Project Four: Not a Pun, It's Real Life
Introduction
Dear iBioMeds,
This project is not about knowing what carpal tunnel syndrome is or how to perform a total hip arthroplasty (although both are quite interesting); it's about trying to understand. It's about viewing a situation from another perspective and considering how you can make a positive impact.
Roughly about 14% of the Canadian population has a disability. Most disabilities in Canada are as a result of pain, but they also include everything from flexibility to learning and development disabilities. Disabilities exist in all racial religious, gender, and age cohorts. They are not exclusive to a single person; they affect everyone in the surrounding social groups. Disabilities are so widespread that it can only benefit the world's population to become more aware and educated about them.
This project will require one to follow the many steps of the Engineering Design Process and complete several milestones just they have done in the four previous projects. However, this one is more than just a proof-of-concept. One will be attempting to aid someone in the community living with a disability. It is not a simple step-by-step process, it is applying the well-developed skills from this past year to help someone. It may seem like a daunting task, but the hardest part may be genuinely placing yourself in another person's shoes.
"Be the person you needed when you were 15. You can't change the past, but you can make a difference in someone else's future."
-Karin Hitselberger, Writer and Activist
Project Requirements
Working alongside a member of the local community (the client), your team is required to:
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Translate the needs of your client into a well-defined problem
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Design a solution to meet the needs of your client
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Justify why your design meets the needs of your client
Your team must complete and submit several assigned deliverables by the appropriate deadlines and present your design to your client and members of the McMaster Community during a Final Design Review. ​​
The project requires that your team:
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Translate the need of a member of the local community into a well-defined problem
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Develop a singular need statement
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Develop a set of customer requirements
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Categorize each requirement as either an objective, a constraint, or a function
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Translate customer requirements into a set of engineering specifications
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Design a solution to meet the needs of the local community member
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generate several concepts solutions
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evaluate concept solutions and propose one to pursue further
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fabricate several low-fidelity prototypes to provide a primary presentation of functional design
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Develop and fabricate a high-fidelity prototype of your proposed solution
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sufficient design details are specified such that your high fidelity prototype can be used by your client and reproduced if necessary
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Justify why your design meets the need of the local community member
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focus on how your design solution works, why you have proposed this design solution, and why your client will want your design solution
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