Engineering A New Bike: Interactive Story Map

Engineering A New Bike: Final Reflections

SAL-SENSORS

Our group was The Fran-tastic Five. We designed a system to improve bike path safety and bike path visibility for pedestrians. The problem we chose to solve was conceived from our time spent in Copenhagen and Malmö. While in both cities, we noticed that walking in the bike paths (which was necessary at times where there were too many pedestrians for the sidewalk) could be dangerous if you did not see bikers coming. This problem could be solved with our product, which consists of a series of sensors 10 meters apart along the bike paths. When a biker passes one sensor, the following sensor will make a ping and flash a small LED to alert the pedestrians near it that a biker is coming. The sensors will also provide a way to mark the edges of bike paths, as it can be difficult for non-natives of the city to determine where the paths begin and end. As 20% of pedestrian fatalities in cities in the EU were caused by biker on pedestrian accidents, our product would have a substantial impact on European commuters. This could also promote bike path development in American cities, as cities would need to worry less about the safety of its commuters.

HALO

We worked truly collaboratively and I was impressed on what we accomplished in such a short time. Our groups thesis was: “The lack of commuter cyclist in U.S. cities is driven by the fear of physical safety.” From this thesis we researched crash statistics and found that most accidents took place at intersections. We inferred that this was occurring because either cyclists were not following road signals or that their intentions were not clear to other road vehicles. We decided to address the later, and conceptualized using lights to indicate the cyclist's intentions. We debated how we wanted to incorporate the lights; we discussed a jacket, a mounting system, a helmet, and a backpack. We discussed the pro’s and con’s of each and decided that a backpack would be the best starting point. We choose a backpack because it would elevate the lights height, provide storage, and because it could be transferred easily between bicycles. We continued research and came across a possible competitor’s Kickstarter. Their proposed backpack featured an LED Matrix which focused more on personalization than safety. We felt that embedding the LED lights into the front and rear of the bag would differentiate ourselves as a safety product. The backpack’s LEDs would span the bag's whole length on both the front straps and the back of the bag. This would further increase the rider’s visibility over competing products.

As we learned from our presentation, we did not discover all the competing products failing to address concerns with similar form and function. We continued to idealize our product, deciding to offer product levels to address cost and demand of certain features. These features included a phone charger and a cooling air system. We also decided to incorporate induction charging for the bags battery. We decided to embed the charger into the base of the bag and into the backpacks handle so it could be charged while hung from a hook. The indicators would be controlled by two buttons that would be mounted by using magnetic clasp. We brainstormed embedding an accelerometer into the buttons that would detect when the bicycle slowed and automatically indicate braking. We didn’t finalize the technology we wanted to use to wirelessly communicate data with the bag.

BIKESMART CITIES

BikeSmart Cities is a firm that cities and towns can hire when they want to become more bike-friendly. Our purpose is to get more cities in the United States to become bike friendly because biking is green, efficient, and convenient. We look a city's roads, intersections, placement of crosswalks, parking infrastructure, and other key parts of the city. Based on our observations of infrastructure, we advise the city or town on how to proceed in order to make our clients city more bike friendly. We may recommend things such as adding bike lanes to main roads, building more parking structures, or making roads one-way to allow for more foot and bicycle traffic.

Engineering A New Bike: Superkilen & Fashion

The students have been working extremely hard on the project, putting in late hours and trying to incorporate all the experiences they've had into their designs. We are all tired but satisfied. Therefore, the purpose of today was to play, to explore, and, most importantly for some in our group, to shop. To accomplish all of this, we headed back to Copenhagen for the entire day.

Our first stop in Copenhagen did have a hidden agenda. Although not specific to bike design, Superkilen park is yet another example of good design in Scandinavia. This time, the focus was on cultural diversity, playfulness, community, and green space. Designed by the arts group Superflex, the architect Bjarke Ingels, and the German landscape architecture firm Topotek1, Superkilen is filled with objects donated by or inspired by originals in over 60 countries. Bjarke Ingels is an inspiration for one of our own aspiring architects, Chris F., who gave our group an introduction to the park's design and history. The entire group, adults included, truly enjoyed all that the park had to offer, even if it didn't result in a new Snap friend for some of us.

Created with flickr slideshow.

Lunch was at yet another pop-up restaurant location in Copenhagen, this one frequented mostly by locals. The two glass buildings included more of a market, and because it was Saturday at lunchtime, it was quite busy. One of the shops offered traditional Danish Smørrebrød, an open faced sandwich on rye bread topped with whatever is handy, including meat, fish, cheese, eggs, etc. Sadly, no one in our group was adventurous enough to try 😥. We did fill up on Danish pastries and ice cream though.

