Getting Up To Speed
This week was much different than most other classes. Instead of having our typical 9AM Wednesday class, we had a combined Tuesday evening class with Dr. McDonagh’s Industrial Design class and Jeff’s Fab Lab class. The main purpose of the class was to brief all the students about the upcoming Make-A-Thon and introduce more potential mentors. We learned that the Make-A-Thon would be spaced out throughout an entire weekend and that there would be lots of resources available to us. The Fab Lab, Makerlab, and Architecture lab were all kind enough to offer their facilities to us throughout the entire weekend and professionals and students will be volunteering their time to help us use these machines properly. We also learned that there would be prizes for the winners. While this is a nice bonus, the real incentive is making a product that our awesome mentor Jenna will be excited to use!
More Mentors
The class also introduced us to more mentors. While our Makerlab class already has partnered with mentors, meeting these new mentors was very helpful for the Industrial Design students. Most of the new mentors are from DRES and they shared stories about their experiences and examples of ways they have worked to develop solutions to everyday tasks. One student shared that he sewed on loops to his socks so that he could still put them on even though he has trouble fully closing his fingers to grab things. I though his solution was genius and a perfect example of the types of solutions we are trying to come up with in class. A representative from Clark-Lindsey, a retirement community, also came in to talk about some of the struggles that the elders in their community face. Our group was able to talk with him after the presentation and he told us about a really cool device that has an accelerometer that could tell when a user was falling and inflate a mini airbag to protect the hip. We began to brainstorm how we could use a similar advice to protect Jenna’s leg during a fall.
Team Movi Update
This week our team met up to discuss test protocols for our prototype testing. We now have a much better idea of how we miss measure success for our prototype. In addition, we are also scheduling a meeting with a material science professor on campus to learn what materials would be best to use for our device.
I am a Senior majoring in Finance with a minor in the Hoeft Technology & Management Program.
Hi Nathan,
Discussing test protocols for the prototype sounds like a great idea. My team would probably need the help of our mentor to test our prototype and this is not something we have considered. Also, I was very interested to hear about the stories the new mentors shared. Adding loops to a pair of socks is such a simple innovation. I think this is something we should think about for our projects. Not all solutions are very intricate.
Hi Nathan! Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the event for the pre-make-a-thon because I had a class conflict. Thank you for catching me up on what I missed in class! New mentors always seem to have the most interesting and creative backgrounds, which can put a spin on how we think of our own ideas. My group also plans to meet with a material science professor to give us new ideas for what is possible.
Hi Nathan,
I also thought the sock design was a really awesome innovation. The accelerometer device you mentioned sounds really amazing! I took a moment to look it up because I know from personal experience that hips can easily be broken by an elder when falling. My grandpa has had 2 hip replacements, and it is a long recovery process which is particularly difficult for an elder. This simulation was really helpful in understanding what that device would do: https://senior.helite.com/en/how-it-works/
This is wonderful work