It's the Time of Year to Work Harder

A few days ago in class we were finishing up the remainder of work before we went on our holiday vacation. Eric, Alex and Connor were finishing up the pinning the tote bags that we plan on selling. Over the break Eric and Connor plan to sew together at least three bags. Meanwhile, Seth and Tom continued with the inventor drawings and sketches. Soon there will be another prototype video of a backpack up on our YouTube channel. Brian went on working on the box design of the dragon puzzle. It came out looking great with all of our logos on the box. After and throughout vacation we plan on continuing work on the FirstWave backpack. Happy Holidays to everyone!

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Surveymonkey Feedback Implementation

We have been using Survey Monkey responses to build the videos off of. Some responses have been specific and others very vague  We have taken a few general responses and made basic tutorial videos about that topic. For example one response said "edit pictures". We took this as an opportunity to create a video about editing pictures in general. The website designers and programmers of our group have used the survey as well to develop how to organize the information on our website.

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Happy Holidays from the SSHS Inventeam!

In class the other day we picked up from where we left of with the fundraising for the new laser cutter. We now have key chain designs for PLTW, Skidmore, UAlbany, Syracuse, and our high school. We will continue developing them until we get the chance to cut them out. We also completed our December progress report, which included our accomplishments and challenges from the past month. Our logo design has been finalized and has been completed on Inventor. We also plan on meeting up some time over break to work on our Kickstarter, but also to continue prototyping. Until then, we wish everyone a healthy and happy holiday to help ring in the new year!

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When I Say "Key" You Say "Chains" KEY! CHAINS!

With the recovery of the laser cutter starting through the help of Kickstarter, the PivoRest members have been designing more key chains.  With the intentions of selling these to profit EDD club, we have been making key chains that range from the PLTW logo to the Skidmore logo, a nearby college.  They will also be given out in return of donations to help replace our laser cutter.  As we quickly approach break, the team has been setting dates to get to the shop and finish our prototyping.  With the long amount of time we have, our arm rest and all the components with it will be finished early in the new year. As 2012 comes to a great end, 2013 will have a great beginning.

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Making Progress

Computer2torials is continuing working hard as a team. Our website is looking better and better each day. We have a successful slideshow on our homepage and our tool bars are looking more professional. We are looking to finalize our website layout/design over the upcoming weeks. In addition to the website we are continuing to make videos; however it has slowed recently since a few members of our group are working on the Kickstarter video. For the Kickstarter video, members from our group are working on the video's script and presenting wooden dragon as well.

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First Wave Holiday

Today in class the First Wave group worked on constructing the paper bags so we can get a better look at what the bags will look like. As Tom, Eric and Seth worked on putting the bags together, Alex cut out and pinned fabric templates for the gym bags we are going to sell in the near future. While the team was hard at work, group leader Brian and class treasurer Connor worked on the December progress reports. As the day came to a close, the team decided to get together and spread a little holiday cheer by making a Christmas card (as seen here). First Wave would like to wish all a happy holiday season and happy new year!

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Narrowing It Down

These last few classes we have been designing templates for our backpack. With the templates we construct a model for visual and planning construction. We are coming up with 3 different designs and picking certain traits from each to use for our final design. We have also been sewing some tote bags for experience and fundraising. We will have 4 or more bags done by the end of the week.

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Trudging Along

A couple of our group members are temporarily working on a class project to raise money for a new laser printer due to a recent accident. This however does not stop us from moving along on the website. Our goal is to have a full design of the website by Monday morning. We are putting a slide show on the homepage so that you get to see a variety of videos as soon as you get on our website. We keep filling gaps in our website so that nothing looks out of place

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Rebuilding From The Ashes

This past Monday, there was a malfunction with our laser cutter while we were cutting out the last sheet of Shen key chains. The laser cutter caught on fire and is now out of commission. So today in class, three members of our team and a few other classmates met to discuss how we could raise the $6000 needed for a new one. We have decided to use Kickstarter, a website where people can pledge money in exchange for products, to generate enough funds.While we worked on fundraising, the remaining members of our group finalized our logo design and three more key chain designs. Over the weekend, we will continue to prototype our armrest design and will start fundraising for the new laser cutter.

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New Focus

We've still continued to work on the box design dragon project despite the set back of losing the laser cutter. We focused in on a final design for the backpack, and are beginning to put it into inventor. A few of us are moving forward with the duffle bag production for our fundraising although we suffered a mixed set back in which we were able to make more bags with less fabric. However, we only had five zippers for our now ten duffle bags so we will need to order more. 

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Aesthetic Communication

We made another video to add to the large collection we will have when we launch the website, which is still undergoing construction. The programming team has explored some aesthetic details, such as gradient borders and menus that expand when clicked, and these will make the website as a whole not only easier to use, but also a more enjoyable experience. In addition to that, we have also finished a simplified, professional logo to use. With videos being routinely completed, the website approaching its user-friendly goal, and a logo finalized, each piece of Computer2torials.com is steadily getting ready to begin fitting together.

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Showing Shen Support

The PivoRest group has been working on giving “Shen” key chains to support the students from Shenendehowa High School after the tragic car accident killing two of their peers.  We were able to create most of the key chains but problems with the laser cutter led to an end of the production.  The group is continuing to refine the design of the armrest and we are coming close to a final design.  Prototyping will be continued throughout the month.  We were also asked to create a new logo and we are progressing with an idea created by one of our members.

