Lafayette Journal and Courier

Students design future car seats
By Beth Stutsman

Stressful.

That was the general opinion of the students who participated in the "48 to Design" competition at Purdue University's Visual and Performing Arts building over the weekend.

Students had 48 hours to develop 25 different concepts for the future of children's car seats, which will be presented to Dorel Juvenile Group later today.

Five teams worked together from 6 p.m. Friday until 6 p.m. Sunday, getting little sleep. Each team had 11 members, mostly Purdue seniors, juniors, and sophomores majoring in industrial design, but also including students from Ohio State University and Notre Dame.

Purdue junior Colt Stander, on the yellow team, said his team got about eight hours of sleep during the 48-hour time period.

The yellow team had an especially hard task, not having a team leader and being short one member.

"We took responsibility among the 10 of us," Stander said. "The younger guys stepped up."

Their team leader was unable to participate because he is working on a car seat design for a competitor of Dorel.

Dorel owns Cosco and Safety First car seats.

But the stress was good, both students and associate professor Steve Visser of industrial design agreed.

"The reason for doing it in 48 hours is to prove to students they can do it quickly if they need to," Visser said. "In the real world, it has to be turned around quickly."

Stander is glad for the experience. "It makes us stand out among others in the job market," he said. "We're working with a legitimate company, and they're giving us feedback on our ideas."

The teams each came up with 25 different concepts. An idea for a bungee cord system to allow an older child to move around, but would stabilize him in an accident was one concept.

Another concept developed a car seat that pops out of its frame for easy mounting and dismounting. Another developed an emergency release to get the child out of the car seat quickly in case of an accident. And yet another designed a sleeping bag around the car seat to keep the child warm in the winter.

"It's hard to say what will catch the eye of Dorel," Visser said.

"You never know what's going to happen," Stander said. "Last year we had a product that will be produced this year."