#LAPASSIONUY
Nair Araújo
My name is Nair Araújo, I’m from Maceda in Portugal. I’m in the last year of the course Engineering of Computation and Medical Instrumentation. I came to Montevideo to find innovative solutions to improve children quality of live.
Week 2
This week had a more focused theme for the project. In the first class they started by asking us to interview children and participants in their lives, which includes parents and teachers among others, in order to discover something that can be used as the focus of the project.
It was a very different week, since the task was to interview people, our team started to formulate questions and then we went on the field.
The first difficulty we encountered was in the number of questions posed. They were so many! So we had to cut a few and put others together in order to create a big question that could answer a number of smaller ones.
The second difficulty was found in the interview itself. The team chose to interview the children of a school after classes, however due to the numerous extracurricular activities of the children many parents could not answer our questionnaire because they did not have the time. However, this did not discourage team 5 and we continue to interview several people.
In the end we get to know the children a little more and a little of their intrinsic characteristics. However, we have not reached consensus on the project's theme.
This week was all about getting to know my classmates. We solve many collaborative games which helped a lot in getting to kwon everybody and some of us even went to Ponta del Este in the weekend, to participate in Campus Party, an innovation convention. This convention allowed me to know a bit more of their private life and the way they think and solve problems.
Week 1
Week 3
At the moment we are going in the middle of the third week and we still cannot understand what could be the main focus of our project, we know that we want to work in the area of children's education and we also know that it has to be something related to engineering and medicine.
Week 4
This week we took all the interviews and developed problems with the structure: "Subject needs solution because INSIGHT". We developed 10 problems and within them we chose one that seemed interesting to continue as the theme of the final project. The chosen one was: "AGUSTINA, a child of 8 years, NEEDS another type of snack because she doesn’t like fruit".
Once we had chosen the problem, the next step is to define solutions. We needed 10 for the next class! The group got together, at Nico's house, to do a brainstorming about healthy snacking options for Agustina. The ideas that came up were diverse, from a vegetable garden in virtual reality, to several books of snacks, books of lies for parents to make their children eat fruit, until we arrived at the 10 solutions that interested us the most.
Well we had: an autonomous vegetable garden, a flipper-type vending machine, a mug to carry milk with cereals to school, several books in web format and in augmented reality, a storyteller dish and a vegetable garden in virtual reality. This was a busy week!
In class, after presenting the solutions, we did an exercise using the SCAMPER method. This is a method that allows to separate the components of the idea and modifies them, SCAMPER is an acronym: REPLACEMENT, substitute certain components for others; COMBINATION, unite components to others to give new uses; ADAPTATION, certain properties of the components such as their size and the material of which they are made are altered; MODIFY, increase the dimensions of certain components for example; OTHER USES, how can this product be used? ELIMINATE, eliminate all components and characteristics of the product that can be considered useless, expensive, etc .; REORDENAR, reorder the components.
Travel:
This week we went to Durazno to visit UTEC to participate in the Bricks & Bits program. This is a program that invites Durazno’s children to enter the university accompanied by their parents and get familiar with it. The children brought a toy and ask us to add some characteristic to it. Unfortunately, one of the children couldn’t came, as a substitute we had Soe, a little girl very happy and fussy. She was delighted with everything, everything was to play, including a little insect that made Soe quite enchanted. Because Soe hadn’t come prepared for the meeting, she didn’t brought a toys, so, we had the opportunity to create one from scratch. The team loved the challenge!
Soe is still very young so we couldn’t directly interview her, instead we asked the mother to answer several questions whose answers would guide us in the demand to create a toy that appealed Soe. The mother told us that Soe liked cockroaches, and other little animals on the land, loved Legos and never stopped.
Upon hearing this, Team 5 decided that the perfect toy would be to build a stroller with Legos that Soe could take anywhere, and, because Soe likes cockroaches so much, we decided to give that same shape to it.
The challenge had been set and we had two days to create the wheelbarrow of the dreams of Soe. We hurried to go shopping, bought a box, half ball of Styrofoam, stickers with a smiley face drawn, sticker paper, Legos and some candys for the ideas to boil hahaah. When we returned from the shopping we had little time before the UTEC lab closed, giving us some time to coat the Legos with self-adhesive paper.
During the night, LAPASSION members gathered in the house of one element, ordered pizzas and some "Coca-Colas" and spent the night sharing stories. It was a good opportunity to share the ideas that each of us had for toys.
The second day was more intense, we dedicated ourselves to 100% to make the stroller for Soe, we cut stone card to make the wings of the cockroach, we painted the ball of Styrofoam to make the head of cockroach, we joined shunts with LED's in the tip for make the antennas and the result was magnificent.
On the third day we learned that Soe couldn’t receive her toy in hand, in response, Team 5 made a short video presentation of the wheelbarrow, where we explained to Soe that the stroller came with Legos that she could paint and write whenever she wanted. Hopefully she will be as happy with the stroller as we did from doing it!
Week 5
This week we discarded some of the 10 ideas, leaving only three. It was the ones we considered most interesting. When we presented them, we had a reaction that we were not expecting, the teachers did not approve the ideas, forcing us to do a new brainstorming.
The group rejoined, and desperate for new ideas, we review Agustina's interview. It was at this moment that we realized that the interview was very superficial and that we had many questions about the fact that Agustina did not like fruit. So we decided to ask the mother of the child, to which she replied that Agustina did not like to get dirty with the juice of her favorite fruits, such as peach, orange, pear and strawberry, and that she preferred to eat it cut , so she did not eat at school, but at home where her mother prepared fruit puree, fruit juice or simply cut it.
How can it be something so simple, it's basic! Many children like fruit but prefer to eat it cut or juice because it is different and tastes better, but they need the parents' help to cut it because they cannot pick it up a knife. And then we found our insight “How do we help children have this independence from their parents? How can they cut fruit without the help of anyone?”
We went back to brainstorming, but this time the solutions did not focus on encouraging healthy snacks.
The solution we came up with was a small robot, square and remote-controlled that would cut fruit on top. It is a very green solution, we do not know how it will cut the fruit, or where. But when we introduced the idea to the teachers, they didn’t twist their noses, which can only mean that it is a way to go!
Let's see how it goes after Tourism Week.
Week 6
This was the week of the biggest trip I've done in Uruguay, the trip of the week of Tourism. We passed PUEBLO GARZON, a small village that looked like a scene from a cowboy movie, VALIZAS, where we stayed and made huge barbecues, CABO POLONIO, where the great adventure through the dunes and the beach rewarded us with one of the most beautiful towns I have ever seen, and sea lions! PUNTA DEL DIABLO, with the best gramajo that I have ever tasted and a fabulous beach, SANTA TERESA, with a fabulous natural park and its beautiful fortress, originally built by the Portuguese (Portuguese Pride !!) and then continued by the Spanish, QUEBRADA DEL CUERVO, the best natural reserve in the world, with my first rail, which to be honest was the highlight of the trip, and last but not least, MINAS, with the best alfajores I have ever tasted, was also the the first time I ate ice cream here in Uruguay.
Week 7
This week we discarded some of the 10 ideas, leaving only three. It was the ones we considered most interesting. When we presented them, we had a reaction that we were not expecting, the teachers did not approve the ideas, forcing us to do a new brainstorming.
The group rejoined, and desperate for new ideas, we review Agustina's interview. It was at this moment that we realized that the interview was very superficial and that we had many questions about the fact that Agustina did not like fruit. So we decided to ask the mother of the child, to which she replied that Agustina did not like to get dirty with the juice of her favorite fruits, such as peach, orange, pear and strawberry, and that she preferred to eat it cut , so she did not eat at school, but at home where her mother prepared fruit puree, fruit juice or simply cut it.
How can it be something so simple, it's basic! Many children like fruit but prefer to eat it cut or juice because it is different and tastes better, but they need the parents' help to cut it because they cannot pick it up a knife. And then we found our insight “How do we help children have this independence from their parents? How can they cut fruit without the help of anyone?”
We went back to brainstorming, but this time the solutions did not focus on encouraging healthy snacks.
The solution we came up with was a small robot, square and remote-controlled that would cut fruit on top. It is a very green solution, we do not know how it will cut the fruit, or where. But when we introduced the idea to the teachers, they didn’t twist their noses, which can only mean that it is a way to go!
Let's see how it goes after Tourism Week.
Week 8
So, this week we started working on our prototypes. The teaches tour us through the installation of “The Electrical factory” to know a few options to work on Saki. We choose 3D printing.
Because this method takes a lot of time, and the results aren’t always what we expect, we decided to only print the cutters and the container. Let us pray to the Lord of Light, that the results are ok .
Week 9
We started working on our presentation, my team pointed me as their speaker, because of my energy and my English. I was very happy with their decision because it meant that they trusted in me and gave me the opportunity to practice my pitch.
While this was going our 3D printing arrived, there was only one mistake, the cutter didn’t fit in the container. We had to sanding them for hours, but in the end they fit.
It was after this that Alvaro had the idea to test the cutter with a tomato, to see if it would cut. Turns out it didn’t, because the cutter was so thin, they broke. That was funny to watch!
Nico and Alvaro glued the blades making them stronger.
On Friday we talked with the teaches about what we were going to present, they gave us suggestion about interesting topics to talk about.
Week 10
On Monday we had a pre-presentation, and to be honest I was pretty nervous, but my team was there to cheer me on. I forgot some points and I talked a little too fast. But the teaches liked my English so that a plus.
During the presentation, we showed the prototype of Saki, and from no-where, we told them the story about the previous test, and they said to tested them again, in the class, in that precise moment, and we said “Ok”. We grabbed an apple and prayed to the Lord of Light that it would cut. And the Lord of Light responded us, the apple was cut! YEIH! i swear that I wasn’t expecting that.
So today I am going to present the project, this time for real, I am confident of my abilities to talk slower hahaha, and to not forget the important points.
Bye!