The fourteen week of my internship at KEIO NUS CUTE Center. This marks the second week of my LLP workshop which I have been doing. After the first pivot of our product in the second week, we were busy testing out the target market and whether there is really potential in this market. We also had to present the interview findings of the interviews that we had done in the previous weeks. I collected a few results from school such as Mr Chia, Mr Chee and Mr Roger and the feedback which I received from them was very encouraging. We also collected a few of my partner MBA classmates and a few others which I could find in IDMI and CUTE. We had to collect s total of 10 interviews every week. We found out that actually both back and neck problems have been a problematic illness in many offices. People are actually paying huge bucks to treat their back problem, be it western doctors or TCM. Everyone we interviewed was actually interested in a posture tracking device, with some preferring a multi purpose device with health and the younger half with fitness. This response just encouraged us to dig further in depth as it proved that there was a huge market and people are not aware of the ways of prevention. We then presented our findings to the audience in the evening session and they were quite impressed we could get a total of 20 interviews by the second week. The comments were for us to go and talk to professionals such as physiotherapist and chiropractor to see the viability of our product.
I also had to think of how to come out with the prototype for our product, we had two ways of doing so, whether using potentiometers or IMUs. I also researched on the various methods to link up a chain of these devices. Being an engineer, I feel very unsecure without s prototype as the same group of people would question us about our solution every week. My supervisor then ordered a bag of 25 potentiometers and passes it to me on Friday and told me to play with it. He suggested that i came up with a chain kind of design so that I would be able to link 6 of it together and it would go down your back.
We also had our weekly meeting in which we discussed the way forward for our product and what we should focus on this week. We managed to plan an appointment with a physiotherapists from SIT, Dr Benjamin on Friday and our whole group agreed we should go down together as it was a very important one as we could get a more in depth understanding about the injuries and back pain in Singaporeans nowadays. To our surprise p, he was very interested in our project and gave us many constructive feedbacks such as the restriction of movement of our design and asked us to think further to see if we had any other way of doing the product.
We compiled all the interview findings and prepared the PowerPoint which we were going to present the following week.
That sums up the very busy fourteen week of my internship. My internship is slowly coming to an end but I would continue with this job until the end of this workshop as my supervisor felt that I should really take charge of this project and should complete it before I leave. I was very happy as I felt appreciated for all the hard work which I have put in over the course of my internship
Thursday, 29 January 2015
Wednesday, 21 January 2015
Internship week 13
The thirteen week of my internship. This week marks the first week of the ten week LLP program. The program starts off with a two day workshop. We have to present our idea or product to the audience. Me and my partner introduced our prototype and with the slides explained our idea and the initial target market in which we were targeting. We also present to them our initial Business Model Canvas (BMC) filled with our initial hypothesis. The feedback that we got from the crowd totally shot us down, with many people unclear and not sure what our group what doing. they suggested to us to scope down on our application use and target a certain market or industry in the market. The director of CUTE Center, Prof Ellen Do was clearly not happy and she expressed her displeasure during a meeting after our presentation. She also expressed in which way we should improve our product and presentation skills. The good thing about LLP program is they give you the ability to grade your peers presentation online and give them comments. We also received many mixed comments but mostly shooting us down. We thus met up with our mentor, Margaret Ong to discuss what is our way forward and she suggested we focus on the healthcare and rehab industry as she found the hinge design that we were using looks like the blades of the spine and we could use it to track posture as back pain/problem is one of the increasing trends in the market and there would be a huge market for our product. So we pivoted on the first day and we had to change our whole idea. What my supervisor asked us to do was to come out with new presentation slides introducing our idea again and giving background and introduction.
The workshop ended at 6 and my partner and i planned the schedule for the next day. We had to conduct a few initial interviews the next morning and had to come out with a presentation for the afternoon session. We planned a few interviews with friends and colleagues as we only had limited time.The remarks from the first day really encouraged me to do better the next day, i do not want them to look down on a polytechnic student and that i could do better than all of them. Thus i spent the whole night editing the slides.
The second day of the workshop. We did our initial interviews and listed the interview results on the presentation and uploaded it onto the online portal. My partner had MBA classes so i was left all alone to present. I was nervous but i knew that this had no difference from the presentations i did in school and i started. At the end of the presentation, i heaved a sigh of relief as there were smiles around the room. The audience finally understood our comments, and with many positive feedback coming in. Even Prof Do was satisfied with my performance and that really meant something to me as all my hard work finally paid off. Ironically, the comments coming from the crowd was that we were too specific today and they recommended us to scope up again as they were endless possibilities for our product. Some even asked us to go into military and elderly applications.
The rest of the week was spent gathering the interviews required for next week as we had to have 10 interviews per week.I even came to school to get interviews from< Mr Chia, Mr Chee and Mr Roger as i found that they met certain requirements of my target market. I also intrduced my product and the workshop i have been doing now. I find that this is really the spirit of DEB in which you create a product wth your technical skills and at the same time, you also have to sell your idea to the audience. You also have to use interpersonal skills when conducting interviews and most of these skills were learnt from many modules over the years. I finally find that the things i learn is useful and i could apply it to my daily work.
