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! Tuesday, December 25, 2012
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! Wednesday, December 19, 2012
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!
Monday, December 17, 2012
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.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
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.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
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.
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.
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.Sunday, December 9, 2012
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.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
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 Wednesday, December 5, 2012
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.
Monday, December 3, 2012
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.
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.Thursday, November 29, 2012
We discussed fundraising ideas in class to see how we could use our engineering skills that we have learned to help fund the class. We are going to develop a wooden dragon puzzle that people can buy and assemble. The dragon will have the cut out wooden parts as well as instructions and a video on how to assemble it. The dragon puzzle will be pitched to a local company for sale. One member of our group has been working to revamp an older model of the dragon and other team members have been helping him with this task.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
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After a short Thanksgiving break, the PivoRest members got back to work and visited The Pines at Glens Falls Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation. We met with a few physical and occupational therapists and the Therapy Program Manager there. They all seemed very enthusiastic about our project. They gave us their critiques on our current design and we received a lot of positive feedback. We are already working on some possible ideas they have given us and we plan to keep building upon them.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Today in class we put in an order for more materials to make tote bags and drawstring bags that we could use for sewing practice and sell them for fundraising. Also in class today we made a plan to meet with a local company called Tough Travelers. Its a backpack company that makes heavy duty backpacks with canvas materials. We would like to meet with them to see if they could give us any constructive criticism and possibly point us in the right direction. Finally we came up with the idea to sell or wax ski scrapers at a local sports shop. For our last blog, we created a video blog from the Kingston races. We are still working on posting it however due to technical difficulties.
Today in class, we decided to review our design process. Since our task involves so much thought and preparation, it's very overwhelming to look at the whole thing all at once. So, we have decided to break up into a few smaller groups to try to focus on smaller parts of the big picture. So far, this is working very well for us, since we have already come up with a few new solid designs that we plan to go with. Once we make our first rough prototype, it will be easier to critique the parts we like and refine the parts we don't, thus continuously improving our design until we get it to where we want it to be.Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Thursday, November 15, 2012
In the last couple of days, we have been working on several aspects of the product. We have been brainstorming logos for Pivorest, and trying to find the best one. Also, the group took another trip to the shop, to practice bending acrylic for our prototypes. Today specifically, we presented our progress to the class and discussed what we needed to improve and work on as a group. We also decided that in the next two weeks we were going to visit two more health care facilities,to get more information about patients needs and wants. We are also working on brainstorming ideas of what we could do with the plastic to sell to raise money for the class.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Today the First Wave Pack gave their progress report. Looking back on what we have accomplished, we realize we are making great progress. After the report was given, the team worked on inventor drawings because the Kingston roller ski races are this weekend. We are trying to get a rendering of the bag done so people at the race can see what our bag will look like. In the coming weeks the group will divide an conquer, half the group will start working on making duffel and draw string bags to sell, and the other half will start working on the original backpack itself. The three non-Nordic skiers in the group have agreed to take part in the beginner race. So the races should be fun for both participants and spectators.
Our website was redone so it will be easier to change by having all the essential parts of the website in its own file. These essential parts is then shown in the website. This makes the site easier to change because if you change the file you then change the logo. For example, it is changed on every web page. We also have started to crack out the videos. We have 7 total at the moment with a large commitment of time into each one. We have posted the videos on the website and are playing around with different functions on the website.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
After a successful
Skype meeting with a Colorado board of administrators, the team quickly went
back to work on the project. We have
made an appointment for tomorrow to meet with the nurses from Sunnyview
Rehabilitation Hospital in Schenectady.
We hope to gather more information there, regarding comfort and mobility
of the arm, and would like to see if they are interested in our project. Our goal for next week is to have started a
plastic prototype. On our down time, the team members are all coming up with
different logo designs. We will have our
set logo by next week.We already have orders for our tote bags that we are sewing for fundraising. We have made progress sewing. I got through a big chunk of the catch-all bag, while Connor and Tom got work done on their drawstring bags. My goal is to be finished with this kick off project by the end of the weekend and to start on the tote bags. Today we gave ourselves the challenge to find all the materials needed to make a tote bag for less than the Llama tote bag kit price. This really makes us think about everything we need and the vast world we can choose from.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
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Friday, November 2, 2012
To learn through experience how exactly to approach the development of tutorial videos, the video production team within our group worked to create three tutorials. The programming team in our group embedded the videos on the website from private links to YouTube where the videos were originally posted. The video-making process was significantly more time consuming than originally anticipated. An animated logo is also an emerging possibility as we solidify our standard format for each tutorial. In addition to video and web development done outside of class, we participated in a brief Skype practice session which brought to our attention the need to practice our elevator pitch and be prepared to represent our product. We’ll be working on that as well as the search engine for our website, more practice in making video tutorials, and refining the website in general. With the videos posted and parts of the website functioning correctly, it’s exciting to see the results of our work.
Today we worked with Brian Casey after school, who is helping us with plastic molding. He is continuing to put in his input about our project, and has given us some great suggestions. For example, he gave us a ball-and-socket joint that we plan to reverse engineer next class, since it will most likely end up being the type of joint we will use for the PivoRest. We also received our foam today, and are beginning to accumulate the rest of our materials so that we can begin prototyping with plastic by next week. Over the weekend, a few of us are brainstorming ideas for a product logo, and are also continuing to get in contact with a few people regarding the attachment methods that we have been researching over the past few days.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Our group has divided into smaller groups so that people can work on becoming experts in a certain field. For example, two of us have been working really hard on becoming experts at sewing, while other's have been working with the Autodesk Inventor program to create a model of our backpack. Also all of our materials have been arriving with the exception of what we ordered today which was samples of canvas and zippers. Overall our group is moving in the right direction and we will continue to keep up the good work.
As work continues on our prototype armrest, more behind the scenes work has been completed. We have ordered materials that will be used for the cushioning like memory foam, fabric, and elastics. Half of the group has been focusing upon the actual arm rest while the other half has been sewing and playing around with ideas for the cushioning. In the next few days, we will be meeting with someone who is going to help us mold plastic, more specifically acrylic. Things are coming along well, but much more work still needs to be completed.Monday, October 29, 2012
Pivorest is starting to conclude the larger portions of research, and is now moving onto some building. We have found the clamp we think we will use, and are getting a few to try out. Also, we placed an order for some of the materials we will need for the build, like the memory foam, to cushion the armrest. Finally, we have been working on a rough wooden prototype of the device, and sent several members of our group to start learning about injection molding. The next step for us is to finish the wooden prototype, and get more people into the workshop to learn about the molding process by the end of the week.
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