Rapid Prototyping Portfolio
Marissa Arney
Projects
Project 1
Description: Conceptual Design for three toys based on a fundamental physical concept.
Solution:
Concept 1 Baby Mobile
Concept 2 Water Xylophone
Concept 3 Flying Saucer
What I Learned:
Many things have to be considered in the design process.
Appearance, mechanics of the structure, usefulness, and feasibility.
Project Two: Rapid Manufacturing Process (work in progress)
Description: Redesign a toy that does not work and build your group's assigned part using a rapid manufacturing process.
Solution: My group is making the solid side piece using cyber cut.
What I Learned:
For group projects sometimes half the battle can just be trying to schedule a time to meet to discuss the project.
The other half of the battle is working it out so that everyone gets to contribute in a way that is meaningful and they are satisfied with.
Redesigning is a lot more complicated and takes a lot more time than one would initially estimate.
Project Three: Outreach Activity for Engineering Education
Description: Design and build an activity that someone could take into an elementary classroom to teach the students something about
engineering.
Stage One
Solution: Teach kids about how to harness wind power and wind pressure through making sails for sailboats.
What I Learned:
Always keep in mind your audience and who is going to be using your activity when you design your activity.
Form should follow function not the other way around. In other words what we create should come from what we want to teach the children, not what we teach the children being a result of the activity we have.
Children are a very tough audience - they have a lot of special and different needs that don't apply to adults.
The first in class testing of our boats made us realize the boats would never work and we would have to come up with something new.
Stage Two
Solution: Teach kids about translating motion through the construction of a cardboard arm that periodically extends and contracts when a wheel is turned.
What I Learned:
Testing of our project with test kids from both home school and take our daughters to work, made us realize that this idea would work and helped me learn appropriate ways to teach this activity to kids.
Viewing other groups projects also helped me realize what was age appropriate material and would interest the kids, and what wouldn't.
Exercises
Exercise One: Role Mole's Glasses
Description: Create a real working object that keeps Role mole from misplacing his glasses in time for his date on Tuesday night.
Solution:
Wearable glass case worn around the waist.
What I Learned:
How to make a real working physical object in a short amount of time.
Many ideas are not considered because of inability to develop a prototype.
The main reason why I chose my solution is because I had the ability to make it. Other ideas I did not have the knowledge to fully produce.
In giving presentations do not get distracted by prototypes or models and be conscious of only looking at them and playing with them
Exercise 2: Cardboard Six Pack Holder
Description: Design a container to hold six loose cans of soda using only cardboard. The container must hold the cans while being swung and be made of as little cardboard as possible.
Solution:
What I Learned:
To think about the process of designing - why you choose ideas over others as you are actually making the project.
The importance of testing out prototypes but not over testing if it undermines the structural integrity of the prototype.
In Class Exercises
Design and Build Exercise
Description: Design a freestanding frame made of newspaper in which the entire team can stand inside upright. Build the design structure of another team.
Solution:
Design for structure was two arcs crossing perpendicularly.
Our structure built by team C
The structure we built was a four pole teepee, with added on cross beams for support.
The structure we built for team A
What I Learned:
To test all design ideas before sending them on. Do not take for granted that they will work.
We did not test to see if our method of attaching the newspaper could be roll as tight as we wanted. It could not, contributing to the failure of the structure.
Good instructions require detailed descriptions on how to go about making something, they don't say just to make it.
Cardboard Cube
Description: Build a perfect cardboard cube, the end result being that you cannot see the insides of any of the pieces of cardboard.
Solution:
What I Learned:
How to properly cut cardboard.
Simple details can make a huge impact on the overall aesthetics of a project.
When helping out those with less experience than themselves, some people tend to take over a project rather than teaching someone how to do it. This frustrating behavior should be dealt with early on, because otherwise it will be too late.
Egg Drop Exercise
Description: Design a container to keep an egg intact after a three story drop. Additional constraints are material cost, hitting a target, and as always aesthetics.
Solution: A cone made out of a paper cup sitting in a plastic cup. The egg sits in the cone. I could not find a picture of the solution anywhere.
What I Learned:
Not only to factor in multiple considerations and constraints for a design but the relative importance of each.
Make sure that the container will land the way you want it to.
The center of gravity of our container was to high, therefore the container rotated in falling and landed on its side causing the project to fail and the egg to crack.
Even if people are assigned specific jobs everyone still helps contributes ideas in all areas, making for a better project.
Miscellaneous
Portfolio
Description: Your looking at it.
What I Learned:
How to design web pages and that I can do so without knowing any HTML.
However, it is a very good thing to know some HTML because web page programs have not bee perfected yet and have a lot of unusual quirks and in order to troubleshoot problems, some basic HTML knowledge is needed (or a professor with a lot of HTML knowledge).
Activities I Missed Due to Absences
Toy Dissection
Playing With Food
Design/Build Take 2