Dec 14. 2024 - Latest News
Contributors: Xu Yuan, Gong Xi, Zheng Yuxuan, Wang Yucen, Xu Ke
Reviewer: Luo Tao
On the morning of November 16, 2024, the Greater Bay Area International Maker Summit and Maker Faire Shenzhen 2024 opened at the Vanke Cloud City Design Community in Nanshan, Shenzhen. The theme of this summit was “Everything Can Be AI,” aiming to explore the rich possibilities of integrating artificial intelligence with various industries. The summit brought together over 120 exhibitors from nearly 20 countries and regions worldwide, attracting professional audiences from nearly 20 countries overseas and over 20 provinces domestically. It was not only a technological extravaganza but also a stage for young makers to showcase their talents.
During the Greater Bay Area International Maker Summit and Maker Faire Shenzhen 2024 event, the School of Innovation and Creative Design at Southern University of Science and Technology (hereinafter referred to as “the Design School”) also actively participated. The “Piggy Hero Group,” composed of students from the Design School, was honored to be invited by the organizers to present the project “Nut Smart Education” from the DS224 course, which had been carefully developed and iterated, at the summit.
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Nut Smart Education is an AI-powered interactive early education system designed for children aged 3-6. Through the Nut projector, it provides an integrated early education learning environment featuring parental smart control, AI-guided interaction, and the cultivation of healthy habits. The product aims to use AI assistants to help parents intelligently manage their children's use of the projector, using gentle guidance and positive encouragement to help children develop healthy, self-disciplined habits and cultivate delayed gratification skills. On the other hand, it uses games to allow children to create their own personalized AI assistant avatars and animations using prompt words, fostering AI literacy and training AI tool usage skills while enhancing comprehensive abilities through the cultivation of imagination and creativity.
In last semester's DS224 (Customer Product Design) class, Professor Luo invited Jiaojiao Projection Company as a partner enterprise, allowing us to use Jiaojiao Projection as a platform for product design. Our team's project theme focused on “the application of projectors in living room environments.” After determining the research theme, we conducted in-depth user research and market analysis, including but not limited to surveys and on-site interviews. Through these methods, we identified several key issues currently faced by users:
1. Children exhibit low levels of patience and may become anxious due to prolonged waiting times;
2. Parents have management needs regarding children's viewing duration and content, which often leads to conflicts between parents and children;
3. Homes have numerous devices with complex operations, typically requiring parental intervention and assistance.
These findings provided valuable user insights for our product design, guiding us in developing solutions that better align with market demands.
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After analysis, these pain points have two potential solutions: first, the product must be able to alleviate children's emotional fluctuations; second, the product should enable parents to effectively monitor children's usage time and content. Based on this, we further refined the solutions to enhance their targeting and practicality. Ultimately, we proposed the following specific measures: 1. Develop a mobile app to enable remote connection between parents and the projector, providing control and reminder functions so that parents can conveniently manage children's viewing time and content; 2. Incorporate an interactive, playful character design into the product to address children's waiting anxiety, soothe emotions, and alleviate conflicts and stress between parents and children. Additionally, through psychological strategies such as delayed gratification, gradually cultivate children's self-control abilities.
At the end of this course, we produced a mobile app prototype, project report, and poster, successfully completing the course.
During the summer vacation, thanks to Professor Luo's introduction, we had the valuable opportunity to participate in the Maker Expo. From July to November, we conducted in-depth market research and product optimization to achieve exceptional product quality. The theme of this year's Maker Expo was “Everything Can Be AI,” which aligns perfectly with our product philosophy. Therefore, we began exploring the potential applications of AI technology in our product, integrating large language model (LLM) dialogue functionality to significantly enhance the product's intelligent interaction capabilities. Additionally, we innovatively incorporated generative adversarial network (GAN) image generation technology into a positive reinforcement mechanism, aiming to cultivate children's ability to delay gratification while enhancing their technological literacy and fostering a correct understanding of AI applications.
Our project achieved great success at the exhibition, attracting the attention and interest of numerous visitors. Not only were children deeply captivated by the interactivity and fun of the Nut Smart Education System, but parents also expressed strong interest in the system's features for fostering healthy habits. Additionally, some companies and investors were drawn to our project, exchanged contact information, and expressed a desire to follow up further. This exhibition was a rare opportunity for learning and growth. We not only gained practical experience in technical implementation and product design but also honed our skills in project management, team collaboration, and public speaking. Additionally, seeing our project recognized brought us a great deal of motivation.
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Participating in the Maker Expo was an incredibly enriching experience. As the team leader of the Piggy Hero team, I not only had to complete my own tasks but also take on leadership responsibilities, guiding the team toward a common goal. This was both an opportunity and a challenge for me.
First, the teamwork over the past few months has honed my communication skills. I learned how to effectively coordinate with team members to ensure everyone had a clear understanding of the project. This ability is crucial for coordinating teamwork and resolving internal conflicts. Second, this was my first time leading a large-scale project, which required more long-term planning and a well-structured organizational framework compared to the smaller projects in regular courses. I had to constantly communicate with teammates about progress to ensure the project's successful completion. This process significantly enhanced my project management skills.
