Tengo

Hello everyone!

With feelings of joy, tiredness and fulfillment our journey in China ended a few days ago.
The moments passed together are now memories, but so many of those have become learnings that will be useful sometime in the future.

We will see what the future spares for us.
For the moment we will enjoy some well deserved rest and dream of a day that Tengo will reach the beaches of Hong Kong.

Hugs,
Team Vukovi

Hey everyone,

We arrived the 20th in HK and started experiencing the pace at which this city goes.

Buildings are tall, roads are narrow and taxis go fat. In this there are the people, which to our experience are really friendly and willing to help.

At the same time it is an intense period in the history in HK. There is a lot of unrest, on both sides of the spectrum. We can only observe, talk and try to understand this very complex situation.

We will keep you updated.

Hugs,

Team Vukovi

Hey everyone,

MS7 done, and we managed to finish the prototype. We were a bit suspicious if we would have been able to do it, but in the end we made it!

We leave with lovely memories and interesting insights on the Shenzhen ecosystem.

Now it is time for Hong Kong, stay tuned!

Hugs,

Team Vukovi

Hey everyone!

When knowing who to ask, so many things are doable in Shenzhen!

This morning together, Tomas and Ethan found a place at 10:00 where to weld the hinges to the box and repair a couple of details. By 12:00 it was done

The same day we wanted to do powder coating. Even though it looked impossible we managed to get the contact of a company thanks to Vivi’s help at 14:00. At 16:00 Tomas was at the Shanjing metro station to be picked up by their car. At 19:00, after 3 hours of discussion, drinking tea and more and more people coming in the office to discuss and trying to understand what to do we came to an understanding! At 20:00 I was at a seafood restaurant with Teddy, the boss, and his family. They are really nice people 🙂 Tomorrow at 16:00 they will have the prototype powder coated.

What a day.

Soon, Tengo might appear in Shenzhen 😉

Everything can happen in this city, so stay tuned!

Hugs,

Team Vukovi

Hey everyone!

Today we really experienced the «Shenzhen speed».
Having finished the final mechanical drawings in the wee hours of the morning, we were late; but this city allowed us to catch up. In the morning we contacted 15 suppliers, by noon we were in a car to a factory, by 20 we had all our metal parts. All bent and riveted!

Tomorrow we can finish welding the door to the hinges, and finish details of the mechanical assembly.

Want to hear more stories of the most dynamic city in the world?

Stay tuned!

Hugs,
Team Vukovi

The amazing thing of Shenzhen is the quantity of suppliers present in one city. From LED, to PCB and injected plastic here you can find everything.

Yesterday we revisited again Huaqianbei, the electronic market district.
We bought different parts for our product and already started exploring solar panels.
We also took the opportunity to do some personal shopping 😉

Today half of the team is attending a workshop on business and design, while Vuk amd Antoni continue to finalise the PCB, that should be implementable by the start of the week. Tomas visited the TopTech group, making injection molding: very interesting visit!

Everyday ia a surprise in this dynamic city.

Want to hear more? Stay tuned 😉

Hugs,
Team Vukovi

Hello everyone!

Between skyscrapers and construction sites, we are now at x.factory, a maker space in Shenzhen.

What better place to prototype our product than the most rapidly growing city in the world?

In addition to our prototype, we are also working on our pitches, with all the media necessary for it. Tomorrow we start big with pitching at HAX!

Want to hear how it goes?

Stay tuned 😉

Hugs,

Team Vukovi

Hello everyone!

Wednesday we had our milestone, were we presented our prototype. Still some things to slightly improve, but we are close to a final functional prototype!

We have our landing page and one pager ready, now we have to develop our China strategy to present our product in Shenzen.

June will be a very busy month for all our members as exams are coming up, so don’t worry if you don’t hear from us for a little while.

Hugs,

Team Vukovi

Hello everyone!

one mini step on a green board, a great step step for our product. Today we assembled the PCB, which later this week will be tested!

Great news also on the business front: we have very encouraging signals of the need of our product in parks 🙂

All this as we are getting closer to MS5, the excitement is rising.

Stay tuned!

Hugs,

Team Vukovi

Hello everybody!

Yesterday Vuk, Tomas and Ethan assembled at Ethan’s place to share thoughts and sketches on the design of our product. To note also the presence  of Alex, member of last years FLUID Team), who sometimes joins our meetings and can judge ideas from an external perspective.

We have a good direction, there are still some details to figure out to allow the presence of electronics without disturbing the design.

An important added value of our product will be the modularity, we will be able to adapt the numbers and shape of boxes to the context the product will be, for this we found and elegant solution.

Want to know more?

Stay tuned!

