The issue we were presented with is that there is currently no toy power car capable of being operated by the large number of mobility-impaired children in the world. Our solution to this is to build a single modular toy power car, which we will donate to High Hopes Preschool and Pediatric Therapy Clinic in Franklin, TN at the completion of the project. This may not be a solution for the global issue at hand, but we believe it’s a small step in the right direction.
At the last update of our project, we were beginning to look at appropriate vendors for materials to fit our proposed modification designs, which were part of Phase I. Since then we have taken measurements of all areas of the car that will be necessary to modify and still be able to fit a child between ages two and five years, have moved the car to the Senior Design Loft so that we may access it on weekends and off-business hours, and two of our members have received Makerspace training at the Wond’ry. This past weekend, there were some miscommunications between team members, leaving us still without parts and without a working car. One team member had to work on his own while 2 others were out of town and one was unresponsive, so not as much work was accomplished as we were hoping would be by the time of the next meeting. Furthermore, we ran into a large decision that is still unsolved: whether it would be more worthwhile to purchase an entirely new car or purchase the necessary materials to fix the car we already have.
For the short term future, we plan to be handing in our vendor material requests to Tina Shaw by the end of the business day on February 1, 2017. In addition, we have met to finalize some design ideas and arranged a visit for observations at High Hopes Preschool, which will be conducted on February 3, 2017, with the intention of turning those observations into new modification ideas. Also, we plan to fix up our presentation based on the commentary received during our initial meeting, we will complete the Design Booklet assignment by February 13, 2017, and we will double check that our website is up to date in anticipation of the upcoming review on February 5, 2017.
Gantt Chart as of January 31, 2017
All of this aside, we believe that once our parts come in and the car is working, we will he able to complete the car by, if not before, the deadline of April 25, 2017. As for budget, the project may suddenly become more expensive than we anticipated if we end up needing to buy a new car or can’t find cheaper repair materials, but this is still up for discussion. We luckily have a great deal of supplies already in stock thanks to our advisor’s lab and generosity, as well as the new Makerspace.
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