The afternoon was spent wandering the streets of Copenhagen. We visited the Round Tower. We shopped (some of us more than others) for European fashion, gifts for friends and family, and of course LEGO! Our city stroll ended at the famous Nyhaven port near sunset, an optimal time for photos. The day ended with dinner at a pizza restaurant in the historic meatpacking district, which has been gentrified and colonized by hipster restaurants. We consumed copious amounts of food, but no one could compete with DJ, a recurring theme throughout the trip. All were tired but happy on the train back to Sweden.

Created with flickr slideshow.

Engineering A New Bike: Swedish (Bike) Chefs

Today we found ourselves at the Cycleköket, or Bike Kitchen, in Malmo, a nonprofit project supported by STPLN. The group operates an incubator-like location for nonprofits out of a historic and protected ship-building slip. Cycleköket's mission is not to fix bikes for the citizens of Malmo, but rather to impart the knowledge they need to fix their own bikes. To this end, Cycleköket provides workshops, spare parts, and local experts, all for free.

At the start of the day, some of our students may have felt that physically working on their own bike (i.e. cleaning it, tightening chains, inflating a tire, replacing brake lines and other worn out parts) would have been like following cooking instructions from this guy:


via GIPHY

However, the students dove in, got their hands dirty (literally), and began figuring things out on their own. OK, maybe they had a little help from our gracious host Jesper. Now they look more like this:

Created with flickr slideshow.

Engineering A New Bike: Cycling Copenhagen

Since our project is about redesigning bikes and/or bike accessories, it's only fitting that we spend some time riding bikes to gain some experience. For our field testing, we only chose the top rated bike-friendly city in the world: Copenhagen. A short 20 minute train ride under and over the channel, and we emerged from the impressive and historic train station to a sea of bikes.

We quickly met up with Christian from Cycling Copenhagen, who acted as our guide for the morning. Christian was funny, knowledgeable, and friendly. He took us on a 14km ride around the city, which allowed us to experience first hand how people cycle in Copenhagen while also visiting the best sites the city has to offer. We saw so much that it would be really difficult to explain everything here. Please see the Slideshare below for a series of pictures and check back for a Story Map with much more detail.

(Slideshare and Story Map coming soon!)

We enjoyed a quick but delicious and filling lunch at a bakery near Cycling Copenhagen. The baked desserts are amazing!

After lunch, we took a city bus to the Danish Architecture Center where we explored an exhibit titled Wasteland. The purpose of the exhibit was to demonstrate different ways we can use waste material in "new" construction. While the exhibit was dedicated to mostly architectural designs, the principles of waste reduction and reusing materials is something any good designer should consider for their product. The used the Center's cafe to hold another impromptu design discussion. The design idea keeps evolving, but the students are currently working on the possibility of improving existing folding bike designs.

(Slideshare and Story Map coming soon!)

We had a little time to walk through Copenhagen on our way to dinner on Paper Island. We went to an awesome funky foodie pop up restaurant retrofitted warehouse type location with offerings from around the world - also called Copenhagen Street Food. Many students, and Church, enjoyed Brazilian BBQ.

Dinner! Awesome funky foodie pop up restaurant retrofitted warehouse type location in Copenhagen. #nhsprojectweek @atlasworkshops

A post shared by @ridgeman15 on Mar 9, 2017 at 11:34am PST

Engineering A New Bike: Malmo Mia!

What an amazing day! So much to tell, so little time.

We met with Hovding in first thing in the morning. This company has created an invisible bike helmet. It's essentially an airbag for cyclists. It took 6 years and $20 million to bring it to market. We were one of the first to hear that they had just sold 50,000 units.

Kincaid does a live action test of a @hovdinguk #nhsprojectweek! pic.twitter.com/ogl1BkqOau

— Justin Joslin (@JCJoslin15) March 8, 2017

After a long walk through Malmo, we visited the Bike and Ride garage, a public bike garage next to the train station where commuters can park their bikes. This was also home to the Movebybike company, a local a transport business that is replacing loreys, small moving trucks, in the city of Malmo. There customized, electrically assisted bikes can move 2 pallets and up to 300kg of material.

We then went to the first apartment house in Sweden, maybe even the world, designed solely for residents without cars. No new parking was made available with this building. The money saved on that end of the project has gone towards creating a bike share program and giving all residents credit towards riding city transportation. You can even ride your cargo bike to your refrigerator on the 5th floor of the building. And you can park your bike right outside your window.

Sounds like a busy day, but that was all before lunch! Speaking of lunch, we ate a brand new food court that offers all sorts of cultural foods. We took a much needed rest post lunch before diving into unpackaging our experiences from the morning.

