Tag: TinkerCad

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Fusion 360 Workshop

This week we focused on the CAD software, specifically Autodesk Fusion 360. Prior to class this week we learned quick shortcuts and the basic fundamental of parametric designing. Dan Banach, education program manager at autodesk, gave an immersive presentation of the world of Fusion 360. He has more than 30 years of Fusion 360 knowledge. He was there from the very start. It all started with a 3D model of a five and quarter sized floppy disk. Dan also simply broke down the ideology of the cloud product innovative software Fusion 360, into three main components: use, design, and make. After his intro  we had the task of going through a tutorial of creating a phone charging stand. This helped us get even more familiar with the functions and capabilities of the software.


Dan Banach during the Fusion 360 Workshop

I myself have some knowledge and previous with CAD. However its with solidworks, which is a lot different from Fusion 360. You have similar capabilities, but solidworks is far more complicated. I like how simplified Fusion makes computer aided design. The shortcuts and keys were super easy to pick up on and the drop down menus house every function. Solidworks took me some time to get a stable grip on. Both softwares are great in their own respective ways. Regardless of which a person chooses you’ll still get a understanding of not only parametrics but design thinking. The software gives you a different method of approaching problems and design decisions. The simplest thing from a curve to the material itself of the product all attribute to the overall product.

My final design and render of the phone charging stand

After the Fusion Workshop ended we were given another on “How to Statements”  from our TA Mehmet Aydin. This activity allowed us to further explore the centralized themes within our ideas. After choosing the top three themes, which we wrote out in concise sentences, we created a how to statement. Essentially staging  a question of how were were going to do some of the things we sought out to solve. Like mentioned in last week’s presentation his is a cycle within the design process. We came to conclusions last week, but this exercise allowed us to revisited, rethink, and revitalize some of those ideas. I feel like now we have a pretty concret grip on the opportunity and the market in which we’re trying to infiltrate.


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Progress Doesn’t Always Mean Walking Forward

LESSONS FROM THE FIELDS.

This week, we were back at the Maker Lab solidifying our inspirations and ideas. We were able to confront a collective fear together: failure. Many of us had expressed fear of failure, and while I had not done so publicly, it was a thought that has always been floating around in the back of mind too. We had the incredible opportunity to talk to an UIUC alumnus, Mike Hansen, from EarthSense, a startup dedicated to using autonomy, software, and innovation to revolution agriculture data collection. Mike came in prepared with stories of failure after failure to share with us, and he showed us how failures stacked up into successes and solutions. He showed us how failures can be unintentional successes with the way that the camera guard he made only allowed the camera to be installed a single way, which later became a needed feature when considering different assemblers of the TerraSentia he designed. It was one thing to be told to “try again and again until you succeed,” but hearing Mike’s actual experiences helped make it click for me. I realized that it really was okay – and actually expected! – to have failures in the process of innovation.

Mike Hansen telling us about failures and different innovation mindsets.

TINKERING AROUND.

After, Mike’s talk, we split off into our groups to discuss a team name, the direction our product will go in, and a team logo. My team, previously Team 1, had a very difficult time coming up with a name, and cycled through various varieties of OnTread, Solestetic, other obscure words, etc. Yet, eventually, taking inspiration from a previously vetoed name, we settled on the name Solestice. Solestice is a portmanteau of the words ‘sole,’ referring to the bottom of a shoe, and ‘solstice,’ an astronomical phenomenon that occurs twice a year. Our hope for this project is to create an attachable tread for prosthetics users to use when walking on ice and other similarly slippery terrain. Afterwards, we created a logo which resembles two triangles stacked upon each other, slightly misaligned and familiarized ourselves with the Tinkercad program through modeling said logo and 3D printing it on one of the machines present in the Maker Lab.

MOVING.

As we wrapped up our team name, we discussed a plan to meet with our mentor Jenna, a prosthetic user, once again to make sure that the direction we take our product in is user-centered and truly something prosthetic users can and want to use. We will definitely take the new mindsets we have learned throughout each class – that of user-centered design and not viewing failure as a taboo – and apply it to our own research and development process!