Update 10/27/15

This Saratoga student has a hand, but that doesn't mean he can't wear ours.

Paul and Mr. Gallagher discussed plans for the lock.

Today we finally took our quizzes on the presentations so our productive time was shorter, however, we still managed to get some tasks done.

The hand group printed out another hand in full size that we will ship out soon. The hand group also got some more emails sent out to doctors and will got some meetings set up to talk with them about prosthetic hands. The Machinery team helped out the lock and key group with some 3D printing today.

The lock and key group finished up the Inventor files and discussed some more market research and technical plans after reviewing results of our initial experimental survey.

All in all, things are looking good for the future of both projects. The lock and key group has a tangible new product in our plastic key prototypes and the hand group is getting some real direction with their talks with doctors and feedback from a hand recipient.  

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Update 10/24/15

Yesterday was an exciting class for both groups. Our project manager Max selflessly postponed our quizzes which allowed everyone to get a lot done.

In the hand group, Ross, Cameron, Gray and Adam worked on one of the 3D printers and are preparing a hand to send out to Enable. Andrew and Reese emailed twelve doctors to see if we could meet with them to talk about our prosthetic hands and to find out what issues are with current prosthetic hands. Steve and Jackson continued to do research and come up with ideas for the project. Hannah, Maddie and Ross worked on getting feedback from Brandon who currently has an Enable hand.

Ross kindly provided us with a summary of Brandon's feedback and what it means for the project: "His main problem is functionally the hand is worthless; it is unable to preform any basic hand movements or functions. It was unable to grasp and hold objects quickly and consistently. The hand from a comfort level is perfect according to Brandon and that design can remain the same. So our mission is now to redesign the control and movement system to better the hands capabilities and functionality."

Not to be outdone, the lock and key group is working on some market research of a different sort. The group is creating a survey for homeowners which will be distributed online and will gather information on their opinion of current mechanical and electronic locks and home security in general. Others are still working on creating CAD files for the various key designs for 3D print prototyping. We also happened to brainstorm some more lock ideas and are still waiting for the lock we ordered to arrive.

That's all for now. Next week our class will meet on Tuesday and Thursday. Look for more updates then.

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Update 10/21/15

What a time to be alive.

Today was a very exciting day for the EDD class. Both groups have now finished their initial presentations and are getting started on their real work.

Now, the groups are making quizzes to test the knowledge of what people know from the presentations, particularly the one on the human hand. A few members of the hand group also doing research on orthopedic surgeons to ask them questions related to prosthetics. The other members of the hand group are coming up with and testing ideas to modify and improve the printed hand.

The lock and key group had a very productive meeting about key design. We are drawing the various key designs on CAD software and are planning to order metal 3D-printed versions of one or two of them from Shapeways, as well as ABS prototypes from our in-house 3D printers. We also have some ideas on aspects of the lock design, and have ordered a mechanical deadbolt for reverse engineering purposes.

It may not sound like a lot, but most people in the class would tell you that they sure are busy. That's it for today. See you on Friday.

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Update 10/15/2015

The hand group is hard at work getting a quality control hand made.

Things are heating up as we finish up initial research and get ready to really get our projects started.

In the key group, Paul and Lucas are hard at work creating the presentation on issues with the hand project and areas of the field that have already been worked on. Nick and Jake continue research on lock and key technology. Eli has largely finished his presentation and focused on PR tasks today. The group is discussing technologies other than contact smart cards that we might use, including fingerprint scanners.

Today the hand group did the same jobs they’ve been doing.  The hand anatomy research group did more research on how the human hand works and put that into a presentation for our class to learn as well. Another group finished the presentation on the key research, did more work on the quiz, and helped a little with the 3D-printing. The 3D printer group fixed some problems they were having with the 3D printer and continued to print the prosthetic hands. They also started to put together a prosthetic hand that they printed out and got the fingers all done. The hand group is working hard and expect to get a bunch of prosthetic hands printed soon.

That's all for today. We'll be back next week.

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Update 10/13/15

Paul and his key group.

