Light in the Tunnel
As usual, week three started with presentations, I would say I dread those but the feedback is always necessary for progress. This week’s feedback has proven that there might indeed be enough time to work on the projects. After gathering all the information needed to proceed, we can finally start working on the designs we chose. I am super excited to see what we come up with when we let our creative juices flow. To maximize on time, my team and I decided to let one person head each project and work together on things that may require all of our input. I am leading on the dental mouth opener and it is so exciting. We have managed to come up with a 3D design and I cannot wait to see it come to life.
The next two days were filled with fun, laughter and a lot of wisdom. We had workshops from Dzuka Africa headed by Dineo Mkwezalamba where she talked to us about starting a business by bringing our ideas to life. The other workshop was by Dr. Doug Sanyahumbi who brought a different light in making the engineering designs into a business idea. I had never really looked at entrepreneurship that way. Not only was it an informative session, we went into the practicality of it by using our business ideas as examples.
After a wonderful two days of no hands-on work, we headed back to the studio to get the hands dirty. We finally managed to print our first dental opener design called the Bitefficie. The name actually came from the fact that it looks like a fish hence “Bite-a-fish”. However, the “efficie” in our design is for efficiency, smart right? I know, I have a really sharp team, might just call it the elite squad. It was really a great time for me learning how to use the new 3D printers and the different types of filaments available. We also printed a second design that was bigger than the first one and had a better locking mechanism.
The biggest lesson from this week was that there is more to designing than what meets the eye. Patience and perseverance are needed. Above all, learning is not an end in itself but a means to an end. Looking forward to more in the last few weeks.