Arteries are the links that serve to orient us and enable access. They are important routes in a system that carries goods, people, and services across towns, cities, and countries. One of the main arteries of Milwaukee is Water Street, which follows the Milwaukee River. For the Senior Capstone project, we were tasked with looking at the past and present of the city, and use that knowledge to shape its future.
The Milwaukee River is an important artery, connecting the city with Lake Michigan. However, it's also very polluted, with pedestrians often throwing trash into the river itself. Because the city draws its drinking water from Lake Michigan, it became important to examine how to try to keep the river that directly connects to that water source clean as well.
Our group decided to create an interactive trash can with an anti-littering campaign around it that would encourage people to "'Be Good' to the River." We connected the campaign to various symbols of the river, including the story of Gertie, a duck who made the Wisconsin Avenue Bridge her home and stole the hearts of Milwaukee's citizens during the last months of World War II.
The group's members consisted of myself, Dion Robinson, Alicia Krukenberg, and Reem Alwahjeeh. Throughout the project, I became in charge of doing various administrative elements such as keeping the group on schedule, working on research and development, and creating mock ups of our products as they would be seen in the real world.
