Step 1 (Capstone Project)

Evidence of Work

In order to design a product that fits the wants and needs of the customer, a mass amount of research must be done. We tackled three main assignments such as defining the problem, Customer/market research, human centered design and surveying our customers. From these three assignments, my group gained valuable information on ways to improve our prosthetic leg for cats. Throughout these assignments, we gathered information on how much a customer is willing to pay, is the market large, are there competitors, what do people care about, what people have in common and more.

These assignemnets were completed on a google doc, padlet and google forms. The padlet is an ongoing tool where we put all of our research and ideas on.  

Content 

Empathy: the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. We focused on what our possible clients would want in a prosthetic leg for their animal. Whether it would be comfort, cost efficient or stability. 

Prosthetic: denoting an artificial body part, such as a limb, a heart, or a breast implant. We are planning on making a new and improved prosthetic for the hind legs of domestic cats. 

Biomedical: relating to both biology and medicine. Our project falls under the biomedical category. 

3D printer: a machine allowing the creation of a physical object from a three-dimensional digital model, typically by laying down many thin layers of a material in succession. We are planning to use a 3D printer to construct our prosthetic. 

Functionality: the quality of being suited to serve a purpose well; practicality. It's important that the cat is able to have full range of motion with its new prosthetic leg. This will allow it to properly walk run and jump. 

Demand: an insistent and peremptory request, made as if by right. For one of the assignmnets we created a demand and wishlist. 

Wish: feel or express a strong desire or hope for something that is not easily attainable; want something that cannot or probably will not happen.

Survey: a general view, examination, or description of someone or something. We surveyed fellow students and parents to get insight on what they would like to see our prosthetic have. 

Reflection

My communication skills were excellent in the step one phase of our capstone project. I took initiative in discussing what we were going to accomplish for the day and made sure people were constantly working on their part. When researching I made sure to explain my findings and present what information I thought was crucial to help make our prosthetic fit the wants and needs of potential customers. Time management was another skill that my group and I did well on. With there being a lot of assignments we decided to make a schedule of what had to be completed every day in order to turn in all of the assignments on time. Half the group would work on one component of the assignment while the other half would do the rest. This allowed us to complete a lot in a short amount of time. 

One thing I could have done better on was critically thinking through challenges. Usually my other teammates come up with creative solutions to fix problems while I listen and then execute their idea. But from now on I'm going to try and brainstorm more and watch tutorials on how to become a better critical thinker. Instead of shutting down when a problem comes my way I will see this as an opportunity to grow. My conscientious learning could use some work based on these last couple of weeks. I was tardy to class which shows that I need to prioritize getting to class on time instead of walking with my friends to class. Also a few times I became off topic and strayed away from the assignment, when I should be completely focused on the task at hand. I will save chatting time with my friends for after school and make sure to never be tardy when we do the next phase of the project.