Tag: #materials

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Week 11 – Update the project

This week, we looked back at all the process we have made throughout the semester and planned how to move forward.

The class on Wednesday was mainly broken down into two components. The first component was updating with the Milestones Lab. All the teams reported their progress to the Milestones Lab in team order, and Milestones provided feedback on the updates and the overall design. For groups that were not presenting at the moment, they brainstormed on the material list and resources needed for the upcoming Makeathon event.

The session with Milestones was truly insightful, and we have received much useful feedback. For instance, although we had decided the functions we wanted our design to include, we were considering too many actions that we would like our product to accomplish, and it made it hard to come up with the solution. We had some preliminary sketches, but we were not sure how to make it work physically. However, Milestones provided us with a different perspective; Milestones suggested to us that we didn’t need to consider all the actions users would involve in when they ate with the design at this point. Rather, we could focus on two main actions first and dive deep with the mechanism of the actions. This way, we could simplify our design and enable the product to accomplish the two activities perfectly before we moved forward with other functions and actions. In addition, we could take modularity into consideration. This could accommodate different utensils and shapes of hands. At the same time, it’s possible that we could add more functions and actions easier if the design includes modularity. Another idea that we didn’t consider was not to restrict the model to gloves. Previously, we used the word gloves to communicate the purpose of our product easier. As time went by, we focused on the concept of gloves and didn’t take other forms into consideration. Milestones suggested us to break the restriction and think broader. They also provided us with some pictures of existing pictures. Those helped us brainstormed better.

For the material and resources list, we came up with a preliminary list that we are going to order. It was hard for us to come up with the list because we haven’t finished stretching. We were discussing how to realize our ideas physically during the class and had some potential ways that we would explore later. However, we still need more time to finalize the actual design.

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Prototype Development

As the date of the Make-a-thon approaches, my team and I are trying to narrow down on our options for the prototype. With selecting one or two prototypes to continue as our objective of the week, we shared our ideas to Milestone Labs to receive their feedback. From the bridge-style and an armadillo-style to a molding idea, we had a wide range of ideas for the cover of the joystick for a power wheelchair. Although we liked the idea of providing a molding kit to the user so that the cover can be customized for the specific wheelchair along with the possibility of adding grooves for the grips or using different colors, we realized that this method is most likely out of our reach to achieve for the make-a-thon event. Therefore, we decided to continue with the prototypes that we can make further progress with.

During the discussion with Milestone Labs, we shared our findings on the market research and how the current joystick protectors on the market are ugly as seen below.

However, when we came up with other ideas with better designs, we discovered the challenge of making the product fit with different types of chairs in order to increase the user base. When we shared this problem with Milestone Labs, they told us to focus on our direct user, Ryan, first and see how it goes from there on.

After consulting with Milestone Labs, we came together as a team to have a discussion about our prototypes. Our original prototypes were made to protect the joystick itself, but after reviewing Ryan’s power chair, we decided that it would be important to also protect the screen and the buttons on the arm of the chair. Therefore, we developed an idea of a protective sleeve that would fit around the arm of the power chair tightly for the improved appearance compared to the ones in the market. The design is shown in the sketch below.

After the sketch, we discussed the potential materials that can be used for the product. There were many things we needed to consider, including:

  1. Is the material waterproof? Will it be able to withstand a lot of rain?
  2. Can it withstand a variety of weather conditions including but not limited to rain, snow, cold, humid, hot, and direct sunlight?
  3. Is it transparent so that the user can see the buttons and the screen through the cover?
  4. Is the material affordable?
  5. Is the material durable yet flexible enough that it can be molded around the joystick as well as the arm of the power chair?

Considering such questions, we developed a list of materials, which can be seen in the picture above on the top right corner of the whiteboard. We also discussed the mechanism for wrapping the sleeve around the arm of the chair, including buttons, zippers, and velcro. We talked about whether one method was easier to perform than the other as well as the effectiveness of it as both factors are crucial for the users.

Although we had many ideas before, we were unsure which route to take for the project. This week, we were able to narrow it down and come up with solid details for the product, so I am very happy with the progress that has been made. We are excited to get our hands on the materials and start working on the prototype. In the meantime, we are planning on meeting with Ryan again to measure dimensions of his chair as well as developing low-fidelity prototypes using papers and fabrics.

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All Final Checks Completed & Anticipation

PREPARATIONS & LOOKING AHEAD

We started this week’s class with Vishal reviewing the Make-a-thon schedule in case any of us were confused or missed the Pre-Night Event. Following that, he introduced us to Valeri, a representative from Social Innovation @ Illinois. Social Innovation @ Illinois is one of our Make-a-thon’s Gold Sponsors and is funding the appearance of our mentors from Milestone Labs during the weekend of the Make-a-thon event.

Valerie also spoke to us about an opportunity to continue our innovative ventures during school while gaining funding and several experts as resources: the iVenture Accelerator. iVenture is a start up incubator that takes the form of a 10 week internship over the summer and a seminar class for a full academic year that allows participants to further develop their startup. The Accelerator provides $10,000 of funding to the startups chosen as well as stipends for its members to stay on campus over the summer. Throughout the internship and the class portion of iVenture, supplies its entrepreneurs with funding, experts, networking opportunities, and more. My teammate, Trevor Sibby, actually went through the iVenture Accelerator with his startup, Nouvo, which I mentioned last week.

THE LAST CHECKPOINT

Once Valerie finished up her presentation, we had time to work in our teams while we, team by team, met with Milestone Labs for a final project update review and advice session. My team, Solestice, went first. During our review with Milestone, we talked through our new thinking for our prototype. While before, we were thinking of using metal spikes for the tread, we have since then moved onto the idea of using a type of material similar to what is used on winter car tires, which have incredible traction for driving on ice and snow, as the main component to our product. While we have also considered a couple other materials, such as a shape memory alloy, we will be meeting with a materials science professor soon to confirm which option would be the best to use for the Make-a-thon event. We had also considered a couple of other attachment methods aside from Velcro, such as snap buttons. Oded from Milestone actually shared a YouTube video with us which has given us another method to consider – one where the user can simply step into the tread. Milestone also pointed us in the direction of considering the whole experience of using the tread, including what happens if the user falls down, whether or not the user has to take the tread on/off when travelling outdoors/indoors, as well as a keeping in mind the wear and tear of shoes. Overall, it was a very productive and positive meeting.

Once we finished up talking to Milestone, Solestice moved onto brainstorming the types of materials we would need at the Makeathon in order to complete our prototypes. We found out that winter tires are made of a material called hydrophilic rubber, so we tried looking around for something similar. However, since none of us are science majors, we struggled a little with reading all the scientific chemical names thrown at us in our search. In the end, we decided to go with trying to use a bicycle tire as a similar material to the winter tire and explaining to the Make-a-thon judges what our ideal product would include. Next, we looked for sites where we can obtain Velcro, straps, and other methods of attaching the tread with the goal of testing these different methods during the Make-a-thon to see which is the easiest for the user to use.

We are all super excited and cannot wait for the Make-a-thon event we will be attending next weekend!