After making and installing a selfie stick for Michener last time, we met a new friend, Siyi. She is also a wheelchair user and has a long history with our school. Five years ago, she came to NYU Shanghai to attend an event. During this event, she expressed her wish to have a fixed selfie stick to allow her to record her life. However, due to limited technology and experience, the students at that time failed to make a useful shooting pole.

After absorbing the experience from the last time, we quickly completed the assembly and erection of the shooting pole. However, during testing, we discovered some problems. The main problem is the severe shaking. After making many improvements, we realized that this was not a problem that could be solved with our existing technology, because the severe shaking came from the vibration of the wheelchair itself. Siyi's wheelchair is different from Michener and Emma (our other co-designer) in that her wheelchair has very small front wheels and does not have any shock absorption function. The wheelchair's tires are of poor quality and are worn, and there are also some issues with the tire's braking. This causes the wheelchair to vibrate greatly when starting, accelerating, and braking. In addition, due to Siyi's own physiological problems, her limbs will move violently involuntarily, causing more vibrations to the wheelchair. The ideal solution is to install a mature gimbal to eliminate all vibrations. However, purchasing a gimbal is too expensive, and making one yourself requires too much work. We ultimately opted to reinforce the brackets further. To our surprise, although the phone was visually shaking heavily on the stand, the shaking in the final video was almost negligible. Therefore, we finally succeeded in getting Siyi to use the available bracket.

Siyi's mother said: "It's really great. Siyi is really happy. Because this is a dream she has always had. She has been thinking about it for several years and now it has finally come true." Siyi said: "Now I feel finally free. I can take pictures of my own experiences!” Their feedback made me feel very rewarded. I can’t say that we successfully realized other people’s dreams with our designs, but I’m glad that we were able to actually help them and improve their lives. Their smiles are what keeps us moving forward.

*Freddie Testing with Siyi