Welcome to the Project Playtime blog! This biweekly installation will include details on teams from all over the globe participating in Project Playtime. We will share their stories of trials and triumphs as well as many impressive philanthropic innovations. To kick things off let's start with a bit of background information about the initiative, specifics on the structure of local, organizing, and core teams, and an overview of the timeline.
What Is Project Playtime?
Project Playtime is an Analog Devices (ADI) initiative sponsored by the Young Professionals Network (YPN). Project Playtime’s goal is to aid teams throughout ADI global sites in creating assistive recreational toys for children or teens with disabilities. Local teams address challenges facing disabled individuals by developing open-source prototypes in partnership with local institutions. These prototypes use ADI technology. The hope is that solutions will be simple, high quality, and add value to local communities. At its core, Project Playtime is a philanthropic initiative designed to promote networking, leadership, innovation, and corporate social responsibility.
Who Is Participating?
Project Playtime consists of 11 Local Teams at 8 ADI campuses throughout 5 countries. ADI employees of all backgrounds, ages, job roles, engineering experience, and seniority were encouraged to participate. The Local Teams are responsible for partnering with a nonprofit or other organization that helps disabled youth, identifying a challenge facing that institution’s target demographic, prototyping and demoing a solution, and documenting their experience along the way. They are the heart and soul of the initiative. Check out future blog posts for more information about Local Teams and their projects!
The Local Teams were chosen through various kick off events and workshops. These events were organized by a team of young professionals at each campus, who stepped up to manage the local implementation of Project Playtime. They serve as a point of contact between the core team in Massachusetts and the local teams, organize any events and support the local teams along the way. More details about these Local Organizing Teams to come in future blog posts.
Finally, the Core Team is a group of young professionals who initiated the concept for Project Playtime, developed the project framework and now work to support and co-ordinate the Local Organizers.
| Core Team members left to right: Anna Peterson (Communications), Brock Bearss (Prototyping Framework), Jamie Nicolas (Kick-Off Event Framework), Derrick Hartmann (Project Manager), Samantha Fontaine (Project manager), Henry Gagne (Finance), Courtney Harris (International Coordination), Russell Tobias (Prototyping Framework), Brant Hoffman (front) (International Coordination, Project Framework) |
How Are the Local Teams Progressing?
Local teams are working with a November 2018 to June 2019 timeline to complete the development of an assistive recreational device for their partner organization. The initiative is broken into three main phases. During Stage 1: Project Start from November to December, the local teams formed, partnered with an institution, and held kick-off events. Currently, teams are engaged in Stage 2: Prototyping from January to April. Teams have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with their partner organizations and are working on their first prototypes. In the coming months, groups will iterate with their partner to arrive at an optimal prototype solution. Finally, Stage 3: Completion from May to June will consist of safety reviews, quantity builds, closing events with partners, and ultimately teams will freely publish their designs as open source documentation so others can use their work.
Above is a concept drawing for ADiMax. ADiMax is an idea created by a local team in Cavite that will assist children in learning fine motor skills.
Coming Soon!
Stay tuned for another update in March featuring a closer look at Local Teams, Local Organizing Teams, progress reports, and an overview of successes and challenges so far!
Questions or comments? Please feel free to comment on this blog with your suggestions or questions. You may also email Project Playtime Communications Lead Anna Peterson for more information.
