Layering

Thesis

Realm is an exploration into the use of biomaterials for use in therapeutic products that connect humans back to nature, and engage in meditative processes in the environment. The concept of the products are inspired by chakras, the wearable will be placed at the chakra points and provide cooling inspired by the cooling endothermic property of the biomaterials I created with Agar and Gelatine.

Thesis

As a Beaver student, I didn't have much time here at NuVu, so I decided to focus my last few weeks on developing the skills I learned during my time here. The idea for this project came from my desire to explore how my life has changed over these last few years of middle school and high school in an art piece that incorporated mediums such as laser cutting, drawing, and photo editing. In the end, I made a project that shows how I changed, how my friendships changed, and how my perception of change changed.

Precedents

Initial Sketches/Ideas

Different Versions of Myself

Background Painting Prototypes

Exhibit Display

Final Video

Reflections

I have learned a lot of new skills since I've been at NuVu and gotten very familiar with the design process and making my own projects. Over the course of this Open Innovation I have had to come up with and manage my own project with basically no instructions and the support of coaches. This process is very different from anything I've done in school before and it has definitely been a valuable experience. In addition to that I also was able to learn and hone skills like laser cutting, photography, editing, sketching, and even a little bit of digital painting. The challenges I faced during this OI happened at the beginning of the project when I had to generate creative ideas that were both innovative and achievable, and sometimes my brain just didn't want to cooperate. Overall the time I've spent at NuVu has been very valuable and taught me how to manage my time very well and generate ideas under pressure. I believe these skills will help me down the line when doing future design projects.

Overveiw

The Open Pump Project aims to develop a completely open source "build it yourself" insulin pump. By providing open source hardware to treat type one diabetes, consumers gain the right to understand their artificial organs, along with the freedom to improve them.

Grew up in a family of makers (And Diabetics)

Taking apart tech to learn

Hit a Dead End

Wanted to build a VR Headset

Discover Relativity VR

Wait Whats Open Source?

Build My Own Headset

Open Source Becomes World View

VR Headset Feels Meaningless

Want To Use My Skills For Real Good

Reflect On Insulin Pumps  🎉  🎉  🎉 

What Is An Insulin Pump?

Why Open Source?

$$$

Current insulin pumps discourage users from customizing their experience

FDA approval slows life changing features from reaching consumers

Closed source insulin pumps discourage user understanding of their body

The cheapest of used insulin pumps are still $500

OpenAPS

Design of an open source ultra low cost insulin pump

This is a project hacking insulin pumps with a Raspberry Pi to enable fully automated insulin dosing.

This was a project to create an ultra low cost insulin pump using open source 3d printed parts.

Preexising Work

Contacting Users & Researchers

Mathew Payne

Mathew Payne is the creator of the "Design of an open source ultra low cost insulin pump"

Denise Shanté Brown

Denise Shanté is a holistic design strategist focusing on designing communal spaces and type one diabetic.

Jess Westbrook

Jess Westbrook is a type one diabetic as well as designer and tenured professor.

Contacting Users & Researchers

Interveiwing Users & Researchers

Denise Shanté Brown

• The interview was a mix of structured questions and conversation
• highlighted the importance of an open community
• Pointed out the need for a pump where you control your experience

Jess Westbrook

• Interview was mostly conversational
• Highlighted the need for open development
• Encouraged customizability
• Insulin pumps serve people with uteruses poorly

Researching Features of Preexisting Pumps

Following the advice of Mathew Payne, I researched the "core features" of preexisting pumps attracting users.

Disassembling a Tandem insulin reservoir

After seeing the hidden insulin reservoirs of the Tandem insulin pumps I decided to take apart and document one.

Pump Research

Key Takeaways

Prioritize user customizability in my design (hardware & software)

Allow for pumps to be "off the grid" not requiring phone connection

Keep my design process transparent

Be honest about risk

Form Sketching

Form Sketching

Form Prototyping

Final Form Prototype

Functional Prototyping

Final Functional Prototype

Finish Technical Prototype

Test UI And Control Experience on Users

Publish Design Files and User Feedback

• Touch base with contacts
• Get public feedback on the project
• Figure out final dosing system
• Rethink general form design
• Design friendly UI
• Wait so how am I going to test this???

Going Forward

• First time I focused so heavily on reaching out to people
• More of a conceptual foundation than usual
• Especially user focused design process

Reflection

Many things cause paralysis

In every group of 100 people, two will be paralyzed. This can be caused by many things some of which are:

• The autoimmune diseases

• Stroke patients

• Cerebral Palsy

• Physical accidents

• and much more

Nico's Grandfather

My grandfather has an autoimmune disease called MS.

