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2008 E/ME105 EXIT QUESTIONNAIREJanuary 2009By Luz Marina Delgado1“…With applied technology to simple ideas, materials and processes we can come upwith products that really can change lives to improve its quality” (anonymous student’scomment)SummaryCaltech E/ME105, Product Design for the “Developing World” is a collaborative effort between Caltech, Art Center College of Design and Landivar University in Guatemala, for both graduate and undergraduate students. Of the 29 students the class had this year, 80% of the students came from the mechanical engineering division at Caltech and the Industrial Design departments at the other two schools. There is always a small percentage, less that 20%, joining in from Biology, Physics, Mathematics and the like sciences from Caltech.Results from compiling student’s comments (written in special sections of the Exit Questionnaire) reported E/ME105 class, as “the most practical andworld applicable class at Caltech” with sayings like “I have gotten more out of this class than most Caltech courses or “it helped me change inside to bring in a 100% of me” and “ Yes, I would sit in again!” Enthusiasm was shown with an overwhelming 90% (26 students of the 29 participating students) affirming with a “yes, they would recommend this course to others”. There wasn’t a single “no”; two people responded “sort of”. Commitment to projects was demonstrated by 21 students (72%) planning on continuing their project, either presenting it as a thesis projectfor graduation (Landivar students) or through independent studies (Caltech E/ME100). Project development in student’s final projects was an evidence of the level of dedication and performance of the 2008 class. There were relevant differences from earlier course iterations that matched these highly skilled and dedicated group students. Led by Professor Ken Pickar, 1 Delgado is a US/Guatemalan social anthropologist, E/ME105 course co-designer and co-instructor with 27 year experience in sustainable community development and incomegeneration activities with emphasis in product design & ethnic products 1this class took advantage of previously lessons learned application and had at their disposal a team of TA, co-lecturers and mentors with more experience as well as more developed partnerships with our collaborators.After three years of collaborations, with extended communication and understanding of E/ME105 goals and aspirations, the partnerships with Landivar University and Guatemalan NGO, Fundacion Solar, had developedto become better organized. Their commitment offered Caltech a more reliable selection of students and research site (Pasajquim) in Guatemala. The same pattern of growth towards a deeper level of partnership development has happened with the Art Center College of Design openingnew windows of opportunity with more interest from students and professors. Relevant educative materials were ready and sent weeks before the class started (documents related to Guatemalan history, micro financing, UnitedNations Human Development reports, E/ME105 archival documents), the Website was richer, including links to websites of previous years. The 2008research trip was conducted in July, which permitted early delivery of “Analysis of the research trip Student’s Perception Survey” (preliminary draft), and the movie of the 2008 research trip (on first day of class). There were a number of interesting additional resources to E/ME105 in 2008:- Project ideas from earlier class iterations and research trip to Pasajquim: before the beginning of the class students had a list of potential projects and design challenges to choose from, many in need of new iterations and at different levels of development as a result of interesting ideas from earlier class iterations and the research trip to Pasajquim in rural Guatemala in July 2008- Learned the importance of early fieldwork: as soon as the second lecture rolled on, students had the task to make their decisions from a roster of potential projects at their disposal (choose an idea to form a team with other students with like interests) early on to have more time for ideation, brainstorming and market research. To be able to use time wisely, we learned that Guatemalan students need to be out in the field presenting ideas to local partners and potential costumers and conductingmarket research as soon as the second week of class (the weekend of the third lecture).2- The first E/ME105 selling product: during the research trip, students came to know “E/ME105 first selling product” from any of its projects: a manual corn sheller, when it was successfully sold at the Santa Clara rural regional market during the research trip. One of the mentors said: “the corn sheller was the only product Guatemalans were ready to give us money for”. This event brought important lessons: initial informed criteria for a selling product and importance of marketing abilities on the part of our poor partners.- Students had on-going potential projects: a request from “Apiflor”, a regional Honey Association (Pasajquim and surrounding villages) to solve technical and marketing problems; they also had a request to study combustion problems posed by an improved wood-burning stove built during the research trip, and understand the science behind a pedal powered battery charger.- A product with potential sales: as a result from collaborating with Landivar University, students were requested to take a specific design challenge to improve crop management for “Maya Pac”(Hannover Industries Inc.) the largest packing company in Central America, with promises of a first order of two thousand units if MayaPac liked the product.- Local Maya rural university students participation: as a result of our collaboration with Fundacion Solar, this group of 14 Caltech/Art Center and7 urban Landivar students had the opportunity to have a different prospective for the Research Trip when, for the first time, six Maya and rural university students were invited to be active participants during the field research experience. These were working students living in San Juan La Laguna (an hour from Pasajquim) who attended Landivar University Quetzaltenango Campus’s weekend program. - Strategy to improve communications and follow up: also thanks to Fundacion Solar, for the first time, we had a bilingual (with limitations) in-country worker


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CALTECH ME 105 - EXIT QUESTIONNAIRE

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