Hugs,

Team Vukovi

Hello everyone!

Yes, you read the title well, our PCB has been ordered! For this, we thank Vuk for having worked really a lot to make the design of it in a very short time.

The others have been working too. Antoni has been working on the backend of our WebApp while Antoine is starting to do the HTML templates. Antoine has also nearly finished with the Logo!

On the design of the object we have advanced too, and soon we will have the design for the MS5 prototype by Ethan.

Want to hear more?

Stay tuned then!

Hugs,

Team Vukovi

Hello everyone!

Nice to be back talking to you 🙂

A couple of weeks ago we stumbled upon the “budget participatif” of City of Lausanne. From the very start we realized that our project fits perfectly within the scope of this program. In the last week we have been concentrating producing the documentation required to apply to it. Who knows, with some luck we might win 😉

Also we have good news: we HAVE a name 😉 We will keep you posted and make it public very soon!

Stay updated!

Hugs,

Team Vukovi

Hello everyone,

Last Thursday we had our fourth milestone during which we present the new direction for the final project.

We had great feedback from the CHIC community and what we can say is that we have a lot of work in front of us. However, this is something that we knew, when we decided to pivot, and we are prepared for the next steps.

For now, all the team is on vacation and we will devote this time to focus on CHIC.

Hugs,

Team Vukovi.

Hello everyone,

So, this Friday, we had the MS3 and the feedback that go with it bought a lot of doubt on the clarity of the scenario. It seems that we have not totally define the context in which we want our “vitrine” to exist.

We took into account every concern from the CHIC community and we are now more motivate than ever to face the next steps of the project.

On a more positive note, after the MS3 we had the photoshoot of the team at ECAL. The photos were taken in a very professional environment by a ECAL student:  Noé Cotter. We all enjoy the experience and it also was a way to bring the team closer.

Hugs,

Team Vukovi

Hello everyone!

MS3 is in a few days and decisions have to be done! Thankfully we have tea to calm us down and keep the mood up to keep going!

In the last week, we finalised the customer journey, which has brought to a decision on the features we will work on this semester. Components have been bought and negotiations have started also with a Chinese screen manufacturer.

At the same time tea has accompanied our prototyping. We have a first turning engine. Even if it is small this is a technical proof of concept from which we can develop a bigger one that could turn a platform with exposed products. Not only an engine though. We also have prototyped the first box with a proximity sensor that controls a LED. This will be used in our product to catch the customers attention to our vitrine.

Do you want to see our prototypes? You will have to wait for the MS3 blog-post 😉

Stay tuned!

Hugs,

Team Vukovi

Hello everyone!

Business models can be quite hard. If your business is not a classic B2C and includes several actors, including some institutional ones, everything becomes much more complicated

In a call to the city of Geneva Tomas discovered that they do not allow any installation for commercial purposes. This leads to a possible reorientation of the target for the vitrine. We will explore how to bring value to events or festivals who want to have our vitrine.

For the technical side, Antoni started working on controlling a motor with a microprocessor. This will be used for turning the object exposed in the vitrine. Our designers have also been taking care of technical aspects starting to prototype a LED controlled by a proximity sensor.

For this week we plan to continue the prototyping: Tomas and Ethan will get together to discuss the materials we will use and how to manufacture our product, while Antoni and Vuk will finish working on the motor.

Full of interesting things happening, stay tuned to hear more!

Hugs,

Team Vukovi

Hello everyone !

Sorry we are a little late with the blogpost this week, but this is because we are spending a lot of time trying to define what would be our final product.

In this week meeting we agreed on what would be our 1^st prototype and what features it would have. So, each member as a lot to work on this week, and we are looking forward to present to you what will be the first step in the long way towards our final product.

Hugs,

Team Vukovi

Hello everyone!

The semester has started, students fill the rooms and Team Vukovi thinks: how to fill our booth?

Tomas went to Geneva and had some very interesting conversations with local craftspeople, giving them hints on other people we should target: small shops with bad locations.

Antoni and Vuk have been busy thinking all of the electronic components we need to order. Still a bit to go but by next week the list should be complete.

Alicia has been in contact with the city of Lausanne with which we will continue to have contact with. At ECAL Ethan has started thinking how to prototype while Antoine has made research on e-ink screen that we could put in our booth to give a discrete but customizable description of the exposed products.

Pretty good week I would say.

Want to know more: then stay tuned and see you soon!

Hugs,

Team Vukovi

Hello everyone,

This week-end we had the lift off week-end for our project.

It started with the MS2 that allowed us to get very interesting feedback from all the CHIC community, and it really helped us to get a better understanding of what was missing in our vision and it allow us to redefine our project.

