Daily Pioneer News

(From left to right) Kathy Lomax of UWP Sponsored Programs; Brenda Dalecki, fifth grade teacher at Platteville Middle School; Nicole Kahl, UWP senior in art with an emphasis in graphic design; Bernie Harris, UWP professor of business administration-marketing; Greg Nelson, lecturer in fine arts; Takao Handa, NTT; Duane Ford, dean of the College of Business, Life Science and Agriculture; Yoshiharu Akiyama, NTT; Carol Sue Butts, UWP provost; Takashi Miwa, NTT; Jerry Johnson, director of UW-Stout Center for Innovation and Development; Michael Cropp, UW-Stout Center for Innovation and Development gather for a final meeting and reception.

PLATTEVILLE- Ozone is an air pollutant and health hazard. It is especially dangerous to children, older adults, asthmatics and people with other chronic respiratory ailments. Exposure to high ozone levels can result in chest pain, coughing, throat irritation and congestion.

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, a Japanese telecommunications company, has developed a way for individuals to efficiently monitor their ozone exposure. More than a year ago, NTT asked the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, for help designing a holder that would hold their ozone monitoring system and appeal to children.

NTT currently produces ozone monitoring badges for use by working adults in industrial and business settings. These are being sold in the United States. The badge is clipped onto a worker's clothing and is periodically checked to determine how much exposure to ozone the worker has had.

However, a badge designed for industrial settings is not apt to appeal to children, so NTT asked UWP to develop a holder that children would want to wear.

"When NTT proposed this project, I was immediately interested and excited. Projects of this type offer our students the opportunity to work with a real customer, in this case NTT; to address a set of very real challenges; and to produce a product of value to the customer. I immediately knew that this particular project would allow us to involve a variety of different students because it included design, prototype production, and market analysis. It also became quickly apparent that we could involve the Platteville Middle School, since we would need to find out from children themselves what sort of designs might appeal to them," said Duane Ford, dean of the UWP College of Business, Industry, Life Science and Agriculture.

Ford, acting as overall project manager, recruited Greg Nelson, lecturer in fine arts, and the students in his advanced graphic design studio to develop designs. He made arrangements with the Platteville Middle School to allow the design team and later the marketing team to obtain input from fifth grade students. He recruited Jerry Johnson, director of UW-Stout's Center for Innovation and Development to make prototypes. Finally, he recruited Bernie Harris, UWP professor of business administration-marketing and one of his senior students, Derek Dietmeier, to do the marketing analysis once the prototypes were available for review by the fifth graders.

The project began with Nelson and his students surveying fifth graders to obtain information regarding what children would attach to their backpacks or otherwise wear and what shapes, colors and other design elements might be considered "cool" by children of that age.

"We could tell that the students enjoyed the interaction with the university people judging from their excitement about being allowed to meet with them in the first place and then their body language when they returned to our rooms later," said Brenda Dalecki, fifth grade teacher at Platteville Middle School.

From that research and with input from the entire project team, a final design concept emerged for a keychain attached to a plastic penguin. The penguin's body would hold NTT's ozone monitoring system. The keychain would allow children to attach it to their backpack or elsewhere. Nicole Kahl, a senior in art with an emphasis in graphic design, was one of the students who worked on the design.

"There was pressure, but excitement, working towards something that may be out on the market someday. It's a real life scenario. We learned what you don't learn in the classroom," explained Kahl.

Johnson took the design and manufactured 25 prototypes. The CID is part of Wisconsin's Small Business Development Center network. CID specializes in the development of prototypes for entrepreneurs who can then use those prototypes for testing or for obtaining financing. Johnson sent the 25 prototypes to UWP and NTT for testing.

Dietmeier, under Harris' supervision, took 20 prototypes to the Platteville fifth graders to see what they thought of the design. According to Harris, the children liked the penguin design. Dietmeier also explored possible marketing approaches, packaging ideas, and colors.

While the prototypes were being tested with the fifth graders, NTT tested copies of the prototype to be sure that the holder met their technical standards. The prototype passed all NTT tests.

Dietmeier completed his part of the project by writing and presenting a marketing analysis for the completed holder. Harris appraised the value of the entire project for students.

"This adds a whole other dimension to education ... Something like this is an absolute life experience. The work has to be the absolute best. It's so far beyond class experience alone," said Harris.

On June 18, NTT came to UWP to discuss and celebrate the completed project. The project team presented the final results of their work and made additional suggestions to NTT about the next steps in marketing the product. NTT plans to develop the product for the Japanese market and will take the research done by the project team into account as they make their plans.

"We are very satisfied with the project. The market research is very useful and provided useful data for us," said Yoshiharu Akiyama, NTT senior research engineer and supervisor.

Anyone wanting more information about this project may contact Ford at (608) 342-1547 or fordd@uwplatt.edu.

Contact: Duane Ford, dean, College of Business, Industry, Life Science and Agriculture, (608) 342-1547, fordd@uwplatt.edu Prepared by: Krystle Kurdi, UWP Public Relations, (608) 342-1194, kurdik@uwplatt.edu