Digital Making Reflection

Before the class started this semester, I expected to learn 3D printing and work in a team with students from different interdisciplinary fields. Initially, I also thought that the course would be more technical; however, the course instead focuses more on design thinking and problem solving. The more technical offerings were found in the workshops we took at the Champaign-Urbana Fab Lab along with the AutoDesk Fusion 360 demonstration. Throughout the semester, I learned more about working in a team and more about the 3D printing terms and industry.

Here are the top things I learned through taking the course:

  1. Design Thinking is Key – Coming up with a great idea takes inspiration and hard work. How can we statements are helpful guidelines during the ideation phase. Try to find a problem that consumers are facing and create a prototype using that.
  2. Make Lots of Prototypes – There’s always a way you can improve on your product, so keep making prototypes. Test out new materials or new designs until the produce no longer runs into issues.
  3. Feedback is important – Receiving feedback from people on your designs is a crucial process throughout all phases. With constructive criticism, you can make adjustment to your designs and work on more ways to improve them. Learning how to provide feedback to others is also a great skill to have.
  4. Working with teams – In any jobs, you’ll be put in teams to tackle projects. Being a team player is a bulk of the work, be engaged during meetings to move the project forward and give constructive criticism. It’s also important to listen to the opinions of team members.  
  5. Technical Skills – Every time I use the 3D printer, I am still mind blown. I am greatly to have dabbled in soldering, coding, Fusion 360, and other software. I definitely want to explore deeper into the software and skills I have acquired from the workshops.
  6. The Future is 3D Printing & Innovation – the potential of 3D printing is limitless. They are already being implemented in various field: tech, medicine, and fashion. It’s especially great to see the technology being used children to stimulate their problem solving skills and education. The same could be said for minorities and developing communities, where 3D printing is used to improve quality of life and educate.

It’s sad to know that the class has ended, but I will continue to utilize the skills and things I have learned in this course and apply them to future projects and in my career. I highly recommend other students to take this course and become a part of the Maker movement. Stop by and visit the Maker Lab or Fab Lab on campus!

Team MakerLax Tie Assistant Project Reflection

Overview:

The MakerLax Team consists of three members with very diverse backgrounds. Brian is a freshman majoring in electrical engineering, Peter is a senior in advertising, and Chase is a senior in business. Having three strongly uncorrelated majors allowed us to experience a wide range of perspectives throughout the semester. While at times one of us were unfamiliar with a certain part of the making process, the others would step in and help fill the knowledge void.

Motivation:

While our initial ideas proved to be either too complex or out of the scope of this course, we ultimately decided on our final topic based on an article Vishal shared during one of our classes. The article focused on creating a “How Can We?” statement, which essentially stated that, in order for an idea to become a reality and a finished product, it must first meet three criteria. First, the idea needed to be narrow in its scope. Users should be able to understand the capabilities and capacity of the product without needing an extensive manual to guide them. Next, the idea should be local in its presence, meaning that the product should serve some type of purpose that fulfills a need in the surrounding community. By doing this, the creators will already be familiar with the problem and can devise more intuitive solutions. The final requirement for this product was that the answer needed to be realistic. Users cannot be expected to have advanced knowledge of programming, for example, in order to fully utilize it. Drawing from these three requirements, we ultimately decided to gear our making efforts towards aiding students in preparing for professional engagements, such as interviews, career fairs, or networking events.

Prototypes:

The very first crude prototypes that we created were paper models. They were quickly fashioned to act as both visuals, as well as to test different shapes for our design. After we decided on one, we recreated that form in Fusion 360. Our very first print was only meant as a test for the shape that we decided to implement. Initially, we considered making the design modular in some way. Either by adding tabs for the parts to lock into, or by creating a “puzzle piece” design. Eventually, we decided to keep the design as a single unit. Afterwards, we shifted to TinkerCAD as we believed it would better for our purposes. We then printed more models to test various clip designs. After we found a suitable one, we moved to testing. The size and shape seemed fine, but it was a bit cumbersome to wrap the tie around the sturdy print. It was this that caused us to move on to the semi-flex filament for our last design. After reprinting the last model in semi-flex and testing it, we found it satisfactory and used everything we gathered to create the final product.

