Reaction All Years

Project Description:

The purpose of this study is to understand the challenges and successes of museum-based school trips, both in person and virtually, for middle school students and teachers.

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to affect in-person services and spaces (like museums), it is important for Ingenium to understand how they can offer the same school group experience that is usually experienced in-person, online.

Findings will help inform the development of new virtual education programs for middle school students and teachers. The study can be defined by the following research question:

Among middle school students, how does self-guided exploration play a role in online and in-person museum experiences?

Within the context of our research question, we are interested in learning about self-guided museum experiences both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Project Description:

A mobile launch platform was designed on the basis of functionality, durability, strength, and reliability in order to create a standardized and integrated launch platform to be used by competitors in the Launch Canada competitions.

Currently, the design process for each team consists of building the mechanical and structural components of the rocket, as well as designing and building a launch platform. Due to the competition being judged on the rocket, and not the launch platform, teams see failure in there launch as a result of a poorly constructed launch platform. This issue has been discussed extensively with Launch Canada and Space Simulation Services of Canada. There are multiple issues with the current designs of launch platforms: they are not easily transported, assembled, and erected.

Overall, many launch platforms are poorly designed lacking rigidity, durability, and functionality. There are instances where teams transport there rockets as sub-assemblies to the launch site. An all-too-common occurrence is for teams to be plagued by technical issues at the launch site, related to issues regarding final assembly at the site and not having a platform available to the team to transport a fully assembled rocket.

The Launch Canada launch platform must adhere to these requirements:
-Launch Arm must be 32 in off the ground.
-Launch Arm must be able to pivot from 0 – 90 degrees.
-Launch Platform, Arm and Rail must be able to support a maximum load of 1000 lbs.
-Launch Rail and Arm that are 10 feet in length.
-Launch Platform must be able to withstand temperatures from -160 to 3,000 degrees Celsius.
-Launch Platform must be compactable to be stored in a 20-foot standard ISO container.
-Launch Platform must provide a stable and rigid during launch with less than 2 in of deflection in the X and Y directions.
-Integrated tie down points to secure rocket to launch arm.
-Launch Platform must have an integrated indicator to show the orientation of Launch rail
-Launch Platform must be integrated into a trailer. Trailer should have all standard safety feature and be able to be pulled with a standard 2in hitch ball.

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Project Description:

This project is focused on helping people with temporary or permanent conditions when they are unable to control the flexion of their knee. The brace is designed to be very convenient to use because, unlike a normal brace that keeps the knee in place and doesn’t allow movement, this brace can sense when the knee is required to be locked and unlocked giving more flexibility and comfort while walking. The other smart-brace options that are currently available in the market, based on a similar concept of locking and unlocking when required, are prohibitively expensive and unaffordable for many people who could use them; however, the goal of our brace’s design is specifically to reduce the cost while providing a similar user experience as the much more expensive alternatives.
The knee brace unit is designed around an electromagnetic brake, which has been attached to a series of gears for increasing the torque figures, holds the knee in extended position if the pressure is put on the affected leg. Once the pressure is released from the leg and user proceeds with walking, the unit senses this change and unlocks the knee so that the leg can be flexed (folded backwards) as normal. This cycle of locking and unlocking carries on in accordance with the gait cycle of the user. For determining the phase of the user’s gait, a combination of sensors is used to collect data. These sensors include pressure sensors beneath the foot to determine if the pressure is being put on the affected leg, an angle sensor to determine the angle of the knee joint and detect when the knee is fully extended and ready to be locked, and a fall sensor (accelerometer) to detect any event of user falling or stumbling. The communication between these sensors is wireless and is carried out using Bluetooth modules. All this information is fed to a micro computer, in this case a Raspberry Pi Pico, which has been programmed to take in the sensor data, determine the resistance needed, and provide voltage to the brake to lock or unlock the knee at the right position and time. The system runs on a portable battery pack which can be carried around the waist.

Note:
Our product is a prototype version and is therefore made by using 3D printing methods. Further designs will need to be more durable to support sustained bodyweight.

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Project Description:

Transport Canada has an important duty to assess and support vehicle and road safety in our communities by scrutinizing the automotive industry and ensuring that standards are met and upheld. To maintain these standards, the Defect Investigations and Recalls Division are tasked to test new and, more importantly, defective automotive parts.

Transport Canada’s Defect Investigations and Recalls Division’s main lab is located in Gatineau, Quebec where they are responsible for testing various automotive electrical components to detect and diagnose defects. This lab is where the Electrical Test Bench is going to be located. They also have six satellite offices across Canada. This test bench has all the equipment required for the Transport Canada Team to document faults and explain what takes place at an electrical level with great precision.

Transport Canada’s Defect Investigations and Recalls Division required a device that improved the diagnostics of electrical, automotive components. Our team’s solution was a user-friendly, all-in-one test unit. The electrical test bench provides visual charting of electrical functions with an easy-to-read display.

Tested components are secured with a v-slot rail system and clamps to the bench. The test bench also comes with an ESD (electrostatic discharge) desk mat to protect sensitive circuit components from static electric shock.

The enclosure allows for easy and safe electrical testing configurations. A computer connects to the testing unit via a USB interface to log data and generate reports. The computer screen serves as a display with a Joulescope/oscilloscope-like graphical output to troubleshoot electrical car parts more in-depth.

