Team 4 - VariVape
Lauren Calabrese, Austin Tracey , Alex Cocquyt, Mikey Roberts
Introduction:
The idea for this project came from group member Alex Cocquyt, who is very passionate about discouraging underage vaping and wants to create alternative methods to quit. When asked about the shortcomings of other anti-vape campaigns, Alex says "I think that what a lot of anti-vaping ads miss is how much time is lost. They try to reduce the effects of nicotine addiction using a 30 second clip of a kid at a party and cutting out the music. Of course the statistics look bad. But we don’t think anyone can truly quantify the pain of all the fights with parents, all of the lost friendships and every little moment that could have been had."
Problem Statement:
Although nicotine dependence decreases both physical and emotional health, teens often lack the self control to quit vaping. Teens need a device to help them overcome nicotine addiction.
State of The Art and Solution:
Below is our group's alternative matrix that we used when determining what final solution we could use for our project.
Specifications:
To have a safe and effective product, our team figured out many specifications for the VariVape.
Intended Users and Purchasers:
While anyone would be able to purchase this device, it would be intended to be purchases by either adolescents who want to quit vaping, or their parents.
Prototype and Concepts:
We knew when picking this project that unfortutenaly, we would not be able to truly bring it to life with the constraint of the term. However, while we were able to test the validity of our ideas using a proxy and other methods, we were able to create a "working" prototype for the project.
Our ideal design for a working model is to the right, and would attach to the mouthpiece of a vape device and would be discarded once the user is able to quit vaping.
Testing and Proof of Concept:
Overview:
Due to local and state regulations on vape products containing nicotine, we were advised to simulate the testing process used non-hazardous materials.
We used a oil diffuser to simulate the vape, a vacuum to stimulate the inhale, and the vapor emitted by the diffuser to simulate the vapor let off by a nicotine vape product.
Process:
After adding 2 cups of water to the diffuser, we allowed the diffuser to run for 5 minutes before turning on the vacuum. As the vacuum removed the vapor from the container, the vapor was being filtered.
Results:
As the number of filters increased, the time it took to empty the container increased, as the vapor was passed through more filters.
The photos to the right show our data table from the testing, and the contraption used for testing along with the filters used.
Business Plan and Costs:
Ethics Related To Our Product:
Reflections:
