This page is dedicated to the work and progress we have made over step 4 in our CAPSTONE Design.

Below is our final proposal.

Below is a 3D model of a hinge. This is to help us learn how to 3D model for our product.

Below is an evaluation of alternative concepts.

Below is a presentation to help get funding for our project.

Important concepts to apply to your designs:

Minimize number of parts.

Minimize number of different Kinds of parts.

When possible buying parts (on the cheap!!!) is preferable to manufacturing them yourselves.

Seek a modular design (i.e a design where the different functions are physically isolated.)

Design for ease of manufacture.

Design for robustness.

Design for adjustability (thing can be tuned up on the fly to improve performance).

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a "cradle-to-grave" approach for assessing products, processes, industrial systems, and the like.

"Cradle-to-grave" begins with the gathering of raw materials from the earth to create the product, and ends at the point when all materials are returned to the earth.

LCA evaluates all stages of a product’s life from the perspective that they are interdependent, meaning that one operation leads to the next.

LCA enables the estimation of the cumulative environmental impacts resulting from all stages in the product life cycle and, as a result, allows selecting the path or process that is more environmentally friendly.

CA helps Design teams select the product, process, or technology that results in the least impact to the environment.

This information can be used with other factors, such as cost and performance data to find optimal solutions.

In step 3 of our capstone project, we really began to think deeper about our design and work out more details involving the logistics of how we are going to complete it. One skill that I feel I demostrated very well with my team was collaboration. We took advantage of tools such as our Gantt chart so that we could complete all of our work in a timely manner, and make sure that everyone was participating an equal amount of effort. I did my fair share of work, and I feel that my group all felt satisfied with all of our participation, which means we all did a good job collaborating and working together as a team. Another skill that I feel I demonstrated during step 3 was good conciensious learning. Although we had a lot of work to do in a small period of time, I understood the point of all of it and worked hard to complete the assignments diligently with my team, so that we would be better set up to succeed with our project in the future. If I had not done this, I would have just been doing the work with no understanding of the "why" behind it, and we would be struggling in the future to go back and actually complete step 3.

One area that I feel I could improve in would be communication, specifically with mentors. We did talk briefly with all of our mentors about our finalized idea and our assignments and tasks we have planned for the future, but going forward we definitely need to communicate a lot more frequently with our mentors because our project is only going to get more complicated as time goes on and we begin to actually build, and we are going to need all the help we can get. Another area that I can improve in for the future might be character. Although I am a kind teammate, I am not always motivated every day to complete all of our work, and I can sometimes be distracting to my other team members, so in the future I will work on my motivation, as well as not being disruptive when I am not feeling that great about doing work for that day.