ELEVATOR PITCH

We are Bright Ideas Tech, a startup dedicated to improving productivity and well-being with our innovative Smart Lamp solution. Our target customers are college students and professionals who face difficulties in maintaining an optimal study environment due to distractions and inadequate lighting conditions. 

Our Smart Lamp is a versatile desk lamp that automatically adjusts brightness, color, and ambient music based on the user's activity and surroundings. Imagine having a lamp that intuitively responds to your needs, whether it's focusing on work with soft lighting and calming music or setting the mood for relaxation. 

The market for our Smart Lamp is significant, with millions of students and professionals worldwide experiencing challenges with concentration and productivity in their studies or workplaces. 

Our business model involves selling our Smart Lamp directly to consumers through online channels and retail partnerships, with potential opportunities for subscription-based services for additional features and updates. Investors can expect a healthy return on their investment through potential acquisition by larger tech companies looking to expand their smart home product offerings.

Our team consists of experienced engineers and designers with a passion for creating innovative solutions. We also have advisors with extensive experience in the tech and consumer electronics industries guiding our strategic direction.

We are seeking $500,000 in funding to finalize product development, launch our marketing campaign, and scale up production to meet customer demand.

REFLECTION

Reflecting on my experience developing the Smart Lamp project, several factors contributed to its success and helped me overcome challenges. One important factor was my confidence in my ability to pitch and develop the project. This self-efficacy allowed me to tackle obstacles and persist through setbacks.  I was also confident because of the previous projects and also because of the enormous support I had from the Fimbel Staff. When it came to challenges, I went to the staff for help and consulted the TAs and some of my peers also.

Another significant factor was my mindset. I approached challenges with a growth mindset, seeing them as opportunities for learning and personal growth. This helped me come up with creative solutions and persevere through difficulties.  The project seemed overwhelming. It looked like something a whole company on its own should do but because of the growth mindset I developed throughout the course, I was able to do and finish my project. I went in with a learning mindset which was why I wanted to do something out of my comfort zone which was laser cutting. 

Effective time management and organization were also critical for the project's success. I set clear goals, broke tasks into manageable steps, and prioritized activities, which helped ensure that the project progressed smoothly.  For this part, I broke my activities into different parts and assigned them to the different days I was free.  For example, I allocated the laser cutting to Thursday after class and finished that before I left the lab. I decided not to send anything to my dorm because no matter the step I would want to take, I would need help from a staff so I did that to also organize myself. I prioritized activities like the circuit playground over painting my lamp, something I really wanted to do but it didn't effect my project because it was not an integral part of it. I cannot imagine prioritizing the painting over the circuit playground.

Active listening to feedback from peers, mentors, and potential users was also essential. Incorporating this feedback into the project allowed it to evolve and meet the needs of its intended audience more effectively.  I got so much feedback from my peers after the project pitch and from others when I was in the process of doing the project also. Because of the feedback, I was able to come up with a project that was better than the idea I had in mind. For example, someone from the project pitch feedback said "I liked how they engaged with a common problem of students." This feedback encouraged me to think more about how well I could design my project to help students more.

Belongingness was another key factor. Feeling a sense of belonging within a supportive community of peers and mentors provided encouragement and motivation throughout the project.  When Rachel and Moe were helping me with my project, they asked me questions and accepted my suggestions like I knew what I was doing which made me feel like I really belonged in the tech field of my project. A typical instance was when I suggested we use a while look instead of a for loop and my suggestion was used to come up with the whole code. 

Cognitive flexibility was also critical. Being open to new ideas and willing to adapt plans based on changing circumstances or feedback was essential. Flexibility allowed me to pivot when necessary and explore alternative approaches to achieve the project's goals.  There were a lot of times during my design process that my plans changed because of obstacles. From the project pitch to the final look. Initially, I wanted my rainbow colors to fade in to create a nice sequence but because the code made it difficult to do that, I just went in for the simple one. Also, I planned to display images on a screen but because neither Rachel nor Moe had used it before, I decided to let go of that plan since the due date was near.

Emotional intelligence also played a role in navigating interpersonal dynamics and maintaining productive relationships throughout the project. Recognizing and managing my emotions, as well as understanding the emotions of others, was key. Throughout the project, I worked with Rachel who had really high EQ to the extent that it had an effect on me. I started the project late and therefore has so much pressure on myself throughout the project. When Rachel was trying to generate the code and it was not going to well, I was getting very frustrated and really wanted to give up but I remembered the class video and stayed calm as Rachel was. I don't know if she realised my anxiety but she told me to continue working on the wooden par, where I saw progress, uplifting my mood.

These skills developed during the Smart Lamp project are transferable to other contexts. For example, problem-solving, time management, and collaboration can be applied to various assignments and projects across disciplines. The strategies used to prioritize tasks and allocate resources effectively can also be transferred to other contexts, such as work or personal projects. 

Interactions with others in the context of the Smart Lamp project cultivated communication and teamwork skills that are valuable in both academic and professional settings. The ability to adapt to new environments and learn from diverse perspectives gained from this project experience is beneficial when exploring opportunities such as study abroad programs or internships. 

Finally, planning a longer-term trajectory requires similar skills to those developed during the project, including goal-setting, decision-making, and resilience in the face of uncertainty. Overall, the Smart Lamp project provided a valuable opportunity to cultivate a diverse range of skills and competencies applicable across various contexts and endeavors.

Laser Cutting

Woodwork

CIRCUIT PLAYGROUND

SUCCESSES

I encountered quite a number of successes in the process of making my design project. It began when I was immediately able to settle on a design for my project. I then got introduced to Adobe AI and then the laser cutter.  One of my greatest successes was uploading my design to the laser cutter and cutting the design out of the 1/4-inch wood.

My successes continued after the laser cutting. We were able to screw the LED display and the Circuit playground together and we got the LED display to display default objects. I was also able to use baking paper to diffuse the light, something Rachel found for Mr in the Fimbel Lab kitchen. I was able to glue the parchment paper to the wood and cut out the paper that would interfere with the glue when we finally stuck the wood together.  The successes continued when we fixed the wood together and placed the circuit playground in.

fAILURES

For me, there is no gain without failing, and it is more than a learning process.  I encountered a lot of failures in my design process. The first one was using a star-filled theme for my lamp design. I realized the little stars were too much and might split up my wood, I also realized that filling it with too many little stars would make it difficult for the design to be seen and for the laser cutter itself because the laser cutter tends to really light up when it loops through the same or when object uploaded into it overlap.

The second failure was when we uploaded into the computer that the wood we would be using was 1/8 inch but then in the laser cutter we put 1/4 inch because the wood was actually 1/4 inch. 

Everything was then going on smoothly until it was time for the circuit playground. Rachel and Moe developed the code from scratch and the failures that occurred within this period are heartbreaking. First, we didn't know how to use the LED display and the light display on the circuit playground together, secondly,  when the space was lit up enough so that the multicolored side would play and the light went out, the lights did not change back to white but run through the loop fully before the white light came on. 

There were a lot of failures in the code and I attached a few to the website.

photo spread

final look