The rest of the week-end was also very useful as we receive many advices on numerous important aspects common for all the projects: design, data, business, hardware, software, …

We also got the opportunity to discuss with John Fass about the relation between data and ethics.

Finally, we define this weekend the MVP and we are now ready to start prototyping and testing our product on real scenarios.

Hugs,

Team Vukovi

Hey everyone!

Assumptions are made to be put to the test. Some pass it, but many fail. This week in an interview with some grandmothers from Ticino an assumption was dropped. These grandmothers do not want to sell their work, it is simply not worth it. They prefer a hundred times to give things as presents to dear ones.

Interviews and discussions are great though because ideas pop up leading in a direction that one did not even know existed before. One discussion brought us to what is our next hint

“You see it, and it wants to hear your opinion”

We wish a wonderful Sunday!

Hugs,

Team Vukovi

Hey everyone,

This week team Vukovi is on holidays but we are not forgetting about CHIC as we are all looking to test the desirability of our product.

To do this each member of the team has to contact one craftsperson and two potential clients to get a feedback from them.

Then we will meet next week and debrief our findings and, of course, prepare the MS2.

This blogpost hint is: “it will make cohabit various craftsperson”.

Bests,

Team Vukovi

Hey everybody!

We have survived exams!!!

Now we can relax for a little while, and use the time for CHIC too. Fortunately, we have a plan.

After one of the best meetings since the beginning of the year (thanks reflexivity!), we came out with a list of tasks for each to do before the 12th of February when we will meet up again to prepare for the MS2.

The hint of the week: it allows to see potential customers their product in 3D.

Now we have to test how valuable it is!

Hugs,

Team Vukovi

Hi everyone,

This week was quite calm in terms of CHIC program because of our respective exams.

Nevertheless, we all started to collect the material we will need to make our firsts prototypes and we are looking forward putting in common the work of all the members.

The hint for this week is the picture 😉

Have a wonderful week!

Hugs,

Team Vukovi

Hey everybody!

What a week! Except for getting excited for the little snow that fell on Lausanne the team got together to decide on the final idea and work on the reflexivity papers.

We are happy to announce that we have reached a consensus for the product!

Curious what it is? Well, we do not want to spoil the surprise, so during the coming month, we will leave some hints. If somebody is able to guess we will buy you a box of chocolates and make you have a free trial of the product 😉

The hint for this week is: “more visibility”

Have a wonderful week!

Hugs,

Team Vukovi

Dear CHIC community,

We hope that you all had a great beginning of year!

For our part this week we had our first reunion of 2019.

This was quite hard to plan since we are all in the middle of our revision, but we managed to have it this Wednesday in a new place for most of the members, UNIL.

Not all of us where present and someone had to follow the meeting by skype, nevertheless we managed to have a productive meeting and to advance in the decision of the final project.

See you soon!

Team Vukovi

Hello everyone!

I hope that you had a lovely Christmas with your dear ones and are ready for the New Year eve party!

Our team is getting ready to celebrate all around Europe! Spread around France, Serbia, Catalonia and Switzerland we will enjoy the fireworks and look at the common sky at midnight to wish for a fantastic 2019.

This coming year will be an exciting one for all of us. Research, Prototyping, Pitching, China, Demo Days and lots of other things await us. We are really looking forward to all of this and the teachings and memories this experiences will give us.

I hope that you all will keep reading because the best is yet to come!

I wish you a 2019 full of satisfactions and adventures!

Team Vukovi

Dear CHIC community,

our team members have had a busy week with several assignments and exams.

The three engineers: Vuk, Tomas and Antoni have also started thinking about a research project related for their product in the scope of their Humanities course at EPFL. You will surely hear more about it at the start of the semester 🙂

Now it is time to relax for some days. Enjoy Christmas time with a warm tea, unpacking presents and laughing with our loved ones.

We wish you all a wonderful Christmas time!

All the best,

Team Vukovi

Dear CHIC community,

Last Monday was our first pitch in front of a real jury. No need to say that the questions were very different that the ones we are used to in an academic environment. In some of the cases we had no good responses since we are in the early stage of the project. However, next time we will be more than prepared 😉

We also got some very interesting feedbacks about our idea and after some studies of feasibility we unfortunately decided to drop it.

But good news, after a long brainstorm of the team we came up with two new ideas. This week we will explore both and finally choose one of them.

So, stay tuned for the big announcement of the final project, we will work on during one semester, next time!

We will keep you posted.

