Winter Quarter 2015

David L. Jaffe, MS Tuesdays & Thursdays at 4:15pm - 5:30pm Classroom 110 in Thornton Center

Students' Comments - Winter 2014

Contents:

In response to the question: Why do you want to take this course?

From students' course comments:

Comments about the lectures

Comments about the tours and the assistive technology faire

Comments about the projects

Comments about the course in general

Comments about the instructor

Other comments

From students' individual reflections

From students' online course evaluations

In response to the question: Why do you want to take this course?

Chance to do a CS project with service.

I was excited to be involved in a project class where the project came from [the] outside community members and could go on to make a difference.

I had never taken a course that tackled such a needed topic. It also aligns with my interest of creative technology to help those in need.

Cool depth class. Parents are doctors therefore needed to take an assistive technology class.

I wanted to get exposure to the idea of designing assistive technology.

I wanted to learn about the assistive technologies on the market.

I wanted to take this course because it's a unique hands-on appoach to biotechnology, which is my HumBio area of concentration and wanted to learn more about [the] design process.

I've always been interested in special needs, but never combined it with my engineering skills.

It was an option for my concentration in STS, but also I was genuinely interested.

[I have an] interest in [the] subject matter.

I like design and it fulfilled a major requirement.

I was interested after learning about the course in ME294 [Medical Device Design], and had a project in mind.

It was a very interesting option among the STS science-related courses.

I was interested in help[ing] to build products that may have a world impact.

I like the topic & it counts towards m major.

It is an important topic and I enjoyed the design component.

General interest in assistive technology; fulfills ME depth requirement.

Seemed interesting and counts for my major [STS].

I'm interested in biomedical devices.

Wanted to hear perspectives that I didn't typically hear.

It was a more human-focused wau to fulfill an engineering requirement.

I wanted to learn more about assistive devices.

Very different project-based class to broaden my ME scope.

Very interesting subject matter, counted towards my major [STS].

I'm really interested in prosthetics & orthotics as a career.

I have been interested in assistive technolgy for a while and I thought it would be great exposure.

I found it through the Haas Center affiliated courses.

I wanted to learn about ways to use technology to help others.

From students' course comments:

Comments about the lectures

The lectures and tours were great and eye-opening.

I liked the variety of the lectures. It was also important to see the students applying the knowledge learned in the course to an actual assistive technology.

Really cool! [In response to: Comment on lectures - The Design and Control of Exoskeletons for Rehabilitation.]

Very inspiring & really helps other see daily challenges in the eyes of our fellow students. [In response to: Comment on lectures - Perspectives of Stanford Students with a Disability.]

This lecture was very interesting & prompted me to consider going into this field. [In response to: Comment on lectures - Rehabilitation Robotics.]

I really liked the variety of topics addressed by guest lecturers.

[I] thought I was able to gain and express empathy after hearing from my peers. [In response to: Comment on lectures - Perspectives of Stanford Students with a Disability.]

A great talk, and well-formatted. [In response to: Comment on lectures - Issues of Human Interface Design.]

Guest speakers were amazing, intelligent, and encouraging.

Enjoyed lectures, especially demonstrations of technology.

[The lecture, Perspectives of Stanford Students with a Disability], was especially helpful because I personally know some of them and it is nice to have a greater perspective of the functionality of their respective lives.

These [lectures] were awesome. Clearly lots of thought was put into the class. Thank you!

I very much appreciated the presentation by those with various disabilities. Really gave a brave and interesting perspective.

I loved hearing stories from various people and the project portion of the course.The course went above my expectations.

AMAZING experience. [In response to: Comment on lectures - The Design and Control of Exoskeletons for Rehabilitation.]

Everyone [lecturers] was very enthusiastic about what they do.

[I] liked the lecture on perspectives of Stanford students with a disability , very engaging and eye-opening. [I also] liked the lecture on aesthetics, very informed and interesting.

All lectures are helpful for gaining different perspective of assistive technology.

I liked the project aspect and the diversity of the lectures.

I liked the faire and lectures where there were demonstrations.

Pitch Day was great for understand[ing] the greater goal of the class.

[The] guest presentations were awesome.

The tours were great and most presentations were great too.

I liked the project and some of the guests were very cool.

Comments about the tours and the assistive technology faire

The lectures and tours were great and eye-opening.

I enjoyed lectures where tech[nology] was demoed in the class.

[The ] Gait Lab was very interesting & really liked the connections to anatomy / medicine.

I really liked the tours and would like more.

Both tours were exceptional to see real world applications of class concepts. And driving a wheelchair was fun!

By far the best part of the class. Great to talk to all those inventors, especially the Beam. [In response to: Comment of lectures - Assistive Technology Faire.]

I liked the faire and lectures where there were demonstrations.

The tours were great and most presentations were great too.

