Visiting the Fab Lab
This week we once again adventured out of the cramped Maker Lab to discover what else the University of Illinois campus has in store for us. This week, our journey took us the the Fabrication Laboratory, also known as the Fab Lab. The lab offers access to a variety of different soft and hard ware devices that can create almost any type of product. 3D printers, laser circuit board cutters, and sewing machines were just a few of the available machines that allow workers to create innovative products. The most interesting product I saw throughout out Fab Lab tour was the 3D printed object onto a mesh fabric, which gave the plastic print the ability to flow past each of its pieces without falling apart. this concept is interesting for the fashion industry, but also made me think how it could be applied to my own personal group project, removable handrails. I took this thought with me as I moved into the brainstorming session of the day.
Brainstorming Session
While brainstorming with my team, we were given two large pieces of paper, sharpies, and difficult prompts to guide us through our design process. Initially, we were just asked to sketch what we think could work in order to solve our opportunity statement. But, as the session went on, we were given more prompts that challenged our original way to think of a problem. For example, at one point we were asked how we would design the same product but for the elderly. At first we were unsure how to approach this problem, but sat to think, “What additional challenges do elderly people face that young athletes do not?” When approaching problems from different angles we had the opportunity to broaden our initial scope of the project and explore the variety of solutions that may be possible. To solve the prompt for the elderly, we thought of creating a glove that helps support their wrists (similar to a brace) in case of arthritis or any other potential bone and joint issues. Although this will not be our solution for our semester long project, questioning my thinking process proved to be beneficial; even if some of my team’s ideas were crazy throughout the sketching phase, we came up with several options that could be feasible, efficient, and cheap. Moving forward, we will be exploring these rough drafts in hopes of formulating a product that is best made for the opportunity at hand.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Gies College of Business
Hi Elisa! I was also very intrigued by the 3D printed spikes on mesh fabric. My group is working on a lightweight protective cover for Jenna’s leg and that design inspired us to try and 3D print a protective pad onto a fabric sleeve for our leg. If your group decided to go down a similar route it would be helpful if we could share best practices as we both work through the difficulties of 3D printing on fabric.
Hi Elisa,
I agree that the brainstorm was so helpful to get our ideas really flowing. I liked the prompts we were given as we went along because it really kept sparking ideas that we wouldn’t have thought of without them. I think we reached good ideas in our brainstorm and I am excited to begin prototyping them!
Hi Elisa,
I believe that the brainstorming process made all of the teams really think about their projects in a different light. I like how your team did compare and contrasts for the prompts/challenges (pointing out arthritis), to access how to adjust your project. I’m excited to see what you guys come up with in the end!