Sebastian Prost and Simran Chopra from HCID attended the Device Prototyping Summer School at Lancaster University.  

Simran’s submission to the summer school was called “Guided Yoga Nidra: Somaesthetic Design for Deep Relaxation and Meditative States”. It proposed a Yoga Nidra mat, designed to enhance deep relaxation and meditative awareness through a multisensory experience. The mat uses Somaesthetic Design principles to engage a person’s senses more deeply and create focused relaxation through haptic feedback. The mat integrates guided audio narration, real-time breath and pulse monitoring, and targeted heat zones to support practitioners in achieving and maintaining the tranquil state characteristic of Yoga Nidra. 

Sebastian’s submission was called “Engaging Communities with Farming through Data-Driven Soil Stories”. It proposes a decentralised mesh network of distributed sensors and an internet-connected processing and story-generating hub. It would enable farmers to deploy their own soil sensor devices across the farm, connect them to the hub, which uses generative AI to turn sensor data into stories, and share these stories about their soil with others. The research-through-design project aims to investigate possibilities and limitations for farmers to engage in low-threshold physical prototyping and using soil data and generative AI for public engagement and advocacy. 

The summer school was focused on the gap between prototyping and large-scale production of electronic goods, addressing the long tail of hardware development. With the goal of making prototypes production-ready, sessions revolved around PCB design, printed circuit boards, KiCad, surface mount assembly and electronics manufacturing. There were talks from everyday prototypers and other people who have successfully launched hardware products, like the founders of Microbit and RaspberryPi. 

The summer school also offered cash prizes at the end to help support projects in their development journey. Sebastian won an award of £200 to buy prototyping material.