Design Portforlio

by Chacha Durazo

www.chachadurazo.com
chacha@chachadurazo.com

2.009

Our product measures the temperature of

horse ankles as the horse trains to help prevent injury. As each leg sufficiently warms up,
that information is wirelessly transmitted to
the rider.
As System Integrator for my team of 20 students, I learned the importance of
well-planned projects, daily agendas, and how
to ensure everyone is being heard while working in a team. As a member of this class, I
learned the various phases of product development from ideation to testing and manufacturing to final pitch delivery and product presentation.
Specific problems we faced were: how to protect the electronics from the high impact kicks
from a horse as it wears our boot product, how
to wirelessly communicate the information on
the boot to the wrist device the rider wears,
and how to make our product aesthetically
pleasing such that a rider would actually use
EquiTemp (now known as PegaSense).

Alert Device!

Boot!

Charging Dock!

2.009

As previously mentioned, one of our biggest concerns

was protecting the electronics in the boot from water
damage, the accidental kick by a horse, etc. We found
that insulating the pieces in a plastic mixture and then
sewing them into the lining of the boot with the thermistors on the outside to read temperature, worked perfectly.

2.009

The wrist device is worn by the rider and vibrates while flashing green when the corresponding leg of
the horse is sufficiently warmed. It also charges at the same station as the boot and can connect to the
riders computer for data transfer.

2.009

I helped with the design and manufacturing of the

charging station. We wanted to achieve a look that
would be natural for a stable setting. Here is where
one plugs in the boot device to charge after use.

The next five slides (through DLAB) are projects I did for school and/or research; the last five are projects I have done for fun. More pictures, videos,
and information can be found on my website: www.chachadurazo.com

2.12 Intro to Robotics

The theme my year was gymnastics. I helped design the

form of our floor robot. One specific challenge we
needed to consider was it needed to be able to roll forward and then back, so center of gravity was key. A
video of it is on my website.

2.744 Product Design

This graduate product design class honed my artistic skills

such as being able to convey my thoughts via visual media as
well as other skills relevant to user-centric design. The theme
was to create a game appropriate for all ages that could be
easily scaled in difficulty and reset without human interaction. A
video is on my website.

Furniture Design

test form 1.0

test form 2.0

This was my first time working exclusively with

wood. In addition to becoming comfortable with
wood-working tools and knowledge, I also learned
the importance of creating good test forms (my
initial idea of how to bend the wood resulted in
excessive stress causing fractures, form 2.0 had no
fractures).

fracture

2.007 Intro to Design and Manufacturing

My first class ever working in a machine shop. I

loved learning how to use all the machines,
think through the design process, and end up
with a (albeit amateur) robot in the end. In the
beginning of the course we made motors to
then compete for highest RPM. I took second
place in the competition. I then helped mentor
the class for two years after.

D-Lab Health

The summer of 2011 I worked at MITs Dlab

on two medical devices targeted for the developing world. Pictured is the solar autoclave
which focused sunlight to create steam to sterilize dirty medical instruments. Key challenges
were, as with any product for the developing
world, to keep it locally fixable and affordable.

Brothers Wedding Present

This is a laser-engraved sitting mat I made

for my brother's wedding present. He and his
wife live in a small studio in NYC and like
sitting on pillows. I thought a storable furniture item that took up little space would be
useful. Incorporated are three biblical quotes
from the readings at their wedding.

Project dx/dt & Its On Us, MIT

Its on you. Its on me.

Its on US, MIT.
To stop sexual assault at MIT
Learn, Think, Act, Support
@

Lobby 10 on Nov 12-14

#itsonusmit

itsonus.mit.edu

facebook.com/itsonusmit

Spring of my junior year I co-produced a

documentary (project dx/dt) about how
sexual assault has affected the lives of MIT
students. From that, I was asked to design
another awareness program my senior year.
Most recently, I helped design a campus-wide kick-off for the White House campaign Its On Us--helped generate the logo,
write the pledge, produce the short film,
physically manufacture the giant wooden
US.

Spoof Movie Posters

LUCILLE HOSFORD

CHACHA DURAZO

SHE SAID

YES

BRUCE WILLIS

MOTHER SUPERIOR

OLD HABITS

DIE HARD

See you in
the afterlife.

THIS CHRISTMAS
DURAZO PICTURES PRESENTS A BRILLIANT PRODUCTION STARRING BRUCE WILLIS MOTHER SUPERIOR WITH GUEST APPEARANCE
THAT BADASS NUN YOU ALWAYS SUSPECTED OF SECRETLY KICKING OUT THE MAFIA FROM YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD

YIPPEE
JANUARY 2015

KI-YAY

AT AN APARTMENT NEAR YOU

DURAZO PICTURES AND HOSFORD ENTERTAINMENT PRESENT A BRILLIANT PRODUCTION STARRING LUCILLE HOSFORD CHACHA
DURAZO GUEST APPEARANCE TERESA HO MARY STENBECK MAUREEN HOSFORD WHOMEVER ELSE VISITS

Recently I got Adobe Illustrator and decided to try my hand at some graphic design
fun projects. Here are a couple examples.
A good friend agreed to be my roommate
and a funny Catholic-spin on a common
saying.

MOTHER
SUPERIOR

Brothers Wedding Cake

My mother and I designed my

brothers wedding cake. They
requested a dulce de leche,
banana, and whipped cream
layered naked cake. Challenges
we faced: melting whipped
cream in a Boston summer,
browning bananas when cut too
far in advance, and oozing
dulce de leche sending top
layers sliding off. All worked
out, but with much planning!

Audcha: English Algorithmic Language Game

'e! 'ov as ni? Mew ew ugk'ha. Ya shokh k'hotothar. ttlredn ya edro EGSH vouthg z
gteweod ni vouthgdr sensr. Zye!

Translation: Hi! How are you? This is Audcha. I love chocolate.

Accepting me into IDM would be a decision you wouldnt regret.
Bye!
For fun, in high school, a friend and I created our own "language" though technically it's an
English algorithmic language game. I really like foreign languages (I've studied: Spanish, Italian, Chinese, and French in the past, and concentrated in Chinese at MIT) so this was a fun
weekend project for us.