Connex is a scooter built to allow children to explore the world safely. It is created in recognition of the many modern youths (ages 9-12) who have access to phones at unprecedented rates, tempting them to stay inside instead of exploring the world around them. Scared by the news about crime and child abuse that seem to incessantly stream in, parents feel uneasy letting their children out of sight. This generation of helicopter parents is accustomed to leveraging technology to solve their problems, leading to a whole array of child tracking apps and devices available on the market.
Connex creates a way for parents to communicate with and track their children in a more transparent way through the medium of a popular children’s transportation: the scooter. We hope that the creation of Connex will give parents the assurance they need to allow their children to explore while encouraging them to only check in on their children when necessary. We also hope the design of the scooter as well as website will encourage valuable conversations between parents and their children about safety, anxiety, privacy and child monitoring in the modern era.
Current features include:
* GPS to track child's location during their trip on their scooter
* LEDs to relay information from parent to child
* Website for parents to access information about their child's trip and alert child to return home
Process Photos
The Team
To build Connex, our team was made up of four individuals. Conor Farese, an MBA student with a background in business design, was the product manager and responsible for user interviews. Carina Sauter, an Information Management graduate student, led our back-end and hardware development. Leeann Yi Hu, a 3rd year undergraduate Molecular and Cell Biology major, led our front-end development and directed the video. Yuting Zhan, a mechanical engineering graduate student, led the process to attach the electronics to the scooter.
