Pɘggy

Yesterday was our last day were we worked on our prototype. After a rocky start and some further issues along the way we were proud to present an almost functioning Peggy yesterday at the final presentations.

The coin inserted actually slid down the slide into the right slot and could therefore been withdrawn. However, due to the wiring the coin got stock at the exit of the device. Also the optic sensors had an issue as they were sending constant signals to the application. All this issues will be solved when coming back to Switzerland.

Bruno, Florian and I are flying back this evening, our mechanical engineers Yann and Nico are flying tomorrow. Michael and Gion well stay another 2 weeks traveling through China before flying back to Switzerland.

Well, I guess it is time to say goodbye and of course a big thank you too all the people who made this experience possible.

Cheers,

Team Fribourg

In the past two weeks, we have experienced the two different systems of the one China – the system in Hong Kong and the system in Shenzhen. This blogpost will analyze the local customs concerning Social Media. We will discuss the most common used platforms, the reason for this difference and the consequences.

First, we will talk about the most common and favorite social media channel: WeChat by the internet giant Tencent. For non-Chinese WeChat and Tencent might not sound like familiar brands, but the application is one of the largest standalone messaging apps by monthly active users. In a nutshell, the app is the combination of WhatsApp – instant messages, Instagram – sharing moments with friends and Apple Pay – paying contactless through the phone. This is not to mention the special functions Chinese appreciate like sharing a red packet (红包) in a group, of which the member can obtain a random amount of money. On the mainland, everyone from the small kid in school uniform to the grandma selling tofu on the street uses WeChat. The simple to set up and easy to use payment function has empowered small businesses to overcome the challenges and fees of using bank cards. Few Chinese know and use the applications WhatsApp or Telegram for messaging. This is different in Hong Kong. We have met some locals and when asked them about WeChat they knew surprisingly little about it. Most of the people we spoke to preferred to use WhatsApp or Facebook for messaging. As we will discuss below, the latter is blocked on the Mainland. One reason for this preference might be connected to this issue. Since the WeChat server is located on the Mainland and accessible by the Chinese central government, the free thinking and independent Hong Kong people do not like to let them read all their private data. Censorship on WeChat is happening on the mainland, where posts of social unrest or criticism is removed from the moments (朋友圈), to preserve national harmony and stability. In recent years, there have been tensions between the citizens of Hong Kong and the government in Beijing, of which the students umbrella movement is most known, thanks to wide coverage in western media (of course not in Chinese Mainland media). Since WhatsApp and Facebook have their servers outside China, there is no option for the central government to interfere in the flow of information. Even though not all people of Hong Kong might want/need to hide their information, the effect of networks plays out in favour of the western messaging apps.

Facebook is often criticized in the western world for its gathering of private data. What must be considered with regards to China, is that Facebook is an independent company that offers a service, and that relies entirely on the users’ trust. So it has little interest in sharing private data with state organizations, who might use it to persecute and punish people for saying things that are critical of state policies. This is ultimately why Facebook is blocked in China when not using a VPN connection. They do not want their data to be stored on state-run servers in China. The same goes for Twitter, where the possibility of getting together to protest is seen as to high by the Chinese government. So both services are blocked in mainland China. As an alternative, the people have access to Weibo, which works as a Twitter/Facebook Hybrid, but controlled by the Chinese government.

Just to finish with a few words about propaganda on the mainland which is little appreciated by most people from Hong Kong and the young urban Chinese. The Chinese government pays some people per positive comment on social media. On ZhiHu (知乎) the Chinese equivalent of Quora where members can ask questions and discuss on the subject online, some users constantly commenting extremely positively on difficult governance questions and some critical answers disappear mysteriously.

To sum up, many division in the domain of social media is connected to the division in free speech and the great firewall that isolates the Mainland from the outside, inclusive Hong Kong.

Hong Kong and Shenzhen two cities so close but still so different

In the past owned by the British, Hong Kong went back to China in 1997. However, the city maintained a high degree of autonomy and is now a special administrative region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China. As a result this part of China acts different than the rest of the country.

Shenzhen on the other hand has always been a part of the People’s Republic of China. Once a small fisher town it is now an important city for foreign investments and one of the fastest growing city in the world.

To start the subject let’s first define sharing economy: Sharing economy is“an economic system in which assets or services are shared between private individuals, either free or for a fee, typically by means of the Internet” (Google definition).