Final Product:

Our final product was, at first, our second to last model. After producing and testing the semi-flex model, we thought it was suitable enough to be our final design. However, somewhat last minute, we decided to improve upon it further. We decreased the dimensions, and redid the shape to make it more versatile. Physical features such as grooves and numbering were added to act as guides and “mini-instructions” to improve the ease of usage. It still is not necessarily perfect, and the print itself did not turn out that well, but it is quite an improvement on the original.

Features & Benefits:

Our final design has a thin and sleek profile, making for easy storage. It can easily fit within a pocket or portfolio. The flex material makes it very malleable and not very prone to breaking. This also allows one to utilize it with ties of varying shapes and sizes, and work it with ease. The clip is barely noticeable and and the physical structure of the design allows it to hold a tie snugly while at the same time allowing for easy removal. The indentations in the front face of the model are of different depths, allowing a user to feel around for the different steps. A number and arrow system are also engraved into the face that coincide with the instruction manual. Aside from allowing one to tie a tie around oneself, it can also be used to store a premade tie, in the event that the user foresees a circumstance for it.

User Feedback:

Overall, we found user feedback to be incredibly helpful during our prototyping phase. We had both in class feedback along with feedback from students outside the classroom. During the sessions, we were able to observe how our products were used the and difficulties that occurred. One student said, “I suggest adding instructions or some kind of step-by-step process to make using the product easier.” We took their advice and created a pamphlet as part of the packaging and adjusted the clip size and indents on our original prototype.

Future Improvements

We hope to utilize more materials in future prototypes. Semi-flex filament was different to handle and took the 3D printers multiple tries to print out our prototype, so we hope to test different types of semi-flexible materials. One feature would be to have a collapsible, modular format. The benefit would is that the user can easily remove the product once they had completed tying their tie. From the user feedback, the other suggestion we were given was to incorporate electronics into our design. The product would have an LED guidance where different sections would light up green to guide the user to tie the tie. The LED guidance would require coding and implementing a small arduino and a battery into the product.  

Takeaways:

After the conclusion of this project, our team came away with three main conclusions from the experience. Firstly, it was incredibly satisfying to see our weeks of efforts and labor culminate in a working and usable model. One of our team members who previously was unfamiliar with how to tie a tie was able to learn how, with the guidance of our product. After seeing it be put to use, we can say with complete certainty that our efforts proved worth it. Additionally, we learned that rapid prototyping is critical to the making process, and to creating an effective final product. We spent the majority of our initial efforts attempting to make the perfect first prototype, when in reality the majority of our progress came upon the third and fourth iterations. Similarly, our team realized the immense importance of receiving user feedback. While we had certain connotations of the direction we wanted to pursue with our product, obtaining feedback from users that were unfamiliar with the making process gave us great insight as to what the average user would actually prefer.

Slide Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1IPbJ5ryCkPmgwZ3aqKYncMZNeR6uIaXsuPVW9Mw8MWc/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

Soldering & Putting Together The Light Box

Wires are wrapped together and dangle like gruesome tentacles. A foul smoke rises in the air as the iron touches the metal. Silvery blobs form between two pieces of metal. The process of soldering is underway in the laboratory.

The third and final workshop at the Fab Lab was learning how to solder. I had no prior experience to soldering before, so I was extremely interested. The process of soldering is joining multiple pieces of metals together by melting and adding a filler metal. This results in a permanent connection between electronic components.

Looking back the process was fairly simply. We had to connect all our materials together using a soldering iron. A LED would be connected to a resistor, which would then be connected to a wire. The main concern was using knowing how to safely handle the soldering iron.

