Good morning everyone,
The last days in Shenzhen and xFactory are approaching. All the teams are very close to the final prototype. As a result, the program for the day is as follows: work at xFactory then pitch at SinoSwiss with students and business mens.
We went to xFactory in the morning to continue the final prototypes of each project. As the end of the trip to Shenzen approaches and there are only 2 full days of work left, more and more teams are starting to have something functional with most of the final prototypes printed in 3D. Here is a small tour with each team on the program of the day:
The CORE team received their printed device and is very happy with the result. Indeed, after assembly, the device is functional with the new PCB. Some finishing touches are still to be done such as sanding or correcting a screw hole that is too large, but generally speaking, the team is happy with the result of the printing. They still have to paint the device and add a temperature sensor on the PCB so that the scale adapts to the outside temperature.
The Flowlin team would like to correct its Bluetooth problems today. Then from that, they also have problems with Javascript that they would like to fix. Meanwhile, some members of the team are currently in Seed studio to mount the PCB. Nathan takes care of the software and the interface, but also has to prepare the pitch he will do tonight at SinoSwiss. If everything goes well and they can do what they plan to do, they would like to be able to relax in the pool at the end of the day.
Concerning the Toygether team, they are also on a good path towards finishing their prototype. Of course, as always, unplanned things happens, like their buttons which doesn’t work really well but, as they worked on it, they found this really clever way to make a button, with a spacer mesh in-between so that it is still washable, flexible and most of all, functional!
Of course they are also still working on their app with some visuals made by Lucas.
As for the Seeki team, they finished their PCB, they even made 2! Congrats guys! Everything is fitting in their casings but they have been experiencing some ordering issues as the paint they ordered did not arrive yet but hopefully, they will receive it in the coming days. They also made a new presentation video and it helps a lot understanding all the different functions of their device as it is quite complexe to understand fully.
And finally the Guido team is working hard on making good games for kids to interact with their smart xylophone. Sadly, their PCB is not finished yet, but we all hope that they will finish on time. All and all, they are pretty close to the end but as always, the most difficult part comes at the end in most cases.
At the end of the they, we went back to Huaqiang Bei for the pitch. Wow, what a incredible room was waiting for us. There was people, food and even air conditioning in the beginning. As the presentation went on, we experienced some trouble due to technology. Yes even in one of the most advanced community, technical issues persist. There were pitches from investors, makers, entrepreneurs and the Sino-swiss collaboration representative.
Then the fun part started, all the team went pitching, heart bumbing, We had the chance to see some experiments for the pitches: TED talk style, role-play style and etc… There was definitely some stress among the pitchers but overall, they did a really good job.
After some handshakes and beers, we went on our way and were already thinking about what we would do the next day.
Thanks CHICos and CHICas for reading this post and hope you will continue following our journey
Thomas Schaller and Alex Tran