Author: Brianna Richard

For week 4 we had another special guest speaker Michael Hansen, a U of I alumnus and industrial designer at EarthSense. EarthSense is a startup that decided to change how data is collected from land. While some companies are utilizing drones to collect from above EarthSense is using a robot to collect data below. Michael worked on numerous prototypes for the newest edition of the robot, TerraSentia. From altering the design of the robot to accommodate for easy access of the battery to redesigning the camera assembly to make it easier to assemble correctly, Michael shared that the prototyping journey was not short of failures. In fact, there are parts of the new robot that Michael wishes he could have changed before the release. Hearing that reminded me of companies like Apple. New products get released every year because there is always something to improve about the last product.

Constantly changing and improving is ultimately what makes a company strong and impactful.

The remaining time left of the class was spent designing and printing our logo/team name. This is the first time that we got the chance to be hands-on with the equipment in the maker lab. We utilized TinkerCad to design the logos and after a brief tutorial on Cura, a slicing software, we were able to print out our designs on the 3D printers. The adrenaline that I’ve received from being more hands-on has made me even more excited about what’s in store for the rest of the semester.

After meeting with the team for another week we all decided that we wanted to refine the project to be of a smaller scope. One idea that we generated was focusing on children. Since we are leaning towards designing a product for aesthetic purposes, we decided that a good focus area would be kids. It is important that everyone can feel as if they can represent their individualism, and childhood is a popular time in which people start to explore ways to express themselves. After someone in the team mentioned the sketcher sneakers for kids that light up we got the idea to create something similar. After a little researching, I found out about the Arduino POV display and thought that would be an interesting topic to explore. I believe that there are many analogous inspirations that we can find if we decide to go in this direction. Even though the scope of the project will be smaller it won’t be easier to think of ideas that we can produce. In spite of this, I am excited to see how our project will continue to evolve over the semester.

This week was a little different from the previous weeks. Illinois experienced one of the coldest days ever. Therefore, we didn’t have class in person but instead online. The class was also different because we had guests from Milestone Studio Labs. The guests were present in class to hear our presentations and mentor us through the process of formulating a plan for our team project.

The presentation from the representatives of Milestone Studio Labs was interesting and different. From their perspective innovation is created by everyone and as a result, it takes on different forms. Some of us may go throughout our day without knowing that we are innovating to accommodate for some of our everyday needs. The design process in my opinion can be stressful because at least for me when I go through it I am always trying to find the next big idea. The exercise and presentation from the representatives helped me to realize that sometimes the “next big idea” can be something very simple and small.

My team was deciding between three projects to potentially work on and one mentor to work with, Ron Malik. After receiving feedback about our presentation, we decided to hone in on one of our ideas which is to create a D.I.Y. IKEA-like wheelchair. Since this project has such a wide scope and we have so little time we decided to reframe what aspects of the wheelchair will be D.I.Y. From listening to Ron and doing a little of our own research it became our goal to focus on the aspects of the wheelchair that is expensive and or most replaced. Like IKEA we also wanted to ensure that our product has an element of customizability for ascetics.

The suggestions from the representatives were very helpful. They emphasized how our main problem could possibly be the scope of the project. However, they seemed to really like the idea and encouraged us to refine our initial idea into smaller practical pieces. Looking forward is it clear that we have a lot of work ahead of us. Like I stated in my previous post, ambiguity is going to be something that we have to be comfortable with. Luckily we are all working in teams and we get to encourage each other throughout this journey.

After looking through the website for the digital making class I was excited to apply to join the class. The thought of entering in a maker space after volunteering in a fabrication laboratory during high school was exhilarating and nerve-racking. Although I had previous knowledge that this class was not limited to certain majors, I was not expecting to hear about and meet people from so many different backgrounds. It is rare to work in such an interdisciplinary group. I am excited to see how I will grow professionally and academically in this course.

For our first day of class, we were greeted with an assignment and experts/mentors. The goal of the assignment is to work in groups of three and four to create an idea for enhancing our expert users lives. The design method and process that we will utilize in this class is very different from what I’ve used in the past. Usually, I would think of the design process as a system of steps that are repeated until a final product is produced. These steps involve identifying a problem, designing a solution and prototyping until a final product is reached. However, in this class, we will eliminate identifying the problem out the process and replace it with finding ways to enhance our experts’ lives. This approach ties into other techniques we have learned so far that focuses on human-centered design.

A meeting with the experts and tour of the DRES facility was planned for the second week of class. During the tour, we had a chance to see where the athletes train and we also got the chance to go into the maker space that one of the experts utilizes for her business. Towards the end of class, we engaged in a group interview with the experts and mentors. This part was particularly interesting because it is common to hear people talk about themselves however, it is less common to hear people be vulnerable about issues that they struggle with. While taking notes during the interview I became conflicted with feelings of anxiety. I felt as if the expectations were high. Some issues/concerns that the experts brought up, such as affordability and insurance, were major. However, looking back it is clear that designing change has a lot to do with being comfortable with uncertainty and trial and error. I hope going forward to channel the confidence to take risks and push boundaries throughout the semester.