Looking at the two cities one of the most obvious examples are the transport of people by taxi. In Hong Kong people use regular taxis or Uber. In Shenzhen however, Uber is not an option. They have the service called Didi Kuadi (merge of Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache) which is as well a mobile platform taxi-calling application.

The next element we would like to look at is bike sharing. In Hong Kong we have companies like Gobee bike–bikes which you can unlock with a QR code and drop anywhere in the city–and HobaBike–bikes with a designed parking space. However, walking through the city of Hong Kong, we could not find a lot of this bikes.

In Shenzhen the situation is a lot different. The two companies Ofo and Mobike are present almost on each corner of the city. It seems that these bikes represent a main vehicle for the citizens of Shenzhen. As pedestrian it is therefore recommendable to have a watchful eye as this bikes are omnipresent on streets as well as sidewalks.

Makerspaces also fit in the category of sharing economy. Makerspaces are public workspaces. The root concept is that makers get access to machines and working space for a membership fee, otherwise they could afford neither of them. Here they can have a desk in a co-working space and quickly complete and test prototypes. In reality it is much more though: a center for education, exchange of skills, social network and sometimes collaborations. By default, these spaces bring together people from different backgrounds, unlike big companies with specialized departments. Here individuals can realize their projects in a helpful and nurturing environment. Not all makerspaces are the same.

In Shenzhen we have Seeedstudio, which is closely connected to Seeed Factory, can offer a much wider range of machines and tools, while X.Factory (also in Shenzhen), which is still only semi-open, currently seems to focus more on the community building. Moreover, there is HAX (Shenzhen), which is a hardware accelerator focusing more on the profit. Of course they take in startups and not ideas, so it does not fit into the category of the sharing economy.

In general, Shenzhen is a much easier place for sharing, since it’s much more spacious. There can be a room for just woodworking machines, another one for metalwork, etc. In Hong Kong, however, every square meter is precious, so they really rationalize and keep only the most vital things and use spaces for multiple purposes: meetings, presentation and coworking all in one. Also there are much fewer maker/coworking spaces, while Shenzhen has more than a hundred.

Makerbay in Hong Kong is special, because most of the machines are owned by the founder, and most of the projects are aligned with the values of the space: social and environmental impact. One would think that this model is not financially sustainable, and they have to make sacrifices, but it is in positive balance now for more than a year.

The last element we could identify for a comparison of the two cities is the eating behavior. In China there is no typical order in which the food is served. A lot of different dishes are served at the same time and the bigger the variety of food the the more festive is the event. The balance of Yin and Yang is very important, which is demonstrated by the choice of hot and cold food and of course the round eating table (which stands for harmony).

The round eating table is also really handy for the food sharing as each individual has an easy access to all dishes.

In Shenzhen the food sharing could be observed all over the city while eating in different restaurants. In Hong Kong this was not always the case. In some occasions (especially typical local restaurants) the eating culture was as described above. However, most of the time the eating habits resembled more the Western than the Chinese culture. It can be argued though that this discovery is due to our choice of restaurant and not at all representative for the whole city.

In the next paragraph we will talk about other sharing culture present in each of the cities. For the following observations no comparison could be made as the elements are in no way connected.

Hong Kong:

•  Rent a Suitcase: Hong Kong is one of the most populated cities in the world therefore, space is money. As a result Rent a        Suitcase offers clients to rent luxury suitcases to resolve the problem of lacking storage space.
•  Lux TNT: In a city like Hong Kong appearance, fashion and image are important. In case the personal budget is not sufficient to purchase expensive luxury handbags or clothes, LuxTNT offers a solution. The site allows to rent luxury item in exchange of a daily fee.
• GoGoVan: This company is an app-based platform which aims to to redefine the daily logistics experience by offering a convenient and efficient service.

Shenzhen:

• Shared public power banks: while walking through the mall, we discovered huge public power banks which can be used by every individual in need.

I hope we could offer you a better insight into sharing economy for Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

Cheers,

Julia and Anja

After facing multiple initial problems we finally had an overall successful day. We dispose over three functioning PCB, a nice looking 3D Peggy model, a finished poster and an almost completed crowdfunding campaign.

Of course there is still a considerable amount of things to do as for example the final combine of all mechanical and electronical parts. Because of some absences due to illness this part had to be postponed.

So, our team is positive and highly motivated to realize the completion of our Peggy! Fingers crossed that our high-altitude flight will continue just until our return to Switzerland.

