This week was both exciting and productive for our IPPD team. We had the opportunity to present our Preliminary Design Review (PDR) to the class and receive valuable feedback from our peers and instructors. The feedback session was incredibly useful, as it helped us identify errors and areas that needed improvement in our presentation. With these insights, we’ll be able to refine and strengthen our PDR before presenting it to the Johnson & Johnson team later this month.

Most of our focus this week was on our trip to the Johnson & Johnson site in Jacksonville, Florida. This visit was a highlight of the week and gave us a much deeper understanding of how industrial-scale manufacturing systems function. We were able to observe the automated contact lens production line in action, which gave us a better appreciation for the complexity and precision required in such processes.

During our discussions with Ed and the rest of the J&J team, we learned a lot about how our design concepts could be better aligned with their existing manufacturing methods and future goals. Some of our original ideas had to be adjusted based on this new information, but it was a worthwhile change that will make our system more feasible and effective. The visit also helped us understand the kind of quality and integration J&J expects for future catheter production systems, which will guide our next steps.

Looking ahead, our plans for next week include refining our CAD models, developing 3D system components, and continuing to integrate sensor and vision subsystems into our design. We’ll also revise our PDR to include the feedback we received and technical details shared by J&J.

Overall, this week was a great learning experience—both in terms of presentation improvement and gaining a clearer understanding of how our project fits into a real-world industrial setting.

Here is a picture of some of us at dinner after the J&J site visit!