Second week at SEED! I can’t believe that one week ago, we had just started brainstorming solutions for the zoo project. The days have flown by with the end of Design Boot Camp and the start of our main projects. We spent Friday screening and scoring our potential solutions for the tapir enrichment device. We settled on the Floating Log, ideally made out of composite decking planks and PVC end caps for our final device. It was interesting to see how different the designs were for the three teams- same prompt, but varied solutions. Ours was designed to float in water, and other teams made freestanding structures for a game and an interactive jack to roll on the ground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the start of prototyping, we warmed up our low fidelity prototyping chops with a friendly competition. We got randomly put into pairs and had half an hour to construct a “Bijaaj” modeled after the cart of questionable safety commonly used in Ethiopia. The vehicle had to safely transport two ping pong balls down a zipline without falling out upon impact with a target at the bottom, and do so as fast as possible. The catch: the cart was “open”, so the ping pong balls had to remain untethered enough that they could fall out when the vehicle was flipped upside down. Nick and I experimented with covering all but an exactly ping-pong-ball-sized hole in the top of a solo cup, and got a nicely sheltered enclosure. Then we realized… there was no limit on how many passengers we could have. We filled the cup with two wooden balls of similar size, and packed the rest of the space with small rubber bouncy balls. Our finished vehicle was the MOST dramatic. As it hit the target it spewed bouncy balls, but always kept the prized passengers safe. We’re calling the others dummies or cushions. With the extra weight, ours slid down the zipline with one run coming in at under 4 seconds, winning us speediest bijaaj.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After low fidelity prototyping, we made our medium fidelity prototype of the tapir enrichment device over two days (prototyping all the way through the testing time, eek), starting with boards of plywood and 1″ by 1″ wood from the wood shop. Making an octagon to hold together the barrel form was a challenge, but Sammi kindly walked us through using the miter saw to cut at a 22.5˚ angle, and helped us use a table saw to cut the board down to planks. We used a jigsaw to cut the octagonal end cap and a belt sander to get it down to dimensions that would fit inside the lip of all the planks. That’s 4 tools already. Then to assemble the pieces, we had to drill at a steep angle down through the ends of two of the trapezoid pieces at a time. After some experimenting, we found that we had to drill a pilot hole, then counter sink- a process new to me, where we widened the entrance of the hole- and finally put in the screw.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s 7 tools for this seemingly simple shape. Then 8 screws for each octagon, then a minimal 2 screws to fasten down the planks made for 32 screws in all, for this barrel structure Worth it when we put in the end caps and picked up the finished piece.

We heard the pitches for our main project on Tuesday and on Wednesday our teams were revealed. I’m on… *drumroll using the Floating Log* … the Brachial Plexus Model project! We have christened ourselves (after much deliberation) Team Can’t Brachius. We have started research, developed questions and had a great interview with our client, James Northcutt of the Texas Children’s Hospital. He did a great job explaining all the movements and contractures he’s trying to demonstrate with the model, and I’m excited to develop a solution that can help the parents of babies with these shoulder issues give their kids the care they need.