Cheers,

Team Fribourg

After having a great time in Hong Kong visiting multiple companies, doing pitches and some sightseeing, we now concentrate on making our prototype in Shenzhen.

Unfortunately, the 3D printer at X-Factory and Seeds are not suitable for our Peggy. As a result, our mechanical engineers had to look for another supplier. Eventually, after some communication difficulties they could find one at Huaqianbei in the middle of the electronic market. The 3D printed prototype will be delivered today afternoon.

Our electronical engineers faced some issues too. After spending one day on equipping their PCB by hand, a single error resulted in the destroy of the whole PCB. Moreover, they learned that seeds actually disposes over an assembly machine. However, it seems that they are not allowed to use it. Luckily, they could find a Chinese engineer who will help them do the new PCB.

Now the business part. Due to a slow internet and the great Firewall of China, working is not always easy. The main goal of Shenzhen is to create the crowdfunding webpage. For now it looks good. However, there is still a lot to do.

To be continued…

Speak to you soon.

Cheers,
Team Peggy

The fourth day of the trip to China of the CHIC project was all about exploring the beauties of Hong-Kong. The group splitted in small teams and were given challenges under the form of a scavenger hunt. Multiples areas and cultural highlights were seen on the way, with goals to mix the teams with the culture. The teams were separated and therefore did not all have the same impressions when going through the city.

The whole hunt began at 10 am directly at the HKUST where the teams all were given the directions to the first stop. The first stop, the shang shui po market, is full of multiple electronics. The teams were told to look at specific prices for items to have comparisons and see that absolutely everything can be bought there and prices are also cheaper in comparison to Switzerland: we found a Sony PS4 for about 1980 Hkd ( about 230 CHF) and basically you can save 100 CHF.

For the team Yang-Anja-Francesco-Bruno, it was even possible to see the Nan lian garden and its beautiful temple:

By then most of the teams went to a local restaurant for food and later most of the teams managed in the time to cross the river with a ferry, seeing the Hong-Kong buildings at their very best angle and with the breeze of the water. There we had the chance to talk with a guy from Hong Kong, who taught us a Cantonese sentence.

The last challenge was to understand the rendez-vous place, which each group found to be the repulse bay beach. By the time the group reached the beach, tutors were waiting with some beers. The day concluded with a swim in the see.

For the design experience in Hong Kong we were assigned to go visit the famous HKDI in Tiu Keng Leng. It was a great opportunity as we had the chance to meet a local student called Tree Yung.

After a small bus incident we managed to arrive on time at the Hong Kong Design Institute. This was when we met the charming Tree Yung who studies Media Communication. He explained us the daily life of a typical student. Moreover, he showed us current projects of the multiple subjects’ learned at this school. To give us an idea about his own course of study, he showed us an interesting project he did himself: A video production, reinterpreting a famous story by Murakami. It is about a boy suddenly falling for a girl when seeing a specific item of clothing.

After getting an insight into his university life we furthermore talked about his personal experiences as a citizen of Hong Kong. We know now that Tree Yung is not a big fan of the Chinese sun and therefore prefers to stay in the shadow.

Meeting the young students was an unexpected eye opener which allowed us to gather an insight into their mind set as well as doing some accurate comparisons to the Swiss culture.

Yesterday we went to the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park. After we presented our product ideas, we were informed about what HKSTP really is, what they do and what advantages they can offer to aspiring entrepreneurs and young start-ups. Following this short presentation, we were introduced to Cheong-Yui Wong, the founder & CEO of Platysens, who talked about his experiences with the incubation process at HKSTP and about his company.

Time capsule at HKSTP

After a short break for lunch, we transferred to the harbor, where we met with Andreas and Cliff, and went to the container Terminals. There we were introduced to Modern Terminals Ltd. (MTL), the second largest container operator in Hong Kong. They even let us go up to their control room, from where we had a great view and could follow the containers as they were moved around by dozens of cranes and trucks.

From MTL we headed over to Panalpina China Ltd. (a swiss based company), which is located only a few hundred meters down the harbourside. There we were shown how packets are packed up in big packages, and how these packages are crammed into even bigger metal containers to ship them via aeroplanes.

At this point, our daily program was over, and most of us went to eat at a local restaurant that served us platters of different foods, which were devoured in seconds and barely managed to fill our empty stomachs.

To end our day in a literal climax, we paid a visit to the Ozone Bar. Located on top off Hong Kong’s largest building, it provided us with rather expensive drinks and an amazing view, inviting us to reflect on the past hours.

