Hello! Welcome back to my SEED blog week 2. WOW it was a fun week. Along with finding a crazy awesome team name for my summer-long project (this name will be revealed later in this blog and you should definitely read on to find it), my team and I completed our prototype for the tapir project. Also, in case you are not aware, Spike is the name of my bike which will be returning home from Rice Bikes today.

Our goal for the tapir project was to create an enrichment device for tapirs in the Houston that would look natural in their exhibit and elicit some of the behaviors that they would normally have in the wild. This week, we continued screening our solutions and began to prototype. Below are some pictures of both the final design and a low fidelity prototype. The prototype may not look like it is in the picture on the left, but look again, because it is! We used this picture in a user defined scale to show how well our device blends in with its natural environment.

                                     

Spot that JACK ^^^^^

Although we were low on materials and were not able to order any new ones, we still tried to capture the look of a jack. If you’re not familiar with a jack, it is a small 6-pronged toy that children use in a game. The low fidelity prototype below shows the desired design. We decided to have 3 methods for tapir enrichment including brush for the tapirs to rub on, browse for them to grab, and pellets that can fall out of holes in the PVC. Each section has a screw-on cap that can be easily removed for fast cleaning, a criteria that our client said was a top priority.

We decided to have 3 methods for tapir enrichment including brush for the tapirs to rub on, browse for them to grab, and pellets that can fall out of holes in the PVC. Each section has a screw-on cap that can be easily removed for fast cleaning, a criteria that our client said was a top priority.

Once we wrapped up our tapir project, it was time to get our assignments for the summer-long project. Getting those results were a tad nerve wracking but it was totally worth it in the end. I have a great group consisting of Arisa, Nick, and Eduardo. Our project is to create a calibration device for a syringe pump used in Malawi. We also have been tasked with finding a way to make the syringe pump (called Kasupe) compatible any type of syringe, even if the brand is unknown. We met with our clients Megan and Chloe to ask them about our project and after one hour of questioning, 3 hours of confusion, one more hour of questioning, and a day of sorting out our project, we *think* we have finally understood what we will be doing for the summer.

Along the way, we did, in fact, come up with the most amazing engineering team name that has every been created. We are team S-Caliber. This is our logo. It’s awesome. I know.

I guess you’d have to say my project choice is *set in stone*

Now that my team has finished clarifying the team assignment, we will be doing research and eventually selecting our final design solution. Catch me next week for some more in-depth explanations of syringe calibrations and incredible names.

P.S. I had way less snap peas this week.