After meeting with our client, Sonia Parra, we learned more about our project. The goal  of our project is to make a model cervix that can change colors to indicate the presence of cervical cancer. My team has spent a lot of time this week researching cervical cancer. We spent hours looking at pictures of different stages and symptoms of cervical cancer. We even went to a clinic where we got to see a cervical exam in person. We also began looking into different color changing mechanisms that exist. After researching, we met with our client’s undergraduate assistant, Emilie, to confirm that we were on the right track. Using the information that we compiled, we were able to establish design criteria and begin brainstorming. We came up with many ideas that we narrowed down using morph charts, screening matrices, and scoring matrices. We are now prepared to begin prototyping and looking into different materials for our cervical models. So far, we have used air dry clay for our low fidelity prototypes.

This week we also paired up to make lamps in Arduino and laser cutting workshops. I was able to use adobe illustrator to design a cute box. Then I used my design to laser cut a box out of wood.  Meanwhile, Borgestein was working on the sound sensitive led light. Afterwards we were able to put our work together to create a lamp. I look forward to continuing to use the laser cutter and the 3d printers more often!