MAKEOHI/O 2026 WRAP UP REPORT
WELCOME TO MAKEOHI/O
In March, join us at MakeOHI/O—Ohio State University’s largest makeathon—for a weekend of hacking hardware and creating real projects with awesome people. Over 250 undergraduate and graduate students will design, build, and demonstrate projects to a live audience of students, faculty, and representatives from tech companies.
At MakeOHI/O, we bring the Entrepreneurial Mindset to life with the KEEN framework. By focusing on Curiosity, Connections, and Creating Value, this makeathon is all about exploring innovative ideas, combining different concepts, and creating projects that really make an impact. It’s not just about the hands-on building—it’s about tackling challenges in creative ways, teaming up with others, and building something amazing!
MakeOHI/O is put on by OHI/O, a student-led organization that aims to build and foster the tech community at Ohio State University.
Makeathon Participants: How to Submit Files and Request Services from Bolz Makerspace
Service Hours: 12pm-9pm, March 7
Registering For Makerspace:
Follow this link: https://engineering.osu.edu/makerspace#accordion-trigger-id-2010
Services Offered by Bolz Makerspace:
The following items can only be used if a full-time staff member is present:
- 3D Printers
- Soldering Stations
- Drill Presses
- Band Saws
- Hand Tools
- Hand-Held Power Tools
- Laser Cutter
Prototyping Assistance: Get help with prototyping and troubleshooting in the Bolz Makerspace channel on Discord.
For more information about Bolz Makerspace, visit: https://engineering.osu.edu/makerspace
Hardware & Resources
Mentors and Judges
MakeOHI/O 2026 is on March 7-8. Join us for our makeathon as we give students the unique opportunity to receive hardware and develop projects from the safety of their homes.
Mentorship
Our mentors, available both online and in-person, offer their expertise to participants throughout the event. They will be on hand in scheduled shifts to answer questions and provide direction, ensuring projects are on the path to success.
Judging
Judging will take place virtually on the final day, from 11:00 AM via Zoom. Participants will present their projects to our panel, engaging in feedback and discussion. Access details and presentation guidelines will be provided in advance.
Get Involved
Your expertise can significantly impact our participants’ experience. Sign up as a mentor or judge to help shape the future of innovation at MakeOHI/O 2026. More information, including how to join our event space, will be available to those who register.
Schedule
Saturday, March 7th
| Event | Time |
|---|---|
| Check-in | 9:00 AM |
| Opening Keynote | 10:00 AM |
| Hardware Kit Distribution | 10:30 AM |
| Making STARTS | 11:00 AM |
| Lunch Served | 1:00 - 1:30 PM |
| Gold Rush Mentor Networking | 2:00 - 2:30 PM |
| API Workshop | 3:00 - 3:30 PM |
| TerrAqua Workshop | 4:00 - 4:30 PM |
| Speed Typing Minigame | 5:00 PM |
| Jeopardy Minigame | 6:30 PM |
| Dinner Served | 7:00 - 8:30 PM |
| Mario Kart Minigame | 8:30 PM |
| Movie in Auditorium | 9:00 - 10:30 PM |
| Midnight Snack | 12:00 AM |
Sunday, March 8th
| Event | Time |
|---|---|
| Breakfast Served | 9:00 - 9:30 AM |
| Making ENDS | 12:00 PM |
| Lunch Served | 12:30 PM |
| Judging Period | 1:00 - 3:00 PM |
| Showcase Begins | 4:00 - 5:00 PM |
Sponsors
Tracks
Winners
| Place | Team | Description | Video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Place – Main Track | Team 32 – Vision Ventra | A vertical axis wind turbine using radial flux generation attached to light posts in urban environments. | |
| 2nd Place – Main Track | Team 8 – Great Lakes Soil & Iron | The over application of fertilizer in the Maumee River watershed has led to nutrient pollution and harmful algal blooms. The creation of an automated rover to precisely apply fertilizer to individual plants attempts to solve this issue by using less fertilizer in concentrated areas. | |
| 3rd Place – Main Track | Team 38 – Naruto-Rox | WildSense is an AI-powered camera trap system that automatically detects animals, identifies species, and estimates their GPS locations to generate ecological datasets for wildlife monitoring and conservation. | |
| 1st Place – Open Track | Team 14 – Team Orange | SCENT is a portable, low-cost electronic nose. It captures exhaled breath, analyzes volatile organic compound (VOC) patterns in real time. | |
| Most Adaptable | Team 36 – Apple Fwitta | AI Powered Autonomous Mobile Educational Assistant | |
| Most Technical | Team 26 – THEETA | A bluebird box in a easy to build educational kit that detects invasive species and clears the nest with working companion app and live camera feed. | |
| Most Original | Team 62 – powerconserver | Watt’s Wrong is a home monitoring system that helps users understand and respond to power usage in real time. | |
| 1st Place – Honda | Team 54 – 1BrainCell | RouteRight is a smart bus stop assistant designed for Ohio State’s campus that helps riders make the best next transit decision in the moment with AI agents. | |
| 2nd Place – Honda | Team 35 – ERVA | Uses an ESP32 camera and motion sensing module, as well as the Ohio State campus bus network API to collect data on bus ridership and develop smarter bus routes. | |
| 3rd Place – Honda | Team 49 – Malloc Munchers | Our project integrates an ESP32 camera in combination with a motion sensor running a YOLO based people counting model with a real-time dashboard and LLM driven decision layer to estimate bus occupancy and generate rider recommendations based on live bus stop level demand, weather data, and live bus location data. | |
| 4th Place – Honda | Team 64 – Girls | BuckeyeBoard is an intelligent transit dashboard designed for Ohio State’s campus bus system. It uses live data from the OSU CABS API to display real-time bus locations, active routes, and stop ETAs on an interactive map. | |
| 1st Place – Intel | Team 56 – Munchkins | AquaLoop is a live hardware–software system that makes semiconductor water reuse smarter at the process level. | |
| 2nd Place – Intel | Team 34 – Error 404 | AI-Powered Sensor Array and Purification + EDI Cell Solution | |
| 3rd Place – Intel | Team 31 – The Fighting Gophers | Two smart sensors are used to detect TDS and Turbidity levels in a moving flow of water. This data is sent to a backend which turns the raw data into usable units. Various metrics relating to water optimization and overall profitability are calculated and displayed on a website. | |
| 1st Place – AEP | Team 7 – Zero Tolerance | ||
| 2nd Place – AEP | Team 58 – MakeTeam! | Our goal was to build a system that, monitors conductor temperature, measures sag in real time, simulates cooling from wind, and demonstrates dynamic line rating to assist workers in the power systems with sag safety. | |
| 3rd Place – AEP | Team 24 – Truxie | SmartLine Guardian is a real‑time power line health monitor that watches a simulated transmission line and predicts when it’s moving from safe to dangerous conditions. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Prizes
Official prizes for the Main Track in MakeOHI/O 2026
| Placement | Prize | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Place | 3D Printer |  |
| 2nd Place | Ninja Creami |  |
| 3rd Place | Projector |  |
| Open Track Prize | $100 Amazon Gift Card |  |
| Most Original | $100 Amazon Gift Card | |
| Most Technical | $100 Amazon Gift Card | |
| Adaptability | $100 Amazon Gift Card | |
| Raffle | Razer Blackwidow v4 Pro Keyboard |  |
| Capstone | $60 Amazon Gift Card | |
