Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

Connected Objects - Modular Shoe Design and New Manufacturing Methods: The Discovery, Evaluation andIteration of Smart Footwear through a Design-led inquiry incorporating innovative material productionprocesses.Utilizing both traditional subtractive methods and modern additive manufacturing processes, the goal of thisproject is to design and model a new type of custom, modular and adaptive footwear technology. This projectwill seek to discover the appropriate use for additive manufacturing and allied technologies in the design anddevelopment of a custom floating foot bed used in an innovative smart footwear application.The project team will work to develop and document core methodology for eco-friendly and scalablemanufacturing and assembly of the new footwear component. The over-arching goal is to realize a prototypecomponent-based footwear product with elements that can be readily upgraded or replaced. The team willexplore open-source manufacturing and innovative material assembly techniques and further evaluate theirapplicability to the footwear system.The team will begin by outlining key iterative criteria for the new design, building a project plan that willdefine several design pathways for developing the proposed components. They will then determine whichmachine and method are appropriate for manufacturing a given component, and produce the prototypes.