When the final work was exhibited at the Maker Fair, the response exceeded my expectations. Many parents and professionals expressed keen interest in our project and wished to continue following our progress. Witnessing our design concept being recognized and appreciated, and receiving real-time feedback from users: this was an experience that is difficult to replicate in regular coursework.
Finally, I would like to thank my teammates for their hard work, which made the project’s successful implementation possible; and I also thank Mr. Luo for providing us with this valuable opportunity, allowing me to gain this rare experience.
This Maker Fair was a truly valuable and fascinating experience. The two-day event was quite demanding, testing our ability to efficiently utilize the limited space of our booth and effectively communicate and guide visitors through our projects.
In our free time, we also visited other exhibitors' booths, gaining insights into a wide range of powerful and innovative maker technologies and products. The exhibitors came from all walks of life and all age groups, including even elementary school students. Their innocent voices as they explained their design concepts demonstrated a heartfelt concern for society, which was particularly touching. We also fully experienced the exhibition's theme of “Everything Can Be AI,” highlighting the endless possibility of AI integration across industries. In Shenzhen, this city of innovation, we witnessed how the vitality and passion of each generation are shaping the future.
Additionally, this exhibition provided an opportunity for our short-term course project to develop, refine, and undergo user testing. Many parents brought their children to experience our project and provided us with valuable feedback and expectations.
Deciding to participate in the exhibition was easy, but the nearly five months of effort and perseverance were far from simple. I am deeply grateful to the teachers for providing this opportunity and to my strong teammates who supported me. This was a valuable experience and an irreplaceable memory from the Design Academy.
This Maker Fair was a real-world application for us, requiring us to put our skills to the test and further refine, iterate, implement, and realize the conceptual projects and ideas we had developed in the classroom. Through this platform, we were tested and challenged by makers from around the world and the general public, gaining valuable feedback and expectations.
Looking back on the entire project, the moment that moved me the most was when I wrapped a thin rope around the pillar symbolizing the “maker” identity on the exhibition's signing board, suddenly realizing, “We really did it!” From the initial confusion and uncertainty when we first received the exhibition task, to the repeated adjustments and revisions of the plan, to the step-by-step technical exploration and implementation of functions, and finally the complete presentation at the maker exhibition. The five students in our team continuously learned and pushed beyond our limits over the past five months, ultimately overcoming what we initially deemed an impossible task through our own efforts. At the beginning, we didn’t know how to do many things and didn’t believe we could succeed, even considering seeking external assistance to help us achieve the technical implementation. However, Professor Luo Tao often told us that in future work, tasks are not assigned based on whether you “know how to do them.” To complete a task, you must find your own solutions. Though we initially complained about Professor Luo's strictness, looking back, it was only when he began to hold us to corporate standards that we truly abandoned reliance on others, focused on self-improvement, and embarked on the path of “makers.” Without pushing yourself to the limit, how would you know you can't do it?
Over the past five months, we have gained knowledge and skills that cannot be learned in the classroom. We believe that the experience of the maker exhibition will become a valuable chapter in our design careers, providing us with endless inspiration.
During our participation in this exhibition, we encountered many makers, students, and companies from different regions and even different countries, were exposed to cutting-edge technologies and innovative ideas, and received valuable feedback and suggestions for our project, leading to profound reflections and insights.
First, I gained a deeper understanding of the principle that “good design speaks for itself.” I had often heard teachers mention this in class, but had never truly grasped its importance until now. In this physical exhibition, clearly explaining “what exactly I designed” using concise language became an absolutely critical task. Compared to other works that were easier to understand, our design always seemed to require a lot of words and effort to explain its logic. Perhaps it was because we always wanted to add more features during the design process; perhaps it was because the design objectives became less clear as we iterated... The insight we gained is that during the project development process, you must be able to explain what your project does in a single sentence, and always balance the diversity of functions with the design focus.
Second, users will not use your design in an idealized manner. During the exhibition, many visitors raised various questions and suggestions: “Why not use a robot? That way it could follow the child everywhere.” "Why not address the issue of children becoming addicted to games? I think this is more important," and so on. Often, users may not know the answers to these questions or fully understand your product, but as designers, you must be clear about why—why the problem you're solving is important, why you chose this solution, and so on. A crucial aspect of design is having a compelling reason that can convince yourself, which in turn convinces others and makes users willing to buy in.
We are deeply grateful to Professor Luo and the academy for providing us with this valuable opportunity. This experience has been highly enriching. We hope to maintain our original passion for design and explore a broader world in the future.
Before attending the event, I was initially very anxious and nervous, fearing that our preparations were insufficient and worried that our project might go unnoticed in such a gathering of industry leaders. However, at the Maker Expo, we were pleasantly surprised to receive widespread praise and recognition, and the fatigue from preparing the project vanished instantly!
We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Professor Luo Tao and the college for providing us with this invaluable opportunity! It allowed us to showcase the outcomes of last semester’s course on such a prestigious platform as the Maker Summit, share our achievements with professionals from various fields, gain insights into others’ perspectives on our product, and explore design from multiple angles.
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