Wow! It’s only been one week, but so much has happened. The biggest two developments were that we finished the mini tapir project and got our major projects for the rest of the summer! More on that later. First, let me talk about our tapir project. Since the last blog, we screened and scored our brainstormed solutions. The result: what we call… the Floating Log.

The Floating Log is a barrel type structure that is filled with food for the tapir to roll around and play with. The unique feature of it is that it would be made of composite decking, so it would be able to float in the tapirs pool. The tapirs love swimming, so we thought this would be a great feature to add as an enrichment device! Above you can see a picture of our medium fidelity prototype. It took a LOT of time, but it was so worth it. I used a table saw and a miter saw (which was terrifying yet so fun) as well as the drill press. There were two inside structures made of eight angled pieces that surprisingly all fit together beautifully to support the outside planks. And in the end, my team was very happy with the prototype. Go Team Tiger!

After the tapir project came the big reveal for major projects. Drum roll please… Syringe Calibration! This project is working with Rice 360 to come up with a way to calibrate syringes to be used for the Kasupe. The Kasupe is a low cost, automated syringe pump that Rice 360 has developed for use in low resource settings, like Malawi. I’m super excited to be part of this project, especially because I feel like I can be a small part in Kasupe’s journey. We’ve already hit the ground running in trying to understand the project, and it’s been an X-citing 36 hours.

Speaking of Xs and syringes and calibration, I want to officially announce our team name to the blog world: S-Caliber. You might be thinking, simple. But there’s more than meets the eye. S stands for syringe; Caliber refers to calibration and caliber (hopefully high caliber). All together, you have S-Caliber, referencing Excalibur. Wow, I know.

I’d say the team reveal and learning more about the project has been the most X-citing part of this week, and I can’t wait to see what other X-citing things there will be in the coming weeks.

Until next time!