I also spent some time of the week to start doing my poster and the productivity+U report which were going to be due soon.
That sums up the thirteen week of my internship.
The workshop ended at 6 and my partner and i planned the schedule for the next day. We had to conduct a few initial interviews the next morning and had to come out with a presentation for the afternoon session. We planned a few interviews with friends and colleagues as we only had limited time.The remarks from the first day really encouraged me to do better the next day, i do not want them to look down on a polytechnic student and that i could do better than all of them. Thus i spent the whole night editing the slides.
The second day of the workshop. We did our initial interviews and listed the interview results on the presentation and uploaded it onto the online portal. My partner had MBA classes so i was left all alone to present. I was nervous but i knew that this had no difference from the presentations i did in school and i started. At the end of the presentation, i heaved a sigh of relief as there were smiles around the room. The audience finally understood our comments, and with many positive feedback coming in. Even Prof Do was satisfied with my performance and that really meant something to me as all my hard work finally paid off. Ironically, the comments coming from the crowd was that we were too specific today and they recommended us to scope up again as they were endless possibilities for our product. Some even asked us to go into military and elderly applications.
The rest of the week was spent gathering the interviews required for next week as we had to have 10 interviews per week.I even came to school to get interviews from< Mr Chia, Mr Chee and Mr Roger as i found that they met certain requirements of my target market. I also intrduced my product and the workshop i have been doing now. I find that this is really the spirit of DEB in which you create a product wth your technical skills and at the same time, you also have to sell your idea to the audience. You also have to use interpersonal skills when conducting interviews and most of these skills were learnt from many modules over the years. I finally find that the things i learn is useful and i could apply it to my daily work.
I also spent some time of the week to start doing my poster and the productivity+U report which were going to be due soon.
That sums up the thirteen week of my internship.
Thursday, 15 January 2015
Internship week 12
The twelfth week of my internship here at NUS KEIO CUTE Center. The things that i have been doing really gets more and more interesting. This week was used to prepare my team and i for the LeanLaunchPad(LLP) workshop which we would attend next week. This workshop was actually planned by the Enterprise Center of NUS as a form of market discovery of the product hat we would be doing. We had to come out with a presentation to introduce our product and applications to the audience there which consists of groups from different fields. Each faculty has to come out with 5 teams and my team were one of the 5 teams that were representing the faculty of engineering. Our idea would be to sell the idea of the product which was the thing i have been doing for the past 9 to 10 weeks.
So i had been doing the hardware soldering of the MCU( micro-controller unit) and when i was done with all the components, i decided to attach it into the 3D printed casing which i had done a few weeks ago, however when i was unable to do it. The case was too small and unable to fit thus i had to print another casing. It was easier this time as i did not have to come to Singapore Polytechnic to get it done as i could use the 3D printer which was available in our lab. I had to designed a case which was bigger and more hollow so that it could fit the whole hardware.
When i was doing this hardware portion, i did not forget the software portion of my device. I was continuing my research on the health side such as the different kinds of sensor which could be incorporated into a health care watch or wearable. I also found a few environment monitoring device which was able to measure carbon monoxide and dust which was the thigs which could harm you.
The last part of this week would be to prepare my presentations for LLP, i had to come out with a powerpoint slide to explain the technology and background of our device and which problems or target market we were going to focus on. We also had to fill up the Business Model Canvas with our initial hypothesis that we were going to try out in the market.
This wraps up the twelfth week of my internship. I really had to cover all parts of the product, from design to construction and to think of how to sell it to that LLP crowd. I found it quite interesting as it was really the spirit of DEB and that the info that i learned in Poly would come into great use
Wednesday, 7 January 2015
Internship week 11
The eleventh week of my internship at NUS CUTE center
Still carrying on with the hardware portion of my product, i soldered on the LCD screen and the IMU unit (inertial measurement unit), i had to ensure that it all works before carrying on to do the programming part. This can help me train my soldering skills and through this internship, my soldering skills have improved as compared to my initial skills before. I also tried combining all the codes of the Arduino so that it could all work conconccurently without it failing.
The other part of my week here would be to research on the health sensors which was available in the market. I had to provide a list of sensors in which i think could be used if we were going into the health wearable industry, to my supervisor. I found out that there were many sensors which were still not present in wearable such as smartwatches, such as carbon monoxide sensors and GSR (galvanatic skin response) which can used to monitor the user and its environment which were the types of sensors we were targeting. However due to the price of the device, i had to consult my supervisor before purchasing any of them. My supervisor was back in Japan celebrating the New Year thus i had to push it to next week.
This was a three day work week due to the NUS holidays on both the eve and the actual New Years Day. I only had time to do the above tasks for this week. Also i had to prepare for the upcoming LLP(Lean LaunchPad) workshop which i would be participating under NUS with my product. I had to go online to read up on the materials such as the lean business model canvas and the business startup advices.
This sums up the eleventh week of my internship.
Still carrying on with the hardware portion of my product, i soldered on the LCD screen and the IMU unit (inertial measurement unit), i had to ensure that it all works before carrying on to do the programming part. This can help me train my soldering skills and through this internship, my soldering skills have improved as compared to my initial skills before. I also tried combining all the codes of the Arduino so that it could all work conconccurently without it failing.
