FabLab Part 1
This week our class got introduced to the Fabrication Lab a.k.a. FabLab. We received tons of help from all the great staff that devotes their time there to help us learn. When there we first got a tour of the facility. We saw their computer lab where students can work on all sorts of design programs. Then we moved into their work station bench where they had tons of successful designs they have created. After, we moved into the other room where they showed us a lot of their very cool designing machines. They really gave us another perspective of design outside of just 3D printing.
One awesome thing that my group noticed is how the used a laser cutting machine to create a leg shaped structure out of wood. They then used that structure as their base and melted some type of plastic over it and it took shape of the structured design. I thought this was so cool because this connected really well with our project on how we could create a leg guard for Jenna outside of 3D printing.
Additionally, at the FabLab, we broke off into two separate groups. My group was led by Colton that shows us how to work a circuit. I have not really worked with circuits since freshman year of high school so I had a lot to relearn. We used a watch battery, a small LED light and resistors to demonstrate how to turn a light bulb on in a current. The whole purpose of this activity was to really show how to blend technology and design together and to get us to think about how we could incorporate this lesson into our products.
Finally, We came back together as a class to brainstorm more about our projects. My group found this really helpful to get our ideas back on the table. The activity was really fun because we had to place ourselves in different situations to see how we could alter our project. For example, one of the situations was, “If you had unlimited money vs. if you had no money at all?”. Was really cool to see the different types of designs we made within these separate constraints.
Project Update
This week we have had a very productive time advancing our project. Earlier this week we had a meeting with our first secondary user other than Jenna. Jenna set us up with her physical therapist at DRES. Although I was unable to be at the meeting because of class, the meeting went very well and we took a lot of the ideas into our prototypes. One, idea that we got was to place most of our focus on protecting the knee because that is the most important part. Many other products on the market are bulky because they focus alot on protecting scratches.
After our discussion in class Jay, Nathan and I decided to meet to build upon our ideas. We met Saturday to go to the Art and Design building to create some prototypes of our knee protector. Based on our interviews with Jenna and her Physical Therapist, we had some ideas to run with. We created designes with buttons, that were flexible, that had fabric sleeves and that had special latches. We really wanted to grasp a wide array of designes while we were prototyping. Below are the designs we made and all the fun we had creating them!
My name is Ryan Kane, and I am a senior graduating in the spring of 2019 from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Gies College of Business. I have a double major is both Supply Chain Management and Information Systems and Information Technology.
I think it’s really cool that your team has already found a way to combine what we’re learning at the Fab Lab with our previous knowledge from the course! If you’re going to be focusing on a knee protector, perhaps you can take some inspiration from sports that also have knee protectors in their uniforms? For example, skateboarding knee pads, volleyball knee pads, or soccer knee pads? A lot of them are made to be adjustable/form fitting too, so there would be possibly just a few minor changes to make to them so that prosthetic users can use them.
I love that you guys already got around to making an early prototype. It sounds like the FabLab gave you the crossfunctional inspiration to execute creatively. I think since it is a knee protector, you should look into which not only which materials can provide the most protection, but also how malleable it is to prevent injury.