Comments about the projects

The number of suggested projects was outstanding. Not only that, but they were very diverse.

Suggested projects showed good diversity.

Very good variety - something for everyone. [In response to Comment on quality and variety of suggested projects.]

I liked the project aspect and the diversity of the lectures.

Great variety even for an STS major. [In response to: Comment on the quality and variety of suggested projects.]

I liked the project and some of the guests were very cool.

[I] liked the demonstrations of technology and learning about other class projects.

Comments about the course in general

I liked that the course seemed very well thought out and that Dave clearly puts a lot of effort & investment into this course, which is not always seen in many other classes here!

I like how we were able to learn the design process without it being artificial or forced as it can be in CS147.

It exceeded them. [In response to: How well did the entire course meet your expectations?]

It was very comfortable to meet with them. They were very helpful and thus process was efficient. [In response to: Comment on the effort and time spent on interacting with project suggestor and users.]

It was fun, [the] little thought provoking tidbits that I enjoyed. [In response to: Please comment on the value of the pre-lecture items.]

Very cool to interact with community members.

Overall, I loved how holistic this course was, addressing many of the different angles of assistive technologies. I would like another field trip or two, and felt that the progression & process of the project were great.

Interesting class. I liked seeing the technology used & hearing people's experiences.

Thank you for a great quarter. Course is inspiring and super interesting. Best wishes!

I thought it was a very interesting class, and I wish I had more time to attend different lectures.

Really nice class! Great collaborative, friendly environment. Excellent focus on bridging students with the community around them

I liked almost every aspect of the class. J

[The course] was a great way to learn more about the engineering process through a very worthy and interesting subject matter. Really liked the format of the class and being able to leave the class with a working prototype and feeling of accomplishment. Thank you for your help and guidance in this class!

Comments about the instructor

It was helpful how available Dave was to reach.

Dave was very available.

Dave was always accessible. He also cared about the opinions of the students and their project progress.

Dave was great at responding! [In response to: Please comment on knowledge of and access to the teaching staff and the quality of the assistance given.]

Sign-up to meet with Dave was helpful.

Dave was very responsive to emails and always willing to assist.

I liked that the course seemed very well thought out and that Dave clearly puts a lot of effort & investment into this course, which is not always seen in many other classes here!

Thank you, Dave for an excellent quarter. As a student interested in Assistive Technology, I can tell that you are too, and that you take this course & your students very seriously. Thank you for that, and please keep it up. I'll be sure to keep in touch!

Dave was always available to meet and made it very easy to sign-up for meeting times with him.

Dave was very helpful in meetings.

Dave was so approachable.

Thank you for organizing this course and making it available to community members. [From a community member]

Great class. It was very clear that the professor was available to meet.

Other comments

I really liked being able to see and sometimes play with new technology.

[I] liked the demonstrations of technology and learning about other class projects.

J

Thank you!!! J

From students' individual reflections:

This has been one of the best classes I've taken at Stanford. The lectures were all really interesting and I feel like I was exposed to a lot of different topics. The speakers were all engaging and the topics they discussed were all a joy to listen to.

During these past ten weeks of this quarter, this course has given me a new perspective about the field of assistive technology. Coming into the course, I had no idea about how wide and diverse this field is and how many disciplines it could encompass. I decided to take this course because I had interest in building devices that would be able to help people, but I had a limited view of the range of what assistive technology is. David Jaffe, the guest speakers and tours were able to expand that range and inform me of the opportunities available in the assistive technology industry. On top of that, being able to work on a project throughout the quarter was very instructive in helping me see the design process in order to design an assistive device.

Overall, this class was a wonderful experience, and I was so appreciative to see the overwhelmingly positive comments for our final presentation that we worked really hard on. I am thankful for the support that our instructor, Dave, was able provide and the attention to detail and process that he shared. It requires a special person to know all the special people who spoke in our class, and so I am grateful for the perspective gained from these past ten weeks.

I will definitely recommend this class to friends and classmates. It has a very good mix of engineering and design lessons in addition to the applications to assistive technology and helping those with disabilities. I learned a lot more form this class than I thought I would, and I am hopeful that I can apply my new knowledge on this topic to future projects and can help teach other people about applications of assistive technology.

It is hard to believe that the quarter has already come to an end and my team and I have finished our project for the class, but it has been a very rewarding experience and I am glad that I chose to take this class. I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated how well-structured the class was, and felt that every lecture, trip, and technology demonstration we experienced helped us in thinking about how to best craft our project, and more broadly, showed us that putting something of this scale and importance together could only be carried out with the combined feedback and effort of many different people. All in all, Perspectives in Assistive Technology is an excellent course and one that I would definitely recommend to my friends majoring in STS or looking for a course to take outside of their academic discipline. I was not quite sure [what] to expect going in, as I only stumbled upon it by looking through the course selections of my STS concentration, but it ended up being quite the experience, and I learned a great deal more than I expected from a three unit course. I had taken design-thinking and prototyping-intensive classes before for digital technology, but I feel that working with physical/mechanical things gave me a brand new perspective, and certainly expanded my scientific breadth in terms of what it means to major in Science, Technology, and Society. Most importantly, ENGR 110's emphasis is on helping people, which is something I truly care about. Though I have enjoyed many of the courses I've taken for my major while I've been at Stanford, I feel that this course truly applies science and technology to society.

All in all, I could not be more pleased with how this course and project turned out. It is one of my most rewarding class experiences at Stanford and I can't wait to show off this project to friends and peers in future years. Thank you Dave for all your help.

Overall, I'm very glad I took this class. As one of my first hands-on projects, it was an excellent experience, and we ended up with a final design that we are very proud of, which is an amazing feeling. I can't wait to take more project-based classes in the future.

My experience in this class and with this project was positive as well as rewarding. This was my first introduction to a class that involved not only design, but also the follow through of producing a functional prototype. Additionally it was my first experience learning and working in the field of assistive technology. That being said I learned a great deal of skills that will extend beyond this class and skills that don't necessarily have to do with engineering specifically. Being exposed to the many forms of existing assistive technology and hearing the stories of individuals in our community who have disabilities and use these technologies, provided a new lens for me to look at a multitude of things in my life through. For example I feel, after taking this class, that I have a greater level of sensitivity when it comes to interacting with individuals with disabilities simply because I have a better understanding of not only their struggles, but also their triumphs. Also what they are capable of, and not solely what they are incapable of.

The course lectures were always interesting, and I particularly paid attention to the ones that focused on wheelchair users. Seeing new and innovative wheelchairs, like the Whill wheelchair, inspired me to think about how my designs would work with wheelchairs in the future.

There were a lot of valuable lessons to take away from this class and the design process. I think the most valuable part of the class was working in a group. Life is a team game with individual results. Success is measured on an individual basis but is accomplished through the cooperation of many individuals. Being able to function well in a group is pivotal in almost every walk of life, and this class offers a superb opportunity to practice the skills necessary to be a successful member of a group. Having an open and adaptable mind during the group process of the course will be the greatest lesson I take away from this class. The lectures were also a great part of the course because of the unique insight they provided on the field of assistive technology. I am thankful for the opportunity to have taken this class and will advise my friends to take it in the future.

I would definitely recommend this class to any future students. The class is an appropriate workload for a 3 unit engineering class. Dave is a great professor and brings in the very interesting and diverse guest lecturers.

Going through the design process in this class was different from any other class I have taken at Stanford. The class structure was conducive to creativity while providing perspectives that could continually be incorporated into the projects as the quarter went on. I enjoyed the lack of “lecture material” that is usually expected in other classes. This gives students the ability to bring in their own design experience into the class instead of forcing the students to conform to a prescribed set of expectations.

This course was a great learning experience for me. I was able to do market research, brainstorm, prototype, and “sell” a product (through presentations). The market research was great because I learned what was available in the market for wheelchair accessories. I was surprised to see the limited amount of options. I had never drawn designs for a product or gone through with building rough prototypes. It was very stressful because it was so new to me but once it was completed it was really rewarding.

The journey of this project has been extremely rewarding. I'm so glad and grateful that I found this class.

I have personally been working on becoming more empathetic and thought that this class would be a great place to practice that. I also find learning much more effective when exercised in a practical setting. This class provided that structure beautifully. I really appreciated how thorough and prepared Dave was for every lecture and his summary emails were the easiest emails to navigate and made accessing information a walk in the park (some teachers make it extremely difficult!).

This research was a great learning experience for me. It not only helped me hone my writing and research skills, but also provided the unique opportunity of reaching out to some outstanding individuals working in the field of accessibility. It is also gratifying to have been able to come up with a document that can potentially benefit my community. I must also mention the important role that several inspiring guest speakers in the class played by constantly motivating me to realize my vision. All in all, I had a wonderful and enriching experience this quarter, and I look forward to taking the class again.

This quarter has taught me so much about assistive technology. In addition, I have learned valuable skills like the use of illustrator, laser cutting, building, presentation skills, and technical skills. The idea of "learning by doing" rang a bell for me as the quarter project truly taught me so much and each process, building on top of the next created our final lap desk. I loved how lectures conveniently coincided with our project, their examples gave us motivation, ideas and a kind of model to work by. Research was incredibly valuable, Google became my best friend as I searched through all kinds of sites, forums and videos. After all this research talking to professionals at the VA hospital and Dave at his office really helped us find our final project aim. I loved the fair at the end of the quarter because here we got so much feedback! I wish we had gotten something like this earlier because getting so many different opinions really opened our views.

