Introduction

Team Projects: Students work in teams of three to address problems faced by individuals with disabilities and older adults in the local community with the goal of fabricating, testing, and presenting a functional prototype device or software application. Team project activities include selecting team members; considering project choices; selecting a project; meeting with project partners, assistive technology users, design coaches, and the course instructor; understanding the problem; identifying what is needed; searching for existing commercial products; brainstorming and identifying appropriate project design alternatives; selecting a project design to pursue; fabricating a prototype; testing and analyzing the performance of the prototype; iterating and refining the fabrication and testing steps; presenting and demonstrating the project; writing a report; and reflecting on the course and team project experience.

Two or three teams may collectively work on the same project, sharing these tasks: obtaining background information and brainstorming. However each team is required to pursue, present, and report on their own unique solution. All students working on team projects are required to attend all class sessions.

Typical Team Project tasks include interviewing an individual with a disability or older adult to get a better understanding of the individual's life, challenges being faced, successes achieved, and desires for the future. Review assistive technology used, their usefulness and limitations, problems experienced, and similar products on the market.

Overview

Students taking te course for three credit units are required to form teams of three members, select a candidate team project, and pursue the team project activities listed below including presenting their work (Mid-Term and End-of-Term), submitting a Mid-Term report and a comprehensive End-of-Term report that encompasses the team's efforts for the entire quarter, and reflect on individual team members' experiences.

Summary of Team Project Activities

General Tasks for Teams:

• Review candidate team project offerings prior to first class session
• Attend all lectures, including the first lecture, Introduction to Assistive Technology
• Communicate selected project, team members, and team name
• Provide weekly project updates: in-person, by Zoom, or by email
• Mid-Term - team project presentation and report
• End-of-Term - team project presentation, demonstration, and report
• Submit an Individual Reflection

General Tasks for Team Members during Class Sessions:

• Arrive on-time
• Be attentive
• Absorb / understand / analyze
• Formulate opinions
• Ask questions
• Contribute to discussions
• Fill out Class Session Evaluation Forms
• Participate in class discussions and lecture questions

Required Course and Team Project Activities

The required course and project activities for students working on a Team Project are:

• Participate fully in the class including attending lectures as required, listening actively, posing questions to the guest speakers and the course instructor, engaging in class discussions, verbalizing thoughts and analyses, reading and responding to emails from the course instructor, and communicating project progress.

• Attend all lectures, including the first lecture, Course Overview & Introduction to Assistive Technology. Sign the Attendance Sheet to verify your presence.

• Select a project and form a team as described below.

• Pursue team project design and fabrication process as described below.

• Provide a seven-minute project Mid-Term Project Presentation in class on Tuesday, February 8th as described below.

• Submit a Mid-Term report that documents the project effort and addresses the elements described below. These reports are due on Tuesday, February 15th.

• Give an End-of-Term presentation in class on Tuesday, March 8th that includes PowerPoint slides, photographs, and short videos as described below.

• Submit an End-of-Term report that documents the entire quarter's effort and addresses the elements described below. Team reports are due Monday, March 14th.

• Compose an Individual Reflection as described below. Individual reflections are due Monday, March 14th.

Project Selection & Team Formation

• Review the Candidate Team Project offerings prior to Project Pitch Day - Thursday, January 6th

• Fill out the Project Preferences for Students Working on Team Projects handout during Pitch Day class, indicating your interest in each project during the project pitch presentations.

• Select your top five project preferences, providing its ordinal (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th) ranking at the end of all the project pitches.

• Hand in this form at the end of the class session. Information from all the forms will be posted online.

• Identify and contact other students with similar project interests.

• Form a project team of three members. (Team members must not include students on the Wait List.)

• Agree upon a team project from the list of project suggestions.

  Note: Forming a team and selecting a project may not happen in the orderly manner described.

• Select a suitable and appropriate and cool name for your team.

  Random Team Name Generator

  Creative Team Names

  Cool Team Names

• Email your team's name, project selection, and list of members to the instructor by 5pm Friday, January 14th.

Assignment Overviews

• Mid-Term Assignment Overview For your mid-term assignment students are asked to form a team, select a candidate project; contact the individual who suggested the project and interview an individual with a disability or an older adult (or family members or health care professionals) who would benefit from the project to better understand the problem; gather information on existing commercial products and research; determine the magnitude of the problem; brainstorm and evaluate potential solutions; select the top three design concepts; fabricate, test, and refine prototype solutions; present your progress; and submit a mid-term report.

