Using Engineering Principles and Technology to Test Cultural Myths
One of the more interesting projects I have taken on this year was for the class Measurements and Instrumentation. Over the course of a semester I performed an entire research project - from experimental design to data analysis to research presentation and publication! My project itself dealt with finding the optimal blood-alcohol concentration for maximizing beer pong performance. As such, I gained valuable insight into such topics as human testing, reduction of uncertainty, and computer vision. My final paper has been submitted to several scientific journals to be considered for publication.
Skills used/learned: Experimental design, computer vision using the MATLAB, producing publishable research papers, presenting complex research to a general audience
The physical test setup.
Experimental development
I developed my test setup and methodology based on available research on human physiology, throwing performance, alcohol consumption, and uncertainty reduction techniques. I took as many steps possible to increase the accuracy of my results, including the use of high-end sensor equipment borrowed from MIT, a blind placebo administered to subjects, and thousands of individual throws. I also developed an algorithm capable of tracking the location of the ping pong ball to most accurately track the subject’s throws.
computer vision and advanced analysis
The video data collected during testing was passed into a MATLAB program I developed for analysis. This program uses computer vision to track the ping pong ball between frames to parse its initial trajectory and landing location. This information was then analyzed to determine key metrics for beer pong performance, such as distance from intended target, how repeatable the shots are, and the thrower’s release angle.
Visualization of the landing locations of fifty throws when the subject had a BAC of 0.055 (as seen from above). The red circle represents a theoretical cup they were aiming for and each blue star represents where a throw landed.
Presenting and publishing
I compiled my detailed analysis, which surprisingly asserted that a subject will improve at beer pong as their blood-alcohol content increases, into a full-length research paper that you can read here.
On top of this, I presented my research to the MIT community at large through a poster presentation and through a lightning talk-style formal presentation.