Design Project Reflection by Nina Houston ('19)
This project definitely had many challenges, but I was excited to push through them to further understand the design process. My first challenge was the obvious, coming up with an idea and not just that but a practical one that fell within our constraints. At first I wanted to create something that would shield me from the rain when I was on a bike because I used to bike to school everyday in middle school. However, after a bit of thought about how I was going to accomplish this goal, I realized it was unrealistic and didn’t have a moving component. I knew I wanted to stick with the bike idea and so I thought about what I could do with the energy created when pedaling a bicycle. When I came up with the idea involving an insulated delivery bike bag I was attempting to solve the problem of food getting cold if a delivery man was biking in the cold or was in traffic. Since I constantly see delivery men on bikes in the street I knew there might be a need for my idea. This idea was the one that I eventually landed on but it like my other ideas presents some issues of its own.
One issue with this design was that, in order to understand exactly how my idea would work I would need to have a further understanding of energy and electricity. For now I just have a basic idea of what I would want but I don’t know exactly how it would work. If I were to continue this project and do further research, I would look into the more technical aspects of my project. I would like to figure out exactly what mechanism I could use to chanel the energy I was creating by pedaling the bike and turning the wheels. I would want to look into how to connect this contraption to my heating/cooling bag. Another part of my idea was to add a battery pack to the bag so that delivery men could store the excess energy that wasn’t being used at that moment in a battery. Then when they were at a stop light or in traffic that battery could turn on automatically and power the heating and cooling system in the bag.
Another aspect of the design I want to look deeper into is exactly how I would make a heating and cooling system that was light and small enough to instal into my bag. Also I would want the bag to be as cheap as possible so I would want to attempt to find the most cost efficient system. The insulation is another crucial part of the bag design itself. I know I want it to be made of something light but also fairly rigid so it would not wave around in the wind and hit the wheels. It also has to be a good insulator; the better the insulator the less energy would have to be used to keep the pouches in the bag either hot or cold depending on the season and the food. All of these thoughts and ideas that I have about my project would be part of a next step if I wanted to further this project.
I found it both challenging and fascinating to force myself to think of the possible problems with my experiment. It forced me to take a step back and look at my project objectively. I found that the more I thought about my design the more ideas I had about its improvement. However, the plethora of ideas I had was useless without research. This project demonstrated the importance of thorough research in the brainstorming part of the project. Another aspect of this project that interested me was the drawing. Trying to be as accurate as possible and labeling everything in my design helped me to further flesh out my design. The accuracy aspect of the drawing made my think about the different proportions of my design and if what I had in mind would be possible. The drawing along with the model allowed me to come up with new issues with my design and simultaneously they helped me to see how these problems could possibly be fixed. Overall this project made me think deeply about one idea which, in school, I rarely have the chance to do, and it compelled me to challenge my own ideas and learn to problem solve and be flexible when making changes.
One issue with this design was that, in order to understand exactly how my idea would work I would need to have a further understanding of energy and electricity. For now I just have a basic idea of what I would want but I don’t know exactly how it would work. If I were to continue this project and do further research, I would look into the more technical aspects of my project. I would like to figure out exactly what mechanism I could use to chanel the energy I was creating by pedaling the bike and turning the wheels. I would want to look into how to connect this contraption to my heating/cooling bag. Another part of my idea was to add a battery pack to the bag so that delivery men could store the excess energy that wasn’t being used at that moment in a battery. Then when they were at a stop light or in traffic that battery could turn on automatically and power the heating and cooling system in the bag.
Another aspect of the design I want to look deeper into is exactly how I would make a heating and cooling system that was light and small enough to instal into my bag. Also I would want the bag to be as cheap as possible so I would want to attempt to find the most cost efficient system. The insulation is another crucial part of the bag design itself. I know I want it to be made of something light but also fairly rigid so it would not wave around in the wind and hit the wheels. It also has to be a good insulator; the better the insulator the less energy would have to be used to keep the pouches in the bag either hot or cold depending on the season and the food. All of these thoughts and ideas that I have about my project would be part of a next step if I wanted to further this project.
I found it both challenging and fascinating to force myself to think of the possible problems with my experiment. It forced me to take a step back and look at my project objectively. I found that the more I thought about my design the more ideas I had about its improvement. However, the plethora of ideas I had was useless without research. This project demonstrated the importance of thorough research in the brainstorming part of the project. Another aspect of this project that interested me was the drawing. Trying to be as accurate as possible and labeling everything in my design helped me to further flesh out my design. The accuracy aspect of the drawing made my think about the different proportions of my design and if what I had in mind would be possible. The drawing along with the model allowed me to come up with new issues with my design and simultaneously they helped me to see how these problems could possibly be fixed. Overall this project made me think deeply about one idea which, in school, I rarely have the chance to do, and it compelled me to challenge my own ideas and learn to problem solve and be flexible when making changes.