The hand group is busy fixing their 3D printer.

One of our beautiful 3D printers.

Uh oh.

This is what troubleshooting looks like.

Getting to work.

Our chief financial officer.

Today in EDD, we continued work on our presentations and got most of them done.

The key group, Paul in particular, is planning to decimate the hand group when we present on issues with their project (and vice versa). That, however, is a story for next post. Today Jake and Nick worked on mechanical locks, Paul and Lucas on the hand project critique, and Eli on electronic lock technology. We will have to make quizzes for the other group (and Mr. Gallagher's freshmen?) next class.

The hand group report from Adam follows below.

• Adam - Did some more research on the anatomy on the hand and tested MIT’s Inventor Video Game.
• Maddie - "Making a dolphin for Mr. Gallagher"
• Hannah - Did more research on the hand ligaments in the wrist and is currently working on the PowerPoint presentation
• Steve - He’s gotten studying done on the metacarpal bones and the carpal bones
• Jackson - Research on forearm muscles
• Kevin - Worked on key group issues and MIT Video Game Testing.
• Reese - Made a new group called the Brain Trust and helping with 3D printer problems
• Cameron - Assisting in troubleshooting 3D printer problems.
• Ross - "Doing a survey for a guy" and assisting with 3D printer problems.
• Gray - Troubleshooting 3D printer problems.
• Andrew - Made a new group called the Brain Trust and helping Gray and Cameron

As you can see, the 3D printer problems are consuming a lot of the hand group's resources.

That's a wrap for now. We'll be back on Thursday.

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Update 10/8/15

This is what engineering looks like.

As you can probably tell from the above photos, today was an especially productive day. Ross created a Twitter account for the class, @sshsedd2016 (same for Instagram), and both groups made progress in their research.

Here in the lock and key group, Paul and Lucas are researching competitors to the Enable hand, such as partially 3D-printed robotic prosthetics (or bionics, if you will). At last check, Nick and Kevin were watching a YouTube video about hacking RFID cards and I am finishing up my research on electronic locks. One thing I noticed is that current electronic locks are much more expensive than mechanical ones - something we will be trying to change.

Today's Hand Report comes from Adam and follows below.

This week, we will be researching more today and next Tuesday while continuing to make the presentations. We plan to show the other group our presentations and present the patent research so we don’t steal anyone’s patents.

Today’s accomplishments:

• Adam: did more research and tested a video game
• Maddie: did more research and tested a video game
• Hannah: did more research on the hand
• Jackson: did more research on the hand and worked on the presentation
• Steve: did more research on the hand and worked on the presentation
• Kevin: got not much done
• Andrew: Did more research on electronic key patent, worked on the presentation as well as made 5 forums on central desktop for project management and clear up conversation
• Ross: finished “Ross stuff”
• Gray: 3D-printed some stuff
• Cameron: assisted in 3D-printing

That's all for today folks. Have a great day and don't forget to hit up our new social media accounts.

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Update 10/6/2015

Here in the EDD class, we are hard at work on our new projects.

Today's Hand Report comes from Adam. After a weekend meeting with Joey from Enable, the hand group has begun printing test hands and will be sending one of them to Enable for quality control. Ross is working on making our class an official chapter of Enable. Gray has been designated as the "3D printer master" and Adam is working on general research. The rest of the hand group is working on either a presentation on hand anatomy, or patent checking for the key group.

The lock and key group has a lot of research to do as well. In addition to patent checking for the other group, we have split up the task of our own presentation. I am researching current electronic lock systems, Perrin is researching the future of this technology, Jake is looking at mechanical keys, and Paul is working on patent checks and research for the hand group.

Well, that's a wrap for today. Look for another update on Thursday.

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Groups Form, Research Begins

Our EDD class has split into two groups. One group is working on the prosthetic hand project and the other is working on the contact chip key project. Both groups are just beginning research and the hand group has begun 3D-printing an existing model hand.

Here in the PR department, we have enlisted Adam Bollinger as the writer for the prosthetics group and Gray Morrison as photographic assistant.

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