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Tote Bag Production

Today our fabric from Jo-Anne's Fabrics came in so we got all the material to make our tote bags. Part of the group was cutting out templates for the tote bags while the other half was continuing to chug away on the inventor drawings for the backpacks. We will have those done by this Thursday along with the tote bags. Also we want to have the designs finalized by next class so we can start going into depth with our trouble shooting. We also sold $256 worth of wax ski scrappers to a local sports store. Overall we have made nice progress and we see some big things happening in the near future.

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Logos, Licence Plates, and Other Lucrative Products

Today in class, our main focus was on two separate tasks. We split up into two "teams" if you will, one for coming up with measurements for the length/diameter of the arm rest, and one for continuing the design of our key chains and license plate cover. We will use those measurements to begin prototyping our first model as soon as Brian Casey is able to meet with us, which will be early next week. We are also using our progress reports from last month to make sure we have gotten everything done which we wanted to, by the end of next week. Our next task will definitely be completing our first whole prototype so we can begin analyzing it for pros and cons, as well as making a final decision on our logo design.

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One Step Closer to Professionalism

Lately, we have been re-designing our logo by trying to simplify it as well as many advances. Advancement in our website has consisted of a new layout with categories. Now the user clicks either a mac or windows option, to then be directed further into the website. We have a working Google search bar on the website as well. The video production sub-section of the group has been consistently creating new videos with higher quality and more efficiency. We have also acquired a professional green screen with lighting. This has also been set up and now will help us further maximize the quality of our videos. 

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Boxes, Designs and Fundraising

Friday in class half of the group was working on making final designs for the back pack and we are planning to put the new designs on inventor in sheet metal. The other half of the group was working on the box for the dragon 3D wooden puzzle we are planning to show to G. Willikers. We were making templates that we could use and cut out with the laser cutter. We also want to find clay-coated paperboard for the box so we can print a cool design on the front of the box. The sewing experts are also going to find a good project to start to get more sewing practice. We are thinking a simple one-pocket backpack would be a good next step. We are going to work on the backpack on inventor and the box over the next few classes. Some of our group members went to the Sports Page Ski Shop and sold $56 of wax scrappers and the owner there said he would buy 100 more scrappers in February from us.

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Putting it Together, Piece by Piece

Today the group got together and decided that some of the original plans that were going to be put on the backpack needed to be modified. Ideas that we originally thought to be good needed to be changed. Through the teams discussion we went through the different aspects of the bag and tried to figure out how to make a part or section of the bag better. Some examples of these changes included the front and back panel’s width. Also another feature that was redesigned was the front pocket. Instead of having two bars to hold the roller skis, it was redesigned into just one large bar. These challenges that we have been faced with will need to be overcome so we can build the best backpack possible. Check out a video of one of our prototype models of the First Wave Pack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwqdA1pElcI&feature=g-upl

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Sitting, Waiting, but Still Working!

As the PivoRest group waits for more materials and time in the shop to finish prototyping, we have been making good progress on our fundraising projects. Within the next week or so, our first prototype of the armrest will be completed.  In the meantime, a cutout of the license plate cover was created with the laser cutter.  This is a good starting point for the project and will help us finalize dimensions.  Sketches for our key chains have been made in Inventor and will be cut out soon to see what improvements need to be made.

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Chugging Along

We have been working very hard and making progress. We have collected several surveys and are in the process of taking all the information and putting it into one spreadsheet. We have also been producing more and more videos. We are trying to get them done more efficiently and expedite the process. Our programming team has been working on the menu bar of our website, trying to make it the most efficient and most professional looking. We have also been working on the wooden dragon for fundraising.  This is just about complete and ready to be sold.

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A Time of Hard Work and Remembrance

Today the First Wave Pack was hard at work coming up with new designs for the backpack. As expected, many answers from the Kingston surveys brought up new things to keep in mind while designing the bag. Also, the team is starting to go with a sleek futuristic design that incorporates pockets that can hold a lot but are not big and bulky. One of the main problems we are running into is we can’t seem to cut down on the bag’s width, but after some intense brain storming, a solution is in the works. But more importantly, this past weekend a group of high school students from a nearby school were in a severe car accident when they were hit by a drunk driver. Two students unfortunately lost their lives that night and the First Wave Pack would like to send their condolences to their family and friends. Rest in peace Chris Stewart and Deanna Rivers.

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Additions, Adhesives, and Fundraising

In the past couple of days, the PivoRest team has made several advancements. Using the information gathered from the last nursing home, our inventor drawings have been modified to fit the new criteria. Also, we have completed the research of the adhesive to stick to the foam to the plastic. We purchased it, and tested it today to make sure it successfully adhered the two materials. Lastly, we have worked on making licence plate covers out of the plastic, to help raise money for the class budget. 

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Onward!

The Computer2torials group seem to have hit a road block on the programming side of things; trying to add new things to the website has broken it on multiple browsers. It feels like we are moving backwards at this point.  At least the production team has been steadily making videos but we haven't been able to view them on the website yet. We have a lot of surveys to review and have many ideas for videos.  Also, we are trying to get our hands on a computer that we could put Windows 8 onto so we could do tutorial videos for the new operating system.

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