I joined Forge, an entrepreneurship club, during the fall semester of my second year at Northeastern. The club follows the engineering design process from ideation to prototyping, with workshops that teach members skills such as brainstorming and 3D printing. The guiding theme for projects that semester was "health", so my project team - including five other students and myself - decided that we wanted to create an assistive keyboard for people with arthritis.
My teammates and I first brainstormed many different problems related to health. One of the ideas I suggested - which we eventually eliminated - was a pump-system to remove boiling water from a pot, helping those who do not have the ability to lift a pot filled with water.
We narrowed down our list and ultimately decided on an assistive keyboard for people with arthritis. We then conducted market research on products that were already available and how they could be improved. We each began sketching our ideas for potential solutions, mine being an ergonomic chorded keyboard where people wouldn't have to move their hands to type.
After we synthesized our ideas into a single coherent idea, I drew a finalized sketch. We used this sketch to create a rough model using cardboard to test out dimensions and better visualize our idea.
I worked alongside the project lead to create the CAD model in SolidWorks. He taught us many tricks, such as tolerancing, smart dimensioning, and adding space for components such as screws. From the project lead's key design and sketches for the base, I created the finalized CAD model - including the base plate and edges of the keyboard.
Finally, when ideating potential names for the product, I came up with the name "Archetype" as a play-on-words for arc and type. My group liked the idea, and the name stuck.
At the end of the semester, Forge held a showcase where each team presented their prototype and the process they took to make it. The audience included over 30 people and a panel of judges. I presented the slides for the CAD development, since I was the primary mechanical engineer, and I answered one of the judge's questions about our design decisions based on the market research we conducted.
After the presentation, there was an open reception where people could come up to our table and we could explain the prototype in a more casual manner. All three of the judges told us that they were thoroughly impressed with our work over the semester, and that our design was the most likely to be successful if we continued development - something they strongly encouraged us to pursue.
Forge Showcase