Vasishtha, Yihan Hong, Austin Tsai, Sonya Alexis and Urvi Bhuwania
Developed by Olson’s team, “Rocket the Robot” serves as a robotic mascot for USC Makers, built to wander around the club space to cheer up members and welcome visitors.
The physical build consists of approximately 120 custom 3D-printed parts and utilizes eight servo motors and four stepper motors. The team drew inspiration from Disney’s walking droids and reinforcement learning simulations to create a friendly, interactive mascot.
Team Rocket the Robot at the USC Makers Showcase 2026 (Credit: Emily Liu, Alexandra Somodi, John Peng, Vardhan Jain)\
Team Rocket the Robot at the USC Makers Showcase 2026 (Credit: Emily Liu, Alexandra Somodi, John Peng, Vardhan Jain)
Smart accordion generates matching musical chords based on singing voice
Cynthia Liu, Sam Doane, David Alcala, Sohana Singh, Vivien Chen, Alexandra Somodi and Jesus Peralta
Led by Liu, the team developed the “a(chord)ion,” an auto-accordion that plays musical chords based on the pitch of a user’s voice detected through a microphone.
The team built a system using a YIN detector for frequency detection, mapping voice input to the nearest MIDI note to trigger chord tones through a speaker. Their mechanical design features a 3D-printed outer casing and hand-assembled bellows to replicate traditional accordion functions.
Team A(chord)ion at the USC Makers Showcase 2026 (Credit: Emily Liu, Alexandra Somodi, John Peng, Vardhan Jain)
Interstellar-inspired tripod robot PAFT tackles unstable movement and unnatural interaction
Jason Wiemels, Prital Jariwala, Matthew Luczak, Bradley Miller, Hayden Ranshaw, Natasha Thombre, Mary Karapetyan and Abir
PAFT at the USC Makers Showcase 2026 (Credit: Emily Liu)
This team designed and built PAFT, a miniature tripedal recreation of the robot marines from the film “Interstellar,” featuring moving arms, a screen and a voice.
The team built the robot to be fully 3D-printable and utilized teleoperation after finding that reinforcement learning struggled with the precise timing required for stable walking cycles.
The solution also includes a voice-activation layer using Whisper and an ElevenLabs agent to provide the robot with a specific humor level and “attitude.”
Team PAFT at the USC Makers Showcase 2026 (Credit: Emily Liu, Alexandra Somodi, John Peng, Vardhan Jain)
Published on June 5th, 2026
Last updated on June 5th, 2026