This month, our community spotlight features Samuel Pinches, a Chemical Engineering graduate who participated in our most recent Makeathon. For Sam, his passion lies in making and designing things in his spare time.

How did you hear about TOM: Melbourne and what made you join?

Where to start? I guess the easy way would be to say that I really love the satisfaction of solving tricky problems. I originally heard about TOM: Melbourne several years ago, while exploring various hackathons. I thought the mission sounded awesome – to help tackle a challenge in someone’s everyday life, so when I had the chance I signed up.

What was your role in the Makeathon? What was the challenge for your team?

For our Challenge, we worked closely with our Need-Knower, a young man named Brenton. Our team was tasked with finding a solution to help Brenton easily put on gloves – in particular, gardening gloves – by himself. My job on the team was in designing the final 3D models from our concept designs, and then running the 3D printer to see the solution come to life. I also helped to document our project, writing up the solution, and preparing a guide, so that others with the same kinds of challenges would more easily be able to replicate our work in the future.

How did you find the overall experience?

In the age of the “human malware”, I think everyone needs to be flexible and creative. Our team made great use of cloud collaboration tools to make progress even when our team couldn’t physically meet. I found the experience to be an awesome chance to make some new friends with all kinds of talented and skilled people, and I had great fun bringing my engineering background to a real world problem!

What are your top three learnings from the Makeathon experience?

My 3 biggest learnings include:
1) People really matter. Keep the people you’re trying to help in your central focus at all times.
2) Good communication is key for teamwork. If you want to harness the full potential of a team of smart people, keep the dialogue and conversation flowing.
3) Don’t underestimate the power of hot glue – or its power to burn you!

This month we’re putting the spotlight on Engineer and 2021 TOM: Melbourne Makeathon participant, Yow Wai Tham. Yow Wai graduated as a Mechanical Engineer and developed a career designing medical devices and automotive automatic transmissions.

How did you hear about TOM: Melbourne?

I first heard about TOM: Melbourne in my travels as an engineering student. I found them through their university campaigns and initiatives. TOM: Melbourne occupies the intersection of engineering and supporting the community – one which spoke deeply to me and I have not lost touch of them since! I’ve wanted to participate in the Makeathon since its inception in 2016.

What was your role in Team Brenton?

I started off as the Team Lead for Team Brenton and later decided to became a Maker given my mechanical design experience.

What was the challenge, and the solution in the end?

Our challenge as Team Brenton was to find a way to enable Brenton to independently put on a pair of gloves for use while gardening. We designed a 3D printed assistive device onto which somebody assisting Brenton could roll a glove. Brenton could then independently use the device to position his hand in the glove and pull the glove onto his hand himself. The benefits of this were twofold: he could gain independence during this activity and since it could then be done with minimal supervision, freed his carer to do other things at the same time.

How did you find the overall experience?

In a nutshell – rewarding! I’ve always wanted to use my skills in service of the community. Being able to see such a direct impact was incredibly rewarding and was truly a privilege. It was extremely heartening to see the sheer number of people (Makers and Need-Knowers) volunteering together in service of our community. I loved seeing the diverse skill sets, perspectives and ideas come out of such multi-disciplinary teams.

What are your top takeaways from your Makeathon experience?

There’s massive community support and TOM: Melbourne is a rallying banner under which people can collectively gather – I have learnt that this is a hugely important role to play in the community. I have a newfound respect for the power of grassroots/bottom up movements – especially with much more affordable and democratised engineering resources today. I would do this again and am excited for what TOM: Melbourne has in store for the future!

This month we’re putting the spotlight on George Chen, a Software Developer and 2019 Maker who participated in our regional Ballarat Makeathon.

How did you hear about the TOM: Melbourne Makeathon?

I first heard about TOM: Melbourne from my friends: “Would you like to do a hackathon where you can build some hardware?” Unlike many other software-focused hackathons, the projects from TOM: Melbourne usually required a solution which was more complex than just a piece of software – which I believed challenged my skill set and expertise. I also believed in the idea of “applying skills and knowledge to help people in need,” which aligns with the core value of TOM: Melbourne. So in the end, it was really a no-brainer for me to sign up.

What was your team’s challenge and how did you arrive at your solution?

