Hello everyone,

Its almost the end of week 5 of SEED. This week has been the most exciting and exhausting week to me so far. But let me tell you how i finished off last week first.

Last week was pretty short because of the 4th of July celebration. We ended up blogging on Wednesday. After blogging, we all met up at 18:45 to head to the BBVA stadium to watch a soccer game between the Houston dynamos and the New Red Bulls. It was an exciting game. The Dynamos took the win in the end after scoring four goals and the Red Bulls scoring none. The one dollar hot dogs that were sold at the stadium even made the game more exciting. After the game, there was fireworks. Lots and lots of fireworks. It was  a glorious experience. I have never see so many fireworks in my life. The dynamos win and the fireworks were a perfect way to begin the long weekend.

The SEED teams after the game(left) and that’s me in midst of cheering after the second goal was scored(right)

Independence Celebration

On Friday, we drove to Dallas where we had a Malawian themed dinner to celebrate of the Malawian independence. We met so many people. It was really nice to spend some time to talk about some things about home. There was food, drinks and music. we danced till dawn. On Saturday, we had a soccer game between the Malawians in Houston against those in Dallas. The Houston team won.In the evening, we had a bar barque where we met so many people who inspired and motivated us to always strive for greatness.

At the Malawian Independence Dinner

 

On Sunday, we had a prototyping session from 4 pm to 8 pm. This is where we finished off the medium fidelity prototype and put 50 pounds of weights on it. This is  to simulate the amount of weight that will be applied by the camper when sitting on the chair. We hang it up and left it over night.

Monday, July 8. 

In the morning, we had a meeting with Dr Hunter and Dr wettergreen. They encouraged us to shift from the rigid chair design that we had been focusing on to something more flexible, just like the petzl triangle that is currently used at the camp. From the meeting, we went straight into prototyping. The main idea is to design something that will have some features of a rigid chair design and the petzl triangle.

We managed to make the low fidelity prototype for this new design. The main problem we had was that this felt like we are starting all over again. This is because most of the research we made was concerning the rigid chair design. But in the end we did some more research on hammock chair designs and made some detailed drawings for our full scale medium fidelity prototype.

A picture of the the second low fidelity prototype.

 

 

Tuesday, July 9

In the morning, we went ahead to make the medium fidelity prototype. We cut out some nylon fabric and made some pockets in the sides. These pockets would accommodate the wooden rods that would provide structural support to the design.

We managed to finish this medium fidelity prototype in the afternoon and had Dr wettergreen sit in it and give us his views. We noted down the strengths and the weaknesses of this design.

In completion of this medium fidelity prototype we faced a lot of problems with the sewing. First of all, we had challenges to set up the machine and had to get assistance from grant and adulfor. Another problem was that only one member of the team knew how to sew. This was a problem because the majority of this new approach required sewing. For the team to finish everything in time ,we needed everyone to be good at sewing. Due to this, each member had to learn how use the sewing machine.

 

and that’s the story about how i learnt how to use a sewing machine.

A picture of the first medium fidelity prototype.

Dr wettergreen testing the medium fidelity prototype.

Wednesday, July  10

In the morning, we worked on improving the medium fidelity prototype. We noted down the weaknesses and strengths of the design. After that, alexus and i together with Dr Hunter to a buy some more fabric for prototyping. Chisomo and Andrew were learning more about sewing patterns and techniques at this time. From the shop, we cut out the fabric and started making the second Medium fidelity prototype. We managed to finish it in the afternoon.

A picture of the second low fidelity prototype made out of muslin fabric.

This prototype had a wider seat and back support compared to the first one. We had one of the members of the team sit in the design for testing but it tore off.

Thursday, July 11

In the morning, we cut out the fabric with the purpose creating another prototype exactly the same as the second low fidelity prototype. We agreed to make the stitches stronger so that it does not tear off this time. We also decided to make another prototype with a wider seat and a narrow back support. We are still working on these prototypes and hopefully you will see them by next week.

We were unable to get the prototypes finished because all the sewing machines were not working. Dr hunter and Grant spent more than 30 minutes tying to fix the machines. As this was happening, our team decided to sew some parts of the design by hand. Only Chisomo knew how to sew by hand. she had to teach everyone to sew by hand.

These sewing problems have really slowed down the whole prototyping process this week but we got one machine fixed so we are all good now. On the other hand, these problems have made us learn how to sew both on the machine and by hands.

These past days have been so hectic.I could not find a window for my laser cutting project. I plan to do it tomorrow  though and you will hopefully see it on Monday.

 

 

Hello everyone,

Before i jump into this weeks happenings, let me briefly tell you how we finished the third week of SEED. On Friday, we had the morning meetings as usual and went on to the Pugh screening to obtain the best brainstormed ideas. We then did the Pugh scoring in the afternoon. Honestly, scoring the ideas was really hard because most of the ideas were kinda similar. Despite the similarities, we managed to score the brainstormed ideas in terms of comfort and support, Range of motion and durability. It took us so much time that we were unable to finish everything. We decided to finish up the next Monday.

In the evening, we some time to hang out with some of the rice students; Cordbin and Andrew by the benches at Martel college. It was really nice.

