Rejection Challenge

Hello, for this week we have continued on narrowing down our final idea. At the moment, it seems like we would be most likely continuing with the network-connected, low-power early warning device for natural and man-made disasters that I have talked about last week. Yet today’s video clip will be about the small exercise that our team have done with all other teams participating as well.

So, in this week’s class, we have done an exercise called the Rejection Challenge. For this exercise, we were provided with a small transparent box which was worth 50 cents and we were asked to trade this item with a stranger for an item that was worth of a greater value. Again, it was a pretty open-ended exercise where we could literally go anywhere for the transaction to happen. Our initial idea for this exercise was to get in contact with as much as people possible. In order to do this, we thought of using a public facebook group page where students sell and exchange various items. Then since this method would not guarantee an exchange we started to look for places where we could get in contact with a lot of people. With us already being in campus, we started with places where students would gather up to study, such as the MLK building. Fortunately, we were able to make our first exchange here with a mini stapler.

Next, as students seemed to not have much item on them (or at least something that they would be willing to trade), we tried places like the Equator Coffees where we were successful in trading the mini-stapler for a muffin (worth of $3).

At this point we started to discuss about what our goal or final item should be that would have a really high value. The conclusion was time. Time is an element of which its value is nearly impossible to be estimated to a certain number. Thus, with that in mind, we thought of an item with a high trade value since it would be difficult to earn someone’s time with an ordinary item.

So, we decided to change the muffin for actual money.

And eventually we were able to ask someone for 20 minutes of their time.

Through this exercise we were able to learn the different reactions of people towards a not interested item and how different approaches can be made to make the item more attractive. 

Understanding Technology, Value proposition, Minimum Viable Product, Potential Market Size and Needs

Hello, last week we have finalized the team for the semester project and have chosen five potential patents that our team would like to work on. As for this week, the primary goal was to reduce those five patents into two or three and actually meet the inventors to gain in-depth knowledge of both the product and its market. Among the two patents that we are considering which are: the low cost highly accurate traffic monitoring system and the network-connected, low-power early warning device for natural and man-made disasters (US 20160093191 A1), we were able to get a better insight on especially the latter patent. The inventor for this patent is professor Joshua Bloom, who is a professor in the department of astronomy at UC Berkeley. He was able to explain to us the overall system of this device in which how both the hardware and software interact with each other. 

The detection device is connected via network to user’s smartphone warning about any natural or man-made disasters such as but not limited to earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, chemical plants, and tsunamis. The low power device is also always on, meaning that even if the wifi is down, it will go to cellular network. However, he also mentioned that this is not a novel invention as in Japan there is an iOS device that functions similarly in case of an earthquake. But as far as US is concerned, no such device nor system exist and is relatively new. 

This made our team think about which category this device falls into among the three types of market which are: existing market, resegmented market, and new market. To begin with, we found it difficult to fit into the category of an existing market as it has no noticeable competitor. Although this device is a combination of preexisting ideas and could potentially fulfill a niche, the best categorization seems to be a new market in which the device was not introduced due to geographic limitation. In terms of the potential market size, our initial calculation was based off on the 200 million users of smart phones in US. However, the professor’s approach was to base off the estimate from the fire alarm market which was $0.5 billion. For worldwide we would be looking at a $10 billion market. 

As for the minimum viable product, a prototype has already been created with a production cost of $95 which is expected to be reduced through mass production. The value we are providing to the customers is their sense of feeling protected and safe from unknown disasters through simple and convenient methods. Low cost, low power, easy to use, easy to install are all the features that are delivered to the customers that would allow them to focus on other important matters while the device takes care of their fear for the unknown future.

Team Building Exercise: Lego Game

This week we focused on finalizing the team for our group project and we’ve done some team building activities to get to know each other better. In particular, we have done an activity called the Lego game in which our team was divided into two: one being the engineers group and the other non-engineers group. Once we were divided into two groups, each group was provided with a random set of lego blocks and a picture of a lego model. Then we were instructed to write down the process of building that particular lego model so that the other team can create one based off just that step of instructions. The overall game was pretty much open-ended in that there was no given format of how we could explain and how the other team was supposed to build it. In the end, many of the teams ended up getting all sorts of creative structures despite the fact that there were only two types of images provided to the entire teams. Ours turned up something like this:

As you can see, both teams got a general sense of what the model was supposed to be, but in terms of the detailed parts of the model, both teams had it pretty far from what the original model had. This was mainly due to not only the different logic of thinking between the two groups, but also the lack of resource provided to the teams. As our team went through the instruction for the lego model, we found soon enough that we weren’t provided with the correct pieces in the beginning (as there was no such long dark-grey block given to us as explained in the instruction). Thus, we quickly started to adapt to what resources we had and did our best to create what the original model would have looked like. One thing however that we did not consider was the possibility of asking other teams for extra resources which was suggested to us after the activity. This was mainly due to the assumption that we have made in the beginning that we had to create the model with whatever pieces we were originally provided. 

Overall, this exercise was really useful in that it helped us think outside the box and keep on questioning where we should put the limit to what we were doing. We questioned whether it was okay to explicitly inform the other group what the final model is (whether it was a helicopter or a formula 1) or was it okay to tell the url of the image of the final model off the internet and so on. I believe that this is an important trait that our team should have as we work on our project to see the difference between a limitation set by our own assumption versus a physical limitation that we should adapt to.

What excites me and the kind of people I want to work with

What excites me in this course is the unpredictable outcome of the final product that I and our team (once it is formed) will have at the end of the semester. I look forward to working as a team and develop something creative that I hope I will enjoy not only the outcome but also the process in creating it. As for what excites me in a more general matter, I am interested in working with (information) technology where we could either improve a particular system or produce something useful that can make our lives much comfortable. 

In terms of the type of people that I want to work with, I don't have any strong preferences in particular. However, as the minimum requirement for a team requires to have at least one engineer and a business major, I would like to have as much diversity in the group as possible. For instance, if we were to create a team of 5 people, an ideal set of team members that I would imagine would consist of an engineer (apart from myself), a business major, a computer science major, and a humanities major. This will allow us to tackle upcoming issues from a diverse perspective and overcome difficulties in a creative manner. It would also be really helpful if everyone is cooperative and respects one another, thus creating great teamwork.

About myself and area of interest

Hello everyone my name is Hyun-Ho Jung (and I also go by the name Hayden as people often find it difficult to pronounce my Korean name) and I am a 4th year Industrial Engineering and Operations Research major. I am from South Korea and one thing special about me would be that I have lived in many different countries that include Ukraine, Russia, South Korea, France, Kenya, and the US. I also enjoy playing various sports such as tennis and soccer.

In terms of what I want to do as a class project for IEOR 185 Challenge Lab, I would preferably work on something that is related to information technology (IT), which is my area of interest. As my major is mostly concerned with increasing efficiency of a certain process and global optimization, improving upon a certain procedure or a product seems to be the most adequate choice. For instance, in the Berkeley Intellectual Property and Industry Research Alliances (IPIRA) website, there are all sorts of patents related to improving traffic monitoring system, improving survey execution system, and so on that is related to managing a great scale of data. These seems to fit well with my interest in IT. Moreover, it would be even better if the product can be applied in our daily lives as it always provides me an incentive to work harder when the product is easily approachable and able to receive frequent feedbacks.

However, I am open to any other ideas even if it is not related to information technology. In fact, I believe the decision for the class project should be determined once the members of the team are set as it is crucial to utilize each member's specialty.