UC design students develop prototypes to alleviate the physical effort of agricultural workers
In order to facilitate the physical work carried out daily by those who work in the field and thus improve their quality of life, the Foundation for Agrarian Innovation (FIA) together with the Faculty of Design of the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC) joined to work on contributing to generate solutions to this problem.
Students of third year of design, of that house of studies, worked in different prototypes to alleviate the agricultural work of the farmers of the country, having as fundamental premise to address the physical effort that they make, delivering solutions from the strategic design environment , being able to generate a solution from innovation, but taking into account the view from the user.
For the Director of the FIA, Álvaro Eyzaguirre, the initiative seeks to solve daily problems faced by national producers, which are significantly detrimental to their physical condition. In the same sense, the Academic Deputy Director of the School of Design PUC, Andrés Villela described the alliance with FIA as a very interesting instance, “since it has allowed us to leave our comfort zone of the classroom and empathize with the world agriculture, know its reality and interpret its needs and from that create solutions ”.
“FIA helped us get closer to the farmers, the students saw real problems and they are also seeing that design can contribute to agriculture,” said Samanta Zeppelin, a professor at the PUC School of Design.
Projects presented:
In total, 6 initiatives were presented, related to different areas of the national agricultural sector. Among them are:
B- SLIDE or 2.0 Beehives: Sofía López, a third-year student of PUC design, - who along with her group developed a redesign of the hives, to optimize the physical effort of beekeepers - said that “with our design the bees are less stressed, because they do not get so much light, it is not necessary to apply so much smoke and the bees are quieter. We work with the traditional model, which are three increases that are ideal for the ergonomic position of the beekeeper and thus the worker's spine is not harmed and simplifies the maneuvers of transfer of the hives ”.
AgroCinta or Biodegradable Tape: Valentina Carrasco, a third year student of PUC design, - who developed a biodegradable tape, which would help optimize the direct sowing of the producers -, specified that with the designed product the farmer totally changes the posture, doing the work of planting in a way upright “Because currently the transplanting of seedlings is done in a very curved posture, because the farmers cannot do it in another position and they are all day with an incorrect posture. Our product, Agrocinta changes this position and all you have to do is drag it through the grooves and change the rolls every two ridges. ”
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