Capstone Design Steps 5-6-7-8

Capstone Design Steps 5-6-7-8!

For step 5 of our Capstone Design project, we had to make a Design Defense Report and Presentation for our prosthetic leg. For steps 6 and 7, we had to focus on the manufacturing and performance testing of our product. Then for step 8, we had to finalize our Capstone Project Final Report and Presentation (with voiceovers included), complete/create physical and virtual prototypes, make a digital technical poster, make flyers and business cards, and perfect/add to our product website. It was a long year of working on our Capstone project, but we are finally done with our prosthetic leg and hope that it works as well as we wanted it to! Our team website is: https://sites.google.com/students.nusd.org/capstone-project/home

Copy of Design Report (Handi-Cat co)

design defense report

Above is the final report for our senior capstone project. We included everything that we have worked on so far, so it shows the whole outline of our entire project basically.

Copy of design defense

design defense presentation

Above is the final presentation for our capstone project. We presented this slideshow at the STEM presentation night, and made sure to include the most important parts/information about our company and our prosthetic leg.

digital technical poster

To the right is the poster we created online to promote our product and show people what it is all about. We printed it out so that more people can see it and be intrigued to our prosthetic leg.

Copy of Copy of FLYER CAPSTONE

marketing material

Here are pictures of the different marketing materials we created for our product. We have flyers and business cards to promote our company and prosthetic leg.

Copy of Copy of Business Cards

digital prototypes

Above is the different digital prototypes, sketches, and blueprints that we created for this capstone project. Most of our digital designs were made on onshape or fusion 360, which are computer design softwares.

physical prototypes

The pictures above show all of our physical prototypes that we created for this capstone project. We have blueprints on paper and actual 3D printed models that we designed from the beginning.

STEM Senior Presentation Night

To the left is my group's set up at the STEM senior presentation night. It was a walk-around setting, so we stood by our table and spoke about our project while answering any questions people had about our prosthetic leg. We had our poster, business cards, flyers, slideshow, report, blueprints, and our multiple prototypes/testing instruments.

Content:

decision matrix: a decision matrix is used to choose the best design idea. we had to identify the Evaluation Criteria, weigh them all based on importance, set up the decision matrix, assign scores to each concept/design, calculate the overall value for each, and then interpret to results to finalize our prosthetic idea.
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 prosthetic limb 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 prosthetic cat limb 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 prosthetic design, our low-tech prototype was made out of wood 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.
constraints: limitations on the design, such as available funds, resources, or time. together, the criteria and constraints are referred to as the requirements for a successful solution, so you must work around your constraints and make sure to hit all of the important criteria.
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.
product life cycle: the length of time from a product first being introduced to consumers until it is removed from the market. it states the process of a product's growth, maturity, and decline over time.

Reflection:

Steps 5-6-7-8 of the final Capstone project were a lot of hard work and dedication combined. We had to do a ton of research and testing to figure out the best materials and ideas for our prosthetic leg, and we had to stay focused and determined in order to finalize our product and complete all of the assignments to go with it. Throughout the past school year, I have learned a lot about the engineering and design process, and how to use 3D printing software to create different prosthetic prototypes, and eventually our final project. Regarding the 6 C's, I did pretty well in 2 of them and not so well in 2 others, but overall I've had an amazing year as a STEM Engineering student.

The first C I did well in this year was collaboration. There were so many assignments to complete during the span of our Capstone Project, so my group and I collaborated with one another every day in order to get all of the work done. We split up most of the work, so I mainly worked on 3D printing our prosthetic prototype and doing the computer/digital prototypes and tinkering. With this job, I encountered many problems and setbacks. For this reason, the second C I did well in was critical thinking. I had never been much of a critical thinker before this class, but I did so much independent work during the past few months in order to get my team on track and complete more assignments, so I had to think my way through many of those problems. Mr. Tronconi was a big savior when it came to 3D printing because he helped me work through problems that occurred from our printers and software, so I definitely have to thank him for my critical thinking skills. I ended up 3D printing our whole project multiple times, and it looks really good!

This year, one of the C's I could have been better in was conscientious learning. My group and I didn't manage our time that well during the past few months so we turned in many assignments late. We should've planned better and started thinking sooner about these assignments so that we could have stayed on track. We ended up getting our work done and every assignment was completed thoroughly and to the best of our ability, but we could have managed our time a little better. Another category I wish I had been better in was character. I had a good attitude every day, but sometimes I got annoyed or stressed in class because of how much work we had to do in such little time. I was a good teammate, but I also may have been a bit demanding at points because I don't like changing ideas or starting over when we do something wrong. But finally, the year is over and our Capstone Project is complete, so now we get to look back on all of our hard work and be proud of the product we created.