The three main safety procedures were to place the soldering iron back into its holder when finished and to never pass the iron to another person, the second was to not breathe in the gas being released when joining metals together, and to wash our hands afterwards since the materials contained lead.

During the workshop, I had difficulty getting the two pieces of metal to stay connected. In addition the metal wires were hard to twist together since they were small. I was one of the last to finish after carefully soldering all the wires together to create an octopus-shaped creature.

Once the soldering was finished, we tested them on our Arduino boards to see if the LEDs worked properly. Taking my time soldering had paid off as mines did not run into too many issues.

I laid out all of the components for my box on the table and began putting everything together. We had to make sure the wires were not touching one another and that the battery component was sticking out of the backside of the box. A couple drops of hot glue and a few burns later, the Arduino Light Box had been completed!

Instructables provides an easy to follow guide on soldering that can be used to apply these skills for your own project along with other projects that can help you practice your skills. Additional resources include a comic of soldering guidelines by the NASA standard.

Coding, Arduinos, and LEDS, Oh My!

As week 2 of constructing the light up box commenced, we took part in a coding and arduino workshop. Arduinos are electronics made of a combination of hardware and software tools. In our tool kit there was LED lights, an Arduino Uno, jumper wires, a breadboard, and a resistor. The first steps we took were to connect hardware to the Arduino Board.

We had to connect the different components together to create a circuit to allow for the flow of electrons or in other words electricity. I had trouble grasping the concepts at first, but when I started connecting the pieces together, things made more sense. Once we finished connecting the Arduino to the breadboard along with the LEDs, it was time to run some tests on it through software.

We used an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) software to upload a code, or a written text that tells the arduino what to do, onto the LED circuit that we had created. To test whether or not the code was successfully uploaded, we had to check if the LED light was blinking. I found it extremely frustrating trying to edit until the code worked, but once it was successful, I felt extremely satisfied. Afterwards, I had time to practice hacking the code and changing the time and frequency of when the LED would blink.

Overall I found the workshop to be a great first introduction to coding since I had never coded before. While coding is still a daunting skill, I am more motivated to learn it after having played around with it. I believe that coding is an incredible resourceful skill to have going into any industry.

I especially find it inspiration that companies and organizations are reaching out to children to teach and encourage them to code. Girls Who Code is a nonprofit organization dedicated in closing the gender gap in technology; they host after school clubs along with summer immersion programs for girls to learn coding and get exposure to the tech industry. Implementing coding into the fashion industry, Google’s Made with Code initiative allowed for girls to design a black dress with the help of designer Zac Posen and technologist Maddy Maxey.

Designing & Laser Cutting A Box With Inkscape

This past week, we were given a grand tour of the Fab Lab on campus. The Fab Lab is a Maker Space available to students and people within the community. Plentiful of technology are provided at the lab including: work spaces for 3D printing, BioHacking, electronics, sewing to name a few. They offer workshops, summer camps for children, and open hours for you to kick start your projects.

During the next 3 weeks, we will attend different workshops to learn programming, designing, electronics assembly, and more. By the end of the workshops, we will be able to put together an electronic box that can light up depending on certain movements in the environment.

I took part in the designing phase this week, where we used open source software Inkscape to add special features for our box. As a vector graphics editor, Inkscape can also be used for many other purposes, such as sticker designs and creating logos. Using http://boxdesigner.connectionlab.org/, we added parameters as inputs and were given a laser cutting file in .PDF. The file served as a template for our box, which we imported into Inkscape. The shape tool allowed us to add holes and squares to our box template, which would later be used to connect the electronic hardware.

Then, we selected b&w image files online and imported them into the software to rasterize. Once our designs were completed, we sent our files to the laser engraving machine to watch the magic unfold. Our designs from the computer screens were being engraved onto the piece of wood. Another project that was being worked on at another laser machine was an intricate puzzle piece.