Team Vukovi

Dear CHIC community,
Another intensive week has passed.
Monday we had the ideation evening, where through quantitative brainstorming we came out with interesting ideas.
We spent also some time refining our opportunity space.
Vuk and Antoni met with the responsible Swiss recycling Romandie, and we learned that Swiss people are already too good at separating their waste. There is no need for a product tackling the separation.
Tomas interviewed Aurélien Jordan, a farmer of the Domaine du Gallien, with the intention of having more insights on food waste in transportation. From here we learned that actually there are very little problems of food waste in transportation in Switzerland. The distances are short and the climate is temperate.
Finding a real problem to solve seems really hard in a country as well organized as Switzerland…
Luckily we keep a curious mind and ask Mr Jordan where they encounter problems with food waste. The answer is that a lot of food needs to be sorted right after they pick it, and this process takes a lot of time. The sorting takes a lot of time because it is done by hand.
From this insight, our team started to develop a potential solution. This one we will present at MassChallenge on Monday.
Still work has to be done, especially to contact more farmers and people working in the field to understand their problem in a deeper way, but hopefully, we have found something where we can realistically help to improve the situation.
Continue to follow us to see how this mission goes!
Cheers,
Team Vukovi

Dear CHIC Community,

This week was very important for us since we had our first big step as a team: Milestone 1.

It was quite an intense (read, insane) week, and everyone worked very hard to finish the report and the presentation on time. After a big rehearsal at ECAL, we were finally ready to present our two opportunity spaces.

Happily, the presentation went well, we really appreciated that we could get some feedback, that we will definitively use to improve our next presentation.

The next big thing will be the ideation workshop in which our team will have to work twice as hard to explore the solutions of our two opportunity spaces: recycling and food waste during transportation.

Stay tuned!

Team Vukovi

Dear CHIC Community,

as others have already said, time is ticking.

Next week is already time to present our opportunity space and decisions have to be made.

During the last meeting we decided to drop to spaces that we were very keen on, food-waste in supermarkets and the relationship between heat and loss of productivity. Running interviews we discovered most food is already donated to charities and the latter opportunity was dropped due to the difficulty of finding a proper causation relation.

There are two survivors: food-waste in transportation and in-loco recycling. We will focus on the latter for the milestone as we have more insights on the subject. We have a plan on exploring the opportunity of food-waste in transportation, as it still intrigues us and want to have more data to have a decision grounded in observation.

Tick-Tock,

Got to run back to work!

See you for the next update!

Team Vukovi

P.S. From next week on you will discover the official font of Vukovi communication Ethan is explaining in the picture!

It’s friday night, it’s VUKOVI day, it’s cold, and Ethan welcomes us at home.

Up in his tower, the young man has got all the ingredients to treat us like we deserve after a hard week: avocados, tomatoes, sour cream, spicy minced beef with bacon in it, and fresh tortilla bread.

The hondurian tacos and the fine beers got us laughy and borderless.

It was time to react.

After a long and extremely broad research phase, we needed to get some real insight. We needed to realize what we were doing. We needed to use all this good energy to converge, to avoid wasting time on impossible subjects.

The process was fairly simple. Taking our opportunity paths and trying to see if this path ends somewhere or not.

The richness of the arguments we found on every subject was surprizing, and we all got along quite well.

Having a “spy scope” on a few ideas without even considering if they are realizable or not made the opportunity spaces much clearer.

We are looking forward to continue this brainstorm process on some serious ideas.

Mucho mucho sauce and mucho mucho love,

VUKOVI

Hi guys!

Conflict. Coordination. Communication.

These are only a few of the keywords of an intensive workshop on the topic of teamwork.

We set up the basis of our team culture and came up with a first draft of our team contract. This will follow and guide us throughout all the steps of our CHIC project.

We realized how different each members is: different values, working methods, habits etc. This though is not a reason for despair though. To the contrary we believe that putting value in our differences and communicating well will make us achieve even greater things.

So we have a team! What is the next step?

Opportunity space! We have three possible opportunity spaces (heat and productivity, reduction of electricity consumption and foodwaste) each of which will be explored by two people in the team.

Stay tuned to know more!

Lots of love

Team Vukovi

Our opportunity space is  energy footprints which results of a combination of several different spaces.

Data spaces.

• Pretending to be the target of your data collect can help you to gather different information.
• Electricty consumption.

Human space.

• Habits.

Physical space.

• Many ways to access information.
• Everything may become cultural (tour bel-air).

Hi!

For some reason, we’ve identified ourselves as Vukovi – a pack of good intentioned wolves.

Antoni, Tomas, Vuk. Engineers.

Antoine, Ethan. Designers.

Alicia. Economist.

This is the structure of our pack.

Currently, we’re exploring the opportunity space of regulating individuals and/or corporations’ energy consumption habits. How much energy do they actually use?

I guess we’ll see.

See you soon!