OUR JOURNEY
Follow the steps we made in Fall 2016:
WEEK 1
Week One was the project kick-off. Prior to meeting with our client/sponsor, Susan Menning, the students got to know one another, exchanged contact info and prepared questions for Susan. At our introductory breakfast meeting Aug. 9, she discussed her project, its origins and basic criteria for the proposed bed. Simplicity, durability, transportability and a design that would elevate people at least six inches off the ground were the most important considerations.
Students set their schedules for the fall quarter: meet with advisors on Thursdays with internal team meetings and a meeting with Susan on Fridays. Students committed to investigating bed designs currently on the market and outline the pros and cons of each to get an idea of where to begin. They also developed a Code of Ethics to guide their interactions and a Gant Chart to track progress over the quarter.
WEEK 2
Week Two was the beginning of the students' research and design process. Each student was responsible for coming up with three designs and a total of four were selected to present to Susan. These included Cameron's “trampoline bed,” Derek's “accordion bed,” Shalini and Annie's “slinky bed,” and Kristine, Nelson and Emily's “combo bed.” Susan was impressed with our ideas and effort, and requested further development of the concepts.
Concurrently, Kristine and Derek took pictures and videos for the project website. Derek designed a logo for Project Six (which relates to the goal of keeping people six inches off the ground); Shalini researched materials with the help of an expert from the School of the Arts; and Cameron designed a customer needs matrix that would be used to rank each bed.
WEEK 3
After reviewing our designs, Susan recommended they be simplified and further refined. We divided into three groups: Cameron, Raphael and Brionna, trampoline bed; Derek, Shalini and Annie, accordion and slinky beds; and Emily, Nelson and Kristine, combo bed.
Four more ideas came out of this effort, as shown above. Two groups took it further and created paper models that showed in 3D how they would work. Susan also shared her idea, which we are evaluating. Shalini and Brionna began researching specific materials such as polypropylene, aluminum and FRP composite.
WEEK 4
The students finalized our designs, began drafting CAD models and conducted finite element analyses (FEA) of the various designs. More paper models were constructed.
We planned our Oct. 29 field study, which will take place at a park in Santa Ana where we meeting with some homeless people to get their feedback on our designs. We also began preparing for our midterm review which sums up our progress since Week One.
WEEK 5
The goal of Week Five was to wrap up the designs to be presented at the field study. Seven students, from our team of nine, met with Lorenzo Benitez, a former homeless resident at Santa Ana Civic Center. We presented three designs to him, the cot bed, trampoline bed and slinky bed. Lorenzo explained that, from his perspective, the most important bed criteria were lightweight, durable, easily opened and closed and designed to keep the person at least six inches off the ground. He also suggested that neutral colors would be best.
Lorenzo said the best feature of the trampoline bed was that it was easily folded. He like the cot bed's optional enclosure and the simplicity of the slinky bed. We will use this feedback to further redesign the slinky bed and try to reduce its weight to five pounds.
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​Lorenzo also explained how the City of Santa Ana uses several tactics to move people from their location in the civic center, including waking them up very early in the morning (which forces them to pack their belongings up very quickly and move with only what they can carry), using pesticides which can cause health issues, and questioning them regularly.
WEEK 6
We finished our design and FEAs for presentation at the midterm. Students met on Tuesday prior to the midterm to organize slides, delegate presenters and make the presentation aesthetically pleasing.
The midterm was attended by Susan, engineering professors Vince McDonnell and Farzad Ahmadkhanlou, and arts professor and director of the digital arts minor, Jesse Jackson. They were all impressed with the slinky bed design and offered feedback on the next steps, which will include prototyping.
WEEK 7
Of the three designs (the slinky bed, the trampoline bed, and the combo bed) we decided to focus on refining and improving the slinky bed. We decided to focus on that design after using the customer needs matrix to assess which bed best fit all of the criteria. Students were responsible for creating at least one design to improve the slinky bed based on the information they gathered from the field study with Lorenzo and feedback from Susan. They met to share their improvements on the slinky bed idea or any new designs they created.
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Cameron researched manufacturers that could create prototypes and found local vendors that we could potentially work with. More research was conducted on specific materials and the process of vacuum forming and molds.
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WEEK 8
The students made CAD models for the improved slinky bed designs as well as for any new design they had in mind. They also performed an FEA analysis on these new models.
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Kristine created a Facebook page for the project and Shalini began working on the design for our poster that will be on display to generally show what our project is, our goal, project requirements, and timeframes. Shalini also did some in-person research in regards to the vacuum former. Brionna came up with ideas for potentially changing our logo.​
WEEK 9
This week, the students conducted more FEA analyses to test the strength and durability of the slinky bed.
Students 3D printed a small model of the bed. During the printing process they discovered flaws in the design. Afterward, they not only worked on fixing the newly discovered issues but they also began altering aspects of the bed in order to reduce the weight.
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Cameron contacted local vendors to inquire about price estimates for prototyping. The students also started researching grants for charitable foundations as well as companies that would potentially donate their services or the parts that we need to manufacture the bed.
WEEK 10
The students finalized the materials for the slinky bed design and adjustments were made to strengthen the bed.
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Raphael and Derek looked into potentially utilizing the vacuum formers that the school has in order for us to begin prototyping (vacuum formers create molds of an object). We have the small 3D printed model which helped to point out a design flaw, however, we are now ready to test a life-sized bed.
The students also prepared to present our project and the design during the Fall Design Review hosted in the school of engineering.
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They also spent time preparing for their final presentation.