Wow. We honestly can’t believe this year is already over... How does time fly so fast when you’re having fun (and working non-stop)? This past year has been a wild ride of endless creation, non-stop learning, and incredible growth—both personally and professionally. An amazing year that was fully dedicated to the best project we could have ever asked for, Ripple, a project we poured our hearts and souls into. This week, we finally reached the big finish line: The Final Presen

This week we had our general rehearsal for the final presentation on the 22nd. For the first time, the product really felt ready. Everything worked as it should, which allowed us to demonstrate Ripple properly and explain both how it works and the value behind it. Throughout the event, people stopped by our booth, asked questions, and showed genuine interest. We explained Ripple’s main goal: helping teachers create new social connections naturally through shared interests and

This week was all about the small details that help bring a project to life. As we get closer to the final event, part of the team focused on completing the final shots for our project video. After spending months developing Ripple, it was exciting to create scenes that showcase not only the functionality of the product, but also the human interactions behind it. We worked on capturing more authentic and engaging moments with the finalized product, helping us tell the story o

This week we officially entered the final month before our final event which will be held on 22.6. It is exciting to be in the final stages of the program, and we are really looking forward to seeing how everything will connect beautifully towards the final evening. As part of our preparations, we presented our progress to the class this week and received valuable feedback from the lecturers on points we still need to refine, especially regarding our pitch and our final video

This week, we truly felt the project coming together as we head into the final stretch and our final presentation, especially after receiving a full breakdown of all the tasks we need to complete and organize before the end of the year. As part of our digital preparation, we launched an organized website that centralizes all of our blogs. We have also begun working on its design and thinking deeply about how and what we want to showcase during the final presentation evening.

This week, we had significant developments in all aspects of our project - from technology and prototyping, to the final video and research documentation. This week marked a major breakthrough in our physical product. After many design iterations, we finally reached a model where the buttons receive enough physical support and added a battery switch to improve usability. With a lot of help from our mentor, inbar, especially in soldering and assembling the prototypes, we succe

This week, we made progress in several different aspects of the project . On the technological side, we finally managed to get all the different parts working together smoothly after quite a few attempts, adjustments, and reconnecting everything more than once. With the help of Aviad and Inbar, we successfully soldered and connected all the components properly, and the product now looks and feels much more like a real working prototype (we attached before-and-after pictures )

This week’s class started with us presenting our progress regarding last week’s assignments. Our main point of emphasis was about our user testing, and the first impressions on the current product’s visual aspects. Although the feedback was mostly positive, our lecturers made sure we understand that their expectations for our next user testing to be focused on the product’s value, and not only on it’s visuals. As we moved on with our assignments, we were able to polish the p

On the technological side of the product, our main goal was to get it to actually work. Aviad 3D-printed the “wand” model for us, and we were immediately excited - and so were the kids we later interviewed. The real challenge began when we tried to integrate all the components together: fitting everything inside, keeping it stable, and making sure the buttons were both clickable and functional. In practice, every solution created a new problem - at first, components would shi

With the conclusion of the Passover break and the easing of guidelines, we have returned to full activity on campus. We are entering two critical weeks for the project’s continuation, during which we must make significant decisions that will impact the final outcome. We presented our progress to the faculty and held an open discussion regarding the technical challenges of the product. The meeting clarified our understanding that the original bracelet format may not be suitabl

The last two weeks of the Passover break were particularly intense as we continued creating and learning amidst the ongoing war under a remote learning format. Despite the distance, we achieved a significant milestone in refining the product and its characterization. Through precise work with Aviad, we focused the product’s use cases and the mood board, while diving deep into the components and interface visibility. We developed a dedicated application designed to simulate th

This week marked the beginning of Semester B, which unfortunately opened on Zoom due to the war. Despite the situation, we presented the work we had done over the semester break and felt excited to show our progress. We also began working with Aviad, the industrial designer, which is a very exciting step for us as we move into the design and development of the physical product. After spending a long time thinking through the concept itself and refining the scenario in the las

So what insights did we take from last semester? After the first semester, we realized that the story of our product was still not precise enough and that we needed more validation - both technological and user validation. During the semester break, we focused on refining the problem and the value of the product, building an MVP of the application, and running user validation iterations with both students and teachers. In our first iteration with students, we discovered that

This week, we delivered our end-of-semester presentation to the class and mentors. We put a lot of thought into the content of each slide to ensure our messages were as accurate as possible. The presentation provided many insights, but also raised several fundamental questions that we are now exploring: Is it worth sticking with the bracelet format, or would another item be more suitable? We need to define a clearer and more specific scenario for our product. Should we integr

This week we focused on validating our product and building our MVP. At this stage, we wanted to test one main question: does grouping people around a shared, simple trait actually create connection and conversation? To do this, we ran a small, hands-on simulation during a Runi Space club meeting with about 30 students. At the entrance, everyone was asked: “How do you like your coffee?” Each student chose one of four colorful stickers based on his answer and placed it on thei

This week was all about precision. Thanks to some invaluable feedback from our mentors, we managed to "zoom in" and fine-tune our product’s definition. We now have a much clearer picture of where we’re going, and we are geared up to start validation soon. We haven’t tested it with groups yet, but we’re counting down the days to see the live reactions. We also made a huge leap on the research front. We’ve officially started drafting the Introduction, and for the first time, th

On Sunday’s class, we took part in a speed mentoring session. We met with four different mentors, each coming from a slightly different perspective, but all of them were highly experienced in the world of product. We received a lot of sharp, valuable input regarding our direction. The feedback was mostly encouraging: there was a strong sense that the problem we chose to address is real, present, and genuinely felt in the field. At the same time, one central comment kept comin

This past week, we focused on gathering data and rethinking our product. We wanted to grow our knowledge base before diving into the solution, and talking to experts and students really helped us get a better handle on the problem we're trying to solve. During the Hanukkah break, we sat down with Noa to sharpen our product logic. We realized our solution needs to be hyper-focused on 7th graders. While our gut feeling initially pointed to a personal product, the feedback we re

This week, we continued refining the direction of our product. After mapping the user- product interaction timeline and improving our How Might We, we began narrowing down which concept we want to move forward with. Our first idea involved two Tamagotchi-like creatures assigned to two classroom groups, each competing through tasks. We soon realized that competition motivates individuals rather than strengthening group cohesion, so we shifted toward a collaborative model drive

This week, we officially entered the Ideation Phase: the stage where you imagine freely and look for creative solutions. The goal wasn’t to find the perfect idea immediately, but to generate as many as possible and let clarity come later. We started with a challenge: come up with 50 possible solutions in 20 minutes. It sounded almost impossible, but the pressure actually helped us stop overthinking and just flow. We didn’t exactly hit 50, but we definitely generated a ton. Af