Our project was converged down to one idea today. Going forward, we're going to continue with the idea of working with a pulley system in order to raise Tanis' hand. We also are going to try to focus on making his hand raising a little bit higher than we were thinking before, in order to challenge ourselves and challenge Tanis. We also sent Waypoint/Cotting an email today asking followup questions, so it'll be good to get those answers.
Unknowns:
- Tanis' exact condition of muscular dystrophy
- Any other challenges that he faces?
- What would he like to see from us?
Tomorrow, I'm hoping that we can construct and refine a solid prototype tomorrow, so we can show Tanis on Wednesday, and get some good feedback.

Today we picked up from Friday and kept working throughout the day. Today we started by narrowing down on only a coupe of ideas which was helpful because it gave us an agenda that we had to complete. We also started making prototypes to scale using PVC pipe, cardboard, and hot glue.  In our project we are going into the direction of just making an extension for snow terrain. We decided to chose this because there is not a lot of attention to this area. This makes me excited because we are doing work in an area that others might not seem as important.  Going into the future of the project some unknowns that I have are the final materials that we will use.  When it comes time to work on the final project choosing the right materials will be crucial to the function and durability of the model.

We worked a lot today on the idea of the physical therapy exercise for Nico today. We created different prototypes and kept coming up with different design issues. We started off by creating a brace with an elastic band to make it harder for Nico to extend his arm and work on the muscles involved in his shooting motion. However, it did not provide enough control for Nico's arm. We decided to then create a stand for the brace that would attach to the wheelchair. However, it provided too much control and not enough mobility for his arm. So we decided to design a stand that could move in three directions: side-to-side, up-and-down and forwards and backward. We would like to pursue this design and finish its prototype in the coming days.

Learning a lot of new mechanics really excites me about this project and I also the idea of working on someone's performance through a device. 

We would like to know more about Nico's shoulder and overall arm mobility as well as if he prefers and a physical therapy device or a device that would help him shoot further.

Today our project didn't change too much overall. We reconsidered some minor things about our original prototype such as certain dimensions, and also we laser cut it again in order to have a more accurate representation of our prototype come WED when we will visit the cotting school. However we are at a fast pace in terms of our project due to our efficiency of working in class. We plan to start making our device after we get suggestions from Nico (the kid who will be using the device). We are pursuing things such as having a finished and refined prototype by WED then immediately start working on our device (final). Im truly excited about the project, for multiple reasons. Mainly because I think this will be a great device and I think it will greatly improve his life. Also, I think it will be truly successful due to the working rate we are at and how (conceptually and mechanically) our device makes sense and operates (even in the prototype). We have not to many unknowns, besides the following: We are wondering what his dominant hand is, what color he likes the best, some dimensions of his wheelchair, and lastly what he thinks of our idea. 

Max and I continued to prototype our project and use the help of the wheelchair to better our understanding and other various tests. We also researched how electronic drum kits are created to inspire our plan. We looked at creations like "drum anywhere" and "makey-makey" and we are interested in those projects. I'm really excited for the future of this project, Max and I really want get this done and it would be so amazing if we could do that for Sara. Wednesday, we hope to figure out dimensions for her wheelchair.

Hi All,

Great day today.

For homework:

1. Please post a blog post UNDER THE UPDATES TAB OF YOUR PROJECT. 

• Please write about how your project changed today
• What directions you are pursuing for your project 
• What excites you about your project
• What unknowns you are dealing with that you would like answered on Wednesday

Please do the following 3 tutorials: https://cambridge.nuvustudio.com/studios/winter-2017-skills/fusion#tab-info-url

We had the task to help out Nico. He has trouble with zippering up things and handling small tasks.  Izzy R and I came up with 3 sketches that we turned into prototypes.  Our first sketch/ idea that we came up with was to create a creative building blocks kit. Instead of it being like legos where you pop them in together, they had to either be zippered or buttoned to come together. This would be a way for him to practice those tasks. The next idea was to create an easier clip-on tool that was bigger and less tedious to grasp.  Then an add-on would be two thin pieces of any material that guides the metal piece to go into the zipper. What we will begin to work on this week is more prototypes and editing our ideas.

Eb is someone who is very active and tries to be outdoors whenever she can. Her hobbies include hiking, swimming, and horseback riding.  She is a very active person and in our project we aim to assist her while doing some of these activities. When we talked to her,  she said she had a hard time going up hills and off terrain.She also said her arms got tired from hiking long distances. In our prototypes we designed interchangeable parts so EB does not have to leave her original chair. Some of these extensions include a off terrain and snow design that can be put on the bottom of her wheelchair instead of her original parts. Another idea we had was to make a chair with more wheel assist to help Eb when her arms got tired.   Next week I would like to talk EB again and then really dive in to building our projects. Some precedents to our projects are suspension cars like dune buggies, a tank, and interchangeable parts.

Jackson and I are working on solving a problem for Tanis. Tanis has muscular dystrophy and therefore, struggles with the ability to move his arms and other body parts. Tanis has a hard time raising his hand, especially in class when he has a question so our goal is to create a device to help him raise his hand. We have come up with an idea that is similar to a pulley system. Tanis places his arm through a velcro strap attached to his wheeled chair which is also attached to a board above the arm of his wheeled chair. He then uses a rope with his other hand that is attached to the board on the arm of his wheeled chair which then raises his arm. by doing this, Tanis is still putting work to raise his arm and using his muscles. Another idea we had was to create something electronically so that when he raises his arm a little then he also gets the help that pushes his arm up all the way. Once again this allows Tanis to still use his arms and do strength, just adds a little bit of help. Furthermore, we are hoping to email Tanis to figure out what his exact range of motions are and what he can/can not do.  Jackson and I will continue to create our prototype of the first idea and hopefully, when we see Tanis again we can take exact measurements to make to device comfortable and hear his opinion.