Author: awc8ds
Final Day and Presentations
It’s all over! Today we finally presented our patient projects and personal health projects (PHP). A lot of time and hard work went into these things and while I am relieved that it’s all over, I am definitely saddened by the fact that I most likely will no longer be working with my wonderful group for the patient project and partner for the PHP. I thought the presentations went great. The judges brought up some very valid points about we could’ve made more clear in our presentation, such as the design process. It was stated in a much more eloquent way and I will definitely be taking their advice into future presentations as I believe it is universally applicable.
For the personal health project, I was able to articulate my thoughts in a much clearer way in comparison to my presentation last Friday and I think it went well. I believe it was because of how I managed to actually take the time to talk to my health partner about her goals and problems, when before, I was lacking empathy, which was to the detriment to my partner and myself.
As I take the time to reflect on the past 12 days, I can definitively say that this is one of the reasons why I love UVA. The class was a very unique experience and while it did feature more work than I thought, it was definitely worthwhile as I learned a lot and experienced parts of UVA I never would have if it wasn’t for this class. I was initially hesitant to give up parts of my winter break to take a J-term, but overall, I have no regrets.
-Albert Chang
Day 5 of the J-term
Today was the last day of week 1 of the J-term. There has been a lot of learning, socializing, and work involved in the past 4 days and it’s amazing how fast time has flown by. For the first time after my original group split into two smaller ones, we presented in front of a panel of judges that included Dr. Allen and David. I think our presentation went great. There were definitely certain things that the judges brought up that we didn’t consider, but luckily the current stage we are in is the equivalent of a rough draft. It was great seeing the two other groups present on diabetes and what things they had to consider in contrast with my group.
After the patient presentations, every individual also presented their personal health projects. These also went well and it was nice seeing how a lot of people’s goals overlapped and how each partnership formed different strategies to help each other achieve those goals. I can’t wait until next Friday to see how everyone changed their strategies and what they manage to conclude from the data each person gathered over the 10 day J-term.
-Albert
Day 4 of J-term
After three days of researching the background of our patient and his/her vision problems, today is the first day I am finally observing the patient and his/her dog! I am very excited as I love dogs and I am also very curious to see how someone who is basically blind goes about certain parts of his/her day, specifically feeding/cooking for him/herself. I will update this blog after my session with the patient and record my thoughts below
UPDATE:
My partner and I just got back from observing our patient and it was extremely fascinating. I have so much more respect our patient as well as a greater appreciation of how well our patient is able to handle him/herself. We spent a majority of the time playing with our patient’s guide dog and observed firsthand our patient’s problem of being unable to find and retrieve his/her guide dog’s toys after a play session. This is definitely a problem I think my group will end up tackling given the short length of the J-term and how we think this is a serious enough of a problem. I look forward to brainstorming with my group and will make sure to update the blog with some of our ideas.
-Albert C
Day 3: Presenting Some Research
After meeting with the patient my group is assisting and researching some of the issues he/she has been dealing with, our group presented our research to the class for the first time along with the two other groups that were researching Type I Diabetes. The day before, we were spending a lot of time researching all of the problems that the disease told us that he/she was suffering from. After compiling all the information we found from the day before, we presented what we knew to Dr. Allen and the two other groups. It was great presenting and hearing some of the questions our classmates had, as well as learning a lot of things I didn’t know before about Type I Diabetes. Today will be the first day members of our group will be observing our patient so I am very excited to see what we learn.
-Albert Chang
First Day of BME J-Term
After two weeks of winter break, today officially marks the beginning of my first J-Term and my first class in the BME department. Words cannot describe my excitement as this will easily be one of the more unique classes I have taken during college, as it will be very hands on and the work we will be doing has the potential of changing several lives for the better.
Over the course of the next 11 days, my group of 6 will be working with a patient who is almost completely blind, as we come up with a design of a product or system that will try to solve some of the problems the patient is currently dealing with in his/her everyday life. Our patient is someone who initially had the ability to see, but unfortunately suffered from a gradual deterioration in his/her vision. After hearing the patient’s story, the patient gave my group four problems that he/she wants addressed that are listed below.
- The patient with his/her service dog has trouble with visibility at night/in the dark, especially when it comes to crossing driveways or streets.
- Whenever the patient’s service dog requires playtime, it is difficult for the patient to locate the toys used, which ends up becoming a tripping hazard.
- An app called Penfriend is limited when it comes to labeling laundry and the labels cannot be labeled. A new labeling system would be ideal.
- Swimming is something the patient enjoys. However, it is difficult as the patient is unable to share lanes or bring his/her service dog to the pool due to various reasons.
A lot of information was presented and it was difficult to process it all. However, after meeting all the patients, I am grateful for the opportunity to work with them, my group and classmates, as well as my professors. I have the upmost confidence that my group will be able to come up with designs that can have impact.
-Albert
BME Design 