Upper Extremity Prosthetics: Designing A Life Without Limits

When you’re a kid you don’t think very much about how your body grows, it just does. Sometimes you may get a little taller or stronger but you never think very far beyond that point - unless you have to wear a prosthetic. The question of how children that wear prosthetic limbs keep up with their ever-changing bodies as they grow into adulthood is what sparked our curiosity and led us to research the multifaceted prosthetics industry for this thesis project. We wanted to see if there was a socially, fiscally, and environmentally responsible solution to this problem and if not, what we could do to help

Design Thinking for Better Community in the City of Bridgeport

Founded in 1821, the city of Bridgeport is not only the largest city in Connecticut, but one of the most diverse communities as well, with over 20 countries represented in a city of over 150,000 citizens. The goal for this project was to focus on revitalization, waste management and bringing the waterfront scene back to life. As Design Management student, we explored this problem through the lens of design thinking. Using the design thinking process, while considering profitability, sustainability and social responsibility, we developed a series of proposals which activate the existing key resources in order to bring more attention which will benefit the city

MetroCrops

MetroCrops is an urban high density indoor farm located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The owner of MetroCrops, Steve Domyan, developed specific technology using a combination of LED lights and nutrients to grow high quality salad greens that can be harvested quickly, easily, and cleanly. These greens are capable of staying fresh for up to three weeks and deliver more nutrients than your average salad greens. The problems that MetroCrops faced was, how to go about promoting their innovative product, how to better utilize the wasted space in their facility, and how to make the company more sustainable. These problems became our challenge and the basis of our research

Conversas e interações nas visitas de famílias à exposição virtual "Biodiversidade: conhecer para preservar" do Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo

The research aimed to understand the experience of 10 family groups in the virtual exhibition "Biodiversidade: conhecer para preservar", at the Museum of Zoology of the University of São Paulo, observing the conversations and interactions that took place during them. To this end, families were invited to take a virtual tour and record their interactions and conversations using the Flashback Recorder program, these recordings were then coded and analyzed using the Dedoose software. After the visit, the group participated in a semi-structured interview, which was also coded and analyzed. The results of the research indicate the importance of conversations about science during interactions between adults and children and the importance of textual elements as resources to which visitors resort to base and deepen their scientific knowledge about museum objects, also being stimuli for conversations of scientific themes. In addition, it was observed that prior interest and knowledge, even when not made explicit during the visit, incite its realization, reading of textual content, and engagement with objects.A pesquisa objetivou compreender a experiência de visitação de dez grupos familiares à exposição virtual Biodiversidade: conhecer para preservar, do Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, observando as conversas e interações ocorridas durante elas. Para tal, as famílias foram convidadas a realizar a visita virtual e registrar suas interações e conversas por meio do programa Flashback Recorder, que foram codificadas e analisadas com uso do software Dedoose. Após a visita, o grupo participava de uma entrevista semiestruturada, que também foi codificada e analisada. Os resultados da pesquisa indicam o destaque das conversas sobre ciências durante as interações entre adultos e crianças e a importância dos elementos textuais enquanto recursos para os quais os visitantes recorrem para embasar e aprofundar o conhecimento científico sobre os objetos museais, sendo também estímulos para as conversas de temáticas científicas. Além disso, notou-se que o interesse e o conhecimento prévios, mesmo quando não são explicitados durante a visita, estimulam a sua realização, a leitura dos conteúdos textuais e o engajamento com os objetos

Kubtec Medical Imaging

Kubtec is a leading digital X-ray company based in Stratford, Connecticut. Kubtec offers the most innovative tools in digital x-ray equipment for specimen radiography, low-dose imaging, and forensic analysis. We will show the benefits of applying design thinking to Kubtec’s business problems. The company has three different types of end users. The main challenges for the company are how to communicate more effectively with each end users that includes buyers, X-ray technicians and patients. We also take consideration for utilizing the space. These challenges have become the research questions for this project