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About Research DREU Resume

Week 1

This has been the week of adjustments. I have been assigned by Dr. Hurst to assist PH. D student Erin Buehler with her projects with DIY solutions for disabled youths. I'm looking forward to working directly with subjects in her studies.

I've been learning and honing 3D modeling skills for the unique work done in this lab. I learned the basics of OpenScad, MeshMixer, 123Design, TinkerCad, and Replicator G. I also got my hands dirty withe the Digitizer 3D scanner and the MakerBot 3D printers.

Week 2

This week I started working on an IRB proposal for a variety of studies combined. I've never worked on the proposal and paper work end of research so it will be interesting to follow this process all the way through. I also took spare time to use the 3D printer and make parts to help organize the PAD. This gave me some much need practice on troubleshooting the 3D printers.

Week 3

Erin and I submitted the IRB proposal. Hopefully they will get back to us soon. In the mean time we are working on test studies with the PAD Lab and a small lecture session with students at Digital Harbor. This will give us some insight in how to run the workshops for the study. I've also start Project Littlefoot. This is a java applett that takes dimmensions from a utensil and connects it to a special grip for disabled hands.

Week 4

The IRB proposal came back with a few errors to fix. We also submitted Littlefoot, now GripFab, for a postor submission at Assetts. Fingers crossed that this works out. Littlefoot is coming along, it has more models and the interface is improving now that I found netbeans. We also had our practice workshop at Digital Harbor. It went well and we made a few changes to our protocols.

Week 5

We have begun a new paper at the PAD. We are working in a large group to prepare a paper for CHI on use and distribution of DIY-AT through online databases and sights like thingiverse. I have prepared over 50 keywords that wwill be searched and coded for analysis in the paper. I'm hoping to play a large role in this paper while I'm at UMBC and have authorship on the final paper.

GripFab is coming along. Netbeans was very effective at producing a friendly interface. The next step is to add saved profiles and other features to the final product. We are still debating to use add this to current IRB accepted studies, continue to use it as a case study or to start a new study around the program later this year. I hope to stay involved in the project even when my internship is over.

Week 6

We have begun to plan the ending weeks of my internship. Seems to have gone by so fast. I'll spend this and next week finalizing GripFab. Hopefully get some good tests in from the other researchers and then prepare it for shipping off to the real world.

We haven't decided how we want to publish the work on GripFab so Amy, Erin and I have some choices to make in the next week or so.

We have also continued to work on our thingiverse paper. It seems much more difficult than the group had initial imagined. So much to research but not enough time or pages to get it all down. I have to do alot more menial tasks for this project. I enjoy it though, it has alot behind it.

Week 7

Littlefoot is now GripFab 1.0. The design is at a funcitonal state with minimal user difficulty and ready for real world testing. I conducted user tests with the rest of the PAD last week. I fixed errors and confusion between users so I started at exteme difficulty and confusion and worked my way down to minimal confusion and no errors. This was my first full experience with user oriented development.

This week I will work with staff at a local special education high school to study the software after being released in the real world. I may also start conducting the lo-fi modeling study. Our IRB is very close to being accepted, with just a few small errors noted on Friday. I hope this gets cleared by the end of the week so that I will be present for the actual study.

Week 8

Our Assets poster was accepted! GripFab will be presented in October. We also recieved IRB approval in the nick of time and conducted a test of GripFab with a few OT's. We will use these findings to write our TEI paper due on August 1st. A little bit of a rush. GripFab needs a little work but it was well recieved by the OT's.

Week 9

We, in the end, did not write the TEI paper. The findings were not appropriate for this conference. Erin will take this project with a returning undergraduate student and continue the work for the September CHI dedline. I'll help them from Colorado. Otherwise it is time for me to prepare to return home.

Week 10

I'm sad to leave. This was a great opportunity for me. My SURF talk on wednesday went very well and was well recieved by colluegues and family. I'm thankful for the practice. I've cleanned up all my loose ends and am ready for starting a new year at CSU.

Final Report

My final report can be found in this pdf.