The team successfully presented the System Level Design Review (SLDR)! The event included a networking hour for students to meet with other liaisons from different IPPD teams, as well as a keynote activity where students had the opportunity to learn from liaisons and coaches about how to prepare for industry. After these activities, the team presented our SLDR in a private room, as well as gave a live demonstration of the current prototype to Arthrex liaisons, Troy Garrison and Elizabeth Wildsmith. Troy and Elizabeth gave the team some advice for development into the next semester and ways to present the final prototype to the rest of the Arthrex team such as ensuring we had a plan for how Arthrex would sell the product. Overall, they were happy with the team’s progress and excited to see how the final prototype will turn out! 

The team will be heading into winter break next week and will come back in January with fresh minds ready to hit the ground running! Our goals as a team will be to begin experimentation with flow rates and 3D printing more iterations of the attachments to the system. 

The end of the semester is coming up and the team is busy with preparations for the System Level Design Review (SLDR) presentation! SLDR will take place December 3rd and will include a networking hour to allow IPPD students to speak with liaisons of other companies that sponsor a project in IPPD, and a team presentations segment where teams will be split into rooms to present their SLDR to their liaisons and other teams who are in the same room. Our team will be presenting in our own private room with Arthrex to go into the details of the project, the current prototype, and plans for the next semester.

This week, the team presented the SLDR presentation to other IPPD students and coaches for peer review. The peer review revealed areas for improvement the team could take initiative of before the actual event. Areas for improvement included making presentation slides less word-heavy, adding more visuals and guides for audience engagements, and distributing the speakers more. Overall, the team did very well in elocution, energy, and showcasing knowledge of the subject.

The team’s first Prototype Inspection Day has been completed and the team recieved fantastic reviews! We presented our current prototype to 6 judges, along with our future experiment plans to ensure the final prototype meets expectations. Our prototype has the ability to control flow rate of the system with a touch screen. The team received feedback from the judges and suggestions on how to elevate the prototype, such as designing ways to ensure sanitation and recommendations of potential vendors from which to order custom made parts.

Saline Sync getting ready to present to judges!

The team currently is onto the next milestone of drafting the SLDR. The SLDR peer-review is next Tuesday and approaching fast, so the team is taking feedback from prototype inspection day now and applying that to our next presentation. The peer-review will be another opportunity for the team to gain feedback about the project’s current progress as well as presentation skills before we present the SLDR to Arthrex in December.

Prototype Inspection Day is next week, and the team has prepared models and demonstrations for the big day! The team was able to model and 3D print a tube design made with 95A TPU to test the material’s flexibility as well as the feasibility of the model. This model will be used during PID to show the judges concepts that the team may potentially move forward with for our final design. The mechanical team has also developed two more tube concepts that we plan to model by the end of the week.  

The prototype will be used to display the team’s current ability to control the flow rate of water through the pump system. Through a mock setup of the demonstration, the team found that we still require supplies, such as duct tape and zip-ties, to hold parts in place to allow the judges to have a clear view of our set up. Overall, this mid-stage prototype is ready to show to the judges and the team is eager to gain feedback from the judges.  

Our first Prototype Inspection Day is coming up quickly and the team is busy preparing the physical models and demonstrations for it! The electrical team was able to develop a Python script that can control the flow rate of water through our proof-of-concept pump system. Below is a photo of Yiwei with the pump and tubing set up that is controlled by the code on the computer screen.

The mechanical team have been working on CAD models of attachments to the system to print out by next week for demonstrations. The mechanical team has also researched different peristaltic pumps to buy for the final prototype with the goal of achieving less pulsating flow. Alternative methods such as changing the tube size and the use of a dampener are also being explored for different concept designs.

The team traveled to Naples last week and met with the Arthrex team! During this visit, the team had the opportunity to present the PDR for the project, observe a cadaver lab using one of Arthrex’s devices, and walk through their R&D Lab. The labs were the highlight of the team’s experience as we got to see a true visual of how Arthrex aims to provide minimally invasive surgical care and how a physician would use those devices. Through the cadaver lab, in particular, the team was able to speak with one of the physicians to understand what they struggle with, what they would like to see included or improved, and any areas of risk that they believe we should keep in mind whilst designing our own device.

Currently, we are looking forward to prototype inspection day (PID) that will be November 12^th. The mechanical team is working on 3D modeling new concepts for the tubing attachments and will send these models to print for testing within the next week. The testing will include using the peristaltic pump and water with the 3D models to simulate how they will perform with the final saline pump. The electrical team has a GitHub platform setup to begin coding the flowrate of the saline control system.