Month of October Blog
Project Description Updates
We have made a mission statement, which is a combination of what we are going to do and how we are going to get it done. “Our device will mitigate the number of hot car deaths of children and pets. We will investigate and test a variety of technologies to integrate into a simple, reliable device with a three tiered alert system. First, a text alarm will be sent, next, a voice alarm for individuals in the vicinity will be activated, and finally a GPS location of the vehicle will be sent to authorities notifying them of the emergency.” We have memorized and recited our mission statement to make sure everyone on our team is familiar with it and fully understands what it is we want to accomplish.
Progress during last month
This month, we have accomplished a lot. After finding out that we were selected for the grant, we celebrated and started to divide our tasks within the group. We overcame some obstacles with trying to decided a name for our invention, because we have so many great minds thinking of great ideas, it’s a challenge to pick just one. We have grown to become proud of when we make breakthroughs on our journey. There are some unexpected moments when we have plan for the time we have together, but our time is spent doing something that isn’t as productive. We overcome obstacles by sharing out and getting the team involved so we have more brains thinking about how we can get past the struggles. We identified all of the products that we need to order for our first round of testing, so that we could place the first order as soon as the purchase card arrived. Additionally, we pared down our problem statement to something that we all agreed on. Finally we have all become intimately familiar with our own roles. We have written testing plans for the various sensors that we plan to test as well. We have not begun to spend just yet as we have awaited the arrival of our purchase card.
Goals for the upcoming Month
It is hard to believe it is already November! As early as November 1st we plan to place our first order for items needed for testing. We plan to have our testing plans complete and reviewed by Ms. White before the testing materials arrive so that we can get started testing right away as soon as they arrive. 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. A challenge that we could potentially face is having trouble with the sensors, and getting them to work the way we would like them to. We will work to overcome this, calling for help from our expert partners as needed.
Networking
Since we found out we were awarded the grant, we have gathered significant data from perspective clients. We each interviewed someone we know who either has young children or pets to gather feedback on our product. We have compiled the data into a poster that will be easily accessible and will help guide us in our design. We plan to be in touch with this clients throughout the process. Additionally, we recruited a Pediatrician (Dr. Nailor) to come in and explain to us in detail, the process of heat stroke that comes from being placed in a car. We learned a great deal from our conversation with her. Finally, Ms. White suggested we contact one of her contacts who works as a software engineer. He gave us many new considerations to think about. This is actually why we are looking at image processing as a potential technology now. In the upcoming month we plan to conference with a Veterinarian contact, and further invite an Electrical Engineer into the classroom to help us get started with testing.
Teamwork
Our team has been working marvelously together, not only do we get our task accomplished, we have also have a great time together. Since we’ve know each other for sometime we know what would be a great task for whom. There are always ways to improve and become better as a team, we should start by not talking over over each other to make sure all of our ideas are heard.
