Visit to Adam Road Hawker Centre, Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Elderly flats at Holland

Adam Road Hawker Centre

Problems:

1. Slippery floor
2. Trays may be too heavy sometimes
3. Many leaves were falling near our food
4. There are some platformed grounds that people may not notice and fall because of them
5. After "choping" our seats/tables and going to buy food, we might lose track of where our seats/tables are as the hawker centre is quite big
6. There are drains near the stalls and while we are taking out our money to pay for food, coins may drop into the drains
7. There is a lack of storage space for hawkers
8. Hawkers have problems managing water conservation
9. The cooking takes too long sometimes

Ngee Ann Polytechnic

Nice innovations/inventions we found:

1. Geriatric chair

- used for feeding the elderly convenientlyThe front of a motorcycle for wheelchairs

2. The front part of a motorcycle for wheelchairs

- as people in wheelchairs must use their arms to push themselves around, it gets tiring

- this innovation helps them move around with a motor, thus they won't be tired out

3. Pill sorter

- helps elderly folk without good memory to take their medication by sorting the pills out and alerting them whenever it is time for their pills.

4. Hand exercise for patients

- for stroke patients whose fingers may curl up and be stuck to their palms permanently, complication medical issues

- it straightens and stretches their hands

5. Zero Energy Cooker

- uses green energy to cook food

- efficient solar energy collector: foldable

-environmentally friendly

6. Innovative oven

- cooks finger foods for students in just 6 min and dispenses them like a vending machine

7. Mover's trolley

- used to carry heavy items up staircases

- holds the items using an elastic band and the three wheels help to move up steps

8. Toy washing machine

- cleans bacteria from toys

- dries the toys quickly in the machine so children can get the toys back quickly

Holland Flats

good points:

1. There are handles along the corridors for elderly folk

2. There are ramps for wheelchairs

3. There are lifts on every floor

4. There are emergency sirens for elderly

problems:

1. There are no special equipment in the bathrooms for the elderly

2. The houses smell as there is no ventilation

3. Some old folks need help with taking their medication

4. During food distribution, the hanger sometimes drops off and there is nowhere to hang the packet of food

5. There are no washing machines for the elderly to use, so washing their clothes may be inconvenient for them

6. When the elderly mop the floor, they can have backaches if they bend down for too long, thus having to take frequent breaks.

Problem 7

There might be times when our alarm clock spoils in the middle of the night, and as we are depending on it to wake us up in the morning for school, we could end up waking up late and beng late for school. Thus, without having to use multiple alarm clocks just to make sure we are woken up, it would be convenient to have a way to fix this problem.

Problem 6

When we are in school and need to tie up our hair, there are times when our rubber band breaks and we do not have a spare one to use. It would be convenient for us to have something we can use to attach the ends of the broken rubber band back together.

Problem 5

When we want to use our earphones or earpieces, the cord may sometimes be very tangled and we have difficulty untangling it. I think that it would be nice to have an invention that could help us untangle the cord efficiently and swiftly.

Problem 4

When I am eating in the canteen or even at home, there would sometimes be flies around our food, and even after I've swatted them away with my hand, they still come back after a while. People naturally don't carry fly swatters with them everywhere they go to eat, hence I feel  like there should be some sort of device that can ward off flies and can be carried around conveniently.

Problem 3

In public transportations (e.g. bus, mrt), I found that there was no space for my bags. Therefore, I had to carry them on my lap, which was very uncomfortable, with limited space of movement. This especially affected those with heavy grocery bags and this caused them to rest the bags on the floor, which was not very clean.

Problem 2

When students pinning up their school badges and name tags, sometimes they would get pricked by the sharp point. My experience was that my friend had quite a lot of bleeding when the sharp point poked into her skin and this is not good. Hence, I felt that the badges should be changed, or else more students might have more injuries.

Problem 1

On vehicles such as buses, we often doze off to sleep. When we are sleeping, we would want something to lean on. The only thing we can lean on is the window. However, the window is hard and this is really uncomfortable. My own experience was very similar to this. The school bus takes more than 40 minutes to reach school and I usually pass this time by sleeping. The problem is, I kept banging my head on the window resulting in jolting up from sleep and a headache. I would really like to have something to lean on while sleeping.