It is your autoimmune system attacking your nerves which leads to paralysis, speech difficulty, and vision problems.



A few years ago, I had a school project to make something to help people with medical disabilities. I decided to make an arm prosthetic to give back functionality to his arm and hand. It broke in half. Ever since that project, I have wanted to do a better version of this project, and OI was the perfect opportunity.

Weighted VR

During the start of this summer I brainstormed many ideas. There was one that I really wanted to continue which was creating weight in VR.

I forgot about the idea until the end. I decided to start working on it. I made multiple sketches and decided I would make an exoskeleton that would go against the human body.

While this had a different use case it was the same mechanics!

Arm Prosthetic brings movement to the arm

This project helps people with arm paralysis regain movement and grip. We aim to let them move their arms from the elbow and hold objects with their hands, restoring a sense of independence and confidence in daily life.

Being able to move and grip again helps people feel more in control, boosting their confidence and improving their quality of life.

There were many different hand protoypes

An array of these would vaguely look and function like a hand

This is a prototype of a soft grabber that lifts a variety of things

This mechanism is meant to grab onto bottle caps and other circular objects.

The elbow joint got moved to the shoulder

We want your feedback



Is there anything you think we should take into account?

Is there anything we should add to help the use case?

How would you do the mechanisms.

Thank You!

By Nico, Gabe, Bradley

Enabling the unabled

My experience

My name is Jasmine, and this project is a response to my ongoing struggle. For a while, I only ate ~950 calories daily, the equivalent of a big mac & fries. This amount is about 27% of the 3400 calories my body needs to stay alive.

This led me to lose about 5 lbs (2.2kg) per week. This number is insane considering the CDC recommends that you loose 1-2lbs.

My experience

Context

Micro/Macronutrients

Macronutrients are a type of nutrient required in large amounts, micronutrients are the opposite. Although you don't need as many micronutrients they are still very important.

These are the physiques of bodybuilders on insane amounts of steroids, these are the people shown to teens. These teens belive that if they work hard they can make their bodies look like this,

Consequences

Insane physiques that are simply unachievable still get shown to hundreds of millions of teenagers.

This leads many to go onto fat loss diets and aggressive mass gain diets. Neither of these options is healthy, and neither of them will get you any closer to a roided-out bodybuilder with godlike genetics.

Aggressive fat loss

Agressive fat loss can have have a lot of consequences, including dizziness, fatigue, abnormal heart rhythm, low blood pressure, and feeling cold all the time. Agressive fat loss phases can also spiral down to the development of an eating disorder.

My Macro Coach

Your personal coach

Thesis

My Macro Coach is the first open-source nutrition tracker with a focus on prevention and recovery from disordered eating. This project uses a no numbers no consequences approach to tracking, backed by a real dietitian for real people. While My Macro Coach doesn't share information with users, it does share it with healthcare providers, giving them the best knowledge of you they can have.

Phase 1

• Interviews with dietitians & possible users
• Wireframes & userflows for UI/UX
• Generating a community

Intreviews

I contacted many sources to get as many interviews as possible, from NuVU Students, to eating disorder organizations and even personal trainers. Some responded, many didn't, but I got very valuable insight from everyone I did talk to.

Phase 2

• Start of app development
• Resources used mapped out
• Databases
• Languages used
• Cultivating a space for developers who want to contribute.

Phase 3

• Stable app version release
• Development of harder features
• Community built plug ins & themes
• Personalized support
• Development of community sourced features

Thank you for listening

Thesis

"NuVu Is" is a short video created to help prospective students better understand what the NuVu experience feels like. Using candid footage taken at Nuvu mixed with multiple interviews from current students, this piece intends to show what a day at Nuvu is really like. Current media promoting our school shows only certain parts, but I want to present a genuine, student centered experience.

Stage 1:

Planning

Stage 2:

Filming

Stage 3:

Editing😡

Interview questions:

Have you seen the Nuvu instagram?

How well do you think Nuvu promotional videos and accounts represent Nuvu as a culture and student base?

Would this video be something you would have wanted to see before coming to Nuvu?

What parts of Nuvu do you think should be highlighted in a video of this sort?

If you could sum up Nuvu in 1 word, what would it be? Use “Nuvu is ____”

What does Nuvu mean to you?

What makes you passionate about Nuvu?

How would you describe the vibe of the Nuvu community?

How has being part of NuVu influenced your approach to creativity or problem-solving?

