Day 21: MIT Make in India
I started off the morning feeling horrible and sleepy, which was fantastic as today needed to be productive. I made it over to the fablab, got our team together, and we started working. We came up with different product ideas/strategies to solve our problem of littering (in Evernote as well).
- Problem/Impact
- There is a lot of trash around everywhere. This generation cannot be fixed, but if we convince the children in the schools to throw trash where it is supposed to go, using a method that makes throwing away trash fun, we can slowly solve the problem as well as keep public areas (like schools and playgrounds) clean for our children.
- Strategies/Designs
- pretty looking and fun, actually fun to throw away, a trash can that responds/interacts to/with the kids
- trash can that “eats” trash (like how an animal eats) and makes noise
- make throwing away trash a game
- trash that follows you around and talks
- trash can animal that grows as you feed it trash
- 3 separate heads for recycling to teach recycling
- fire breathing dragon trash can
We also put in the servo into the shark prototype and made a quick testing mouth, and it worked beautifully!
Then as Aishwarya and Deepika were putting together the mechanical and electrical aspects of the trashcan shark lid (now having the mouth move to a sensor), Forest and I sat down and started working on the business plan.
In this plan we described the product and its goal as well as the financial and business aspects. The main issue we were working on is our market. We are planning on targeting primary schools and this will require more research and such. We are also working on how much the whole trashcan product will cost. This depends on the material we use to make it, the electronics used, and also labor and many more additional costs. We also have to come up with a name and company...that seems to be important as well.
After we made some progress on our respective tasks, we went and pitched our idea to Raj. He gave us a lot of feedback and other ideas and things to consider as we move forward with our plan. He seemed really interested in the separating of trash and recycling and such (something we hadn't really focused on in our first prototype) and discussed color coding and how children would remember it for the rest of their lives (that saying our product works well). He also discussed how we really need to get together a solid business plan. After his constructive feedback, we went for lunch.
During and after lunch, Titan wasn't feeling too well, so I and Kristin and Aish spent some hours with her to make sure she was feeling ok. No further progress was made on the trashcan, but how can you help the world solve its problems when you can't even help your friends, right? #friendsovertrashcans
Our plan then was to go to the fishermen's village and then the beach! The beach! However, everyone took their sweet time getting ready (me included as I had kind of fallen asleep), so we didn't have time to go to the village and instead were just gonna go to the beach instead. Darn.
The beach was a bit away, and we finally reached, though it was a very cloudy, almost cold day with much chance for rain. We all raced to get soak our feet in the water (and got whistled at by the lifeguard quite a few times) and took some photos. The tide was quite high, so my jeans were kinda screwed. I had just washed it too... But it was worth it. Until it started raining. But beach, you know. I, of course, had to have ice cream (my favorite food, you know). And then ate strepsils right after. In retrospect, eating ice cream at the beach in the cold and rain while being sick wasn't the best idea. But it was decent ice cream.
Aishwarya and me. This turned out cute. And photobombed by Kristin
We then went and stood on the cliff to get some photos and fake push people down. We wanted to go take a walk along the cliffs, but before we did that we all said goodbye to Aalim, who was leaving. Sad that another one of us has left. Our group is slowly becoming smaller and smaller. Many will leave this weekend.
However, the sadness was quickly changed into amazement as we walked along the cliff and saw the great views.
Half Selfie Pt. 2.0
On the way back from the cliff, it of course rained again. Daivon has his catchphrase "at the same damn time" (watch out guys, new hit). We all got on the party bus that played all the old 90s music again. I was mouthing all the words to them and Raj had spotted me and told me to sing louder. I am afraid I was born tone deaf. I just watch a lot of movies, guys.
We bought lungis! True story. And then had to walk back in the rain...
Super Fine.
And yeah this happened...
We then arrived back at the house, and waited for a bit until dinner. After dinner, I needed to watch the Federer-Murray match for the Wimbledon, so I just had to use a little Internet and watch that. Federer won!! Yay!! I was extremely happy.
Then "just go with the flow" happened. I no longer have a voice. No comment.
Interesting day.
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