Vanessa's Bike

In the second unit of the course Design and Engineering we studied gear ratios, the power rule, area, volume, slopes, derivatives, potential energy and kinetic energy. We also learned about the parts of a bike, types of bikes and what impact they have on the rider. All of these concepts are hard in their own way, but I was able to pull through with extra help. We focused a lot on bikes because this course is about innovating, meaning that we are going to innovate bikes. The FE's that we had like going to the bike shop, Dyson and Alan were very helpful because we not only learned about bikes, but we learned some history of it, how to make things and the process of building something new. For our action project we worked in partners, and were assigned a person who bikes everyday and that needs a new bike. I got Vanessa who takes her brother every morning to a daycare before going to school. We needed to innovate a bike that fits her needs and make a prototype of it. During this project I had difficulty making the prototype and I learned pre-calculus. If you want to know more about this awesome bike please look down below for more details about it.

KIS & TS. Sketch. 2015

KIS & TS. Vanessa's bike. 2015.

In this unit we studied the wheel in motion, what energy it creates before and after (potential energy and kinetic energy), ratios, velocity, mass, weight, speed and the formulas that go with them. The purpose of this project is to innovate or create a whole new bike for someone. We were assigned people and we got Vanessa.Vanessa is a 17 year old, she lives by the United Center and she bikes 4 miles to school. Everyday when she goes to school she has to drop off her baby brother at a daycare then she goes to school. She takes roads under the train so it’s loud, there are many potholes and she leaves her bike in front of her house locked to a pole because she doesn’t have space to put it in. I am proud of our final design; it meets Vanessa's needs and had some cool upgrades that we added. In the process of making this project I learned that a bike’s frame doesn't have to be traditional, it can be any shape but it just needs to be stable, hold things together and distribute the weight evenly. Also technology is being included into bikes which I didn’t know, but I like. Also the aerodynamic bikes are cool because it makes you gain more speed and the material it’s made out of is comfortable.

KIS & TS. Bike Structure. 2015

The bike that we created for Vanessa has a shield protector for the baby in the back and a comfortable seat. It has mountain bike tires for the potholes she goes through everyday. It has a thick wire inside the frame so it can lock between the bike and the pole so no one can steal it. It also has a basket in front for Vanessa's book bag or anything else. It provides a gel seat and gel handles for the long bike ride and it has three different ways she can grab the handlebar so she can accommodate to however her hands feel. From the interview I conducted my friend said “Bullhorn handles are the most effective but many say drop handles look the best.” Our bike also has a soundproof shield for her baby brother when they ride under the tracks. Vanessa should trust our design because it’s modern, it helps her in her daily routine and it will make her life easier so she can focus on important things. Getting to the math behind a bicycle, Vanessa takes 23 minutes to get to school. Vanesa would take 10.43mph (miles per hour) and 4.66 mps (meters per second). The wheel’s diameter is 28 in. and the circumference of the wheel is 87.92 in. The wheel will rotate 2882 times during her journey and the model that we built is 14 times smaller than an actual bike. For the gears the bike has a small cog in back and big cog in in front because that way she can decide at what speed she wants to go in order to get a smooth ride and the gear ratio is 1:2, there is 30 teeth in the small gear and 60 teeth in the big gear. In terms of energy Vanessa has more potential energy when she is on top of a hill and has more kinetic energy when she goes down a hill. In the process of innovating it was really hard to come up with a way to make the loud train noises go away when a train passes because we didn’t want to transform the bike into a car so I decided that Vanessa can handle the noise but her baby brother can’t because babies have sensitive ears. We created a sound-proof shield around the baby's seat so he doesn’t hear the noises and it protects him.

KIS & TS.Over view. 2015.

Super Pickaxe

In the first unit of the course Design and Engineering, we learned lots of math. For example we learned the rates equation and formulas for volume and area. We learned about what is a lever, a wedge and an inclined plane and their purpose, as well as vectors, Trigonometry and the equation for work. Leading towards our action project we interviewed a gardener and I interviewed my dad. We interviewed them to see which tools they like, which ones they don't like and which ones they prefer. We also went to a Home Depot for an FE and there we learned about gardening tools, how they have improved over time and what they are used for. For our action project we picked a tool from Home Depot and our challenge was to modify it for the elderly to use. I chose the pickaxe because it was interesting and no one else seemed to notice it. It was a big challenge to figure out how to make the pickaxe lighter, but that still had the same effect to break things and I am proud of my final design.

KIS&WV(2015)Storyboard 1.

KIS&WV(2015)Storyboard 2.

The purpose of this assignment is to modify a gardening tool for the elderly. My tool is a pickaxe and I brainstormed ideas for the elderly to use without getting hurt. For this project empathy played a huge part in designing for someone else. My definition for empathy is understanding someone else's feelings like if you are in their shoes and empathy relates to the project by taking into consideration the elderly and their needs. From the interviews I have conducted I learned that tools help and can have many uses even if one doesn't like the tool. I also learned that gardening is never over. My interviewee said “A tool I find helpful is the shovel because it can move the dirt around and dig holes for the plants.” This helped me in the design process by showing me what tool is a necessity. Besides my interview I did research on my tool, the pickaxe. There haven't been many variations, it's meant for heavy duty work and it's not a common gardening tool. The difference between the original pickaxe and the improved one in stores is just the size, handle material and weight. The way I modified to tool was that I kept the same basic idea of a pickaxe, but it has a telescope-like handle, it has a shovel at the top and the weight can be adjusted by putting water in the head. The way the new tool works is by using the pick to break something and use the shovel to move it. Depending on the object you want to break the weight on the head can be adjustable. Focusing on the parts of the tool, the pickaxe splits things apart and breaks them. To clean the mess the shovel comes in handy. To adjust the weight the person can add different amounts of water into the head and to store it in small places or make it take up less space the handles can get smaller (when needed it gets big). Our tool uses wedges a lot because the pickaxe has one pointy side and the other is flat, but still has the triangle form. The shovel has a point and it also moves things around. With that our tool is great because it can adjust to however the person wants it, it is two tools in one and it looks cooler and occupies less space.

                                           

KIS(2015)Super Pickaxe.