After our long fourth of July weekend, we continued making our medium fidelity prototypes in preparation for our meeting with Sonia Parra. In an email to Sonia, we included the pictures of the different models we had made. She expressed that the cervical models we made using SolidWorks looked the best. Since none of us have used SolidWorks before we have been teaching ourselves how to use all of the features on SolidWorks. We have spent a lot of time experimenting with different techniques to create realistic, non-symmetrical, cancerous textures on SolidWorks. Some of our models look super weird. Mary made a flower like cervix, and Waheed made one that straight up looks like a butt. He literally made a cancerous butt cervix. The process of designing the cervices is very time consuming since we have to make each individual lump in order to make it look realistic. Jeremy also helped us to learn some tricks on SolidWorks. Overall I feel a lot better about using SolidWorks since I’ve made over thirty cervical models!
After designing the cervices, I had to print them and paint them. Painting the cervices is pretty fun since I get to be creative with the painting techniques that I use. I have tried many different ways of mixing the thermochromic pigment with paint and/or enamel gloss varnish to get varying degrees of color change. Our entire table looks like a store on valentines day since it is covered in pink cervices.
On Tuesday, we had a meeting with Sonia and she liked our models! We demonstrated the color changing mechanism and we showed her all of our different designs. We then set up a meeting with Dr. Schmeyler to get her approval on our cervical models. With her approval, we can begin making our final prototypes!
Apart from our project, this week we had a lot of fun during the Needs Finding Workshop. We were able to experience what it was like to be a disabled person living in today’s society. Being blind, getting around on a wheelchair, and eating when you have arthrogryposis are all difficult tasks! Rolling around in a wheelchair is so much harder than it looks because you need a lot of arm strength which I clearly don’t have. This workshop really opened my eyes to how inaccessible many places are to disabled people. The next day, we got to stain the tree house. We got it done pretty quickly by working together. Its been a good week. I can’t believe that next week is our last full week!
