Defined as "problems that are difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize", wicked problems were the focal point of this course.  Over the course of this semester, we were put onto teams of four to brainstorm a speculative solution to such a problem while incorporating some biological design processes (such as studying/replicating interactions within the environment and its different ecosystems in order to engender a more sustainable solution). This class was much different than any class I have been a part of at UC due to the scope of the challenge, as well as its emphasis on its interdisciplinary design process. Aside from the handful of non-major classes I have taken, group projects are more narrowly focused on business solutions such as how new technologies/products could augment a company’s processes and strategic vision. Thus, it was very refreshing and eye-opening to work with motivated colleagues from engineering, scientific, and arts/design disciplines in creating some product that could solve a more wicked problem than just a business need.

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My group was very interested in utilizing technology to better understand processes within the human body, specifically in terms of biosensors ​to track bodily changes over time. Following the design process model, we spent a great deal of time ideating broader target audiences/use cases, from healthcare and sickness prediction, to environmental monitoring, to disease tracking, but ultimately chose sweat-analyzing sensors to enhance athletic training and performance.

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Our product acts as a wearable device (within an arm sleeve, dry-fit shirt, or compression pants) to collect sweat and analyze its composition throughout a workout for individual and team athletics purposes. After speaking with contacts in both the wearable devices and athletics spaces, we learned that sweat and sweat rate can tell you a lot about your body like its electrolyte balance, energy levels based on both potassium and glucose, physical stress levels based on cortisol, and lactic acid build-up within muscles. We believe our product could allow people to truly communicate with their own bodies during intense athletic training. Anyone knows that extreme pain signals that one should stop whatever they are doing that is causing pain within the body, or that an elevated heart rate coupled with perspiration can signal the body’s participation in an intense workout, but our product seeks to unlock the hidden levels of communication we can access within our bodies. Specifically, by analyzing athletes’ sweat composition, more individualized diets and lifestyle plans can be revealed to optimize one’s athletic performance while pushing endurance through workouts that most significantly augment baseline lactic acid levels. Furthermore, our compression material mimic’s bacterium and microorganisms that expand in order to regulate body temperature during workouts. In this way, our product acts as a “Second Skin” of sorts that helps generate insights about the body while being extremely comfortable to wear during high-performance training.

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Although the remote learning procedures have complicated some of our product design plans over the course of the semester, it has still been very enjoyable to ideate and build products that could serve a larger purpose in society. I want to find a career where I can contribute to actually improving society, so this seminar has allowed me to initially think through avenues in which I could best utilize my strengths to do so. ​Attached is the website that our team built to display and market our products, which I primarily built. I enjoyed thinking through the best ways to build messaging for our products using a business focus. I highly recommend this class to any Honors student, as it is extremely beneficial to work on interdisciplinary teams and contribute your own individualized subject knowledge, regardless of college major.