Senior Design Seminar

Sustainability:

We discussed the importance of making sure our technology will be sustainable by taking into consideration its longevity, energy consumption, and recycling of parts. Incorporating sustainability into our design is crucial due to the positive impact it can have on both the environment and the generations of society that will follow

Group Dynamics:

One of the ways that we can increase communication and efficiency within the group is to increase trust and create personal relationships with one another. For our group we established a judgement free zone to allow openness for sharing ideas. One norm mentioned was being open about time availability and the stresses that might occur in addition to being open about oue strengths and weaknesses. By creating norms and a judgement free zone, we hope to progress into the norming and performing stages of group dynamics to harbor effective small group dynamics.

Intellectual Property and FDA Regulation:

There is a ambiguity with FDA regulation for mobile health applications such as the application we will create in addition to our mechanical device to physically change the oxygen liter flow. Our device will most likely need to go down the de novo application route as a Class 2 device for its novelty and lower risk. Communication with the FDA will be crucial as we near closer to the end of our project in order to obtain the proper patents for our technology.

Making:

We must ground our senior design project in the principles of DIVE by always putting the positive long-term future implications of our project at the forefront of our mind. An important aspect of DIVE is immersive human centered design. With our design project we are able to solve a complex, real-life problem through critical thinking and teamwork while collaborating with a medical advisor. Fortunately, our group will have the opportunity to go into patients’ homes to see first-hand how the oxygen concentrators are being used daily. This will allow us to identify issues in the existing system which we will take into considering and try to resolve as we design our project to improve our patients’ standards of living with the ability to wirelessly control their oxygen liter flow as needed.

Team Management Protocol:

When considering design as a social process, it is necessary to have both R-Types and A-Types on design teams. The R-Types are best at brainstorming and coming up with new ideas, while A-Types are better at converging these ideas and progressing in a single direction. The moderate individuals of both types help during the transition stages between the divergence and convergence of ideas. We determined and discussed our types with each other. Fortunately, we have exactly two A-Types in our group and two R-Types; hopefully this combination will work well for as we proceed with our project.