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Bio-Hacking, UPS, and Project Ideas

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This week we were lucky enough to have two guest speakers, both of which were very passionate about the work that they do. The first guest speaker, Alan Amling, who works in Corporate Strategy for UPS. Alan talked about how 3D printing has changed the way UPS operates. As a supply chain management major, I really enjoyed listening to Alan speak about how 3D printing can change the supply chain. This is something I never thought was an option or would make the supply chain more efficient, but Alan informed us all how 3D printing is disrupting the industry. One thing that really stood out to me during Alan’s talk was how he made the reference to shoes being the ‘best fit’ and not the ‘perfect fit.’ This made me really excited about 3D printing and how things we once thought could only be ‘best fit’ could possibly be ‘perfect fit’ and formed to each and every one of us individually.

Alan Amling

The second guest speaker we had was Dot Silverman. Dot graduated from Pomona College with a Bachelor’s degree in physics with an emphasis in engineering. Dot was very excited about her presentation and all of the interesting things she has worked on in the past. It was almost impossible to not want to know more about her projects because she was so passionate about all of them.

Dot Silverman

A few of the different projects she brought into our class was Foldscopes which are really cheap microscopes that allow students in underdeveloped countries that can’t afford real microscopes to explore areas in biology and other sciences. Another really intriguing project Dot brought into the class was the miniPCR DNA Data Discovery System. Although these were a bit more expensive, she said they were still pretty cheap relative to similar products on the market. I loved all of the work that Dot has done in her past, and it actually made me interested in biohacking. I was excited when a student in my class asked Dot if they could still get into biohacking even if they have no past experience. Dot was very reassuring and said if you are interested enough, it is never too late to get involved. This made me feel better because I have absolutely no experience in the biohacking world, but was very intrigued by Dot’s presentation.

After the two guest speakers, we broke up into teams to further discuss ideas for our final project. My team came up with some good ideas, but I think we could challenge ourselves a little more. We came up with the idea of a filter for pour over coffee. This would allow the user to pour all the water at once and our object would slowly filter the water by itself so the user wouldn’t have to. Another idea we had was to create a platform to place your curling iron, straightener, or clothes iron on while they are hot and you are not using it. This is similar to the iPhone charging platform, but designed to hold larger objects and heat. The last idea we had was to create something similar to the idea we had in class last week using the Harvard Robotics Toolkit that Dot introduced us to. We would make a watch that would draw blind people in the direction of someone they are trying to find. I would like to do this project because I think it would challenge our team and maybe we could come up with something really great.

 

 

week5

Designing to Change the World

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This past week we learned about the concept of design thinking. Design for America (DFA) at Illinois, is a student organization part of a  national network of creators and innovators seeking to revolutionize the way college students engage with the world around us. DFA focuses on utilizing the design process to generate ingenious solutions to various challenges in our communities.  Before this workshop, I have heard about the amazing work DFA through my involvement in Illinois Enactus. Design thinking is a powerful tool to that allows an individual to structure and channel their ideas to form a positive impact in the world.

Key Takeaways from DFA Workshop

From the DFA workshop, I learned how the design process is not a linear process. Although it can be separated into two stages, the design process over time is very iterative. It’s broken up into an understanding phase and then a create stage. I learned how imperative it is to first understand in order to design. I was surprised to learn how in-depth the understanding process is.  DFA talked about how you need to go beyond just identifying a problem, you need to immerse yourself to truly understand all of a problems nuances.

What I really enjoyed about the DFA workshop was the hands on activity. It was a neat opportunity to collaborate with my peers to engage in design thinking. The problem we examined was blindness in the urban environment. We chose to design a problem for Jess, a legally blind college student who felt disconnected from many of her peers. First, we identified and made some assumptions about our user. Assumptions like “Jess knows how to navigate her surroundings as a legally blind individual” helped us begin the process of attempting to understand our user. From there, we made additional assumptions about how Jess hears, sees, and feels. I thought the most beneficial part of this process was when we started to create “How Can We” statements. This allowed us to narrow our focus from broad to specific. Ultimately, my group and I came up with the idea of a “smart cover” for blind walking sticks. Key features we incorporated into our idea was Bluetooth and GPS functionality, and rubber material so that it could be a one size fit all attachment.

When reflecting on the workshop led by DFA, I was reminded about Tim Brown’s, IDEO’s CEO, approach to design thinking. Brown discusses how close observation combined with brainstorming and rapid prototyping can streamline information shifts and produce more efficient an effective results. I noticed that the iterative process to come up with an end product idea required much collaboration and flexibility in thought. Furthermore, it was important to set time limits for each stage and to not get caught up in one part of the process for too long.

Other Design Thinking Resources

Other resources I examined this week associated with Design thinking was a podcast published by McKinsey titled The power of design thinking and a Ted Talk given by Joe Gebbia, the founder of Airbnb. In the McKinsey podcast, Hugo Sarrazin, a McKinsey director and the digital vice president of McKinsey Digital Labs talk about the impact of design and how it can drive positive change within an organization. Joe Gebbia’s Ted Talk explores how the design process can be tailored to address specific  issues. Gebbia discusses how he founded Airbnb with the principle of trust in mind. This principle led him to tailor the design process to design for trust, resulting in the successful creation and expansion of Airbnb. The Ted Talk and McKinsey podcast are listed below. I am excited to continue using this framework as my team and I finalize our project idea.

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/the-power-of-design-thinking