April 21, 2019April 21, 2019 by Eric Zhang

Make-A-Thon

Last weekend we participated in Make-A-Thon, the “Final Project” of BADM357. Starting from Friday afternoon, we had a meeting together and get to started planning on how we are going to spend the weekend. We didn’t follow our original idea which is the gloves that can hold utensils. Instead, Saloni suggested to focus on John’s concern about the watch band. Due to his disability, he cannot pinch things so that he’s not able to put to regular watch by himself. He tried magnetic watch band. However, the magnetic watch band would stick on his wheelchair when he rolls the wheels. Therefore, we need to come up with an idea that can solve this problem.

To be honest, I thought the watch band idea might be too complicated to accomplish. However, my teammates said that even though this product is more challenging, it really can help someone who has the need. After doing some research, I changed my mind and I determined to work on the new idea. I didn’t come up with lots of ideas on Friday since I was really tired and my brain didn’t function that well. Plus, there was a mandatory event that showed up suddenly from my club, so I had to go and rushed back to Fablab once it’s done. I really appreciate my teammates that they didn’t really get mad at me. After I went back, they told me more about their progress and what problem they were trying to solve. My teammates said John doesn’t like the velcro design on the band because he thought it was not a cool thing to be put on your watch band. Therefore, I did some research online and came up with an idea. I tried to make band that can utilized hooks and loops. Thanks to Team 1 who offered us a elastic strap. I made my band based on the strap they provided us. After that night, we made a prototype that can function perfectly. Since Saloni and Huan kept working on the original prototype, we had two prototypes in total.

On Sunday, we went back in the morning and finished our trip-fold for the presentation. We also asked John to try our new prototypes. The prototypes works perfectly for him and he really likes our ideas. During the presentation, we showed all the judges that how we came up with different ideas and the process of making our prototypes. I think we did a great job in the presentation part, since we have clear demonstration and elaboration. We also answered all the questions from judges perfectly. They seem to be nice people so I thought we all did great.

After presentation, all the teams went back to the meeting room and waited for the announcement of the winner. I never thought about that if we can earn the prize before I went in the meeting room. I did not even think about it. I think all my teammates were just too focusing on our projects so that we didn’t even have the time thinking about if we can win the prize or not. When the professor called our name “Blueprint”, we were all shocked, and obviously we were not prepared for that. At that time I just realized that we made it, our efforts turns into positive results.

In short, I really learned a lot from the first Make-A-Thon. I realize the importance of communication between team members and the importance of collaboration. Even though we might have some different perspectives, if we can sit down and open our heart to talk with each other, everything will work out. I really want to say thank you for everyone who participated the Make-A-Thon. Thank you so much for all the amazing faculties, sponsor companies, TAs, mentors from Fablab. I really appreciate your help and advice. I think Maker-A-Thon is a happy ending of BADM357, but it’s also a brand new start for us to make our dreams come true. I hope there will be the 2nd, 3rd, 10th Make-A-Thon in the future.