Enigma Machine Project at Olin College

Libby Tawes, an engineering student at Olin College, contacted me in June 2018. She worked that summer as an intern at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum. Her major assignment was to research and design an exhibit about the Enigma machine. The museum displays the well known naval Enigma with serial M2946. Libby asked permission to use my Enigma simulator at the museum, but her work as an intern turned out far more interesting.

Her goal was to design an interactive visualisation of the Enigma. After trying some digital solutions, she decided that creating a physical replica of the encryption process would make the whole more approachable and engaging to a more broad audience. It is indeed challenging to understand the encryption process and electrical signals inside an Enigma machine. The final design idea was to demonstrate the encryption process in real time with electroluminescent wire that represented the Enigma rotors and their internal wiring. The fun and hands on interaction was met with excitement by museum patrons and directors.

When Libby's summer internship ended, she and the museum directors agreed that the exhibit would be put on hold and that she would continue to work on a prototype of the interactive Enigma if the opportunity presented itself. Her chance came when she returned that fall to her Principles of Engineering class at Olin College. The main object of the class was to build an electromechanical system.

When the project started, she was randomly assigned a team of five and proposed her interactive visualisation of the Enigma as the team's class project. Her teammates Dan, Bryce, Corey and Shyheim were enthused and they set off to build the interactive Enigma.

The Olin Team

Corey co-lead the electrical subteam with Bryce, who also contributed to the software subteam. Daniel was the lead for the mechanical subteam and also contributed to programming. Shyheim worked mainly in the mechanical subteam but also on CAD and programming. Libby, as resident mechanical engineer, contributed mainly to the overall organisation and in managing the team. After eight weeks of intense work they had created a operational version and posted their progress on a website.

You can visit The Enigma Machine project from the Olin team of engineers, but make sure to click all the "Learn More" links to discover all the nuts and bolts of their fantastic project. The Enigma Machine, A Fresh Take on an Historic Machine is an interactive visualisation project from the Principles of Engineering class at Olin College of Engineering. The class stimulates students to work as a team to design, construct and test electromechanical systems while learning development and production processes.

Enigma demo machine from the Olin team at the demo day

Libby's story is another wonderful example of how Enigma and its history can inspire young people. When she learned about the Enigma machine at the museum, she was not only inspired to visualise the machine's encryption process. She also tickled the interest of her team members to embark on a project that in turn is designed to interactively get others interested in Enigma and its history.

A resident student in a museum is all you need to turn seemingly boring subjects like cryptography and WW2 history into a fascinating project by engineering students. Or how history can spark the imagination of young people to become better students. That's why we document history and make it available at Cipher Machines and Cryptology. History is there to share!

The Enigma machine that inspired Libby comes with a fascinating story. Divers recovered Enigma M2946 in 2001 from the wreck of the German U-boat U-85. The destroyer USS Roper sunk U-85 by gunfire on April 14, 1942 in the North Atlantic near Cape Hatteras where the museum is located. U-85 was part of Operation Drumbeat (Unternehmen Paukenschlag) to attack American ships in their own coastal waters. U-85 was lost with all hands aboard. More about U-85 at the U-boat Archive. The Enigma is now displayed at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum.

More at my Enigma at School page.