Personally, the Makeathon exceeded expectations for me and then some. It was riveting to see so many people putting their minds together to solve problems for others than ourselves. After 3 days of brainstorming, designing, prototyping and iterating, our team completed a pretty holistic solution to the presented challenge of protecting the electrical circuits in power wheelchairs.
We ultimately settled on a clear silicon pullover case which mimics on a phone cover. This way the cover will never have to be removed so Ryan or any other user will never have to worry about forgetting it if they are caught in inclement weather.
During the Makeathon we prototyped this from a clear plastic material after recreating the arm of a power wheelchair from Styrofoam and moldable plastic. Additionally, I created a water sensor to detect leakage during QA and field testing. Our efforts culminated nicely, as our team co-won the grand prize alongside our classmates, Movi – and both teams happily donated the 3D printer from Ultimaker to the DRES facility.
Those 72 hours alone exponentially helped our team swiftly move from validated idea to prototyped concept, and I can personally say I did not expect us to take home the grand prize after it was all said and done. I’m really proud of all the work that was put in during the Makeathon and I’m stoked to see the culmination of it all over the next 2 weeks.
Hey! It’s super cool to learn about your final design. It is also really interesting how you were able to model everything. This MakeAThon definitely helped my team flesh something out more tangible as well, and I think just being in a space where everyone was working really helped with that. I’m glad the 3D printer was donated to the DRES facility and that your team was one of the winners!