A rare Hope sighting!
After formulating an initial plan, growing as a team, exhibiting both success and failure, and prototyping, it finally came time to plan for our end of the year exhibition. Weeks have blown by, and as we’ve buckled down our ideas and research we realized that we may have actually done all of this too fast. We came to this realization when we arrived to class and were prompted to do a physical mapping exercise of the entirety of our project; simply put, we were blown away by how far we’ve come and how far we still had to go.
We were asked to map out the final six weeks, including our plans, our objectives, and everything we had to do in order to wrap this project up successfully. After we had finished this process, which was hectic to say the least, it was then time to delegate the remaining tasks evenly throughout the group members and create a timeline for when they should be completed.
Death by Post-its
Each group member had written roughly ten post-its notes which each detailed a different aspect of the project that still had to be finished. With over 60 post-it notes laid out on the table in front of us, which resembled a highlight-colored rainbow more than an actual strategic plan, a sense of hopelessness and defeat radiated between us. There was no doubt that we had come a long way from where we began, but there was also no doubt that we still had a long way to go.
Largely due to the overwhelming sense of optimism that has always permeated through our group, we began to pick each other up, gain some momentum, and start the process of planning for the road ahead.
Below is what we came up with:
Week 8:
- Get Tinkerbell (our drone) to fly
- Make sure all sensors are at 100%
Week 9 (Halloween):
- Think of extremely creative costumes
- Test all sensors once again
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Drew attempting to work with the foam core
Establish our final exhibition design
- Have the GPR on location
Week 10:
- Design the final connector
- Meet with the scientists at Raytheon and discuss any questions we still have
Week 11:
- Make sure the point cloud is done
- Present the drawings for our banners
- Once the drawing ideas have been accepted, develop and create all final banners
Week 12 (Thanksgiving):
- Turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing
- Prepare and present speeches on our project
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Lavs making a lot more progress than Drew with the foam core
Restate all of our progress and difficulties
Week 13:
- Complete a mock detection game to test the effectiveness of our drone
Week 14:
- Final exhibition time: have the best project, be the best group, take no prisoners, win.
Authors:
Hope Ucciardi & Patrick Murphy