Christina Holman | Design Blog

On October 23, Wellesley's Engineering Laboratory (We-Lab) hosted a talk by Sarah Reed, an employee of the consultant product design firm Farm, Inc. One of the things I enjoyed about her talk was that she brought a simple truth to light: you don't have to know you want to go into engineering to go into engineering . Set on becoming a math teacher, Reed graduated with a teaching degree and, quickly after she joined the workforce, decided that teaching was not what she wanted to do then. However, she did discover that she enjoyed woodwork and formed her own business, which gained a loyal customer basis. Hoping to expand it, Reed returned to graduate school in order gain the skills and certification needed for such manufacturing activities. At first she looked into industrial design  -- the study of how products are made and interact with people -- but such program require significant art background. That surprised me. Reed noted that engineers and industrial designers tend t...

Prof. Banzaert introduced us last week to our new partnership with a community organization Community Rowing, Inc in Boston. The organization offers rowing lessons of all sorts but this year the EXTD 111 class will focus on its population of paraplegic and absent/reduced limb function rowers -- called adaptive rowing  or  para-rowing . Because of their inability to use particular muscles and rowing movements, the rowing equipment is adapted to their needs but there can be improvement. Differences between para-rowing equipment and the equipment used by those with full limb function can include chair support, the pontoons used for balance, a wider hull, restrained rowers, and straps for the torso. However, even with some aide from these changes, adaptive rowers have said to feel less support and independence in their activity. The challenge given to us is how to make their rowing experience more autonomous while safe. For example, rowers have commented that the ...

I received the book Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error by Kathryn Schulz this summer and, although I began reading it shortly after, I just finished the book. Schulz goes into the concept of error in much depth and really clarifies our current ideology and relationship with Error (capital "E" for the concept). Although not every example and description is applicable to my interests, I pinpointed several good points that carries over to product design and engineering processes: It is our nature to "theorize" about our world Product design is involved in developing that relationship between us and things/our environment. It is okay to say "I don't know;" in fact, it might be the best thing one can do to really learn and listen. "To err is human:" this is a permanent marriage; learn to live with mistakes. Schulz presents several compelling and insightful remarks on how we "err"and why we "err." She st...