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.
Hi Katherine,
Mike’s advice to “fail early and fail often” stuck with me as well. One thing I thought was interesting is that he favors function over beauty at the current stage of his design process. I think this is important to keep in mind when creating our prototypes this semester.
Regarding your project, I am interested in the different weather conditions the racers experience that they would need a different grip for. My team is creating a detachable tread for prosthetic users when walking on snow or ice. I wonder if we can share our findings on materials/surfaces that work best in different conditions. I look forward to learning more about your team’s project throughout the semester!
Hi Katherine, I think it is super cool that you had Mike as a teacher. A teacher is always impactful when they emphasize growth and progression over getting everything right the first time. Learning how to utilize skills that will encourage improvement is not only important for one’s academic career but also life in general. It is interesting that you guys decided to work with Arielle on her gloves. It is cool that you guys are taking a different approach and working with a product that is already being produced.