Engineers to the Rescue

I worked with Skylar Gilmore, Stevie Provencio,and Keija Song to create a device that will save animals that have fallen down a well. Our target users are rescue workers or first responders like firefighters, EMTs, etc. Each of our group members had to come up with 6 or 7 sketches each. Then, we decided to select 3 of our personal favorites so that we can put them in a decision matrix. Our design criteria components were: functionality, safety, reliability, price, compact, and simple. We scored the 3 personal favorites that we individually selected on a scale from 1 to 10 and weighed the score. The Harness device that was constructed by Skylar scored the most out of the others. We had a limited amount of supplies to build the device. We began to construct the Harness, and tested it in the lab. My team and I realized the animal could not be scooped and had to be moved using another utensil. We had to create another tool that manipulated the animal into the harness. Our device was originally $760, but the new tool changed the price to $1020. When we tested the device, we had a 100% success rate and a fast rescue time of 26 seconds. Our longest rescue time was 75 seconds. At the competition, our device rescued the animal in 53 seconds. This project helped me gain more professional, communication, and design skills.