The other part of my week here would be to research on the health sensors which was available in the market. I had to provide a list of sensors in which i think could be used if we were going into the health wearable industry, to my supervisor. I found out that there were many sensors which were still not present in wearable such as smartwatches, such as carbon monoxide sensors and GSR (galvanatic skin response) which can used to monitor the user and its environment which were the types of sensors we were targeting. However due to the price of the device, i had to consult my supervisor before purchasing any of them. My supervisor was back in Japan celebrating the New Year thus i had to push it to next week.
This was a three day work week due to the NUS holidays on both the eve and the actual New Years Day. I only had time to do the above tasks for this week. Also i had to prepare for the upcoming LLP(Lean LaunchPad) workshop which i would be participating under NUS with my product. I had to go online to read up on the materials such as the lean business model canvas and the business startup advices.
This sums up the eleventh week of my internship.
Monday, 5 January 2015
Internship week 10
The tenth week of my internship at NUS KEIO CUTE Center.
As i have been focusing much of my time of the software portion of my project for the past few weeks, i have decided to use this week for more implementation of my project into the hardware part. i soldered on the switch to the blend micro board and ensured that the switch would work on the programme triggering it as an input so that i could use it in the final product.
As one of the objectives for our product would be to productize and commercialize this product so that we can sell it. My supervisor Daniel instructed me to think of a unique IP (intellectual property) for our new product. We were actually utilizing our existing IP however we were working with too many partners such as SUTD and the Co-foundry that there may be areea of conflict if we ventured into future developments for our current product. He then advised me to come out with a new idea so that we could patent it so that we could be an independent entity without worrying about affecting others. I then researched on how we could do to achieve a strong IP and found out that we could capitalise on a few areas such as flexibility and adaptability of our product which was somewhat our USP for our product. i also researched on certain plug and play platform such as SeeedStudio's Grove and Xadow which provides these certain functions.
On Wednesday, it was Christmas eve, i met up with my supervisor on how we should carry on moving forward. I suggested we go into two different industries one for the entertainment side which is the smartwatch used as a game console which is the current product i am currently working on and a side product which is the smartwatch which could be used as a health and first aid tools. As the smartwatch industry is already very crowded with different powerhouses in the market, it would be a hard market to break into as there are many present competitors and ur product does not stand out too much compared to the other devices. We decided to go into a type of smartwatch which is really aware of your environment and would advice you on certain prevention methods that would help you in your health. Such as heart rate monitors and temperature sensors that would provide you with digital health readings to help your daily life. My supervisor then advised me to continue my research on the health wise smartwatch industry. He then asked me to find certain sensors which could be helpful in the applications of our product.
I decided to carry on my hardware construction portion next week and focus on the research as it was an interesting area or field which i wanted to explore. I found out many interesting kinds of sensors which would be useful and added it into a list which i would show my supervisor when he was back from his annual holiday.
This sums up my week 10 of my internship here. In a blink of an eye, i only have four weeks left. I have to step up my progress on the product so that i could present it in the final presentation.
As i have been focusing much of my time of the software portion of my project for the past few weeks, i have decided to use this week for more implementation of my project into the hardware part. i soldered on the switch to the blend micro board and ensured that the switch would work on the programme triggering it as an input so that i could use it in the final product.
As one of the objectives for our product would be to productize and commercialize this product so that we can sell it. My supervisor Daniel instructed me to think of a unique IP (intellectual property) for our new product. We were actually utilizing our existing IP however we were working with too many partners such as SUTD and the Co-foundry that there may be areea of conflict if we ventured into future developments for our current product. He then advised me to come out with a new idea so that we could patent it so that we could be an independent entity without worrying about affecting others. I then researched on how we could do to achieve a strong IP and found out that we could capitalise on a few areas such as flexibility and adaptability of our product which was somewhat our USP for our product. i also researched on certain plug and play platform such as SeeedStudio's Grove and Xadow which provides these certain functions.
On Wednesday, it was Christmas eve, i met up with my supervisor on how we should carry on moving forward. I suggested we go into two different industries one for the entertainment side which is the smartwatch used as a game console which is the current product i am currently working on and a side product which is the smartwatch which could be used as a health and first aid tools. As the smartwatch industry is already very crowded with different powerhouses in the market, it would be a hard market to break into as there are many present competitors and ur product does not stand out too much compared to the other devices. We decided to go into a type of smartwatch which is really aware of your environment and would advice you on certain prevention methods that would help you in your health. Such as heart rate monitors and temperature sensors that would provide you with digital health readings to help your daily life. My supervisor then advised me to continue my research on the health wise smartwatch industry. He then asked me to find certain sensors which could be helpful in the applications of our product.
I decided to carry on my hardware construction portion next week and focus on the research as it was an interesting area or field which i wanted to explore. I found out many interesting kinds of sensors which would be useful and added it into a list which i would show my supervisor when he was back from his annual holiday.
This sums up my week 10 of my internship here. In a blink of an eye, i only have four weeks left. I have to step up my progress on the product so that i could present it in the final presentation.
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