Solve a World Problem
Introduction
For this project we had to solve a world problem using the engineering design cycle. We picked out our problem from a list our entire class came up with. Each person selected the problem they wanted to solve. I chose health care and more specifically, inability to access health care in the United States during a global pandemic.
Steps to Our Solution
Our first step to solve the problem was coming up with the problem and what specifically is wrong. Our problem wasn't healthcare it was inability to access health care in the United States during a global pandemic. Our next step was to research the problem using articles, data graphs, and tables to find out more about the problem and a little bit about a solution. We annotated these articles to understand them more. Below are the articles I annotated.
Our next step was to come up with a prototype. This was difficult since we couldn't make a physical prototype. Our prototype was our presentation since our job is to convince people that healthcare is too expensive and our solution will help fix that. We brainstormed as a group a bunch of good and bad solutions. We came up with our solution which combined two. We also created a physical prototype which was a form that someone would fill out to enroll in our "free" healthcare. On the left is our google slides presentation.
Engineering Design Cycle
Ask: Identify needs and constraints. We used this to figure out our specific problem we needed to solve and how far we could bring our proposition.
Research: Research the problem. We annotated articles and found graphs to understand more about our problem.
Imagine: Come up with possible solutions. We did this when we came up with a bunch of ideas as a group Some were really bad and some were good.
Plan: Select a promising solution. We came up with lots of good ideas. Our group settled on 2 ideas that we combined. A tax to pay for free care and more affordable prices for operations (one set price for all hospitals to follow).
Create: Make a prototype. Our prototype was a google slides and a physical form someone would fill out if they were to apply to our free healthcare plan. Our slideshow gave a description of the problem, our possible solutions, our solution, and how our solution works.
6. Test: Evaluate the prototype. We couldn't really test our prototype. Instead we made sure our numbers checked out and that our tax made sense.
7. Improve: Redesign if needed. We improved our design by trying to get the tax low as possible. The lower the tax, the more on board people are to the idea.
Reflection
I think this project went well overall. I think I learned a lot more about research in this project than any others we did so far. I also think that I was a good teammate getting my part done on time. I think that we could have chosen a more localized problem so we could have solved the problem even more. The next time I try and solve a problem I should make it more localized so I can actually "solve" it. I think I also could have managed my time better. On some of the tutorial times, our group ran out of things to do. Next time, we can plan what we will use each class for so we don't run out of things to do.