Ana Diaz-Young

Industrial Design + Anthropology @ Carnegie Mellon

About

Other work

Maker toys rarely teach kids how real products are manufactured, instead offering prescriptive kits with fixed outcomes. Vroom lets kids sculpt, vacuum form, and cast their own designs into toys they can actually play with.

Course: Senior Capstone
Duration: 14 Weeks
Tools: SolidWorks + Keyshot

Design

Kids sculpt their own cars using air-dry clay. With only the guideline of the car base size, their imaginations can run wild—carrots, snails, dinosaurs, whatever they can dream up.

Vacuum Forming

Kids place their dried clay creations onto the vacuum bed. Built-in sensors detect hands or foreign materials before the machine activates, ensuring it's safe to run. Heat and suction then pull a sheet of plastic tightly around the clay, capturing every detail and creating a mold of their design.

Transforming the Machine

With the same base, the top of the vacuum former swaps out to become a casting station—one machine, two functions.

Casting

After loading the wax pellets, kids are alerted when the wax is melted and pull the trigger to release it into their mold.

Once cooled, their design combines with the pre-made chassis and wheels to create their own custom car.

Every car on this page started as a lump of clay in a kid's hands.
But most toys don't give kids that kind of ownership.

Maker toys rarely teach kids the real skills we use as designers, rather offering prescriptive kits with fixed outcomes.

Historic toys let kids experiment with real tools, but were unsafe by modern standards and just as prescriptive.

Learning From Kids

Worked with kids at the CMU Children's School and later with elementary-age students to refine the target age range (7-12) and find the right level of instruction.

Material Research

Explored materials for safety and usability, choosing carnauba wax and PETG for their low melt temperatures, while ensuring the wax wouldn't compromise the PETG mold.

Device Design

Refined the device through cardboard prototyping and CAD modeling, including vacuum forming the clear dome cover and ensuring the hinges and pull-release system were fully functional.

Cars are just the start of what kids can create with

→ Resume