The Deep Dive

1. “From the buildings in which we live and work, to the cars we drive, or the knives and forks with which we eat, everything we use was designed to create some sort of marriage between form and function.”

2. The folks at IDEO state that they are not experts in any given area. But, they do claim to be experts on the design process, which they apply to the innovation of consumer products.

3. After the team of designers is brought together, told the problem, and informed they have five days to “pull it off,” what phase of the design process do they immediately engage in?
Brainstorming

4. Give two examples of what the team members did during this phase.

a. velcro seats


b. privacy blinds




5. List five rules-of-thumb that IDEO employees follow when they share ideas during the brainstorming phase:

a. One conversation at a time


b. Stay focused


c. Encourage wild ideas


d. Defer judgement


e. Build on others' ideas




6. Why should wild (and sometimes crazy) ideas be entertained during the brainstorming phase?
Because it leaves a window of opportunity open for something new. Crazy ideas are always a good place to start and help create building blocks for more realistic ones. This way everything can be given a chance and there are more options as to what to try out. Ideas are always improved through trial and error.

7. After the brainstorming phase was over, the team narrowed down the hundreds of ideas by voting for those ideas that were not only “cool” but also buildable in a short period of time. What phase of the design process is this called?




8. IDEO believes that the ideas and efforts of a team will always be more successful than the planning of a lone genius.

9. Once the ideas were narrowed down and divided into categories, the group was split into four smaller teams. What phase(s) of the design process was each of these groups responsible for?

One group was responsible for shopping, another for checking out, another for safety, the last for finding what's being looked for.

10. The leaders at IDEO believe that playful behavior and a fun environment are two important reasons why their employees are able to think quickly and creatively to produce innovative results.

11. Sometimes, people come up with great solutions that work by trying their ideas first, and asking for forgiveness later.

12. Design is often a process of going too far and having to take a few steps back. What phase of the design process would the critique of the four mock-ups come under?

Refining and Communicating Results

13. Upon critique of the four teams’ models, it was obvious that none of the teams had developed an optimum solution. However, the people at IDEO believe that it is important to fail often in order to succeed sooner.

14. What percentage of the entire week’s time did it take to fabricate the final prototype?
About 43%




15. Instead of showering his design team with a tremendous amount of praise, what did the boss require his employees to do with their new design?
Improve it




16. Of all the things that we are surrounded by every day, what has not been placed through the design process?
Only nature; everything else requires the design process in some way.

Conclusion

1. What did you find to be the most impressive part of the team’s effort?
I really liked how well everyone got along and how ideas weren't ever shot down. It seemed like it was a lot of fun.

2. What advantages are there to having a design team with members that have non-engineering backgrounds?
They bring in a different perspective and remind the engineers of the consumer needs/wants.




3. There was a point in the process where a self-appointed group of adults stepped up, stopped the ideas, and redirected the group to break up into teams. Why was this done?
So that time wouldn't be wasted. The Brainstorming phase could have lasted forever had not someone taken control.




4. At the end of the video, Dave Kelly states, “Look around. The only things that are not designed are the things we find in nature.” Can you think of anything that would contradict this statement?

I cannot. I agree completely.

Class

Glider

• We needed to come up with the ideal glider: stays up in the air a long time and travels a long distance.

• Brainstorming rules:

1. Throw out random ideas to team members
2. Have every member contribute ideas and listen to them even if they seem whack
3. Jot down as my ideas as possible
4. Build on ideas and begin to organize them into actual processes
5. There are no rules as to what is a good or bad idea!

• Criteria: coming up with the best solution for a glider that has a long duration in the air, is fast, and can travel far
• Constraints: limited materials (tissue paper, regular paper, thin sticks, tape, glue), wind, can't be too small

• Using the CAD software (these are the four main pieces of the glider):

• Some of our ideas:

There wasn't really one idea thought up of first, but we decided to try imitating Da Vinci's helicopter design before anything else.

It seemed like a great idea at first, BUT! we didn't really have the materials to pull it off right. It wasn't going to be strong enough with the thin sticks we were supplied with.

We then thought we might try making more of an actual glider (like most others).

We gave it a tail and what we thought were wide enough wings.

This is what it looked like at first:

Once we tested it out, we saw that it kept flipping and didn't really go far so we tweaked things and changed certain parts of it, like the shape and length of the wings. We also moved the tail we had made to the top to see if it would help:

We tried making sure there was enough weight on the front of the glider as well and that the sticks were being used effectively, not just sitting there useless.

This was our ending result:

(just pretend I'm not in it)

• The day of the Challenge:

- Our glider didn't do so bad. It did stay in the air a while, but it still did its flip that we tried to avoid.

- If it were less windy, I think our glider would have done a lot better, but even so it at least gained some height before going to the ground.

- I think that to change it, I would try finding a way to keep it on a straight path. For our glider, our best chance at winning in the competition would be to aim for getting it to stay in the air long, which we did the first time we threw it and not so much the second time.

- Mostly, my group had a great time coming up with random ideas and putting things together.

It was a great project!