Interviews:

The 30th

Gabe: 1:00 - 1:15

Finn: 1:15 - 1:30

Kaia: 1:30 - 1:45 

Andrew: 1:45 - 2:00

The 31st

Bridget: 10:00 - 10;15

Jasmine: 10:15 - 10:30

Max: 10:30 - 10:45

Jade: 10:45 - 11:00

Reflection

I loved making this video, there were so many opportunities to learn and grow throughout, and i'm proud of the final product. I got to use my camera gimbal for stabilizing these shots, and looking back at the shots on a timeline, I got much better at it over time. While I had fun, there were parts of this project that were really hard for me. My biggest challenge was filming people, its something I had never done before, and I felt uncomfortable walking around with a giant camera rig recording people, even though I had consent from everyone I recorded.

My experience

My name is Jasmine, and this rroject is a response to an ongoing struggle I face today

For a while, I was only eating ~950 calories per day, which is about 27% of the 3400 calories my body needs to stay alive.

This led me to lose about 5 lbs (2.2kg) per week. This number is insane considering the CDC recommends that you loose 1-2lbs.

My experience

Micro/Macronutrients

Macronutrients are a type of nutrient required in large amounts, micronutrients are the opposite. Althought you don't need as many micronutrients they are still very important.

This experience happened while I was going to the gym, although just because I was going to the gym when this happened doesn't mean that the gym was harmful.

The Gym

Gym Social Media

Physique inflation

This is Arnold Schwarzenegger on a ton of steroids in the 1970s. He looks huge, but in 2024, his physique is considered mid-tier.

Physique inflation

This is a natural bodybuilder who won the MCR bodybuilding competition. He is the best of the best when it comes to natural bodybuilding. His physique is completely unachievable due to insane genetics. Nobody can recreate this physique through simply hard work.

Consequences

This amount of insane physiques that are simply unachievable but still shown to hundreds of millions of teenagers.

This leads many to go onto fat loss diets and aggressive mass gain diets. Neither of these options is healthy, and neither of them will get you any closer to a roided-out bodybuilder with godlike genetics.

Aggressive fat loss

Agressive fat loss can have have a lot of consequences, including dizziness, fatigue, abnormal heart rhythm, low blood pressure, and feeling cold all the time. Agressive fat loss phases can also lead to the development of an eating disorder.

Intreviews

I contacted many sources to get as many interviews as possible, from NuVU Students, to eating disorder organizations and even personal trainers. Some responded, many didn't, but I got very valuable insight from everyone I did talk to.

My Macro Coach

Your personal coach

App Goals

• Zero numbers, Zero consequences
• Macro & micronutrient tracking
• Grocery list maker
• Nutrition facts every day
• Live updating TDEE that responds to weight gain/loss
• Easy recipe system
• Barcode scanning
• Sleep tracking
• Personalized
• Open source & Free
• Track with your friends
• Easy for healthcare provider to see data

Timeline

Phase 1

• A few goals
• How am I going to achieve these goals
• Userflows
• How I am translating that experiences

Next steps

• Mock-ups for app and user features
• Creation of userflows
• Building a community
• Starting app development

Thank you for listening

Enjoy a healthy meal with enough calories and macronutrients. If you are worried about eating too little or too much, contact a nutritionist.

$$$

Specialized

Replacement

Lack of accessibility



Ari

What's Wrong With Traditional Prosthetics?

Other Prosthetic Ideas

Toe

Jaw

Arm extender

Wyatt

Affordable

Accessible

Augment

Wyatt

Claw Control

Claw Control was a Nuvu project designed to be a claw machine puzzle.

Wyatt

Common Prosthetics

 Prosthetics are traditionally designed to seamlessly replace parts of the human body

Dani Clode

Dani Clode is an augmentation designer exploring the future of the human body

Sketches

Ari

Live Hinges

A living hinge is a thin, single piece, flexible hinge traditionally used in injection molding.

Live Hinge Proof of Concept

Material Exploration

NinjaFlex

PLA + Flex

TPU

Refining Design

Hand Mount

Thumb

VS

Hand Mount

Cardboard Prototype

Cardboard

Flimsy

Ugly

Poorly designed

High(er)-fi Prototype

Plastic (PLA)

Adjustable

Uncomfortable

Fits one hand size

Dialing In Comfort

More comfortable

Better quality

Not adjustable

Cant connect to thumb

Diversity

More comfortable

High Quality

Adjustable

Cant connect to thumb

Electronics Mount

What We Learned

Final Hand Mount

Designed off a Real Hand

Flexible

3 Attachment Points

More Adjustability

Final Photos