Week 10
This week our group continued to brainstorm solutions. We placed a few materials orders for our project, and we started considering whether we needed any added manufacturing. This week we also looked at TRIZ to identify innovative approaches for addressing potential design
conflicts. Our group also discussed the power source options to maintain device functionality
over an extended period.
Week 9
This week, we continued to brainstorm and investigate solutions and look into the feasibility of our solution ideas. A lot of time this week was also dedicated to Sling Health. Design Review 1 was on Wednesday, 10/23, and focused on the background and market analysis for our project. We presented and received helpful mentor feedback, and we spent a lot of time talking through our project with a specific mentor afterwards. We also expanded our team roster for Sling Health. We recruited a team member for electrical and software assistance and had a meeting with someone set up for business assistance/advice.
Week 8
This week, we met with sling health lawyer, Myers Dill. We discussed our concerns about the NDA and IP agreement. We learned that it is required that the individual inventors be listed on the patent. We also learned what an assignment document is. It is the document that specifies who owns the patent. Currently, Phoenix will own the patent, but we will be listed as individual inventors. This week, we also brainstormed solutions to our problem. Some ideas included a velostat pressure sensor, bioimpedance measurements, and a sensor array embedded in a prosthetic liner.
Week 7
After fall break, we had a team meeting on Wednesday. This week we started brainstorming for our project. We decided that by next meeting Monday, we will each have a unique concept idea to address our problem. We will discuss these and our future path forward at our Monday meeting.
There was also a lot of coordination that happened over email. With our client, we organized a time to meet and for her to drop off a 3D printed example of the modular prosthetic. We also coordinated with the lawyer Sling Health connected us with and have a meeting with them this Monday. Finally, we also reached out to the potential team members who were interested on Problem Day. Will also represented us at the Sling Health Kickoff.
Week 6
This week we finalized and presented our preliminary presentation in class. This week, we also met with our client to hear her thoughts and get feedback on our first report. During our meeting with our client, we also discussed the intellectual property agreement she proposed. Since she is expecting the full intellectual property and does not plan to give us any funding, our plan is to meet with a Sling Health lawyer to propose an added section to give us 1-2% of the profits, in case the product gets major profit. We also were going to meet with the Sling Health lawyer to discuss how we can make sure our names are on the patents.
Week 5
This week we worked on and finalized our preliminary report. This included further research into the background of our problem and the existing solutions. We also decided that Adara will be presenting our Preliminary Presentation in class. We are planning to meet with her this weekend to organize the presentation and go over the content.
We have also progressed with Sling Health. We presented our problem in the Problem Day Pitch last week, and have designed and submitted our poster for Sling Health Problem Day. We will present our poster to recruit additional members to our Sling Health team to aid in our project’s business/industry relations and user interface aspects of our project.
Week 4
Our team is currently working with Pheonix Prosthetics. We have met multiple times with our clients to establish the problem, clarify the issue, and discuss design specifications. We also joined Sling Health. On Thursday, we did an initial pitch to a panel of judges, and they gave us feedback on our problem and scope.
For the next steps, we are setting up meetings with professionals in the industry with experience with skin breakdown. These professionals include Dr. Klaesner, the physical therapy department, and the orthopedics department. We also are meeting with a lawyer in Sling Health to discuss the Confidentiality and IP agreement that was sent from our client.
We’ve set up a weekly one-hour meeting on Mondays to begin working on the upcoming report and design reviews for Sling Health.
We split the preliminary report into sections, and we each plan to be done with our section by our Monday team meeting.
Week 3
Currently, our group is working with the client Phoenix Prosthetics. We have met with our client twice to discuss the project, clarify the problem, and discuss some design specifications.
To begin further research into our defined problem, we received customer interviews with prosthetic users from our client Lili at Phoenix Prosthetics. As we begin to look through these interviews, they offer greater insight into the problem and help us refine our design specifications.
We also plan to meet with people who have previously worked to detect skin breakdown. Some possible people/groups include Dr. Klaesner (worked to develop a device for diabetic foot ulcers), the physical therapy department, and the orthopedics department.
We have established a weekly 1 hour meeting time on Mondays to read client interviews, schedule conversations with experts, work on assignments for the class, and research skin breakdown.
Additionally, we have applied to Sling Health with our project. We have heard back and had a meeting with one of the co-presidents to discuss our project further. We are now waiting for a decision from them.