Monday, July 1

Monday marked the beginning of the 4th week of SEED.

Without wasting any time on Monday, we jumped straight into the Pugh scoring. We managed to finish scoring all the ideas and the one that scored the highest was called the “Iron Throne“. This was an idea that was based off the previous teams design. It consists of a chair with a metal frame made of aluminum, a ratchet hinge for posture adjustment, a travel pillow neck support and side supports for the head.

In the afternoon, Andrew and i focused on the CAD drawing of the iron throne while chisomo and Alexus made the presentation for the Midsummer Presentations that were scheduled on Tuesday at 1 pm. As the saying goes, “practice makes perfect”, Chisomo and Alexus practiced their presentations in front of adulfor and Grant. They gave very helpful feedback to prepare them for the presentations the next day.

CAD drawing of the iron throne.

Tuesday, July 2

In the morning, we all worked on the presentation, to make it as perfect as possible. Chisomo and Alexus practiced and practiced so much until they memorized the words in the slides. Then Andrew and i made the low fidelity prototype of the iron throne.

Picture of the Low fidelity prototype of the iron throne.

It is similar to previous design with improvements in terms of lower back support and head and neck support. After lunch, we had the mid summer presentations. All the teams presentations were amazing. Questions were fired after each presentations to get clarification and perhaps more detailed explanations on a particular part of the presentation.

Wednesday, July 3

Today started off with the morning meeting as usual. We then  went over the comments made by our TA’s concerning yesterday’s presentations. After that we started working on the medium fidelity prototype that you will get to see next week after its completed.

I also took the safety quiz for the laser cutter and i am waiting for approval. On Monday, i plan to work on a personal project to learn more about laser cutting, i can’t wait.

We plan to return to the OEDK again on Sunday to continue prototyping. What a long weekend it is going to be. My friends and i are going to Dallas!!. It just so happens that we are celebrating the Malawian independence on 6th July, which this Saturday. Enjoy your holiday.

Happy 4th of July!!

My name is Aubrey Mphatso Chinkunda, i’m 21 years old and i am a Malawian Student from the Malawi University of science and Technology currently studying Biomedical Engineering. I’m in my fourth year.

wow!

A lot has happened this week. I will try my very best to cover everything. I arrived on 08 June from Malawi after 22 hours of travelling, i was so exhausted. I ,together with my fellow Malawian interns met up with Dr Leutaud who bought us Chipotle (this was my first time have it) and gave us a quick tour of the Martel college. We then met up with our TA’s, Grant and Adulfor who showed us the South Servery and the different churches all over campus.

Boot Camp officially started on Monday, in the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen. We had to introduce ourselves mentioning which college we are coming from, our major and the year we are in. Then ice breakers kicked in. We through a ball that had so many questions around. Once you catch it, you had to answer the question next to your thumb. My question was “what do you look like when you are being yourself?”. And the answer to that was ………. We then went on to get our Rice IDs  at the Rice Police Department ,which took longer than expected. We ended up missing the Houston Zoo visit. After sorting out the complications we the IDs, we went straight to the south servery and had an early lunch (i don’t really think there is such thing as an early lunch, lunch is lunch, despite the time).

After that, we went over the general Schedule of the  summer internship program which showed that the first was going to be as hectic as it gets. Then we went to the Office of International Students and Scholars to check in. This also took longer than planned. one of the reasons might have been because there was some free food involved. We then went back to the OEDK where we were introduced to ENGI 120. We ended up finishing later than the required time because of all the delays at the OISS and RUPD.

On Tuesday, we skipped the ice breakers because we were running behind schedule. We went straight to the official tour of the OEDK. This was very interesting because almost everything was found in the OEDK. We even went into a room with a TV and an Xbox. After that, we watched a video about Safety and took a mandatory Safety quiz. After that the fun began. We were split into teams to  deconstruct different devices. On our team, we dismantled a Printer/Photocopier. We found a bunch of dc motors, gears and lots of ink.( i never knew i printer had motors inside). It was a nice experience. In the afternoon we made presentations  in groups about our different cultures here in the USA and in Malawi.

After that we got the presentation on the Zoo Project. We are supposed to design an enrichment tool, something like a puzzle feeder for a 6 year old Red River hog from the Houston Zoo to make it physically and mentally active.

In the evening we had a bunch of videos to watch and quizzes to do. There were so many videos we had to watch each at twice the normal speed with subtitles on.

On Wednesday, we divided into our Zoo Project teams. I’m part of team Bear. We jotted down some questions to ask our client and then went to the zoo for an interview with the client. We also went to the hog’s pen and looked at the existing puzzle feeders.

 

We then came back and had a challenge among the teams to come up with a stand using 6 plane paper rolls, tape and a string. As you would have guessed, Team Bear took first place.

I’m really proud to be part of SEED 2019. I want to use this opportunity to learn so much about designing and engineering as i can. In Malawi we don’t really get so much practical with our school programs so i feel like this is something that will equip me with a unique set of skills.

Here are some of the pictures we took this week.

 

Team Bear with a book stand made from 6 plane paper rolls, tape and a string.

Brainstorming!!!!

Next week i will tell you about how crazy our brainstorming station got.