Part A: … with respect to considerations of public health, safety or welfare. (written by Fei)
Our machine is designed with both physical and psychological well-being in mind. By incorporating an interactive trivia experience, it encourages mental engagement, making it valuable in educational and social settings. Additionally, the voice and button-based interaction enhance accessibility, ensuring individuals with different needs can participate easily.
Safety is a key priority in our design, as vending machines must function reliably without posing risks to users. To ensure stable operation and prevent electrical hazards, our machine is powered by a 12V DC adapter. The structure, made of MDF boards and aluminum tubes, provides durability while keeping the device lightweight and stable.
Part B: … with consideration of social factors. (written by Min Ji)
Our trivia vending machine unites people in that it makes socializing exciting and enjoyable. Whether through teamwork or friendly rivalry, it’s an excellent method of breaking the ice in any environment. Trivia games also tend to make people bond naturally—whether buddies are collaborating to come up with correct answers or even playfully challenging each other. It’s a perfect way for colleagues, family members, or even strangers to bond too. Since the trivia topics can be fully customized through an online platform(website to be built), the game can be appealing to a wide range of interests, cultures, and ages, thus making it inclusive and versatile.
Beyond entertainment, our trivia machine also possesses real educational and team-building value. It can enhance learning as an interactive and engaging experience in schools, reinforcing what has been learned in a fun way. In the workplace, it is a casual team-building activity, so colleagues get to interact and think as a team. During community events or social gatherings, it gives people something to talk about and do, so the atmosphere is more lively and interesting. By combining education, competition, and openness to all, our product makes social interactions richer and more enjoyable.
Part C: … with consideration of economic factors. (written by Vicky)
Our product’s portable dimension and use in entertainment space makes it a fast moving consumer good. If launched to market it can be sold in chain department stores as a party game or a common gift option. The assembly in the production part will require some manual labor. During use of our product, the user needs to have access to network connection in order to log on to the website and enter their customized questions. The user also need to supply their own candy/treat refill for future dispensing.
- What are the most significant risks that could jeopardize the success of the project? How are these risks being managed? What contingency plans are ready? (written by Vicky)
One development/change we encountered this week was to adopt the waterfall project management method, implement and update our product versions sequentially, start with a simple crude prototype and add more features gradually. This means for the following 2 weeks we aim to have both the text-based game and touchscreen game working with a simple interface. After that we will then optimize the visual interface and build the website for question customization. We estimate the making a website will take up a bulk of time and decided to implement that after finishing the game part so it does not hold up our progress.
2. Were any changes made to the existing design of the system (requirements, block diagram, system spec, etc)? Why was this change necessary, what costs does the change incur, and how will these costs be mitigated going forward? (written by Fei)
We have finalized more details of the design, ensuring everything aligns with our project goals and requirements. However, no changes have been made to the existing design of the system this week. The entire team is working seamlessly toward delivering the final product.
3. Provide an updated schedule if changes have occurred. This is also the place to put some photos of your progress or to brag about a component you got working. (written by Min Ji)
We modified the current status update of the tasks, and new tasks will be started in the upcoming week. A shared document of the trivia questions(approx. 300 questions in total) was made so that each team member could write questions for the sports, science, and entertainment category respectively.
Link to our Gantt Chart: sweeTrivia Gantt Chart
Link to our trivia questions database: Trivia Questions Database