Three Ideas

Portable Wifi Router

  • For places with bad LTE or Mobile receptions use a portable router to connect to a satellite. Can be used in case of emergencies or just for comfort if someone is camping
  • convenience

Portable Reverse Osmosis Machine

  • lots of places lack freshwater, places like Africa and California, and Desalination plants are expensive endeavors. Creating a portable reverse osmosis device would lower the cost and availability of freshwater.
  • RO low pressure high reject rate able to fit in a backpack and can make 15 gal of pure water per day for people in remote areas with no access to naturally clean water sources for one person to a small family
  • convenience
  • Easy to access USB Hub with 4 USB ports
  • Most USB hubs have wired connections to computers, mine will have a wireless connection so you can put the hub anywhere on your desk in your room without having to worry if the wire is long enough.
  • The wireless connection will either be achieved via Bluetooth or wireless USB connection.
  • Products like this already exist but are very expensive and old. The one I found said it worked on Windows XP and Visita but clearly stated that it would not work with Windows 7, but is still somehow selling for $100 on Amazon.
  • With this, I also want to make mine work on all major modern operating systems, Windows 10, macOS Mojave, and Linux Ubuntu.
  • convenience

I will do the easy to access USB hub with 4 USB ports as my major design project. I chose this one because I am interested in learning the difference between Bluetooth and wireless USB. I also believed the portable wifi router to be nearly impossible and the portable reverse osmosis machine do able but an expensive and time consigning endeavor.

Discussion

Three kids did pick one of my ideas for the same category. They chose to give my robotic farm the most challenging idea; however, by the time any of them posted I had already given up on that Idea and moved on so they wouldn't have influence my decision. If anything they made me more sure that I had made the right choice by dropping it. They all stated that high costs, I would need to become an expert in the area of agriculture, and it would take a long time to develop as reason for why the robotic farm was a bad major design project.

Kirill made it very clear in class that he thought that my portable wifi router would be impractical and impossible. I disagreed with him and said it would be possible. Which he responded with "Not by you" and I said, "All you have to due is plug an antenna into a router. How hard can it be?" Of course I had know all along that it would be a difficult goal to accomplish, obliviously I wasn't going to admit that to Kirill. In the end I went with the wireless USB hub, did Kirill's "input" help me realize this, probably, but again I will never tell him this.