Design Thinking and Communication II - Tension Invention

In my first course of Design Thinking and Communications, I worked in a team of 4 to design a tension meter which measures weight offloaded by a harness during a patient’s walking in order to accurately measure the patient’s progress. Our client was a Dr. Jennifer Traines, a physical therapist at Shirley Ryan Ability lab. The final product was the tension invention, a free-standing tension meter that accurately measures the tension in the rope holding up the harness in the gait track and treadmill systems, displaying the number on the device, without interfering with the patient’s performance. This was done by:

• Building a prototype using an Arduino, LED display screen, and load censors

• Conducting user and performance Testing

• Leading the team by organizing team meetings, assigning tasks, and facilitating communication