Author: megangreen16
Final thoughts for the semester
I understand the underlying and hidden details of the design process a lot more now. It is funny to compare my original thoughts of this class and my experience now. Originally, I thought we would be working on a project as a class, not in individual teams, to generate a final product for an end user. Rather, a major theme of “get out of the building” to talk to people and explore became evident for the class. The theme is extremely similar to that of the business minor here at UVA in my opinion. I learned how to differentiate industry design and product design with this class because of the time we spend emphasizing user feedback utilizing research to break into innovative design spaces.
The guest lecture off grounds with the graduate architecture student really hit home the whole idea of design and purpose of iteration for me. Interpretation is different for everyone and working off of iterations is what allows all facets of a solution to be explored. What worries me as I age into my final year as an undergraduate is if I’m patient enough to work in design. Patience to me is a key attribute necessary for design because, as many guest lecturers state, success comes from a lot of prior failures. The other part of me that enjoys puzzles thinks that design would be challenging and exciting. I know I have some great ideas I would love to explore to change the world, but it is truly daunting to think of the indirect effects of inventions,how it might change cultural norms, as well as influence users. One design I think of while I reflect is the Venmo App, yes it is convenient but it has created this culture where people are nickel and diming others. Ultimately, I feel like I got to know the design post-grad option a little better and am thankful for the new knowledge.
Reflections of Class Final
Today was the first time I saw everyone else’s video finals and WOW was it interesting. Pondering over it now, I am happy we did video finals rather than presentations because trying to pack as many visuals and information into a Powerpoint would get tricky quickly. I always enjoy hearing the comments of reviewers because they pick up on details that I naturally do not think about. One reviewer mentioned how voice overs and straight dialog compare and contrast for effectiveness. In my team’s video I do a lot of dialog with the camera but in retrospect I think more text or props might have helped convey our design story more. relay a stronger message about our design. A unique video feature that I was really impressed by was Team 6’s live demonstration in one of the hospital rooms. I was surprised to see that teams used video footage from Youtube, too. It is oftentimes frustrating to receive a project without a rubric but it is interesting to see the different interpretations and innovations made by groups when forced into creative spaces. I had the biggest reaction to the live demonstration of Group 6’s prototype and team usage of white boards to draw pictures. Although I like the professional look of myself performing monologues on film, I think if we had a chance to edit our group would incorporate more text and freeze frames with voiceovers.
Prototyping Reflections
Our project has centered upon the idea of wire containment for pediatric patients. It was interesting to research the idea and find that babies in the past have suffered death from wire strangulation, when our idea originally came from parents being afraid to pick up there children and children picking at wire connections. I found harnesses as well as modified gowns that have patents through the FDA to address wire containment, but no design is attempting what we are with wireless technology. We moved into prototyping low fidelity products with bubble wrap, tape, string to represent different wires, ace bandages, paper clips, and real electrodes from the pediatrics department. It was interesting because I started prototyping with paper and the supplies mentioned, then found a CPR baby to test my sizing and it was completely askew! From prototyping I learned a lot about size, how wires will be thicker on one lateral end compared to the other, how a belt with fasteners may not be best but rather a stretchy material that can slide on and off, box placement for the wireless relay router, how the baby is going to interact with this wire containment idea, and specifically how it will coordinate with a pulse ox imitater. We are going to try prototyping on a larger scale to see what else we can learn, but my mind really benefited from designing on the CPR baby so I asked if our group could keep the baby for a while. It will most definitely be in our video final so get excited!
PHP Reflections (Megan and Leah)
Leah expressed that she learned a lot about her sleeping patterns. She generally calculates how much sleep she gets a night the day after but seeing the collected data over a larger span of time made her realize how much sleep she sacrifices during the week. I believe she enjoyed seeing her resting heart rate tracked over time, too. She noticed her heart rate was lower when she slept more, whereas I noticed that her heart rate was lower when she exercised (did a Zen by 10). It was interesting that I was more focused on an exercise connection and she noticed sleep connections. The bucketlist I made for Leah helped her realize how she needs to schedule in fun activities, rather than do them on a whim. I think I exceeded her expectations with some of my suggestions of events around grounds such as a wine and design class, attending Final Fridays at the Fralin, and painting a section of Beta Bridge with her roommates. Leah realized that she has to pre-schedule fun events when she tried going to a pure barre class with a February promo code I gave her and wasn’t able to go the week she planned because when she looked on Friday all the weekend classes were booked. It was interesting to see that completely one bucketlist a week was actually a difficult task rather than an easy one as I had originally planned.
Overall, Leah expressed excitement for her bucketlists and sorrow about the project being cut short. Moving forward, we plan to now track her daily water and caffeine intake, track completion of exercise rather than completion of “Zen by 10”, and continue logging sleep and resting heart rate.
1st Entry
My name is Megan Green, and I am enthusiastic biomedical engineer minoring in engineering business. I applied to this class because I am passionate about working in a hospital setting. My personal opinion is that hospitals operate on an imperfect system, and I am excited to have class time to think about ways to improve healthcare. This semester, I hope to become more familiar with SolidWorks and imagine innovative ways that can make real impacts in the healthcare world.
BME Design 