View over Hong Kong from Ozone

Greetings from HK

Adrien and Michael

Hi everyone! On Tuesday we finally all arrived in Hong Kong 🙂

Even though the flight was long and the weather not really welcoming we still were all glad to start our China journey.

On Wednesday morning we all met up to listen to the other teams pitches. After a short feedback we got a quick overview of the whole trip, among the 1000 word blog about a specific border ecology research topic.

Then it was time for our first trip into Hong Kong as a group. Some of us had still quite a hard time with jet leg. However, after a power nap in the bus we all managed to stay awake for the rest of the day.

During our trip into the city we took our first individual steps – find a SIM card, lunch, and find material for the border ecology research topics. In our case, we did some research about sharing economies. Therefore, we went around the city and looked ad different scenarios were this phenomena could possibly appear. For now we did not have a lot of luck.

The next stop was Makerbay. While having drinks and eating some pizza, we had the chance to talk to a lot of makers. Then it was time for our first pitch.  After each pitch there was a Q&A session. We received a lot of interesting and new insights from the audience, mainly fellow makers. After our presentations three local groups presented their projects as well. Their initial brief and therefore the measure of success is different, since for some teams the main goal is research or solving a problem. As a result, profitability comes at a later stage. In a short notice this projects will be funded through sponsoring, e.g. from WWF. Makerbay’s profile is more focused on projects with social and ecological impacts and less on quick growth. One example is the marine litter detective balls, floating in the ocean (link here).

While looking at their workplace we could observe the usual machines of makerspaces as for example a laser cutter and 3D printers. As a more traditional apparatus they also had sewing machines. Furthermore they dispose over cutting edge technologies in the biochemical lab. Particularly interesting was the material library with unusual natural materials, e.g. mycelium, the moldable mushroom which solidify when placed in the oven.

The members of Makerbay are experimenting with material properties and possible usage. Children are welcome too as the organization offers tools and benches adapted to their size.

After our long and inspiring workday we strolled down at the beach while watching skyscrapers over tiny boats, illuminated by the multiple lights of the city.

Speak to you soon

Julia & Anja

Hi there,

It is a while since we last spoke… Since milestone four was this week on Tuesday we had our hand full to try to make the prototype work. At the end it worked partially.

The interaction between mechanical and electronical parts is still not optimal. Furthermore, there emerged a mystery when it comes to the money counting system. When inserting the money, the piece is sliding down a ramp. This process works excellent. At some moments however, the piece does not even slide a millimeter down the ramp.

Our mechanical engineers looked at multiple reasons: impact of heat on the plastic, surface friction, etc. Up to know there is no solution within the range of vision. Nevertheless, we are still positive to find a solution and highly motivated to start our trip to China.

The next blog post will probably be in China. With this in mind, we wish you all the best and speak to you soon.

Cheers,

Team Fribourg

Hi dear Chic Community,

Since exam week is taking an end we can focus 100 % on our Peggy again 🙂

Milestone 3 on the 13^th of June has once more been a big step towards our goal:

First of all, peggy has changed its design and has now a transparent top half which allows kids to see what actually happens inside the device.

Furthermore, some parts of the interior have changed too. Whereas in the beginning the counting part was a disk which allocated each coin to its matching department, now is a slide. These adaptations allow us to reduce the size of peggy which is still a sensitive subject.

Moreover, the cost structure is not 100% clear yet. This is due to multiple options (different types of molds) in the production. As the business part is figuring out the best choice, the mechanical and electrical engineers still have a lot to do to make sure that peggy is working correctly.

That’s all from our side at the moment.

We wish you a nice sunny and hot weekend and see you on Take-off Monday J

Cheers,

Team Fribourg

Hi there 🙂

In a little bit more than one week milestone 3 is coming up. One of the main goals is to present some first complex interdisciplinary processes as for example a coin passing a sensor and the transmission of data to a connected Smartphone.

Furthermore, we would like to introduce our first prototype with the sorting and redistributing system. Therefore, our mechanical engineers have made a 3D print of all the necessary components to assemble them afterwards.

As you can see there is still a lot to do until the 13^th of June (our date for milestone 3). We will keep you updated soon.

Until then we wish you a nice week!

Cheers,

Team Fribourg

Hi there 🙂

Last Wednesday we had our Milestone 2 presentation. This time we managed to finish your explanations in the given 15 min. to 20 min. time frame.

