Digital Fabrication: Capstone Project

Overview

Your capstone project is the last thing you’ll make in this course! It’s an opportunity to reflect on what you’ve learned, show off the skills you’ve acquired, and deepen your understanding of your Digital Fabrication.

Capstone Prompt

Think of an issue in your community that has a growing need for change and improvement. This issue could be anything from such as the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Social Injustice, Food Deserts, Poverty, Climate Change, and more. The topic is open-ended you could even rope in two different issues that affect each other. Using your skills learned throughout this course brainstorm and prototype a solution that can help contribute to this change

You get to choose what you make, but we do have a few guidelines:

1. You must propose your project to your Job Coach for approval before starting work.
2. Your project should incorporate at least one 3D printed prototype.
3. Teamwork is encouraged 🙂

Documentation Requirements

Requirements for documentation include:

• Slideshow Presentation (Google Slides or Prezi)
  • Your presentation must include:
    • Give an overview of what you learned throughout the course (Include photos or videos of past projects)
      • What was your favorite project?
      • What did you enjoy learning?
      • What role do you think 3D Printing will have in the future society?
  • Identify your topic
    • What’s the issue you want to resolve?
    • Why did you choose this issue?
  • Present the Solution
    • Prototype of Design
    • Reasoning of Design

Brainstorming

Coming up with an idea can be the hardest part of making things. People have all different kinds of ways to come up with things. For instance, some people prefer to do a lot of research beforehand, and use this to inform their project, whereas other people like to dive right in and play, letting the process decide the outcome. A big part of becoming a maker is figuring out how you get, refine, and transform ideas, otherwise known as your process.

Design Thinking Process

The Design Thinking Process that provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. Design thinking combines the problem solving routes of design with a focus on those directly impacted by the solutions. 

How to approach the Design Thinking? – You should always approach the process from an unbiased point-of-view. Having a closed mind on potential possibilities or solutions could set you back.

1. Empathize: The human-centered design process is centered around Empathy. You have to be able to empathize
2. Define: Re-framing and defining the problem in human-centric ways.
3. Ideate: Creating many ideas in ideation sessions.
4. Prototype: Adopting a hands-on approach in prototyping.
5. Test: Developing a prototype/solution to the problem.
6. Implement/Present: Go Public with your idea, present it get feedback and access.