The second week was so full of promises, i had a bunch of relief nodes in my nerves that got me assured that everything i was going to do was going to work out for good. we continued with bootcamp through friday to tuesday. another design test challenge was given to us and guess what now? a low fidelity prototype was to be designed in 30 minutes for a tricycle Bajaj.
Bajaj also known as Keke in nigeria pose a threat to human lives. as you can see in the picture, any occurrence of accident chances of passengers survival is almost zero. in groups of two people different designs were made.
myself and Christina came up with the design portrayed below. the prototype was built using tape, small wheels, wood sticks for the base, plastic cups as seats for the passengers and base balls in the cup as passengers. this prototype however was built without brainstorming nor sketching, which is very crucial in designing and worthy consideration.
the Bajaj was tested in the OEDK on a string raised to some height slanting on the way to the ground . the Bajaj raised on this height were let to slide and time was recorded for each bajaj to reach their final destination.
Most Bajaj took less than 6 seconds with the fastest taking 5 seconds less. however some passengers in other Bajaj fell out along the way and some fell when they hit their target destination. even though our Bajaj took 6.25 seconds at least the passengers arrived their destinations safely.
honestly speaking this day exposed me to all possibilities within me and i am so confident that there is nothing impossible and the only thing that kept limiting me which was fear was once and for all broken and a wall of confidence and courage has been built around me.
coming out as confident as a lion, my choices assorted without any doubts in my mind i had to choice the oxycal project from the four projects presented to us which were, a casting stand wheel chair transfer, diabetes foot inspector and oxygen calibrator designs. the reason i chose this project was due to the passion i have for electronics and saving lives in whatever way. i took this as an opportunity also to explore, understand and expand my world of electronics. am so excited with this project and i know that something great will happen by the end of this summer.
finally the needs finding workshop. Dr.Gheshon has transformed my mind a lot. every thing i touch, use or see from this time has to go through some needs finding even as i am typing right now. i am thinking to myself why this keyboard doesn’t have some adjustable stand behind it so that a short person like me can easily adjust and comfortably type as fast as possible in this uncomfortable short chair. with needs finding i learnt three things for determining a need around. the first is through personal experience just like this experience of the keyboard, the second thing is when one observe the struggle that others experience over some things that are part of their daily life. for instance this picture below showing how this girl is struggling to eat due to arthrogyposis. finally a need can be found when one pays attention to touching stories just like the story the DR narrated to us at his introduction to needs finding.
Stay blessed as you continue following these blogs, and feel free to comment!