CINQ Blog #4

Tiffany Pang, Roy Ndebvudzemene, Conner Calzone

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

 

The design process that I have used in the past involved working backward from the idea itself. That way, it has always been easy to lay up a plan and develop a step by step execution. A measurable and implementable idea is the first step. From then on, the question is always, who will likely participate in this idea given that it is implemented? This question looks at consumers or customers to the end product of the idea. After answering this question, I would then move a step back into question just how exactly I can deliver the product to the same customers/consumers or how I can get the prospect participants to gain awareness of this product. This requires figuring out the marketing strategies such as advertisement and possible distribution points of the product. After reaching a certain number of possible outlets, the next question would be to look at potential, influential people to buy into this idea and then later up develop a team with certain traits and share the same vision for the possibility of this idea. The last step would be then the actual development of the product and part of it entails analyzing the costs of production and potential mark up price for the product. At that point, at least a strategy is laid out with certain contingencies and flexibility for dynamics that might alter the original strategy.

 

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

 

1. Possible Sickle Cell Patients in Sierra Leone

• They are the direct recipients of the work we are doing
• However, some of them are unreceptive to the device and Western medicine
• They have the greatest need for our product
• Possible Sickle Cell patients and their families do not have the resources to pay for alternative solutions
• Their feedback will be crucial towards the project’s success

1. World Hope 

• Our creation of the Sickle Cell Test Strips also aligns with their main mission of providing and protecting those who are under-served.
• We are not the only group who is working through the World Hope Organization or in Sierra Leone
• Working through World Hope allows us to give hope to others
• World Hope can give us connections in Sierra Leone 
• Their connections can help to improve the design, implementation, and efficacy of our product

1. Lehigh University

• As Lehigh students, we have a unique opportunity to display the Lehigh brand
• Also, as students, we have to handle ourselves professionally domestically, in conferences, and in-field at Sierra Leone
• Lehigh is one of our funding sources and one organization we have to answer to
• They will receive part of the research’s prestige
• Lehigh faculty and teammates will supply us with much of the technical knowledge for our product

 

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

 

In order to ensure that the diagnostic device will be in optimal use for low and middle-income countries (LMICs), the team will build partnerships and connections with World Hope International and Lehigh Valley hospital to receive feedback from medical experts on the operational aspects of the device, and learn how to address implementation challenges. By considering these context-specific frameworks for the diagnostic device, together with integrating the Sierra Leone local’s knowledge to guarantee a functioning device, these factors will indicate an overall validation of our project. This is especially significant when validation is given from the locals of Sierra Leone themselves because they are the ones who will be utilizing the device and will incorporate value in the device. The people’s acceptance is the ultimate goal because the technology can be promoted to be amazing and all, but will have no worth unless the acceptance of the device is established. Therefore, another process of validating our project is educating the public about the device’s concept and usability. To do so, every patient must fill out forms that consist of the process of the diagnosis, background information of Sickle Cell Anemia, explanation of risks, waiver of liability and a signature to signify consent. Patients who are still unsure can under-go a walk-through with the assisting health provider to visualize the process first-hand. The goal is to have patients understand what they are being tested for, why it is important to be diagnosed and where they could receive immediate treatment if tested positive of the Sickle Cell trait.

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

The first completely alien concept was the theory on parallel universes, which was first mentioned by my 8th-grade science teacher. He explained how the universe is infinite and we don’t exactly know the shape of space-time. Since the popular theory of how space goes on forever, this proves the possibility of infinite universes repeating themselves or even daughter universes. Daughter universes follow the theory of different outcomes. So in one universe, I visited China, or we planned to visit China but ended up visiting Japan. Similarly, the same 8th-grade science teacher describes that with many parallel universes, the sign of alien life in another universe is very possible even if the universe is torn apart by dark energy. 

 

The topic of the capabilities of a tardigrade was first introduced to me when I was a sophomore in high school by my younger sister. She told me the discovery of an organism that was almost indestructible. The tardigrade is a phylum microscopic creature with plump bodies found in moss and are known to survive in impossible-to-live environments like outer space, temperatures as cold as negative 328F or as high as 300F or more. So, now scientists are studying this creature and learning how it is able to sustain life. With the tardigrade’s amazing characteristics, scientists plan to implement this into health aspects.