• End-of-Term Assignment Overview For your end-of-term assignment your team is asked to choose a specific design concept and fabricate and test a series of increasing refined functional prototypes. The embodiment of your chosen design should be in the form of detailed sketches, drawings, and a final functional prototype. Your team will present your design in class and submit a final comprehensive final project report that encompasses your work for the entire quarter.

Team Project Tasks

• Contact the individual(s) listed who suggested the project to obtain information including details about the problem, the disability group(s) targeted, the current solution employed (if any) and its shortcomings or limitations, the potential benefits of an improved solution, and the design features / specifications from his/her point of view.

• Identify and interview at least one individual who is affected by this problem and determine specifically how it affects him / her, the benefits of an improved solution, and the design features / specifications from his / her point of view.

• Gather information on other solution alternatives including commercially available products, research projects, and previous student projects. Consider why those products, research, and projects have not been more successful. Here are some companies that sell assistive technology products or have an online database of devices:

  • Abledata, North Coast Medical, Smith & Nephew, Infogrip, Access Ingenuity, Sammons Preston, Alimed, Allegro Medical, EnableMart, and Therapro.

• Determine the magnitude of the problem and identify all the populations who may benefit from an improved solution.

• Brainstorm possible project solutions and select at least three promising design alternatives. (See Example Spreadsheet for Comparing Design Concepts)

• Provide a concise and convincing statement of how your project might address the problem. Outline general design concepts and identify new technology that might be brought to bear on it.

• Begin prototyping solutions starting with sketches, CAD models, and low resolution 3D physical models.

• Meet as a team with course resource people for feedback on your design concept and the person who suggested the project or an individual with a disability or older adult who would benefit from the project to test and discuss the merits of your developing design - what works well and what looks promising and what requires further analysis, thought, and redesign.

• Fabricate a series of increasingly refined functional prototypes, testing them with the user, an individual with a disability or older adult.

• Refine your prototypes to fully address and meet project goals.

• Iterate the fabrication / testing / analysis / redesign cycle as time permits.

• Document your project activities with photographs for use in presentations and reports that include:

  • Team members - just team members either individually or in group (without user) for report covers
  • Team activity with project suggestor / user during "understanding the problem", testing, and prototype use
  • Team activity during fabrication
  • Prototype "glamour shot" without team members

• Update the course instructor weekly by in-person meetings and emailed reports (alternating between the two) on team project progress throughout the quarter. (See Weekly Reports)

• Note that these tasks / activities are not necessarily meant to be performed in chronological order.

Mid-Term Team Project Presentation

Give a seven-minute presentation in class on Tuesday, February 8th that includes PowerPoint slides.The presentation should include the following elements: project title, background, problem, aim, design criteria, "understanding the problem" & design criteria & brainstorming activities, and selected solution(s) to be pursued.

Teams are required to use PowerPoint or GoogleDocs slides in their presentation. Please email presentation decks to the course instructor by noon on the date of the presentation so it can be loaded onto a laptop. (Please upload any videos to YouTube and link to them in your slides.) All team members should participate in the presentation.

Each student project team will give a presentation on the progress of their project which will include the following points:

• Introduction of team and its members
• Brief abstract
• Statement of problem
• Magnitude of problem addressed by this project
• Discussion of interviews with those who suggested the project and potential users
• Summary of design criteria
• Identification of existing solutions and discussion of their limitations
• Description of brainstormed design concepts
• Analysis of considered design alternatives
• Description of top selected design concepts, including their technical feasibility, engineering difficulty, estimated cost, user acceptance, safety considerations, etc
• Design visualizations: photographs, videos, sketches, drawings, models, and prototypes
• Future work and challenges for continuing the project toward fabrication and testing with users

Other presentation considerations and suggestions: (Due to the limited class time for presentations, there will be no opportunity for teams to field questions.)