The students practiced their recently acquired design thinking skills through a variety of exercises in order to develop the direction of the project. This is a truly amazing group of students. After hours of this process, many chose to continue the conversation (their idea!) at a local coffee shop instead of taking another break before dinner. Dinner, by the way, was authentic Swedish Meatballs at a well established pub in Malmo. Excellent!

So much to write about and so little time! Check back later for updates and pictures.

Engineering A New Bike: Danish Danishes

Things went about as smooth as possible on journey, although the average amount of sleep was about 2.87 hours. The only casualty was one extra small blue jacket in Boston Logan. We had a few minutes to recaffeinate in Zurich where we also finally said goodbye to our companions heading to Prague.

We landed in Copenhagen, collected our bags, and immediately met up with Adam and Anna from Atlas Workshops. They greeted us with delicious Danish danishes of the cinnamon and chocolate varieties.

We had a brief walk to our hotel where everyone took some much needed hour long break. After showering and changing, we met the third member of the Atlas team, Laura. We headed out on a short walking tour of Malmo to get our bearings and to experience this wonderful city first hand. The architecture is a mix of historic and modern with cobblestone streets throughout the older part of the city.

We combined our in-country orientation with Atlas with dinner at local restaurant, which provided a much needed break from the cold temps outside. We also met our first local bike experts, Jenny and Christian and their daughter Amanda. We'll be touring Malmo bright and early with Amanda.

Engineering A New Bike: Scandinavian Design Thinking

It's been 10 months since DJ and Elliot, our student leaders, started to formulate the idea of an international engineering design trip. Many conversations, plans, and commitments have finally led to this day - the first day of Project Week 2017 - and we are ready to dig in to the challenge that lies ahead of us.

Although we won't get much sleep on tonight's red eye to Europe, the schedule has afforded us the opportunity to spend some time formulating ideas for our project in NH so that we don't hit the ground in Malmo and Copenhagen unprepared. We took full advantage of our time on campus to learn important skills and to double check our packing list.

Conceptual project ideas for #BikeEngineering Digging deeper today before our flight. #nhsprojectweek pic.twitter.com/WtbSKMv4qp

— Justin Joslin (@JCJoslin15) March 6, 2017

Most high school students would probably find it hard to focus on learning a new skill just prior to embarking on a 14 hour journey across the Atlantic, but this is exactly what our group was able to do. They enthusiastically participated in a series of challenges and exercises that introduced them to design thinking, a process developed by David Kelly and his staff at IDEO that has now been adapted and employed by students and professionals the world over. The group now understands the significant role that empathy plays in the design process and how important it is to generate as many ideas as possible before focusing on any one solution.

Cam's design for Chris' personal mode of transportation. Practicing #designthinking skills for #nhsprojectweek engineering a new bike. pic.twitter.com/2wvz79FxTw

— Justin Joslin (@JCJoslin15) March 6, 2017

The students further demonstrated their commitment to this project by meeting with the faculty leaders one-on-one in the airport terminal to discuss how we can work together to make this trip a success, both for the individual and the group. 

Finally, the long trip has begun and we are enroute to Denmark and Sweden. It's a beautiful night as we depart Boston, a good omen for the trip ahead.

Engineering A New Bike: Everything is Awesome!

Essential Question: How can we redesign the bicycle to be an efficient and sustainable utility vehicle? The group must create a prototype to replace a specific utility vehicle, such as a truck, a school bus, or a moving van. 

The group gathers on Thursday for an information dump - lots of logistics before we leave!
Everyone is ready to be on the ground in Scandinavia.

Project Leaders Justin Joslin and Craig Churchill will lead a group of dedicated students to Scandinavia to play with LEGO bricks (er, study design and engineering). While the goal of the project is to reinvent the bike as a utility vehicle, we will also consider the growth and challenge of cycling in US cities compared to our European counterparts (as well as gaining a deeper appreciation for the music of ABBA). We will develop this project through hands on research in the world’s top bicycle city: Copenhagen. We will also spend time in Malmo, Sweden working with local government to understand the policy and technical side of making cycling popular and meeting with innovative bicycle designers. We will meet with local engineers and businesses to understand how bicycles can be used as a sustainable and efficient alternative to utility vehicles.

As this is an experiential learning trip, we will take what we learn and incorporate it into our own hands-on design project. We will also spend time in makerspaces in Malmo tinkering on our plans and designs. We will divide into teams to produce our final deliverable and hopefully some prototypes too. We don’t know what we will create yet (that's entirely up to the students on this student created project!) as we will develop our plans on-site. Here are some of the possible ideas that our future designers have already discussed:

• a new bicycle design
• an electric bike
• a bicylce-powered phone charging device
• a more comfortable bike seat
• internet marketing campaign for our new bike product
• a bicycle friendly urban development plan for US cities
• new policy briefings or articles to share back home