Different laser cutters have other properties that allow you to engrave in glass and metal. More complex and intricate designs require more time and high degree precision. In addition, there are machines out there that can cut textiles in a cost efficient way saving resources and time. Small laser cutters & engravers run from a few hundred dollars, while larger machines run in the thousands price range.


I cannot wait to see the final product that will be made with my own two hands. The Fab Lab is a great resource and environment to experiment ideas and learn new skills; I definitely recommend checking it out along with other makerspaces in your area!

The Ideation Process

In this week’s class our group brainstormed ideas for the semester project. Our main objective during this session was identifying everyday problems that people face. We delved deeper into the process and targeted college students. At the end of the session, our group came up with three How Can We statements:

#1. How can we help young professionals tie a tie more efficiently?

#2. How can we help college students stop losing their items (phones, wallets, and keys)?

#3. How can we help young adults have more optimal audio experience?

Through these statements, we were able to think of products that could address the issues. For example, in addressing statement #2, we came up with a stopper that clips onto the bottom part of a T-shirt and the pant pocket to prevent things from falling out. As a group we decided to spend more time outside class to brainstorm ideas and coming up with more HCW statements. I think the HCW statements are a great starting point for a business idea because they are empathetic to the consumer’s needs and asks a question that can be answered in a variety of ways.

In an article from Science magazine, the authors argue that creativity is more efficient when there is a structure laid out or a framework to follow. The structure is clearly defined and may have constraints imposed. HCW statements fall under this type of creative process, since there is a sentence format to follow. Creating ideas from randomness, while still holding value, is seen as inefficient in problem-solving. I agree with the authors’ statement that creativity is “assessed by  the eyes of the beholder.” I believe both brainstorming creative ideas and coming up with an idea randomly are both effective. However, the ideas will need fine tuning as suggested in this article on evaluating business ideas.

The questions evaluate business ideas by placing them in reality. Are there enough resources? Do they address consumer needs? What are the positives and negatives of this business idea? Once you are able to answer all the questions posed, I believe your ideas will become more concrete and well defined. From this, you can set strategies for moving from the ideation phase to the prototyping phase.

There are several ways to help with the creative process. Forbes suggests individually working out and solving the problems and then meeting with your group to brainstorm. It’s important to note that brainstorming sessions can be ineffective unless certain guidelines are established. Another article from Entrepreneur suggests shying away from the need to be perfect and coming up with as many ideas, even if they’re bad. At the end of the day, I think we should try out whichever creative processes and stick with the one that work better for us.

Creating With Fusion 360 and DIY Biology

Jeffrey Smith from Autodesk held a workshop in class teaching us about the company and the Fusion 360 software. Autodesk’s Pier 9 is located in San Francisco Bay and is a facility that houses collaborations between artists, engineers, and technologists. One of their latest projects is a 3D-printed model of downtown San Francisco.

During the workshop session, we learned about the different tools on Fusion 360. I found the workshop to be incredibly helpful since I have never used Fusion 360 previously. Using the software, I tried creating a pipe that connected with a rectangular body. Other tools we experimented with were the sketch, modify, and assemble functions. Saving the best for last, we learned about the purple create tool. The tool allows us to deal with multiple faces and build complex, organic shapes. Jeffrey Smith create an aircraft design out of a rounded cube in a matter of minutes. I definitely want to practice using Fusion 360 more and utilize it in semester projects.

Dorothy Silverman presented on Biohacking, which manipulates the genes of organisms to usually create a product. Biohacking can also be thought of as DIY biology, where people of all backgrounds work together in small labs. Projects worth mentioning include using chitin to create biodegradable cups and plates and using fungi spores to grow furniture. I believe that the Biohacking movement is similar to the Maker Movement in that all sorts of people work together to create; however, Biohacking incorporates more sustainability in creating their products.

Merging Biohacking and fashion together, Suzanne Lee created BioCouture, a process in which clothes are grown using microbes. Biohacking is an exciting way to learn about biology and create things at the same time. I definitely want to experiment with the various processes involved to create sustainable products.

