A Visit to the Station

In order to better understand the constraints and deliverables of the project at hand it is important to constantly interact with your customer base to familiarize yourself with their wants and needs.

On Friday, February 20th, two of our members, Drew Scherer and Jordan Jalufka, as well as our team mentor Jan Masterson, went to Austin Fire Station #31 for a brief meeting with the firefighters to trade visions and demonstrate our initial prototype.

Drew demonstrated the "Ring" Prototype to Captain Mike Becker of AFD. Cpt. Becker praised our initial design for its simplicity, ease of use, well performing concept and durability, all things Cpt. Becker expressed as vital to firefighting equipment.

Captain Becker also gave us insight into a new design constraint. Mr. Becker informed us of a tactic for fighting raging fires by using windows and doors to control the ventilation and oxygen supply to the fire. Mr. Becker informed us that the design we decide on should not interfere with the door in that it wouldn't be able to close to the width of the hose.

Luckily, to his satisfaction our prototype met this requirement, and we will keep this deliverable in mind for the research and development of our other designs.