After our group was formed in early March, we held multiple discussions regarding the ideas we had for our project. For this year, there were three themes, namely a) Sustainability and the Environment, b) Health and Ageing Population, and c) Smart Homes/Living. Based on these themes, our group came up with the following ideas:
a) Sustainability and the Environment
- Compost machine that generates energy & fertiliser
- Step tracker that generates energy
- Cooler that does not use electricity
b) Health and Ageing Population
- Smart anti-slip shower mat
- Nose filter that prevents dust and haze particles from entering the respiratory system
- Bedsheet/bolster-changing machine
c) Smart Homes/Living
- Vacuum cleaner that walks down stairs
- Machine that pastes screen protectors
- Smart alarm clock
Our group then assessed each idea’s feasibility and the overall usefulness of the end product, and concluded that we would propose the idea of the vacuum cleaner that walks down stairs to Dr Ho.
We met up with Dr Ho on March 19. Dr Ho asked us about the motivation behind our idea, and the places where our product can be utilised in. His questions made us realise that the target audience for our product is quite limited – most people in Singapore do not own multi-storey homes, and in industrial buildings, people take the lift instead. Dr Ho then suggested that we could look into the area of window-cleaning robots instead. After all, window-cleaning in high-rise buildings is a high-risk job. Our team agreed that automating the window-cleaning process is definitely an area that can be looked into. We decided that we will do more research about possible cleaning mechanisms, and scheduled to meet Dr Ho again after we come up with a clear plan about our new project.
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