Student-made robot featured on the cover of Servo Magazine

In an iconic scene in “Squid Game,” a wildly popular South Korean television series that debuted in 2021, a robot that looks like a larger-than-life doll leads a lethal game of “Red Light, Green Light.” A recreation of this doll designed by Katherine Fernandes ’24 and Tiffany Guo ’24landed on the latest cover of Servo Magazine, which bills itself as a publication “for the robot innovator.”

Fernandes and Guo decided to recreate the fully functional Squid Game doll for their final project in Digital Systems Design Using Microcontrollers, a course taught by lecturer Hunter Adams that tasks students with designing a real-time digital system using microprocessor-based embedded controllers. For Servo, Fernandes and Guo detailed the process of building the notorious robot, which involved using 3D printing, ultrasonic sensors, motion detectors, and LEDs.

 “Every year, I’m astounded by the creativity and technical ingenuity that students demonstrate in their final projects,” said Adams. “It’s an absolute thrill for their work to be recognized by the wider community of makers and hobbyists.”

On their project Github page, Fernandes and Guo describe in further detail how they brought their robot to life during their hours in the lab. “Katherine focused more on the integration, debugging, and documentation of the software controlling all the peripherals,” they wrote, “while Tiffany focused more on integrating and documenting the hardware components and debugging the mechanics of the doll’s head.”