Week 17: Invention, Intellectual property and Income
Assignments
The assigments for this week are:
I. Develop a plan for dissemination of your final project
II. Prepare drafts of your summary slide
Dissemination Plan
Below are the dissemination plan I had developed for my final project.
Goals
The goal for my final project is to create a flatpack personal mobility devices (PMD) that can be fabricated using digital fabrication method with parts and material that are salvaged and/or locally available.
Personal mobility devices (PMD), such as electric scooters, electric bicycle, hoverboard, etc. were introduced as a solution to the first mile/last mile (FMLM) issue in commuting. Relatedly, PMDs are also a solution
to mobility within a neighborhood, where the distance might be too short for commuting by public transport and too long to travel by foot. However, the cost of commercial available PMDs can be relatively high.
This is partly due to the PMDs being imported from overseas. Moreover, due to the lack of easily accessible facilities for repair and maintenance of PMDs,
the PMDs that are broken down are either left in a state of disrepair, or is being disposed of as a whole, with usable parts not salvaged and reused.
Thus, a PMD model that is locally fabricated, using salvaged and locally available material and parts will reduced the material cost of owning a PMD, thereby making the PMDs more accessible to commuters.
Unique selling point
The main selling point for the flatpack PMD is that it is locally fabricated and assembled using salvaged or otherwise locally available material. Thus it provides an inexpensive alternative to imported commerical PMD,
which can be costly.
Being a flatpack item, this PMD can be easily transported and assembled by the user. Additionally, as it is a DIY item, the flatpack PMD can be easily customised to suit the user's needs.
Moreover, local production of the flatpack PMD taps on local labour, thus providing training and work opportunities for the community. The use of salvaged material also promote the concept of sustainability within the community.
Dissemination
Taking a leaf out of
OpenBike project by Arquimaña, the flatpack PMD will be disseminated using the open source model.
A website and online repository is to be set up to host information and design files for anyone who is interested in the flatpack PMD. Funding to maintain the website and depository will come from donation, sale of customised
parts (e.g. the controller boards for the PMD) or rental of space and equipment to those who are interested to fabricate their own flatpack PMD.
On the other hand, funding for further development of the project will be sourced from grants (either private or public source). With the grant, a small dedicated team can be gathered to develop a newer improved version of the PMD, as well as
to publicised about the project. If a smaller, lmited grant is given, however, the project can be packaged into a sponsored project for students in institute of higher leaerning.
Regardless of the funding situation, the main dissemination method for this project is to make the files and data freely available. To that end, should there be no funding, the alternative I have is to
bring the project back to Science Centre (where I work) to explore other possiblities of utilising the flatpack PMD (e.g. designing the project into workshop/course).
Benefits
On an individual level, the flatpack PMD improves the mobility of the user. It also provides an inexpensive alternative to commercial PMDs which can be costly.
The fabrication and assembling of the PMDs also provides learning and income opportunity for those who assembles the PMDs.
On a community level, the flatpack PMD promotes sustainability by using material that are salvaged and/or locally available.