Capstone Step 2

Task

We had to concentrate on some of the most crucial parts of engineering and designing for phase two of the final Capstone project. This involved market, consumer, and company research; building a demand and want list for our turbine device; conducting a customer survey to better understand what people value in portable turbine to create renewable energy; and learning how to tinker and use 3D printing to bring our concept to reality. Phase 2 involved further concept generation utilizing our classification system, functional breakdown of our product using Coggle, finalization of a few ideas, and tweaking of these ideas to produce project prototypes. Step 3 of the capstone design is to follow up.

Evidence of Work

Content

• Classification scheme: a classification scheme is the product of arranging things into groups. it is a way of grouping and organizing data so that it can be compared with other data. in this case, we made a classification scheme of all of our ideas for our water turbine in order to help us come up with a final design.

• Mind map/decomposition flow chart: a functional decomposition flow chart is the diagrammatic representation of the particular concept with its sub-parts. for our project, we created a flow chart of our water turbine that shows the breakdown of the overall function of our design into smaller parts called sub-parts/functions.

• Low-tech prototype: a very simple prototype that shows what the basic design is and how it should look/function without the in-depth technology aspect. for our water turbine design, our low-tech prototype was made out of a waterproof box, watertight seals, and PVC pipes.

• Human-centered design: an approach to problem-solving that develops solutions to problems by involving the human perspective and emotion in all steps of the process. it aims to make systems usable and useful by focusing on the users, their needs, and their values.

• Design specifications: a detailed document that sets out exactly what a product or a process should present. the design specification could include required dimensions, environmental factors, ergonomic factors, aesthetic factors, maintenance that will be needed, etc.

• Demand and wish list: a list of different specifications that you either need your product to have, or want your product to have. demands are things you need to make sure your product has or can perform, and wishes are things you want your product to have but it is not necessary for it to function properly.

• Market research: an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers. you must research them to know about their values and problems, in order to create a product that will help them. it is very important to the engineering, designing, and marketing aspect of inventing a new product. 

• Tinkering: a branch of making that emphasizes creative, improvisational problem-solving. It centers on the open-ended design and construction of objects or installations, generally using both high- and low-tech. it is the first step in the experiential learning continuum.

• CAD: the use of computer-based software to aid in design processes. CAD software is frequently used by different types of engineers and designers to create two-dimensional drawings or three-dimensional models. we used CAD like Onshape and Autodesk to make our sketches come to life.

• Customer survey:  a method of collecting consumer feedback. it helps companies assess customer satisfaction, measure customer engagement, perform market research, and gauge expectations. we are using the feedback from our customer survey to help us out in the design process.

Reflection

Even though Step 2 of the final Capstone project required more work than Step 1, I surely learned how to complete the other Steps with its assist. I have gained a lot of knowledge about the engineering and design process over the past few weeks, as well as how to use 3D software and categorization schemes to generate potential designs for our water turbine. During step 2, there were a ton of assignments to finish, so my group and I worked together every day to finish everything which displayed our ability to collaborate. Another way I excelled was through critical thinking because we had to do a lot of tinkering and blueprinting for this step to narrow down our project to its main function which took some time and effort. One thing we could have improved on was turning in all of our work in on time. We still got in all of our work in the end but there is some room for improvement. We have made a lot of improvement since step 1 and I canont wait to see where we can get this project to.