Last weekend, we had our first Make-A-Thon and it was a blast. I knew about a Make-A-Thon other than it’s similar to a Hack-A-Thon. I really want to first thank all the staff, professors and sponsors who made this event possible. Without their help, I don’t think I would’ve had this awesome experience.
Before we went into the Make-A-Thon, all we had was a list of materials under a 150 dollars from Vishal and the fab lab. And we had to make our functional model of a prosthetic leg protection within two days over the weekend. For me, I was afraid we were not going to have enough time to finish our project. So, we made sure we scanned Jenna’s C-Leg model from the Makers Lab and went to the Fab Lab ahead of time, to print the C-Leg on the 3D printer. And with this, we saved 12 hours of printing a C-Leg during the Make-A-Thon.
I feel like the Make-A-Thon brought all of our group members close to each other. For example, Ryan gave me a ride to the Fab Lab and our new member, Yishou, helped us with the functionality. He is a PHD student in Engineering, but he is an expert when it comes to the tools in the Fab Lab. With his help, I was introduced to the Heat gun, the sowing machine, the Acrylic heater, the Laser cutter, etc. And he with his excellent skill with the sowing machine, our project looked very refined. Ryan helped us with the overall color scheme and knitting the velcro together with the strap. My job was to come up with the design for the prosthetic leg cover and create the prosthetic leg cover. At first, I didn’t know what to do, until Colten, a Fab Lab staff, gave me this awesome idea to bend the acrylic using the Heat gun and Acrylic heater. I was afraid at first, because both tools can get really hot and possibly burn the skin. But with enough practice and guidance from Fab Lab staffs, James and Duncan, I was able to make the shape. Also, since the C-Leg is ergonomic, heating the laser cut acrylic over the 3D-Printed C-Leg was a great idea. Overall, without our group members and the Fab Lab staff, I don’t think we could’ve achieve such a gorgeous final model.
We did our check up time to time during the Make-A-Thon. This gave us the good scheme of where everyone is at and got some great feedback from each other. Also, Michal Kabatznik from Milestone Lab was there to give us feedback. As an expert, she gave some great insight on how we should pursue our project and what steps we should take next. I really enjoy this check up and it made me feel we were part of a large team instead of competing between each other.
As conclusion, I think the Make-A-Thon made me grow as a person. I was able learn how to use these tools in the Fab Lab through trial and error. And whenever there was a problem, our team tackled it as a group not individuals. And with the preparations before the Make-A-Thon and Fab Lab staff members, our project came out way better than I ever imagined to be. From this point on, our team will try to talk with Jenna and Jeannette and see how we can improve our Prosthetic protection model.
Great job Jae! I am so proud of the work that you, Yishou, and Ryan put in last week for the Make-A-Thon. I love the design that you created and am excited to go see Jenna and test it on her prosthetic leg and hear her feedback. I’m glad you decided to go with the purple themed color for our first prototype, but I also think it would be cool to make a black prototype as well that Jenna could wear for more formal events.
Hi Jae,
Honestly, you and your team continue to be one of the teams that I look up to the most. I am seriously impressed by what you guys are able to achieve constantly throughout the weeks, and I was even more impressed to see you at work during the Make-a-thon. Whenever I encountered you or your team, all of you seemed so busy, working on the product with your passion that it encouraged me to continue to push myself as well, so thank you. I’m glad that you were able to learn to use more machines to help you build the prototype. The prototype itself looks very solid and I’m looking forward to seeing where you guys will end up by the end of the semester!
Take that for us all