During the early stages of our brainstorming, we came up with a list of everyday problems that we wished had a solution:

• Letting the bunnies out frequently

• Taking so long to care for our skin

• Trying to be environmentally friendly

• Seeing that one spot that gets blocked by my car frame

• Beauty products aren't travel size

• Converse shoes get dirty easily

• Going to different cities and not knowing the radio stations

• Paper straws disintegrating

• Losing things

• Cat hair gets on everything

• Belts don't always go through all the loops (flap)

• Pockets on dress/skirts/pants

• Not enough room for four bath towels to hang in the bathroom

• One girls bathroom in the Tesla wing

• Chairs that don't slide easily on the floor

• Hanging heavy things on the wall

• Smoke detectors going off during cooking

• Glasses get foggy

• Adjustable rings

• Instruments get cold during marching band

• Erasers get stuck in mechanical pencils

• Seats get too hot in parked cars

• Mopeds/motorcycles don't allow for dryness in the rain

• Carrying heavy textbooks

• Rolling backpacks are an obstacle, not an assistance

• Everything gets jumbled in lunchboxes

• Being alerted about new cool places opening

• Organized sports bags are too expensive

• Students get tired in school

• Not having the correct charger (borrowing)

• Hands get sticky easily

• Bad seals on bottles

• Lids on containers leaking/getting messy

• Alarms scaring people awake and being too loud

• Hang out places for teens late at night

• There isn't a place to put things at movie theaters

• Earrings lose their pairs

We put that list of problems into a decision matrix with three basic criteria and our own individual passion for solving the problem.

Basic Criteria (From Left to Right):

1. Doesn't Use Chemistry

   • Chemistry would be a barrier if we chose a problem that required a chemical solution.

2. Within Our Resources* (see bottom of the matrix)

   • Any problem that would require equipment don't have access to, would not be a problem we should tackle.

3. Solution Involves Physical Product

   • We had to filter out the abstract problems from the ones that could actually develop into a physical solution.

Passion About the Problem:

• Each person (left to right: Jazmin, Brooklynn, Heaven, Rachel) rated how interested they were in the problem, on the given scale.

Color Coding:

1. Red

   • Any Basic Criteria that was given a zero when rated, was highlighted red and removed as a possible problem to address.

   • If two members of the group rated a problem as a zero for their Passion About the Problem, it was highlighted red and removed as a possible problem to address.

2. Green

   • Top nine problems that will move on to the next decision matrix.

The top nine problems were moved into another decision matrix where we personally ranked our interest in the problems from one (highest interest) to nine (no interest).

We then decided that we wanted to explore more potential problems and repeated the process.