Where: University of Colorado Boulder

For: Design Center Colorado

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My senior design project was to design and fabricate a respiratory protection device. This respirator was designed specifically for wildland firefighters. I worked in a team with five others and we were sponsored by Quality of Life Plus. Quality of Life Plus connected us with a wildland firefighter, structural firefighter, and an internal medicine specialist. While we all contributed to the design process, we also had individual roles. I served as a design team member and as the Logistics Manager, so my primarily responsibilities included all external team communication, recording meeting minutes, scheduling meetings, and other organizational tasks.

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This project was yearlong and truly fulfilling. I learned more about prototyping and the iterative design process than I did in my other three undergraduate years combined. Lastly, another main takeaway for me was that designing the product with the user and user's behavior in mind is critical for it to be successful and effective. From many discussions with Eric Bader, a wildland firefighter, my team created a very simple design to encourage firefighters to use the product. Many wildland firefighters are resistant to using respiratory protection equipment because for them, dirty appearance indicates hard work. Thus, it was necessary for our product to be easily and quickly assembled.

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Please visit the following website to read more about this project: https://www.colorado.edu/mechanical/2020/04/24/mechanical-engineering-projects-showcase-week

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[1] Example of how I took notes and researched prior to and during design process

[2] White Paper

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