The challenge given was how to improve the quality of life for a family with a 26-year old daughter, Natalie, with ASD. Natalie experiences anxiety if she doesn’t know what her tasks are for the day, so one of the key challenges the family faced was how to visualise Natalie’s daily schedule and make it easily accessible for her. She needed a solution that would constantly remind her of her tasks throughout the day.

Our team initially struggled to thoroughly understand the problem and the underlying issues. We didn’t want to build a solution that didn’t solve the real problem. Before the Makeathon, TOM: Melbourne organised a briefing session between our team and Natalie’s mum. After this meeting, we developed a few iterations of our prototype design and received very valuable feedback. This enabled our team to head in the right direction, and deliver the right outcome for Natalie and her family.

What was your experience like during the Makeathon and working with your Need-Knower?

It was a fantastic experience to work with the family in Team Natalie during the Makeathon. Spending two days with them gave us many insights into their day-to-day life, which helped our team tailor a bespoke solution to address their needs. Unlike other hackathons – where the participants were just given a topic or problem statement – TOM: Melbourne’s Makeathon provides a real opportunity to work with real people with unique needs. What was valuable was the opportunity to collect incremental feedback and enhance our design and solution over time.

At the end of the Makeathon, each member of our team received a mug from Natalie’s family as an appreciation gift. It was at that moment that I realised even two days of work could mean so much for others. It made me believe that our solutions will indeed go on to make a real difference to those in need.

This month we’re spotlighting Alicia Chong, a paediatric occupational therapist and Maker for Team Brenton. Discover more about how Alicia heard about TOM: Melbourne and her experience participating in the Makeathon.

How did you hear about the TOM: Melbourne Makeathon?

I’m a paediatric occupational therapist working in a specialist school for children with physical disabilities and complex health impairments. I heard about the Makeathon initiative through a colleague, who shared what the TOM program meant for many Need-Knowers across the state. I am very passionate about creating opportunities for individuals to access their environment and have control of the world around them, so this seemed like a fantastic initiative to be a part of.

What was Team Brenton’s challenge and how did you arrive at your solution?

I was lucky enough to be in a team that worked alongside the enthusiastic Brenton and his mother, Helen, to create an assistive device which allowed Brenton to put on gardening gloves independently. When I first heard of this challenge, I couldn’t believe that there was nothing currently in the market to support individuals with upper limb movement challenges to wear gloves.

My team and I explored a range of different options and decided to create an assistive device that could work with any existing glove on the market, rather than make modifications to a pair of gloves instead. This took many hours of trial and error, but with feedback from Brenton and Helen, and a wonderful team with a plethora of experience and knowledge, we got there!

What was your experience like during the Makeathon and working with your Need-Knower

Brenton truly is an inspiration with his passion for life. He has a determination and drive for independence. Team Brenton’s experience, knowledge and generosity with their time made this an unforgettable experience. Everyone brought a unique skill set to the team and supported and encouraged each other through the whole process, leading to a successful outcome for Brenton.

This month, we’re spotlighting TOM: Melbourne’s Education Programs Coordinator, Taylah Hill, as she shares her experience participating as a Need-Knower for Kaspar and his team of Makers.

What was your experience as a Need-Knower for Team Kaspar? What was your Team’s challenge, and the solution?

As well as working as TOM: Melbourne’s Education Programs Coordinator, I am a teacher for a government specialist school for students with a physical disability and/or complex health impairment. Kaspar is a student at this school, and his challenge – like that of many of his peers – was communicating independently within the classroom. Students like Kaspar generally have a PODD (Pragmatic Organisation Dynamic Display) book on the back of their wheelchair, which serves as their “voice” and how they communicate. The challenge was that Kaspar had no way of accessing it independently as it was stored on the back of his wheelchair. The Makeathon process enabled us to come to a final solution that was a PODD book stand, which connects to Kaspar’s wheelchair and allows him to access his “voice” at all times.

How did you find the overall Makeathon experience?

This is my very first Makeathon and it has been such a powerful experience. Team Kaspar were so supportive and dedicated so much time to create the prototype. It has been so amazing to work with such an incredible and talented team, who were so involved in creating something bespoke for Kaspar.

What would you say to people who are thinking of participating in the next Makeathon?

100% do it! The teams of Makers were so respectful and dedicated in building something to create positive change. It can be quite daunting for families to put themselves out there, but the support from the Maker teams was just incredible. Overall it was a wonderful experience. It has also been great to connect with professionals who are open and willing to share their ideas and suggestions!