#SharksDen Day 2: A Day of Design

by Paul Mignone

With four teams set up and ready to go, day 2 of #SharksDen was held in the 3D printing lab of the University of Melbourne’s Engineering Workshop. Vincent Khau, ResBaz’s very own design maestro, kicked off day 2 by giving a crash course to attendees in computer-aided design (CAD) using the software known as Tinkercad. HTML browser-based and easy to use, it didn’t take long for the #SharksDen attendees to start designing their game-changing products.

During this CAD lesson, Vincent performed his ‘tried-but-true’ start-up charades workshop. The workshop brought together the CEO and CMO to look at a picture. The CEO/CMO then had to describe the picture to their CTO, who would then design it in TinkerCAD. The reasoning behind this exercise was to demonstrate the importance of good communication in a team, as well as to highlight the challenges of conveying complex ideas to other team members.

For the second half of day 2, teams continued to work on their product ideas and were challenged to give a three minute pitch by the end of the session. While not compulsory, it was exciting to see all the teams design products that address the millennium project challenges. With still two weeks to go until the 3D printing showcase, one team had already designed a 3D concept for a low cost water filtration system for developing nations!

The four teams pitched their ideas at the end of the day. Some teams used Google presentation, while other teams went for butcher’s paper to present their initial designs. All four teams had to be cut-short as they went over time. This experience gave them all an appreciation for being concise in start-up presentations. Day 2 was definitely a day of hard lessons for the #SharksDen attendees, but it will serve them well at the 3D printing showcase two weeks from now.