This project provides an indispensable tool for the Transport Canada Defect Investigations and Recalls Division team which allows them to test and troubleshoot electrical car parts in a controlled and safe manner. With this bench, they save time with a localized, compact area for diagnostic tools.

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Project Description:

Our client, Wishplay has been expertly administering joyful virtual reality experiences since 2017. Wishplay began with founder David Parker volunteering in hospitals to grant last wishes in virtual reality to palliative patients. More recently, Wishplay started bringing VR to classrooms, using immersive nature videos to help children with varying needs regulate their emotions and feel safe and calm. It did not take long to uncover the immense potential for VR to promote mindfulness and offer a secure place for children to access their emotions. Wishplay wanted to make VR and the joys and mindfulness benefits it brings accessible to as many people as possible.

Our team conducted semi-structured interviews with parents and educators at a western Quebec elementary school to gather valuable qualitative data regarding VR-use with children in the classroom and at home. We collaborated with Wishplay and subject-matter experts and conducted a thorough research review in order to identify what information would be valuable for educators and parents looking to start using VR with their children for emotional regulation and mindfulness.

We gathered these insights and knowledge into a quick start guide and comprehensive playbook to be used when administering VR to children. The quick start guide was designed to get educators and parents with a range of technological abilities up and running with the Oculus as quickly and smoothly as possible. Using the full playbook, educators and parents are able to learn the fundamentals of VR, understand the benefits to mindfulness and learning, and gain the confidence to administer it to children.

Over the course of the project, our team learned many important lessons. Through our interviews and research, we learned about the therapeutic benefits of VR as well as safety and ethical concerns when it comes to using headsets with children. We learned about the importance of asking the right questions—those that would help us best understand the needs, joys, and frustrations of our target audience and design a guide that would address those needs and be of most use to them.

Using collaborative virtual tools like Miro, Google Drive, Zoom, and Slack, we learned to effectively carry out design work in an online environment. We learned that good communication is key to effective collaboration in a virtual co-design process.

From an operations perspective, we learned to be flexible and agile in our workflow. Creating a guide to working with established hardware meant we had to test and revise often to ensure our instructions and methods reflected the latest software and hardware changes at all times. It also prescribed that the final deliverable be a living document, one that would be easy to update in future iterations.

Above all, we learned about the importance of keeping accessibility and joy as the central tenants of this project. We are extremely grateful to the parents, educators, and subject-matter experts for their time and contributions to this project.

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Project Description:

Food delivery apps are an incredible convenience for consumers, but restaurants face fees of up to 30% of their gross revenue. Our product is aimed at providing the same feature rich experience customers expect at a much lower cost. Fully customizable, our app is built on the Angular framework, allowing it to expand to accommodate hundreds or even thousands of restaurants in the future with little to no modification.

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Project Description:

Our task is to design a 5 axis CNC machine for MAD building Technology. The concept is the same as 3-axis, but the spindle is now capable of rotating around x and y which add in another 2-axis.

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Project Description:

The micro:bit community website is built to be a website with scalable translation functionality. Our client, Andrew McDonald, a passionate educator decided to build the website to promote a creative mindset in students and teachers. This website needs to be restructured so that texts on the website can be dynamically translated.

Our team applied internationalization-framework to the project to meet the requirement. Users can now choose different languages in the dropdown menu and the website can detect whichever language the user choose and translate to the specific language. The mechanism designed by our team helps our client to add any languages without code changes is needed. Thus, it is easy to maintain the website.

Our team learned to configure and use the translation framework to the project to build a multilingually supported website. Also, we learned to connect the website to the Google Firebase to use Realtime Database to let users receive updates with the newest data instantly and automatically.

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Project Description:

In September of 2021, this team was fortunate enough to be paired with the Tetra Society of North America. Tetra is a not-for-profit organization that creates a space for volunteer engineers to design products and systems to aid those with disabilities. We were given the task of designing a wheelchair transportation system to allow individuals that are in powered and non-powered wheelchairs to have access to their personal belongings.
Our design consists of a 90-degree rail that is attached to the rear and right/left side of the users’ chair, depending on their preference. Attached to the rail is the backpack holder that can hold a bag that weighs up to thirty pounds. This entire system is controlled by a NEMA 23 servo motor, this motor drives a single wheel along the bottom of the rail to move the backpack holder to the side of the chair and back. The motor is controlled by two Arduinos one controlling the motor and the other attached to a joystick on one of the armrests. The second Arduino is attached to a joystick that controls the motor via a Bluetooth chip.
The market currently does not have a product such as this one, that can be fitted to any chair and that is at a reasonable price. This product is yet to be finished; this team was tasked to create the transportation system but not the mounting system. The team’s hope is that whoever continues this project will produce a mounting system that will allow it to be completely universal to make this wonderful product a reality.
Thank you to Algonquin College and Tetra Society of North America, for the constant support and guidance in the creation of such an amazing product. This group is proud to say that we have worked for such a fantastic company with such a great cause.

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Project Description:

The application contains five categories: Animals, fruits, numbers, colors, and body parts. Each category has flashcards, and two games: Memory cards and Find the object. Vibrant images of various animals, colors, fruits, etc are provided, with their names given in both English and Urdu. Users have the option to listen to both Urdu and English pronunciations of each object. Our app is giving the opportunity for kids to learn while playing and enjoying, which also fulfills our clients’ vision.

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