Today was our first day working with Professor Frankie Flood (from now on known simply as Frankie). We started off our day by meeting with our program coordinators and going over the ground rules of this program. Neither of us has ever really done any work with research before so we really had no idea what we were in for. Overall we learned that we will be helping out our professor with whatever he needs. Afterwards we grabbed a quick lunch and met Frankie. Frankie gave us a quick tour of the Peck School here at UWM and afterwards we headed over to his lab at Kenilworth. We had our hands scanned to enter the lab, which was super cool. Then, we got a tour of Frankie's lab and got a feel for what we would be working with. After, Frankie explained the parts of the project we would be working on and showed us examples of previous builds. He explained to us that he is part of an online community called e-NABLE where a bunch of students and professors from around the world get together to collaborate and share ideas and designs. Currently Frankie and his crew of students are working on producing and improving prosthetic hand prototypes for children born with a non functioning hand. Frankie told us that he is focused on user centered design which means that he study's how designs made in his lab effect the end user. His goal is to make a product that the user feels comfortable with, much like customizing your car. He wants kids who get these hands to feel that the 3D printed hand is a natural extension of there body. Frankie gave us four goals to focus on during our project. First, we should be thinking ways we could make attachments for these hands that are suited for specific purposes, such a riding a bike or writing. Second, we will be printing and assembling an RIT Arm designed by a professor named John from the e-NABLE community. After the assembly, we will be looking for ways to improve upon the design. Third, we will be looking at the Cyborg Beast, Frankie's own hand design based on the work done at e-NABLE. We will be looking for ways to make the hand easier to print and assemble. Along with this Frankie also wants us to design a "UWM" Hand, an original design made by us. Requirements include parametric modeling, printed hardware, little support needed, and improving durability. Fourth, we will help John, one of Frankie's students, program and wire a robotic hand. Overall this was a very busy day for us and we feel confident that in the coming days we will be able to learn a bunch of cool new skills and maybe even help out a few people along the way!
Alex + Sam
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