| description |
|---|
A brief presentation of the NESS project. Source-code and other repositories can be found at https://github.com/alpack |
CESAR School, CESAR's non-profit school of innovation, strives to form professionals capable of fomenting and executing projects that bring upon relevant changes to society. Student formation focuses on developing a scientific and technical point of views as well as interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. To achieve this, the university makes use of Problem-Based Learning (PBL).
PBL is a teaching method that takes advantage of complex real-world problems, using them as vehicle to promote student learning, working on concepts and principles as opposed to direct presentation of facts and concepts. Throughout the process, we develop, in addition to critical thinking skills, problem-solving abilities and communication skills, empathy, skills in agile methodologies and teamwork.
In addition to it all, we are Based in the Porto Digital area (Recife, Brazil) - a major tech and innovation center in Latin America, with more than 200 companies -, in addition to having ties with hundreds of other entities around the world.
L.O.U.Co, the Lab for Connected Urban Objects, is open to society for creation, development and prototyping os solutions that improve quality of life in the urban space. The Lab, also located in the Porto Digital area, partnered up with several educational institutions, companies and research projects in order to promote meet-ups and workshops.
During these events, staff and partners/supporters at L.O.U.Co educate on how digital fabrication enables physical objects to feel their surroundings and communicate with them. The space provides users with 3D printers and scanners, laser cutters, electric circuit printers a milling machine an a full spectrum of sensors and actuators.
Engaging the multidisciplinary groups in the Porto Digital area, from Computer Science and Electronics to Health and Design related areas, to develop digital fabrication solutions not only reduces the distance between the Academy, market and society, as it may also [one day] enable physical objects to communicate beyond their surroundings - maybe people, or even entire cities.
Due to the fast growth of L.O.U.Co and the high interest of users to develop their projects at the space, the high volume of users in and out of L.O.U.Co made it impossible to address everyone. When the lab determined appointments obligatory to use machines, the problem worsened due to the manual processes behind making an appointment: users emailed a staff member at L.O.U.Co which could take a day or more to answer.
In addition to the appointment issue, L.O.U.Co also faced a problem surrounding user protagonism and independence. L.O.U.Co users (for most part) are heavily dependent on the staff to make use of machines. Furthermore, they have an tremendous amount of experience which is not, usually, shared amongst themselves when developing projects, physically at the lab, or not.
In order to overcome the burden of mechanical and exhaustive tasks and activities which stifle innovation, us at ALPACK - in partnership with CESAR School and L.O.U.Co (Lab for Connected Urban Objects) - decided to approach things somewhat differently.
The group decided to approach both issues - overcome challenges regarding the appointment process and promote user independence and protagonism. Making use of the Bazaar approach, the team focused on developing the core idea for each solution, iterating quickly.
Regarding the appointment challenge, the team quickly decided to adopt an existing platform called SimplyBookme. Once ready, the platform ensured a better user flow in the lab. Then, the team moved on to the value proposition: promote user independence and protagonism.
The goal is to gamify repetitive and time consuming, but necessary, activities in order to promote collaboration and learning alongside assuring that each individual is the protagonist of their journey. In five months, the team delivered an MVP to L.O.U.Co, which will enabled to bring to life a journey's game-like epicness.