1. Meeting Summary
2. Tasks
3. Updated survey
4. Project blog
5. Next week
1. Meeting Summary:
Carl brought in printouts about four different types of LED torches, although he was unable to find the exact type that are found in Uganda. We decided to purchase 5 of the 32 LED torches. The idea is to try to rewire the torches to run off of our large battery/the grid instead of the AAs that are designed for it. This simplifies the design and if we can make a universal adapter, it makes the lighting element easy to replace (if somehow the LEDs failed, however unlikely). We also discussed the reflector assembly. To avoid having a shadow in the middle of our beam we looked at placing the LEDs off to this side and then having an angled reflector that directs the light down. In order to have a uniform spot getting the shape of the reflector might be tricky. Attached is a very rough sketch in paint for how I picture it in 2D.
Carl and I looked at Meg's edits of the lamp survey and added a few more questions. Phil talked to an OR nurse found out that the surgeon is the one who adjusts the position of the lamp and does so frequently. He needs to be able to move it even when he has instruments in his hands. Phil suggested that we have a pedal that unlocks the hinges so the surgeon can use his foot. One possible problem I've thought of since yesterday's meeting is that this design forces the surgeon to be standing next to the lamp stand. If we used a system similar to the cables for bicycle breaks we could have a few pedals set up under the table.
2: Tasks:
Due to exams and some other scheduling difficulties many of you couldn't make it to yesterday's meeting. Therefore instead of just listing who is doing what for the week we'll do task assignment via email. Email me (cc'ing the mheal-lamp) if you are interested in one of these tasks. As always if you have any questions or are having a hard time finding anything useful don't hesitate to shoot me an email.
Pedal Design: Phil
Reflector Design: If you miss high school trig this might be the job for you. Based on the specs for a minor surgical lamp (6-8" spot from 36") we need to figure out a good design for a reflector. Multiple people can work on this either independently or together so that we have multiple minds hacking away at this. This is the primary non-circuit part of the design that remains.
Emerging Markets Club: The b-school has a club called the Emerging Market club that looks into starting businesses in developing countries. Their advisor is Ted London, who gave the talk at last week's general M-HEAL meeting. We need someone to be a liaison between the two groups to see if there is any way we can help each other. If they are interested we might want to send a person or two to one of their meetings to talk about the lamp and see their general approach. I can give you an email introduction if you want so that it's not just an email out of the blue for them.
Market Research: We need to find out how large of a market there is for the lamp in terms of people and in terms of hospitals and clinics. Alex posted some relevant information on the Ctools site. We're targeting clinics and hospitals in developing countries that have access to unreliable electricity and those where the primary light source is currently ambient lighting or flashlights. This might be difficult but if you're interested just send me an email and I can work with the other officers to assemble a list of places to check for info.
Competitors: At the end of the month we're bringing our lamp design to a venture capital conference. For that conference we need to have good information on the status quo. I believe there are a few links of similar designs on the Ctools site but we need to make sure we have a comprehensive list.
Survey: See next item.
3. Lamp Survey:
As mentioned previously, M-HEAL is sending out a survey with the various student organizations that go on mission trips to developing countries. The survey team has asked us to look over and update the survey. The current version is attached. If you have any suggestions let me know, I'll be sending our edits to the survey team in a couple days.
4. Project Blog:
All of you should have gotten my email from last night that our project blog is up and running. Please post all the information you've found on that site. I want to make sure that we can get all the important information from just looking at the blog so that someone doesn't have to read through 10 links just to find the power consumption of a typical LED. Links should be well labeled and with a short summary of the key information found in it (following with the example from before a link containing a table of the specs for LEDs should be labeled as such and have basic facts like typical power consumption mentioned in the summary).
5. Next Week:
At our next meeting people will talk about the information and designs they worked on this week, we'll go over the general business plan for the lamp both in the short and long terms, we'll go over the M-HEAL IP policy, and we'll figure out tasks for the following week. There is a general M-HEAL meeting next week at 6pm in 1303 EECS and we will be meeting directly after that at approximately 7:00.
-Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment