Iteration and Communication During the Development of a Smartphone Endoscope Adapter

Abstract

A smartphone endoscope adapter was developed by students for Health PEI to reduce the impact of the limited access to healthcare in rural communities. The adapter allows doctors to connect their smartphones to endoscopes to record procedures, which can aid practitioners in remote diagnosis, record keeping, and follow-up appointments. This article contains a case study of the eight-month service-learning experience to offer insights from two students and their instructor in the second-year engineering design course. The design process, communication, and iteration are outlined in the case study. Throughout the experience, twelve CAD models and seven physical prototypes were developed, and the students continued to iterate and test the device after the academic year ended, demonstrating their devotion to the project. The involvement of the community partner influenced the quality of the design, the motivation of students, the timeline, and the number of iterations. Also, the students’ desire to positively impact a community by providing access to technology was a motivating factor throughout the project, which aligns with the intentions of a service-learning project. A discussion on the impact of reflection and iteration is offered and recommendations are provided for instructors, students, and community partners to optimize service-learning experiences.