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The matboard bridge was an excellent example that shows my improvement in diverging and converging into a solution. As a group, I assisted in brainstorming several ideas for the bridge design. After coming up with three different divergent solutions, our group was able to converge on a solution. We selected our approach by comparing the loads of each bridge and also by comparing the constructability of each bridge by using the number of pieces that would need to be glued together. We ended up selecting an approach that was able to bear the most load while also being the easiest to construct. Several low fidelidy prototypes were created, as shown in figure #1. The height for this bridge was too low, and as result it was not able to bear a sufficient amount of load, so we ended up increasing the height by almost double, which is shown in our finished design in figure #2. The fact that different designs were each generated and considered, then compared against each other design using our criteria shows that over the semester I was able to grow in my weakness to create divergent solutions. The finalized design, which held 971N (above the total weight held) my strenghts in refining and completeing the chosen design.

Matboard Bridge

Figure #1: Cross section of low fidelidy prototype of one of the divergent solutions. As a result of calculations, the height was found to be too low at 60mm

Figure #2: Cross section of final design chosen by selecting approach among divergent solutions.

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