Design Step 3

Design Step 3

Design Step 3 focused on refining our ideas and preparing for our presentation to the board. During this phase, our group had to revisit and update our project proposal, analyze our progress, and make final adjustments to our wireless heating pad prototype. The goal was to get everything ready for the open house and showcase a well-thought-out, functional product.

This step brought on a lot of stress as we prepared to present to the board. We didn’t feel totally confident going into it, especially since there were still a few unresolved technical issues and not everything went as smoothly as we had hoped. However, as the presentation came together, we started to feel more confident. In the end, we were proud of how we explained our idea, and we felt that we represented our project well—even if it wasn’t perfect yet. This phase helped us see how far we’d come and what we still needed to improve before the final showcase.

CONTENT

• Classification Scheme: A way to organize different options or ideas so they can be compared easily. We used this method to group different designs for our heating pad, which helped us finalize our approach based on portability, safety, heat distribution, and user comfort.
  
  

• Mind Map / Decomposition Flow Chart: A visual breakdown of our system’s functions. We used a flow chart to separate the heating pad into parts like the battery, heating element, thermistor sensor, Bluetooth module, and app interface.
  
  

• Human-Centered Design: An approach to building something that keeps the user's needs and emotions in mind. We collected survey feedback from community members to make sure our final product was easy to use, lightweight, and safe.
  
  

• Prototype: Our working model of the wireless heating pad, which includes nichrome wire heating elements, fleece material for comfort, and a circuit board repurposed from a traditional heating pad.

REFLECTION

During this phase of the project, we demonstrated strong collaboration by seeking help and learning from others. One example was reaching out to robotics student Ben Tyler, who helped us with the wiring and technical setup of our prototype. This showed our ability to use available resources and work with people outside of our group to improve our engineering. We also improved as conscious learners by thinking outside the box, asking questions, and teaching ourselves new things—like how to manage power delivery using battery packs, and how to wire a heating system safely and efficiently.

However, we also identified areas where we still need to grow. One major challenge was time management. We often pushed tasks closer to the deadline than we should have, which added unnecessary stress and made the presentation harder to prepare for. Another area we struggled with was communication outside of class. When we weren’t physically together at school, it was difficult to stay on the same page. In the future, we plan to set better group check-ins outside of school and use shared documents or messaging apps to make sure everyone is up to date on tasks. These improvements will help us work more efficiently and finish stronger in the final phase.