• Project status - what has been done, what remains
• Problems encountered, resolved, and pending
• Expenses expected if the project is to be continued into the Spring Quarter
• Plans for the remainder of the quarter

The overall quality of the presentation and the design concept will be judged by the teaching team, community members, and other students on the overall quality of their presentation, the effectiveness of their design process, and the progress made toward a design solution using the following metrics:

• Presentation & Delivery: Presentation: (What the team presented) - clarity, organization, and completeness of the information presented. Delivery: (How the team presented) - professionalism, enthusiasm, conviction, confidence, energy, volume.
• Process: (How the team addressed the problem) - problem information, background research, design concepts brainstormed, prototyped, tested, and evaluated
• Design: (What the team produced) - creativity, originality, functionality of the design concept & prototypes and the likelihood it will meet the user's challenges
• Overall: (Overall score) - combined impression of presentation and project effort

Most important - practice your team's presentation to maximize the quality of its content, clarity, conciseness, completeness, understanding of your design decisions, creativity, pacing, and timing.

Mid-Term Team Project Report

1. A team's Mid-Term report should include all their efforts so far including background research, user interaction, evolution of ideas, etc. The narrative portion of teams' report should not exceed 10 pages in length.

2. Please note that a longer report is not necessarily better. I would much rather read a shorter, concise, well-written, and highly readable report than a longer, poorly written report with grammatical and spelling errors.

3. Mid-Term reports will be marked up and graded: Excellent, Very Good, or Good.

4. Teams' reports should be submitted by email by Tuesday, February 15th at 5pm. Follow the detailed format listed in Report Writing Tips. The suggested sections titles are:

   • Cover page - include course name & year, project title, student name, and team photo (do not include a page number on the cover page)

   • Table of Contents - section titles and page numbers

   • Abstract - one paragraph summary of objectives and activities perfomed

   • Background - an overview of the organization and / or provide a general description of the population addressed by your project

   • Problem - briefly and concisely describe the problem, including the people who experience it

   • Aim - describe what the proposed solution should do, but not how it should do it

   • Design Criteria - list the desirable operational features and characteristics of the proposed solution

   • Understanding the Problem and Brainstorming Activities - identify existing commercial products & research, describe why they don't completely solve the probem, and list the team's design thoughts

   • Selected Solution - describe the solution(s) the team is considering

   • Images - embed photographs, drawings, graphs, and sketches documenting the design process and activities throughout the body of the document, not at the end

   • References - bibliographic and web citations

   • Acknowledgements - mention all individuals and facilities who helped you

   • Appendices - detailed sketches, calculations, testing notes, relevant vendor information, etc. that are referenced in the main body of the report

5. Submit your report in Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or PDF format by email.

End-of-Term Project Presentation

Give an end-of-term presentation in class in Week 10. Visit the webpage for Tuesday, March 8th for the schedule and order of presentation. Other students and community members will be in attendance.

Here are some considerations for Team Project presentations:

1. Time length: Teams will each have 7 minutes for their presentation.
2. Slides and screen sharing: Screen sharing of PowerPoint slides that include photographs, images, and a short video is encouraged.
3. Evaluation: Students and community members will be asked to fill out am Evaluation Form to evaluate each team's presentation

The presentation should include the following elements:

1. Personal introduction(s)
2. Brief project description
3. Overview of the interview with the older adult or individual with a disability
4. Review of assistive technology employed
5. Choice of and rationale for the selected project activity benefitting the interviewee:
   • project from the Candidate Team Projects List
6. Discussion of the entire quarter's project activity: background research, alternatives considered, selected approach, rationale for choice, prototypes made, and final design
7. Project visualizations: photographs, videos, sketches, drawings, models, prototypes
8. Activity demonstration (as appropriate, depending on project choice)
9. Future work and challenges for continuing the project, including technical feasibility, engineering difficulty, estimated cost of a commercial product, and market potential (as appropriate, depending on project choice)

The overall quality of the presentation and the design concept will be judged by the teaching team, community members, and other students using the following metrics:

• Presentation & Delivery: Presentation: (What the team presented) - clarity, organization, and completeness of the information presented. Delivery: (How the team presented) - professionalism, enthusiasm, conviction, confidence, energy, volume.
• Process: (How the team addressed the problem) - problem information, background research, design concepts prototyped, tested, and evaluated
• Design: (What the team produced) - creativity, originality, functionality of the design concept & prototypes and the likelihood it will meet the user's challenges
• Overall: (Overall score) - combined impression of presentation and project effort

Individuals evaluating the team project presentations will provide their comments:

• What did the team learn, what are your LIKES and WISHES about what they did, and what are your recommendations, suggestions, and advice for the team?
• Provide comments and suggestions about the projects, presentations, and course.

