Based on your life experience, skills and interests, what would a design process that is both uniquely yours and effective look like?

1. Empathize: People are exposed to an existing issue or system that brings them dissatisfaction or empathy towards the situation. People involved start to build up a desire and passion to take action in order to make an impactful change on the existing system in hopes of a better situation.
   • The plastic waste problem is global and even here in the United States, you can’t walk down the street without seeing an empty soda bottle tossed to the side or a plastic bag caught in a tree. This, as well as our group’s passion for encouraging a more sustainable society, sparked the passion we have for this project.
2. Explore: People investigate the current issue in-depth to see the big picture. People gain an understanding of the five Ws & H(who, what,  when, where, why, and how) towards the situation.
   • We are currently in this stage of the project where we are reaching out to our contacts in the Philippines and trying to better understand the role that plastic waste plays in their society. We are also conducting research on companies who are already profiting from re-purposing recycled plastic.
3. Define: People pinpoint and clearly define the problem that resulted in the existence of the current situation.
   • The global plastic waste issue is too big for our team to tackle alone. However, in the Philippines, plastic is often recycled and sorted, but ends up in a landfill which spills over into the ocean. Our team has defined this mishandling of already recycled plastics as the key problem that our project will try to address.
4. Ideate/Research: Develop initial ideas to combat the problem. Conduct research to determine whether or not similar problems exist(ed) in other areas and determine whether an existing solution has been applied. Develop a finalized solution to tackle the problem with initial ideas and information gathered from research.
   • In the initial stages of our project, our team believes that building machines that can manufacture a suite of products, such as plastic bricks that can lock up a large volume of plastic waste, is a solution worth pursuing further. There are several companies that already produce building bricks from plastic, so we are hoping to scale this to be viable in Filipino communities.
5. Prototype: Develop a prototype of the solution. Document and take note of any issue that arises from the production process.
   • We have a team with diverse skill-sets, which will allow us to develop a prototype while taking into account many factors. Susan, Andy, and Ellie are all mechanical engineers, but each with different interests. Kelly has experience in supply chain, and I am experienced with polymer processing and material properties.
6. Test: Conduct a trail of the solution in a small scale setting. Get the community involved in the trial for feedbacks. Make adjustments and changes according to the feedback. Repeat steps five and six as needed.
   • This step will come into play as we conduct field work this summer.
7. Implementation: Implement the solution at full scale. Make minor adjustments as needed.
   • This will hopefully come several years down the line if our project is successful and spreads to the barangays of Manila.
8. Feedback: Generate feedback from the community on the solution implemented. Look for improvement opportunities on the solution that was implemented. Communicate problems and solutions online for other communities to reference

Identify your three most important stakeholders and list five UNIQUE attributes for each one of them.

• Entrepreneurs/Junk Shops
  1. Demographics: Filipino, small business owners
  2. Socio-Economics: Lower class, low income
  3. Geographic: Philippines, rainy and windy climates, 1.78 million people in Manila
  4. Psychological Variable: Sees value in trash
  5. Behavioral: Buys trash from people
• Nanays
  1. Demographics: Middle-age married Filipino
  2. Socio-Economic: Unemployed low income class
  3. Geographic: Philippines, rainy and windy climates, 1.78 million people in Manila
  4. Psychological Variables: Middle-age women who have fulfilled their parental roles and are seeking employment to improve quality of life
  5. Behavioral: Purchase sachets due to low income
• NGOs
  1. Demographics: Filipinos of all occupations
  2. Socio-Economic: People from all classes and income level
  3. Geographic: Philippines, rainy and windy climates, 1.78 million people in Manila
  4. Psychological Variables: Banding together in pursuit of achieving a common goal such as diverting plastic from the environment
  5. Behavioral: Reducing plastic usage in day-to-day life

Identify three ways in which you will validate your project concept, technology, usability, and business model.

• Conduct experimentation to determine the allowable contamination level in recycled plastics for building blocks 
• Determine whether or not the junk shop business and market are willing to invest in our injection molding machinery for the production of recycled plastic products through research
• Create prototypes of building blocks designs to test whether they are secure and sturdy. Utilizes plastic’s flexible properties.

Give three examples of something very interesting you learned from a friend that was a completely alien concept to you.

1. I came from a predominantly Christian town, but a lot of my friends here at Lehigh are Jewish. I’ve learned a lot about a different religion and how it has shaped my friends’ world views.
2. Sort of an odd discovery, but nobody in my family uses toaster ovens, we all have upright toasters that are only good for bread and bagels. It was’t until I moved in with my friends at school that I came to appreciate the versatility of a toaster oven.
3. One of my friends that I lived with this past summer was biracial and she taught us a dance that her family always does at parties.