Design Thinking – People Over Process

In Tim Brown’s article of Design Thinking, IDEO defines design thinking as a method to focus on people’s behavior and solving people’s needs and desires. Design thinking has three main processes. One research consumer insight and figure out what customers want but don’t have. Two test your ideas by building prototypes and running experiments. Finally, bring the product to life making sure there are enough resources and strategies in place on distribution. I found the reading to be thought provoking because it touches on the how design was thought of in the past as a tool used later in the product development phase. By encompassing processes that are human centered, companies will be able to create products that are efficient and solve real-life problems.

From the class videos, design thinking is a set of guidelines. Finding solutions to wicked problems, where problem and solution are unclear. Similar to the reading, design thinking is described as user centered or finding out what the user needs. Desirability, viability, and feasibility, and responsibility are described as the four characteristics in design thinking. The two main takeaways I found were to empathize with others by placing yourself in their shoes, brainstorming all kinds of solutions, even if they seem impossible, and be willing to fail multiple times. In the Design for America workshop, we went through the ideation phase to the prototyping phase. I found the workshop to be a great introduction into design thinking.

Putting the idea of design thinking in real practice, Rotterdam Eye Hospital used the guidelines to solve their issue of an unwelcoming environment that included long dreary hallways. They redesigned the children’s wing adding artworks to create a welcoming environment. Children were sent animal print T-shirts before their scheduled appointment at the hospital, and their doctors would wear a T-shirt with the same print to establish closer connection. As part of design thinking, not all of the hospital’s idea were successful, and they were able to learn and build on them.

Another example of design thinking was combating sanitation issues in Cambodia and Vietnam. Jeff Chapin and his team observed villagers then designed sanitation systems that fit into the villagers’ everyday life. By using prototypes, they optimized which sanitation system worked best and discovered that kitchen sinks were the most important to the villagers because it prevents illness caused by food contamination. See more from the TEDtalk: https://vimeo.com/67542403

 

 

 

Intro to 3D Printing & the Maker Movement

This week in class, we learned about the different ways to make things and terminology of 3D printing, such as stereolithography and fused deposition modeling. In addition, we also learned about utilizing the software Cura that edits and converts STL. files into G code files that are ready for 3D printing. The guest speaker Jeff Ginger, director of the Fab Lab, provided great direction into the various resources available both on campus and online that could be incorporated in our semester projects. A few things that stood out to me from the lecture were the digital embroidery machines at the Fab Lab, the 3D scanner at the Beckman Visualization laboratory, and the term DIWO (do it with others) which is a updated take on DIY.

From the readings, Neil Gershefeid writes about the digital fabrication revolution. One of the things that interested me was his timeline description about how the digital fabric revolution had its origins from the 1950’s with cutting aircraft components using digital computers with milling machines. In Dougherty’s article about the maker mindset and the maker movement states that, “Making is source of innovation.” I agree with his statement because it is a free form process whose possibilities are still being explored and experimented with. Dougherty also points out that the maker movement is an excellent opportunity to transform education to create both a creative and stimulating environment. I believe children’s exposure to maker spaces is a great hands on way for them to learn how to work well in teams and develop their problem solving skills.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1990412 – Scissor Sheath

This product is great for safety, especially for people with young children or pets. One thing I would change making the length and width adjustable to fit other scissors as well as knives even.  

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1768185 – SD card Holder

SD cards are tiny and can be easily lost or misplaced. This item is perfect for storing them all in one place. I love that they added the customizable function to allow you to adjust from micro to normal size SD cards.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:404028 – Soap Holder

I have been needing a soap holder and would love to be able to print one out. I would also add a cover to the holder, so that I can bring it with me to travel or prevent water from the shower from shrinking the soap.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:411163 -Tube Caps

I think the tube caps are perfect for storing all sorts of items. It functions well with paper towel or toilet paper rolls.