Month of Novemeber Blog Post
It is hard to believe it is already nearly December! As early as November 1st we placed our first order for technologies needed for testing. We had to have our testing plans complete and reviewed by Ms. White before the testing materials arrived so that we could get started testing right away as soon as they arrived. We are going to test motion sensors, infrared sensors, and potentially image processing technologies as well to see which technology will best serve our invention. We have also began to brainstorm ways fundraise for our trip to MIT in addition to our GoFundMe account. Based on the work, three leaders have emerged on our team. Jurnee Miller, who is already our team’s project manager has agreed to take on the role of Sustainability Lead as well, and Naomi Ray and Jalil Spearman have emerged as leaders in their technological areas. Jalil is spearheading GPS Integration and Naomi will be leading the charge on Infrared Sensing. As of now, our project description is still the same. We have not eliminated the possibility of this project description still being a feasible goal, or changed direction at all.
Progress During Last Month
Even though this month was cut a little short due to Thanksgiving break we pushed through and accomplished goals for the testing teams. We broke into teams to divide and conquer the task of getting each technology up and running independently. We have four different teams for the four different sensing technologies. Our testing groups were Infared, Motion, GPS, and Temperature these are also our the type of sensors we will be testing to see if they are feasible. Some challenges that we anticipated facing were having trouble with the sensors, and getting them to work the way we would like them to, and potentially having to re-order or try additional sensors of the same type if we couldn’t get the first of that group to work. We worked to overcome this, by calling for help from our expert partners as needed. In each group they all had the same goal, to make sure the sensor worked by getting it to interface with an Arduino. The Thermal Sensor team has started to put their pieces together by connecting the Arduino to the sensor they had, and after a few class periods they got the sensor to start functioning! Congratulations to the Thermal Sensor Team on accomplishing this milestone! On our Infrared (IR) Team were slowed by the fact that they ordered the IR sensor but not the connector cable. While awaiting the arrival of the male connector component, they are setting up the rest of the circuit using an arduino and breadboard based off the schematic they found when researching. The Motion Sensor Team was successful in getting the motion detector they selected to communicate with their laptop through an arduino! Congratulations to the Motion Sensing team on this first milestone as well! Now they will begin testing the sensitivity of the Motion sensor in an area similar to the size and shape of a vehicle. Their current plan is to use a remote control car as the moving object to be “sensed.” Lastly our GPS Team has learned how to solder! The chip they ordered was required soldering to work at all! They practiced a bit then soldered some connectors so that they could connect the GPS Chip to the arduino based on schematics found in their research.
Goals for the Upcoming Month
December is here already! As early as the end of the week we plan to have placed all of our orders for items needed for testing. We plan to have our technologies working individually so that we can get started collecting testing data. We are going to collect data from motion sensors, infrared sensors, and potentially image processing technologies as well to see which technology will best serve our invention. Of course, we anticipate challenges with getting the results we want, in an actual vehicle setting.
Teamwork
Our team has improved tremendously! We are all aware and focused every time we see each other, staying focused on our tasks at hand and assisting one another when we seek advice. We are also always eager to get our tasks and see what we can complete. We combine knowledge and experiment with ideas, to see what is and is not feasible. If we do come to a disagreement there is always someone on our team who is willing to give input to make sure all sides are heard and that we all are on one accord and have the same mutual respect for one another. And at the end of the day we all have one common goal; to reduce the loss of life caused by children and pets being left in hot cars.
