Like the plot for “Sharkboy and Lavagirl”, this week has been hectic and revealing.  Since last Thursday, my team has completed reading the previous team’s (TAB’s) documents, presented our DCR, and brainstormed and screened some solutions.

So after doing the math, my team has put in about 100 hours into reading the previous team’s documents.  I never expected this coming into SEED, bu I’m glad it happened, as I got to see the documentation and information that a Senior Design Team needs, and further my understanding into the field of medical devices.  On the following Monday, after relaxing for the weekend and spending some time listening to music with other SEED students, my team started working on our DCR, and compiling the previous team’s information.  This turned out well, as the topics that we covered we covered thoroughly enough to present in the DCR presentation on Tuesday, a presentation in front of our peers on what we have learned.  We finished off Tuesday filling in the holes in our DCR pointed out by our fellow interns and finishing the research that we wanted to do.

Yesterday, Wednesday, during our team’s morning meeting we finally split off to work on and research specific components of our solution.  I worked on the needed cooling system, looking up various motor cooling speeds and ways that systems like factories or homes or planes are kept cool.  At the end of that day, I made sure that I knew how to use the laser cutting machine, and started to work on a personal project that includes everything that I need to know about the laser cutter for our project, namely cutting and rastering.  Two of the panels are pictured below; one of my hair on Rice University’s silly hair weekend (BB) and one of my O-Week group.

Another personal project that I was working on is knowing the limitations of the 3D printer, and created a key hanging system pictured below:

So besides the projects looking silly, I was able to quickly find possible problems in multiple areas of 3D printing and laser cutting, and find remedies for them. For all of the projects above, it definitely took more than one try to figure out the correct settings for the application.

Summing up with today’s work, my team brainstormed and screened some solutions.  I believe that my personal projects helped me here, as I was able to brainstorm more possible solutions through differing applications of ideas, and help clarify possible ways to implement solution ideas through manufacturing so we could more accurately rate our ideas.

Tomorrow we will score our solutions and hopefully start prototyping, as it is about time for some parts we ordered to come in.  I will be glad to start prototyping, because this research and brainstorming process has been intense, and has stretched the limits of my attention and imagination. Next Tuesday are our Mid-summer Presentations, and I hope to have more concrete prototypes to show then, and they will be included in next week’s post.

We are about done with our brainstorming now, and while it was tiring, it is one of the most important parts of the design process.  It’s where the magic happens, where ideas spark, where we ignore all our perceptions and come up with solutions in any way possible. After all, “The chief enemy of creativity is ‘good’ sense” (Pablo Picasso).  The best engineering breakthroughs have been ideas that no one has though of before, things that revolutionize the industry.  So following convention isn’t really what an engineer does, at least when brainstorming.  When thinking an engineer is like Picasso, an artist.

(astrolabe)