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CONNIE HUANG: So this
semester we were working on

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[? Clampe, ?] which is an
iPhone mount for the wheelchair.

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And the kind of special
thing about [? Clampe ?]

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was there are
iPhone mounts, there

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are plenty of
iPhone accessories,

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but the client we
were working with

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had kind of a special range
of abilities and disabilities.

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So what we were building
for the wheelchair

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was not only a
mount, but also one

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that could accommodate his range
of motion and his strength.

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And it ended up
being something that

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was flexible enough
for him and his needs,

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and still allowed him
the kind of independence

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that he wanted in
every day interaction.

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VINEEL CHAKRADHAR: So I've
actually done a bit of work

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in assistive
technology in the past,

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and it's always
really interested me.

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I think that working
on assistive technology

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is one of the best things
that an engineer can work on,

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both because the problem
is quite interesting,

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and because every engineer
wants to build something

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that helps people and this
is one of the best avenues

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to do that.

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NATASHA GUNTHER: OK, so the way
this class was presented to me

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was a course six
class that dealt

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with a client with a
disability, and I was like,

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oh, I'm course two, obviously
I have no place there.

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But what I was told
was actually that you

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can come from completely
different backgrounds,

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the main concept is that
you have a direct impact

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on someone's life throughout
the course of a semester, which

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is something almost
incomprehensible.

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And I think you can only get
a course at MIT as real life

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basis in helping a person.

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VINEEL CHAKRADHAR: So
coming into the class,

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I actually didn't even
have enough information

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to build expectation almost.

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I just knew that it was going
to be an interesting opportunity

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to work on an actual
applied problem.

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And the first few years
that I spent at MIT,

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I worked on a lot of
theoretical problems,

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both in like coursework
and things of that sort.

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And I thought this would be
a really cool opportunity

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to, like, take my skills and
things that I've learned here,

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and work on a real project
with a real person.

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I did learn quite a few things
that were unexpected, actually.

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In class, there's--
I don't know,

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you're kind of taught that
the things that are, like,

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most complex are the most
grand in a large sense.

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But when you're working
with real people,

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you tend to sacrifice
complexity to make things work.

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Almost where you might
be in a situation

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where, like, a solution that
takes you a thousand times

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longer to implement might
be marginally better,

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but like in the interest
of time and speed

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and moving the process
forward, you're

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going to go for a
simpler solution.

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The thing I learned
from that process

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is that you constantly
have to modify what it

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is you are actually working on.

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Because at the end
of the day, it's

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not so much about being
given a problem statement

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that explicitly lists
everything you have to do,

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but more about
building something

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that your client wants.

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And the biggest
thing we learned is

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that those desires
can change over time,

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so it's more
important, not-- it's

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more important, to work on
what the client actually wants,

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and build something that you
think he or she will actually

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use, as opposed to
being fixated on what,

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like, the initial project
proposal was to a sense.

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NATASHA GUNTHER: Vineel
touched on this a bit earlier,

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but through a team dynamic
and working in multiple

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vary-- iterations
of our design, we

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found that assumptions are
the most dangerous thing.

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And when you're moving
through various iterations,

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a full 180 degrees
pivot is not something

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to be afraid of because that
can save your entire project,

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and we found that
it actually did.

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We made a lot of
assumptions initially about

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our client Aaron's
abilities or disabilities,

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and we found we
were compensating

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for a problem he never even had
originally, so we did a pivot

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and created an item
that he would actually

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be able to use and enjoy using.

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Each disability has
so many variations.

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Aaron defines his
paraplegia as C5 slash 6.

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And there's so many
ranges of paraplegia,

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and he doesn't even fit
within one grade of it,

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so I think that gives
you a little bit

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of an idea of how different
each person's disability can be.

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And defining your assistive
technology for just that one

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person is the most
important aspect,

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because they're your client.

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But I think on a
grander scale, we

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saw a problem within
assistive technology

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is making it accessible to
as many people as possible

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while still satisfying
that disability.

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I'd say that's a great
challenge in assistive tech.

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VINEEL CHAKRADHAR:
The blogs gave us

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a lot of context,
because to a large degree

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the posts could
be about anything.

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And this was important because
we know that we are engineers,

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and sometimes when you're
working on these problems,

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when you get too deep
into it, you almost

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forget why it is
you're doing this.

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And I guess the biggest
thing that the blogs did

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for me is that after a day spent
in, like, the machine shop,

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or a day spent
brainstorming design ideas,

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you could go to the blog and
just read articles about people

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with disabilities, the
struggles that they faced,

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how people are looking to
combat those struggles,

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and it kind of gives you a
renewed sense of motivation.

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NATASHA GUNTHER:
I'd say it's very

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important for the
professor to realize

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that we may have no experience
with user centered design.

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I know these two did, actually,
but I personally did not.

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And when it's about
your client, it's

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a lot less about what design
process you are you used to,

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and a lot more about
what the client wants

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to receive from you at
the end of the semester.

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So focusing a lot on client,
not making assumptions,

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and-- I think the professors
did a very good job this course,

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though.