This class was a really great learning experience. I really enjoyed the lectures, in particular the Ekso Bionics and Wheelchair lectures. From my undergraduate experiences I had the opportunity to work designing a prosthetic ankle-foot and found the area of robotics applied to assistive devices very interesting.

As a student pursuing a BA in the Science, Technology, and Society department, I viewed this course as a great opportunity to practice design from a hands-on perspective, but was nervous about the engineering element. I was concerned that the class's projects would require heavy use of mathematical concepts as well as technical skills in fabrication. Instead, I found it to be a highly practical experience that allowed me to immerse myself fully into the design process. Though I do not have a particularly intense interest in assistive technology design, I found the field to be fascinating and useful for practicing the processes of ethnographic research, prototyping, and refining, in that it provided a very specific set of constraints that allowed me to have a clearly defined understanding of my target user-group. This class taught me much of the practical knowledge needed for working on professional project teams and helped me to have a much better understanding of all the individual concerns that must be addressed to create a successful final product.

Overall, I think actually building the device was the most rewarding component of the class. I really appreciated being able to put my knowledge to practical use, and coming away from the experience with a somewhat working prototype makes me feel very proud.

Overall, this course was a unique experience, unlike many of the large, lecture-style classes I have taken at Stanford. I sincerely appreciate the time, communication, and individualized attention that Dave puts into this course, as I feel this is a component missing from many other classes I have taken at Stanford. I feel very thankful to have been a part of this course this quarter. Thank you, Dave, for designing a fulfilling course!

It is VERY comforting to know that you, David, are so passionate about the subject matter yourself. This has a very positive effect on any given student's outlook on the course, but also provides them with motivation to try his/her hardest. I think that the most important idea presented in the class is that the class is not meant to simply be a general education requirement or to fulfill a major requirement. Rather, the course is meant to not only exercise our individual creativity and critical thinking processes, but to also consider how our designs could one day benefit others. Ensuring that students understand the course is meant to promote public service and involvement ultimately results in well-executed and thorough designs and presentations.

I'm glad I got the chance to take this class because I know experience with the design process will be invaluable later on. No matter what direction I take my career, I will have to know how to identify needs and interact with users to build a better product. Moreover, this experience has really impressed upon me the importance of prototyping early and often.

I learned a lot from the class not only through lectures, but I also learned by doing. I learned by building, interviewing, and testing. I also learned from my classmates, and I had a lot of fun watching their projects develop. The broad range of projects and the exploration of each project made me feel as if I was along with all the other teams as they learned through the design process of their own projects. I look forward to using my experiences in this class to shape how I view and even how I might, in the future, design assistive technologies.

This group project was a highlight of this quarter, and I definitely found myself putting more time into this project than other classes because I was more interested and passionate about the work. This course overall truly helped me develop my thinking as an engineer and focus my interests.

My experience in the class definitely did not disappoint, and being able to put together a successful project in addition to hearing from well-spoken professionals each week made for a very worthwhile quarter and class.

This class was easily the most collaborative class that I have ever taken at Stanford. It was incredible how involved students got to be with a community that stretched beyond Stanford’s campus. These interactions put the class in the perspective of real world people and projects, and made the learning much more fulfilling and applicable. Overall, this class provided incredible perspective through its promotion of interaction with fellow students, companies, hospitals, and community members. The interactive learning that occurred through creating the project, interviewing people who were disabled, and the technology faire was truly unique. This class not only opened my eyes to the full spectrum of disabilities and the needs that come with them, but also promoted interpersonal, experiential learning, which I now believe is invaluable.

Overall, this quarter in ENGR110 taught me many lessons in the value of team-work, in conquering my fears, in believing in myself and my ability to rise to any challenge, and of course in the value of assistive technology.

I think this course has given me a different perspective on what it means to make a difference in the world. I know that whatever career I do in the future, I would like to do something that helps people. And this class has helped me to see different ways that people are trying to help others everyday.

From students' online course evaluations:

1. Please comment on the individual instructors with regard to effectiveness and attitude toward students:

Very accessible, friendly, super organized

Tried to engage with students and community

Very clear that he likes the material a lot.

Great guest lecturers!

Great speakers

Dave clearly puts a lot of time and effort into this course, which is something that I don't see often enough with classes here, especially big lecture ones. He was also very available and willing to meet with us outside of class.

2. Please comment on the strengths and weaknesses, if any, of the textbook(s) and reading(s).

Great website and suggested readings, videos, etc. Super organized.

Outside presentations were very interesting

3. Please comment on assignments and exams.

Project was great!

The assignments were fair

4. Do you have any additional comments on the course over-all?

Fantastic course, I love the hands-on aspect and the great topic with such potential impact. Definitely lived up to my expectations!

The class topic was interesting

Great course overall. Guest lecturers and tours were fun.

Great class!

From students' and community members' emails:

Previous years' comments

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