Egg Drop- Iteration #1

Total Number of Achievements: 14

Idea Generation Achievements Brainstorming

-Our first sketch was of a cardboard box filled with foam, attached to a plastic bag (parachute)

-Our second sketch was of a tennis ball that we planned on putting the egg inside

-Our third solution was to attach a plastic bag to an easter egg basket filled with foam

- Being engineers, my partner, Christina, and I came to the conclusion that none of these were the right option for us. We very creatively decided to get a plastic bag and simply fill it with a bunch of crumpled paper. We put our egg in the middle and to everyone's surprise (but ours) it survived!

Material Size:

-Our materials fit inside a shoe box

Material Weight:

-Our materials weighed about 118 grams

Drop Accuracy:

-It hit the inside of the third ring

Egg Resilience:

-It didn't break!!!

-If I had to change anything, I might try coming up with a way to aim the bag for the target a little better. When we dropped it, we were more concerned with whether or not the egg would break and we didn't really think about aiming right.

Maybe we could have come up with a system to guide the bad to the center of the target.

-To make our solution lighter, I think replacing the printer paper we used with tissue paper would work. It would probably be just as effective and since tissue paper is lighter, it would still help the egg to survive the fall.

Ted: Ideas Worth Spreading

1) The TED organization is about spreading ideas to get important or simply interesting thoughts across. It's a chance for people to show off what they can do or know and hopefully make an impact on the rest of the world.

2) The purpose of their website is to act as an opener for ideas to start flowing. This is how people get their ideas to be noticed. It's a segue into the media, which is the most important part of making a difference--it's the path leading out to the rest of the world for everyone to see.

3) I think all of the topics listed in the sidebar are equally important to engineering. Engineering is the skillful or artful planning of something. It is typically linked to sciences, but it has so much to do with design that it can really be interpreted in many different ways

-Of the topics listed, I would probably say that Technology and Science are the two most related, followed by Global Issues, then by Design and Entertainment and Business

-Engineering is the fundamental key in life. It is used to come up with new technologies relating to anything, and of course elaborate plans are carried out with global issues that revolve around the mind of an engineer--thinking of every possible outcome of events before coming to a final decision as to what to do

-Engineering revolves around the 12 Principles of Design, allowing the thought process to be overall creative; and business also takes a lot of careful planning and thinking, although most people would overlook the connection to engineering -It's all about creativity, which is why it is linked to everything on this planet; it's like the backbone of society.

4) Three videos that really stood out to me:

-Cynthia Breazeal: The rise of personal robots--this caught my attention because of the simple fact that technology is becoming increasingly more advanced. I'm fascinated by the mechanics of such a topic as robots.

-Moshe Safdie on building uniqueness--I, personally, love architecture and anything realted to seeing new designs inspires me. I enjoy seeing new models and being able to see the major connection between art and engineering.

-Charity Tillemann-Dick: Singing after a double lung transplant--I thought it was amazing that dreams and aspirations were so closely related to the techonolgy used to make a transplant. Engineering became so important in trying to find solutions so that Charity could continue to do what she loves.

5) Rachel Armstrong: Architecture That Repairs Itself?

- Rachel Armstrong says we need to outgrow architecture made of inert materials

- make architecture that grows itself

- proposes a not-quite-alive material that does its own repairs and sequesters carbon

6) To get involvoed in this field (architecture) you would need to:

- go to a four year college and major in architecture or civil/structural engineering

- take design and engineering classes and understand the fundamentals

- apply for internships and work your way up to land a job in architecture

Reverse Engineering: Functional Analysis

1. The primary function of my mechanical object is to cut paper in any shape.

2. Scissors have a mechanical lever to bring the two sharp blades together to slice paper. Its axis of rotation is found right above the plastic handles, giving it a torque force.

3.





4. The mechanical components visible are the handle that creates a lever and the blades that come together in precision.

5. The hidden mechanical components of the object are are torque and the exersion of force from your hand to the object.

Second "Opt In": The Revolution Will Be Televised

Part 1

Q - What technologies facilitated the regime change we witnessed in Egypt today?

-Three are:

1. online media

2. satellite television

3. "check-ins"

-Online media was created as simple communication between people (facebook, twitter, etc.), not really for anything other than letting friends know what's going on with them. It started to be used as a way to spread enthusiasm for the protest and knowledge about what has happened. Ignorance became virtually extinct because of it. There was no more hiding behind it.

-Television did the same in spreading information about the current situation. Human rights started to emerge and this lead to greater passion in protest.

-Lastly, check-ins are used to earn points and communicate with friends through mobile devices. This allows for protestors to coordinate plans and important information about nonviolence.

Part 2

Q - List each of the items displayed in the image. Make your best guess about how they could be repurposed to support peaceful demonstration in the face of an authoritarian regime.

-jacket, gloves, goggles, shoes, spray paint, rose, lid, and scarf.

A jacket would simply be used to keep warm during a peaceful demonstration and the gloves as well.

The shoes would be used to walk long distances if that's what the protestors decide to do.

Spray paint could be used only for picket signs so that the police don't get angry about defacing public and private property, causing violence.

I think the rose could be used just as a symbol of peace.

The scarf would also be used as warmth and the goggles could just protect against wind or something similar, depending on weather.