Tag: exploration

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FAB LAB!!!!

This week I wasn’t able to physically be in class due to some unfortunate circumstances. I was however able to visit Jeff and see the Fab Lab prior to this weeks workshops. I learned of some of the complex filments and advanced 3D printers. I got to know a bit of the staff as well. In terms of class, I was able to get up to speed from my wonderful team members. This week was the start of our workshops through the Fab Lab. The class was given a tour of the entire facility by Jeff Ginger, who is the director of the lab. He gave a presentation during last weeks class. After the initial tour the class was split into different workshops within the fablab. Some people were learning the laser cutter while others built circuits.

After this the class went back into their  groups and brainstormed for the remainder of the class period. The TA also assisted during the brainstorming session given a different prompt every 3 minutes. This helped further our ideation and conceptual prototyping, while designing with an open mind. My group was able to rapidly draw up multiple porttype ideas with the given parameters of the prompts. In case you forgot,  we are developing a shoe tread to facilitate walking on ice/snow (all terrain) for prosthetic users. By the end of this activity my team was able to come up with a MVP. They chose the easiest and most feasible of the concepts that we can make a crude prototype of. By next class we will have a usable prototype of our tread attachment. It will have velcro straps to connect with the shoe and acchatable spikes on the tread.

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Week 5 Reflection

This past week in class, we had presentations from 4 speakers. One from Illini Service Dogs, which provided us with updates and ideas for potential opportunities to explore this semester. The next was from  John Hornick, the author of 3D Printing Will Rock the World, via zoom. He spoke to us about what is going on currently in 3D printing, and where 3D printing will likely be in the near future. It was such a cool experience to be able to hear from an expert who knows so much about the industry. One of the things that fascinated me the most was that they are able to 3D print skin and are working on the ability to 3D print bone. He mentioned that they want to utilize this technology in hospitals and VA hospitals, which is incredible. The future of 3D printing is surely going to be amazing!

Our next speaker was Jeff Ginger of the CU Community Fab Lab. Jeff spoke to our class on behalf of the Fab Lab, which we will be visiting as a class in the upcoming weeks. Last semester I took Jeff’s course in Usability of Digital Interfaces, and it was one of my favorite classes I have taken at U of I. Jeff is such an interesting and energetic person! He is full of a lot of knowledge about making and has a very positive attitude that makes his classes fun and exciting. I am very much looking forward to visiting the Fab Lab and learning more from him.

Our third presentation was from our TA Mehmet Aydin. He gave a presentation about Design Thinking and how it can be used to improve situations of all kinds. He showed us the children’s redesign of the MRI machine. He also explained to us our exercise for the class which was going through what we know about our opportunity so far, and organizing our ideas on Post-its. This was a helpful exercise as we worked through it with Adam, one of our mentors, and we were able to clearly define our opportunity areas we will be exploring further in the class.

I am looking forward to learning more about Fusion this upcoming week and beginning to dive into the ideation stage of the process!

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Week 4 Reflection

I can’t believe week 4 is already over! As the semester continues to progress, I find myself getting more excited about the course and the opportunities we are finding through exploring. During class this past week, we got a visit from Mike Hansen to talk about the work he is doing with his company. Mike was a former teacher of mine, and one of my favorite teachers I have had in college. Throughout the courses he taught us, he would always remind us to “fail early and fail often.” This message has helped my understanding of design greatly throughout my four years at the university. Failing early and often gives you the chance to explore many iterations and possibilities when designing. That message will continue to be true throughout this course as well, as we will need to try many possibilities to find a solution for our opportunity area.

I was so impressed to see the work that Mike’s company is doing. As well as very happy that he seems to love his work so much. The company is in the early stages of developing robots to help farmers evaluate the needs of their farm from the ground, rather than by drones as most other companies are currently doing. In developing the robots, Mike makes tons of iterations of how it might look and function in order to find one workable solution. It was very inspiring to see first hand how a message I have been taught in school is so applicable in real life.

My teams opportunity statement is  “To help athlete’s improve the grip on their ring when racing in undesirable weather conditions.” 

We decided to pursue a solution for this opportunity after being inspired by the company created by Arielle for her racing gloves. She told us how during poor weather conditions, racing becomes even more difficult as you no longer have a good grip on the hand rings of the chair. We were lucky to be invited to visit the team practice on Friday morning and get a chance to have a closer look at the chairs, the hand rings, the gloves, and the process that goes into preparing your chair for a race. Wrapping the hand ring is such a difficult and time consuming task, that it would be so great to find a way to streamline that process into something more efficient and easier to do. There is also a lot of potential in the idea of creating a cover for the glove itself during times of harsh weather conditions. I am very excited to explore these ideas more and see what my team and I can come up with in the coming weeks.