Getting Our Gears Working- Priscilla O.

Human Relief is moving in the right direction, the three of us have started stating prototyping and having a visual of what we what the final product to be like. Last week we went to Hancock Fabrics to look at different types of textures and to feel the comfort as well to broaden our minds about types of cloth to use when we actually have to create our design. And this week two out of three members are 3D printing certified and all three of us have our sewing certification granted by Mrs. Mauser. The whole team is shifting towards the prototype and also analyzing the anatomy behind our future design and how it will help the ankle.

We have asked several students in ARS whom are part of either the basketball or soccer team to elaborate on what’s a wish or demand they wish on future protection device. Where we found where the main injuries were happening to students on campus, and how that was affecting them getting to play. For example, Araceli R. from the soccer team said that she once was benched for a couple of games when her ankle was deeply pained that she couldn’t move it sideways because she landed incorrectly.

Human Relief is also researching ways to make a device; there was an article about how taping an ankle was three times

as expensive as getting a brace and after conducting our interviews the customers reported they maximum they would pay for protection gear would be 30 dollars making it unlikely to use any type of taping for our design.

But after going to the fabric store we are strongly leaning towards Nylon, but also keeping in mind Polyester and Spandex since it’s stretchy and stable. Our original plan included padding on the calcanuos and we think our best option would be really thin foam padding since it would be soft making it not have such strong impact on the heel and the material can be cut into whatever form it’s needed. As a fastener we wanted to have some sort of elastic to make it easy to grip to and its adjustable. And with our new acquired skills we could sew it all with thick black thread.

To conclude, Human Relief is going somewhere, we have progressed in our progress but I still think we need one sport to focus on instead of two, or at least change it to runners in general.  I’m still unsure about the whole gel padding idea but that’s something we can try with future prototyping since there seams to already be a lot going on in the sock device.  The group is slowly progressing in communication but we’re getting there and if we need anything we’re a text away from each other.
I’m excited to get my hands to the real making and sewing of the project, but first let’s get back to research.