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Make-a-thons are an incredible experience. The theme of this Saturday’s Make-a-thon, held at the Institute for Manufacturing in Cambridge (UK), was construction quality in Haiti. Specifically, generating solutions to how concrete blocks can be quality tested on the site of delivery to ensure safe construction.
The participants were given the broad challenge of identifying ways of testing the quality of concrete blocks. After an initial brainstorm 16 different approaches to the problem were identified. Out of these 5 were identified as the most promising: compression, weight/balance, impact, acoustic and visual inspection.
Two groups formed around the compression and acoustic testing and these were further developed.
Following up on the ideas generated at the Make-a-thon, the concepts were developed even further. A proof of concept low budget speed-of-sound in materials measuring device has already been put together and is being tested.
A Make-a-thon is an event of intense brainstorming and prototyping aimed at solving a particular technical challenge. The process includes coming up with theoretical solutions, taking a few of them forwards to proof of concept prototyping, presenting the findings and hopefully one or more of these will serve as the basis for future development.
We’re experimenting with the Make-a-thon model and learning as we go how to make this an effective way to collaborate to solve real challenges in the field.