Team name
Team photo
One of our early designs
Project manager
Computer tech
Materials handler
Additional support member
Early design considerations
Our goal was to have or build a chair that could support the weight of an adult. Since we had no option of using glue, staples, or tape, we had to come up with a technique that could support the weight. So we came up with an idea that used slots and notches called the honeycomb. This technique looks similar to the slots found in a beer bottle packaging. At the same time we discovered that this technique had it's own trick of holding the weight. Some of us thought of a different way of holding weight and that was by using folds. But later we noticed that just having folds is not strong enough, therefore we used both the honeycomb and the folds to come up with our final chair.
Front view of our final prototype
Final Prototype Back
Final prototype structure
Final design considerations
Our final design we thought was very interesting and good-looking as well. It had almost everything we wanted from just one chair. We used both honeycombs and folds. But during the process, we discovered another technique called tabs. If we need to join two pieces of index card together, we cut tabs and fit them in similar to the Chinese, styrofoam containers in which you get your lo mien (Chinese vegetable spaghetti). We also decided that the structure itself was pretty strong good enough to hold the weight of an adult. The back of the chair looks very comfortable and has a nice slope to it.
How we scaled up our prototype
There was only one way for us to get the measurements for our human-size chair and that was to scale up our prototype. Here are the steps to scaling up our prototype:
1. Measure all sides and angles of all pieces
2. Pick a scale factor, our scale factor was 12
3. Take the measurements from your prototype and multiply it by your scale factor.
4. And there you have the human-sized chair measurements.
Human-sized chair, front view
Human sized chair, side view
Teamwork reflections
We all learned that our human-size chair couldn’t all be done in just one day. It takes a lot of time, effort, and teamwork to make a successful chair in which we did. Sometimes some of us would get stuck on certain things but we would help each other out so everyone is on the same page. We wanted to get our chair done as soon as possible and this meant we had to work very hard to get our big piece of the cake. In order to get things done, we divided up the jobs and made a mental schedule. This way everyone had something to do, get this done faster, and everyone can get his or her share of the big piece of the cake. We thought that cooperation was the key thing to succeed in making the chair. If we kept fighting about things, we would have never finished the chair in time.
Improvements
We think that the design has some little mistakes and those should be improved. We thought that we could add more honeycomb to the back of the chair so there could be an even stronger support. We also could have added a footrest to make it more comfortable. We could have also made finer cuts. If we did this chair again, I would say to have a fancier design but maintain the same structure.
Name of non profit organization
The mission of this non-profit organization
We want to donate the money from this chair to UNICEF to help the children going through poverty. We feel that we need to support these children and give them the food, care, and education we get everyday. These children need our help.
Non-profit website URL
The importance of this non-profit
The importance of the non-profit organization is:
- Every child gets a protection
- UNICEF tries to prevent children from having diseases
- Focuses on child survival
- Provides each child with a good education
- And much more