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 process on how you design stuff, 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?

Went out and experienced and learned about the shopping cars first hand


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

a. went to the store and used a shopping cart


b. talked with store people who use them everyday and got information about how they could be improved, (i.e. the wind catches them and they can move really fast)



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 the ideas of others



6. Why should wild (and sometimes crazy) ideas be entertained during the brainstorming phase?

Because if you build on those ideas and they end up being better than the appropriate ideas.
aka "Focused chaos"


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 group 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?
Purpose refocus the deep dive by diving into groups and give each team a "need" area. 


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 often in order to succeed sooner.


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


20%

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 on the design


16. Of all the things that we are surrounded by every day, what has not been placed through the design process?

the human body and nature


Conclusion

1. What did you find to be the most impressive part of the team’s effort?
>The amounts of fun they had while working
>The great ideas they came up with
>How effective their shopping cart was

2. What advantages are there to having a design team with members that have non-engineering backgrounds?
>Different perspective
>Provide more information on the things engineers might have not thought of
>The psychological and marketing aspect of the design


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?

TO GET PEOPLE FOCUSED AND TIME MANAGEMENT


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?
No, I think that the things we design are taken from the design of the things in nature. 

Glider Challenge

1. Picture of our glider^^^^^^^^
2. 1) The challenge is to design a model airplane with unlimited amounts of paper and balsa wood. The catch is that it has to be light weight and be albe to withstand the wind.

2) Design PhaseBrainstorm solutions:
-The rules of brainstorming are to be creative as possible and collaborate openly with people.

-Our ideas were taken from Da Vinchi's models of airplanes.


3. ) Specify:-Criteria: Make a model airplane with as little material as possible.
-Constraints: unlimited paper, balsa wood, tape
"+" - desirable outcomes- Make the glider fly

"Delta" - outcomes to change- Cut the glider in certain spots and put more balsa wood on the wings
"?" - questions raised- At what point does the glider spin upside down? How much will we have to depend on the wind? Is there a critical piece of design that we are missing?
"light bulb" - ideas generated- We can make the glider have different spots of change in the amount of paper and we can also cut the balsa wood into smaller pieces.


4. Develop Solutions:
-Sketch (with labels)
-Model in CAD

Purple- the front

Green- the middle

Pink- the tail of the glider

 

In class Assignment

MODEL PLANE

*

*The stick in the middle is a very small size, i apologize for the puniness of it.

Isometric View

E G G D R O P

My partner in crime for the egg drop experiment was Gabby Aguilar.
We chose a very simplistic version of a contraption to hold the precious egg.
It consisted of a plastic bag and a lot of crumbled up loose leaf paper, as seen here.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Achievments

1. Our materials fit inside of a shoe box, compressed of course.

2. Our materials weighed less than 200 grams (118 grams).

3. We hit inside the third ring on the construction paper.

4. OUR EGG DIDN'T BREAK

5. OUR EGG DIDN'T BREAK

6. OUR EGG DIDN'T BREAK

TED

1) What is the TED organization about?

The TED organization is about spreading creative and interesting ideas out to the public. They have scientists of all kinds discuss different topics that are relevent to our world today.

2) What is the purpose of their website and how does the functionality of their site support that?

The purpose of their website is to enhance and engage people to be excited about learning new things.

3) As Engineers and Problem Solvers, which topic areas (the choices from the "Show talks related to:" section on the sidebar) are of most interest to us? Justify your answer.

The topic areas that are of most interest to us would have to be technology, design, business, and science because we are engineers who deal with progress in technology in sciene and design. The business aspect of it would be that once an idea or product is designed and produced there needs to be a way to market it, which would fall into the business category of things.

4) Based on your previous answer, what are 3 talks (videos) on the site that appear like they would be of most interest to you as an Engineer/Problem Solver? Justify your choices.

Rob Harmon- How the market can keep streams flowing
William Kamkwamba- How I harnessed the wind
Naomi Klein- Addicted to Risk

All these videos contain ideas that we have learned about in class. The first video takes science and engineering into the business world. The second video is about someone who overcome a barrier and with the help of science and motivation, he was able to help his family out by building a windmill in his small town in Africa. The third video talks about how we are addicted to risk and pushing forward to explore new boundaries. As a engineer/problem solver that is what we are doing on a daily basis, trying to study and find new solutions to probles in our world.

5) Charles Limb- Your brain on improv

• Is it possible to study creativity scientifically?
• Charles Limb is fascinated with sound/music and surgery
• He uses an intense creative example of Keith Jarrett, a well known jazz improviser, who never plays concerts the same way.
• He believes that artistic creativity is a neurologic product that can be examined using rigorous scientific methods.
• playing jazz in a fMRI scanner 
• What happens in the brain when something is repeated and memorized versus what happens in the brain when something is improvised?
• In his experiments he found that when someone was improvising the left side of the brain lights up, the language cortex and the visual cortex lights up.
• Then uses a function fMRI with hip hop hop/rap, including him rapping.
 

6) How could you get involved in the field/technology/issue you chose to hear about? What experience/skills/training/education would you need to learn to get involved with this field?

I could get involved in the field/technology/issue I've chosen to hear about by volunteering at a research institute in a hospital or also going to a music store and talking to the people who work there. I would probably have to get a degree in cognative psychology, computer science, and pre-med. Internships in these fields could also be very beneficial to get involved in this field.

Reverse Engineering- Mechanical- Function Analysis

1. What is the purpose or primary function of the object?The primary function of the object is to provide safety for drivers in case of an accidnet or malfunction.

2. Make an educated guess as to how this product operates. Use simple machines’ terminology to explain the object’s sequential operation.This product probably operates through an on and off switch

3. Identify the system inputs, intended product function, and outputs. Use power point to create a "black box" graphic like the toothbrush example discussed in class. Save the slide as a .jpg image and post it to answer this question.

4. What mechanical components are visible?the button

5. What is it about this device’s function that you cannot identify, because the mechanical components are hidden from plain view?
Yes, because the mechanical components are hidden from plain view. There is a plastic covering over the product where the whistle is, which makes it hard to see if there's anything else driving this intense device.

New Balance 890

If "Elegance" in design is doing more with less, how will the New Balance 890 accomplish this?
The New Balance 890 will accomplish this with its lighter weight shoe and using less materials, while keeping a neutral cushion, ground feel, and overall support. It does have a very refined look to it and I think runners will definitly appreciate the look and versatility of these shoes. The shoe has a great form and using a RevLite Material, for the foam in the shoe. This RevLite material that is "very light and feels fully responsive". The New Balance 890 accomplishes the elegant look very efficiently.

Which steps of the PLTW 12 step design process did the New Balance Designers use?
The New Balance Designers used most of the 12 step design process. Specifically, they defined the problem, which was "How can we create a shoe using a minimalist way, while keeping durability?". They brainstormed ideas, which are on the pictures in the article.
They researched and generated ideas, such as the diamond shaped soles on the bottom versus something else. Also they "Identified the criteria and constraints", "explored possibiliities", "selected an approach", and "developed and designed a proposal". It appeared to me that they just had the shoe already prepared, which would be the "create or make" in the 12 step design process. Overall, they went through bascially each step in the 12 step design process to create a beautiful looking and functional running shoe.