Kinetic Origami Garden Brings STEM + Art to Life in Javits Center
The melding of science and art at Stony Brook has taken the form of an innovative, interactive origami installation in the Javits Center.
The exhibit — a collaboration between the Origami Club at SBU, the Vertically Integrated Projects Bioengineering Education, Application and Research (VIP BEAR) team and the Biomedical Engineering Society — began with their motivation to beautify student spaces with STEM-inspired artwork created by the community.
Viewable on the second floor of the Javits Center, the display features an array of origami creations enhanced with lights and motors. Viewers can interact with the installation in two ways. Waving their hand over an ultrasonic sensor triggers a cascade of lights that flow down the river and flash in the garden’s sensory clouds, while pressing a flower-shaped button brings the origami lilies and cranes to life with movement.
Stony Brook’s VIP Program unites undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty members in multidisciplinary teams that work on long-term projects in research, design, innovation and entrepreneurship. The mission of the VIP BEAR team is to develop innovative solutions for bioengineering education, application and research based on iterative engineering design processes and cutting-edge tools.
Elizabeth Argiro ’24, one of the team leaders, was part of the VIP BEAR team in her senior year with Professor Mei Lin (Ete) Chan. “We thought of this idea to try to increase youth outreach in STEM through creative means and integrating art, especially origami, was a great way to do that,” said Argiro, who was president of the Origami Club at Stony Brook. “So we worked together for more than a year to plan this whole exhibition and develop the different components.”
Chan, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) Department of Biomedical Engineering, enlisted a sub-team of VIP BEAR students including Chunbin Lin ’24, to provide technical expertise.
“For me this started off as a sensory project to provide some sort of stress relief,” said Lin, who led the technical side of the project. “It would have involved designing a table and then using lights, touch and sound to create something that produces a calming effect. But when the Javits Center reopened we saw there was all this new space to fill and we thought it would be a cool place to put this interactive sensory-style exhibit.”
“Restoration of the planters that were previously there was not possible,” said Jarrod McFarlane, director of classroom technology and support solutions in the Division of Information Technology. “When Professor Chan and her team approached with the idea of the Kinetic Origami Gardenscape, it sounded like a fun way to add color and life to the building, while highlighting student art.”
“When origami became part of the project, our goal was to create a way for people to see the origami come to life,” said Dinubasri Kumariduraivan ’26. “To achieve that, we needed to use specific motors that are connected to a nano circuit, which is linked to a code that moves the origami.”
Kumariduraivan was tasked with working on the motors and connecting them. “Along the way the process came with its challenges,” she said. “Underneath the flowers is a small servo motor that allows the origami crane’s wings to flap or the flowers to bloom. And those all require a lot of wires, so ensuring proper soldering and connections was critical.”
The group also considered stress relief aspects when designing the project.
“We did some research and read how blue light can help relieve stress, which the origami itself can also help,” said Lin. “So we combined the elements of the art and the circuit technology to make what we call ‘kinetic origami.’”
Argiro managed the artwork and the outreach. “I held a couple of events with the Origami Club to fold the origami and put the pieces together,” she said. “Then we worked with the biomedical engineering students who were building the technical parts.”
“We went to several local schools and had younger students from those communities help us with decorating the origami models,” added Lin. “We’re happy that we were able to represent the community in this display.”
Other key contributors include William Wells, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, and biomedical engineering majors Sana Awais ’25 and Parth Burujwale ’25, who developed the electrical infrastructure and RGB LED light animation of the exhibit. Computer engineering major Soyeon Park ‘27 painted the landscape background for the exhibit.
In the end, the group collaborated to not only create a compelling display, but also to further Stony Brook’s ongoing beautification initiative.
“This project was an extension of my work with the Origami Club, but I’m really passionate about science education,” said Argiro. “It was a way for me to explore that while also earning credit. The VIP program offers credit for projects like this, so it was a unique way to further my coursework while also exploring a passion.”
Chan described STEM+Art as a powerful way to engage. “Through this Kinetic Origami Garden project, it was not only the VIP BEAR students who directly applied their STEM skills in creative ways that benefitted, but also the undergraduate and preK-12 students who participated in the project’s outreach events held by the Origami Student Club, the Biomedical Engineering Society, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineer’s Noche’s De Ciencias™ program, and the Science and Technology Entry (STEP) Saturday Program,” she said.
We are thankful for the funding provided by two Contribution Project grants that supported this effort both inside and outside of the Stony Brook campus, as well as the opportunity to beautify the campus with what we at CEAS know best: innovating with our STEM skills to make things move and shine.”
— Robert Emproto