[192-197] Another course called Preliminary Design involves a yearlong project. I am working in a group of three, and we are designing an ankle brace that is supposed to prevent ankle sprains in soccer. In the beginning of the semester, we had lectures, which covered how you should think when you are picking out material, or how you should think when have different concepts, and the concept selection. But now later on in the semester, all those class times have just been time for us to be able to work on a project.
[200-207] I’m working in very good group. Everyone is doing what they’re supposed to do. And our goal is to have a prototype by the end of the semester, and we are using a flexible plastic called CPAs. That is supposed to allow natural range of motion and also provide forces at a higher velocity. We are 3-D printing the brace to be able to do thin, because current braces on the market are very bulky. And we have now downloaded prototype, and obviously it’s going to have to be redone because it was used the outer shell of it. So, there’s no support yet or anything.
[210-212] So when we’re getting our prototype by the end of this semester, we go ahead and do testing on it next semester. Probably redesign it to make it better than the current one on the market.