Once again, we had some really valuable feedbacks. One of the main concerns of our audience is the device orientation. Due to the multiple semester and bachelor thesis which are connected to our device (and the whole project CHIC) our product is still more technical than customer driven.

This feedback we took to heart. As a result, Nico our product designer went over the whole concept and tried different variations. This new design we will now evaluate by asking our target groups opinion.

Another critical point is the size of our device. Due to the complex interior (money counting and distribution) the size of our pig is at 30 cm³ (even too big to put it into our suitcases). Therefore our mechanical engineers are working on a new concept and are aiming the size of 15-20 cm³.

So that’s it from our side. We are looking forward to talking to you again soon and until then we wish you all the best.

Cheers,

Team Fribourg

Hi dear CHIC community

Last week we booked our flights to China. Therefore, there was an exuberant atmosphere as the trip finally got concrete.

Obviously, we had a lot more to do than just booking the trip. Milestone 2 is getting closer and we still have to work out some interdisciplinary issues.

Furthermore, we have to figure out how to secure pEggy in a way that nobody can withdraw money without being logged on the device. As a solution we thought about a deadlock of the redistribution mechanism (by inserting a little motor), or adding an alarm (ad a sound or ad red eyes when such an unidentified withdraw was made). However, we have to make sure that our solution does not affect negatively our battery or in general our concept.

We are looking forward to talking to you soon again

Cheers,

Team Fribourg

Hello everybody,

Last week we all benefited from our Easter holidays!!! Therefore, we could allocate even more time to our project… (or at least we tried ;-)).

All of us started off by continuing to implement all the feedbacks we gained during our Milestone 1 presentation. The mechanical engineers worked on a 3D model of the redistribution system while Florian (one of our software engineers) continued to work on the app. As for the business part it was all about crowdfunding. By reviewing literature as well as conducting interviews I could get one step closer to our own crowdfunding concept.

Last but not least, we hope you could enjoy your Easter break and we are looking forward to talking to you soon.

Cheers,

Team Fribourg

Hey everyone!

After the success of the Milestone 1, we can continue the project. Now we are organizing the second milestone. We will present the 3D model with the electronic part and more. The design will stay the same as now. But before that we have a lot of work to do.

Have nice holidays!

Hi dear CHIC community,

We hope you are all fine?

This Tuesday we had our first milestone presentation… Although, we do know our device by hard, it is still more nerve-racking if you have to present it in front of a bunch of people. However, we did fine… I guess 🙂 !

Overall, our devices takes shape but still there is a lot to do.

For my part (Business) Damien advised me to do some interviews with children. By using this approach I can make sure that we really meet their preferences when it comes to design and the “educative game” part. A general feedback we got for the engineer part was that we need to start putting the different elements (of the different sectors) together to make sure that pEggy will be able to run smoothly.

Of course, there were a whole lot of other valuable feedbacks (thanks a lot guys) we are eager to implement.

We are looking forward to talking to you guys soon.

All the best,

Team Fribourg

Hey everyone,

Sun is back, warm weather with it. But we have not time to enjoy it ! The all team is being busy to prepare the first milestone that comes on tuesday the 4th of april.

Ok maybe I lied about the not enjoying the sun, but still, we are very busy !

Keep in touch ! see you next week !

Team Fribourg.

Hi dear CHIC community,

After a two week absence I was happy to get back to our team. I was impressed to see how our group advanced and I had clearly some catch up to do.

This week was all about our first milestone which will take place on 4^th of April. We discussed together our goals for each branch and at which point there are overlaps. We want to make sure that for the parts were two branches will work together, no (or at least few) misunderstandings can take place. This needs of course a lot of communication skills as well as teamwork to get there. There is still a lot of work to do to make sure that the right components will be used so that our engineers can go all out with their ideas

However, I am pleased to tell that our product slowly begins to take shape and we are looking forward to keeping you guys updated.

All the best to all the team

Team Friboug

Hey everyone!

Team Fribourg here – Where the ideation process is still in a way in progress. We know what we want, but the technical details are still a bit up for discussion. With the help of risk analysis, we settled on two possible solutions for the moment.
I won’t bore you with too many details, but the alternatives for the moment are: No batteries, all mechanical (unlikely) or rechargeable batteries with electrical motors (far more likely).

We will settle on one of these possibilities during the meeting this week. We’ll keep you updated!

Have a nice week!

-Gion