Spring 2020 Design I Final Competition
Section N: Group 5
Problem Statement: How might we improve child safely in public during the COVID-19 Pandemic?
Team Members: Aidan Partch, Alex Willey, Maxwell Clute, Pouya Zakeri, and Taylor Rodgers
Instructor: Garrett Erickson
Good video and interesting idea. My questions are:
1. My understanding is that the virus transmission risk is not high outdoors. Given that your product is designed to work outdoors, what benefit does it give parents who bring their child outside? Does it reduce the risk further?
2. Did you test to see if the air exchange within the stroller space is enough for good respiration for the child?
3. Did you have to pivot your design at any point? If so, what did you change, and why?
1. This product was designed with the assumption that strollers are used in general public areas, such as sidewalks, and some stores. If a parent were to take their child through an empty park or trail, there wouldn’t be much reason to use this; however, if there were a higher density of people or pollutants in the air, the benefit of use would be much greater.
3. At first our design was meant to be an entire stroller. Once we designed our buckle system to keep the cover attached to the stroller, then we thought that because of that buckle system we would just be able to produce the cover. It would be both cheaper, and accessible to more people because of its universal design
2. We have confirmed that the cover is breathable through self testing. However, we haven’t confirmed this through testing with any actual children. Although, our calculations suggest that the interior has the nessesary airflow.
Child breathing req.
45 breaths per minute * 0.5 liter per breath = 22.5 liters of air per minute
The fan recirculates 25 liters of air per minute.
Misinput the website for number 2. This is the correct website.
Hi Team 5, nice idea! It reminds me of stroller attachments in England to protect children from rain. A couple of questions:
1. is your attachment washable / reusable? or even better: can you sterilize it?
2. how is the air flow directed
3. What happens when you take your baby out of the stroller. how can you be sure that the turbulance created doesn’t contaminate the inside of the stroller?
4. What are the specifications of the air pump? how will it be powered? How heavy will it make the stroller?
3. Depending on if the child is out of the stroller for a long time or a short time. If the baby is out of they stroller for a short amount of time you would obviously keep the stroller running so the baby can be put back inside of it. If the baby is going to be outside of the stroller for a long amount of time then they can just turn on the stroller attachment for a couple minutes before putting their baby inside. Just to re sterilize the environment.
1. Although we haven’t physically tested washing the cover attachment. According to our data the cover is in fact washable because it is made up of flannel cotton material that is washable and the only other concern would be the piece of acetate sheet in the middle of the cover. The acetate sheet shouldn’t cause any problems due to the fact that it has a melting point at 225 degrees Fahrenheit and most washing machines only get up to 130 degrees Fahrenheit. So as long as the user keeps there washing machine under that 225 degrees Fahrenheit mark it should all be washable and have no concern of deformation.
2. The air flow is directed by the two tubes which run from the air pump to the interior cover. The air is taken into the system by the vacuum and exits by passing through the breathable cover.
4. Our air pump is a small lightweight design that can be attached and detached from the buckle system part of our stroller to access lightweight charging. There will be one well sized battery built into the system. The entire system will be around .75 to 1.00 lbs total weight.
Are there any thoughts about potential consequences or hazards with the vacuum pump? Would this present oxygen supply issues if the pump stops moving air through the system?
Was this tested on different strollers to ensure a universal fit?
The vacuum ensures that sterile air is flowing in the inside of the attachment. However, the cover itself is made of a breathable material, so in the case of vacuum failure the child would still be able to breathe, albeit slightly less sterile, air.
Due to the current pandemic and budget limitations we were unable to procure strollers to test the fit. However, the fabric is fairly stretchable and the straps are adjustable so it should be able to fit on most strollers. Although we do intend to better test this in the future.