Other team presentation considerations and suggestions:

• Anticipate questions from those in attendance.
• There may be people from industry attending the presentation, so please dress professionally (no jeans, t-shirts, or flip-flops).
• Most important - practice your presentation to maximize the quality of its content, clarity, conciseness, completeness, understanding of your design decisions, creativity, pacing, and timing.

End-of-Term Project Report

1. Teams End-of-Term reports should document all efforts for the entire quarter including background research, user interaction, evolution of ideas, etc. The narrative portion of the report should not exceed 15 pages in length.

2. Please note that a longer report is not necessarily better. I would much rather read a shorter, concise, well-written, and highly readable report than a longer, poorly written report with grammatical and spelling errors.

3. End-of-Term reports will be marked up and graded: Excellent, Very Good, or Good.

4. Teams' reports should be submitted by email by Monday, March 14th at 5pm. Follow the detailed format listed in Report Writing Tips. The suggested sections titles are:

   • Cover page - include course name & year, project title, team name, team member's names, and team members' photos (do not include a page number on the cover page)

   • Abstract - one paragraph summary of objectives, approach taken, and results of the project

   • Introduction - problem to be addressed, problem background

   • Objectives - project goals and rationale

   • Design criteria - background research, interviews with project suggestors and potential users, design specifications, brainstormed design alternatives (at least 3)

   • Methods - what the team did and why - include any sketching, prototyping, model building, preliminary testing, analyses of design alternatives

   • Results - discuss specifics of the team's design alternatives such as features, benefits, aesthetics, cost, safety, reliability, usability, test results, feedback from users, etc.

   • Discussion - include engineering challenges and suggestions to further develop and fabricate a chosen design

   • Next steps - assuming this project will be continued as directed study, identify future challenges and include a timetable of major tasks to produce and test a functional prototype

   • Additional - optionally address issues relating to commercialization including technical feasibility, engineering difficulties, safety considerations, potential manufacturing, cost of materials, mass production, marketing, advertising, distribution, sales, licensing, etc

   • Images - embed photographs, drawings, graphs, and sketches documenting your design process and activities throughout the body of the document, not at the end

   • References - bibliographic and web citations

   • Acknowledgements - mention all individuals and facilities who helped the team

   • Appendices - detailed sketches, calculations, testing notes, relevant vendor information, etc. that are referenced in the main body of the report

5. Please submit your report in Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or PDF format by email.

This course has received a Cardinal Course Grant Award (2020) from the Haas Center for Public Service and the Community Engaged Learning and Research (CELR) Team. One condition of this support is that abstracts from students' Final Project Reports be shared with them. (The content will be anonymized by redacting text that identifies the student, the project partners, and users.)

Individual Reflection

Reflect on your class and team project experiences. Provide a discussion (two pages minimum) of your project process, what was learned, and what was most valuable to you individually. Here are some items to consider and address:

1. Review Learning through Structured Reflection article.

2. You have spent the past quarter hearing from different professionals and users, interviewing community members, brainstorming with your instructor, doing background research, looking at prior art, fabricating and testing a prototype device, etc. Please comment on the relative value of the different parts of this process toward your design.

3. How did the different interactions in the class (with users, community members, guest lecturers, professionals, etc.) contribute to the results of your design? Was any particular interaction especially rewarding or helpful? Why?

4. If you were to go through this process again, what would you do differently? Was there support from the teaching staff or course content that was helpful or that you felt was missing? What advice would you give to future students?

5. Additional questions to be considered for your reflection can be found here.

6. Submit your report in Word or pdf format by email.

This course has received a Cardinal Course Grant Award (2020) from the Haas Center for Public Service and the Community Engaged Learning and Research (CELR) Team. One condition of this support is that students' Individual Reflections be shared with them. (The content will be anonymized by redacting text that identifies the student, the project partners, and users.)

Grading

* Participation includes attending class sessions, meeting with instructor, actively listening, posing questions to the guest speakers and the course instructor, engaging in class discussions, verbalizing thoughts and analyses, and submitting Weekly Project Reports or meeting with the course instructor.