#robi0619

This past week we wrapped up the final projects. My group went on Wednesday and this project was a little different since we had to act as though we were the panel approving their design or not. It was cool to get that perspective, and that feel as though they are our client and we are trying to find the team that was able to convey the most convincing project. This class was very enjoyable for an introductory class, and it definitely taught me more about the design process and how to approach it with a professionalism 

This week on Wednesday we visited the St. Paul campus at Ruttan Hall. We met with a professor in the department of agriculture and economics. We started by introducing our project and what we are trying to accomplish. Once he understood we then asked him questions about agriculture and what background he has on agriculture and he deals with more of the economic side of things but is still aware of farming methods. We then asked him what type of problems he is seeing in agriculture, and  a few other questions pertaining to the subject. The interview was overall somewhat successful. We thought there was going to be more professors there on campus, but there were very few that had a lot of knowledge on sub-Saharan African countries.

This week, we started to narrow down our project concept for our design problem. Compared to the other projects, this one seems to require a lot more mental work than the other projects. Our problem is based on agriculture, and there are a TON of problems in agriculture worldwide and some of the issues are extremely big problems to tackle. We narrowed down our design problem by narrowing down on a specific site to focus on for agriculture, and I believe that we decided to focus on sub-Saharan African countries. We also tried to focus on one issue within agriculture and we decided that educational practices on agriculture could be a good start. Next week we will be visiting or skyping with a professor from the St. Paul campus to ask questions pertaining to agriculture and to get his opinion on some things. 

This week we had a presenter from Glitch.mn. I wasn’t present for the class so I looked them up on google and did a little bit of research on their start-up. I payed close attention to their website and what it is they are doing and they basically teach and education through a new technology. It looks pretty cool, and I think it is cool that they are having this be such a community company. They wouldn’t exist if they didn’t have people wanting to participate hands on. If this company wasn’t using this new, engaging, revolutionary technology, automatically draws in thousands of people off of pure interest. I like companies that try to raise awareness of problems in the world. 

As we went over every groups projects, I was excited to see how many different problems were solved. It was also really interesting to see how creative people got with their design to resolve those problems. One design that stood out to me, was the chair that forced you to stand up at a certain frequency. I think that this would be a good idea because a lot of people do get caught up in the relaxed position of sitting down, which over an extended amount of time probably isn’t the best for our health. When it came time for my group to present, I was very pleased with my team for coming prepared and ready to present. 

This week’s guest speaker from Azul 7 was very interesting. First off, I loved the fact that she brought energy to the class and covered some really important topics. The most intriguing aspect of her presentation that really stuck with me, is the fact that we find design in nature all the time. When she referenced velcro and how it initially became an idea is super fascinating. I think that as we move into a more technology based world, that design is going to rely more on nature. One reason I think this is because right now we have created technology while being ignorant to the harms it has to not only our world but the human body as well and I think this will force engineers and designers to start looking at the bigger picture when developing or enhancing a product.

This week, my group and I did a lot of brainstorming on the direction we want to take this project. Establishing the problem we were going to be associating our project with, was the easy part. We decided to revolve our project around the problem of having your cars not warm up fast enough. There was a little bit of research involved in finding resolutions. We brainstormed on ways we could come up with a solution that we could actually make a prototype out of. There weren’t a whole lot of options, so we are going to wait until we have the prototype demo in class to decide how we are going to approach the rest of the project. 

This week made me think a lot about science, statistics, and art, and the intertwined relationship they have together. When we developed our “tools” (a.k.a maps) for our partners in our group to get to my location, it clicked for me. Without art, there wouldn’t be logical ways to display information so that the viewer can fully interpret the info. If we take a closer look at maps, legitimate maps, we noticed that some areas are different colors, and some road lines are different colors as well. This helps us understand the information in an efficient way. What if maps were ugly drawings like the one I did in class, and that’s how it looked on my iPhone gps, then I would probably have a harder time finding my destination. Displays of information are major key to decyphering information.