Hello!
Today Electrical pretty much wrapped up all of our duties! In the morning Pawel and Dillon finished refining the servo code, I figured out how to light up the LEDs in time with the rockets, and Diddy completed the scripts to be read at the presentation. Unfortunately, Diddy had to leave for good at noon. He will be missed!
In the afternoon we all relocated to Northrop as Pawel helped to construct decorate the facade. Dillon and I worked more on our respective codes, and found that one of our large problems was due to wiring the LEDs backwards. That will not be a mistake we easily make again in the future.
Tomorrow we hope to attach the channels and LEDs to the facade and calibrate the code accordingly. Then we will be entirely done!
-The Electrical Team
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Electrical 7/30/2014
Hi all,
Today Electrical had a very busy and productive day. Kristi has finished the info posters that will started to be put around our game, and the designs were sent for printing. Diddy continues to work on the scripts, and is near completion. Kristi has started to work on the LED light strips, and has found out many routines in code to use. Pawel and Dillon worked on integrating the servo and Kinect, AND WE HAVE WON. Diddy and Pawel also have made a few changes to the channel in order to put less stress on the servo, and the parts to make it happen have been ordered and should arrive Monday.
Tomorrow, Dillon and Pawel will work to integrate the failsafe switch code with the servo-kinect code. Kristi and Diddy will continue to work on the lights. The background music will also be dealt with and hopefully finished tomorrow. It is still unclear whether we will be ble to add additional sound effects, and will work on it if time permits.
Signing off,
Your friendly neighborhood Electrical Team
Today Electrical had a very busy and productive day. Kristi has finished the info posters that will started to be put around our game, and the designs were sent for printing. Diddy continues to work on the scripts, and is near completion. Kristi has started to work on the LED light strips, and has found out many routines in code to use. Pawel and Dillon worked on integrating the servo and Kinect, AND WE HAVE WON. Diddy and Pawel also have made a few changes to the channel in order to put less stress on the servo, and the parts to make it happen have been ordered and should arrive Monday.
Tomorrow, Dillon and Pawel will work to integrate the failsafe switch code with the servo-kinect code. Kristi and Diddy will continue to work on the lights. The background music will also be dealt with and hopefully finished tomorrow. It is still unclear whether we will be ble to add additional sound effects, and will work on it if time permits.
Signing off,
Your friendly neighborhood Electrical Team
Software- 7/29/14 and 7/30/14
Yesterday we made the code still count point whether there are one or
two players present, and tried to get the game timer to continue until the game
is won. Today, we are working on interfacing with the Arduino and working on
the reset logic for the game. We also worked out the logistics of the
presentation at Northrop Grumman. Tomorrow we plan on starting to put the whole
system together.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Electrical 7/29/14
Hello!
Today was yet another mish-mash day as we ran from place to place trying to get work done.
In the morning, Scott Amore was kind enough to come and give us a presentation on how to test our requirements. He even wrote up a preliminary test matrix for us with what different testing procedures we might use and how to organize our matrix. Using this, it should be easy for us to keep track of how we are meeting requirements. Thanks Scott!
Then, the most exciting part of the day occurred when our parts came in! We all had a good time unwrapping the packages and looking over all the hardware; it was almost like Christmas.
In the afternoon we headed over to the Northrop Grumman facility to start assembling everything. Pawel and Diddy worked with mechanical to get our channels and pullies up and running while Dillon and I stayed behind in Tech Underground to continue working on the code and format the educational posters for our MSI presentation. Dillon got the switches to work, which was very exciting.
Tomorrow we will be back at Harper to continue on the same track. We hope to finish all our coding by Thursday!
-The Electrical Team
Today was yet another mish-mash day as we ran from place to place trying to get work done.
In the morning, Scott Amore was kind enough to come and give us a presentation on how to test our requirements. He even wrote up a preliminary test matrix for us with what different testing procedures we might use and how to organize our matrix. Using this, it should be easy for us to keep track of how we are meeting requirements. Thanks Scott!
Then, the most exciting part of the day occurred when our parts came in! We all had a good time unwrapping the packages and looking over all the hardware; it was almost like Christmas.
In the afternoon we headed over to the Northrop Grumman facility to start assembling everything. Pawel and Diddy worked with mechanical to get our channels and pullies up and running while Dillon and I stayed behind in Tech Underground to continue working on the code and format the educational posters for our MSI presentation. Dillon got the switches to work, which was very exciting.
Tomorrow we will be back at Harper to continue on the same track. We hope to finish all our coding by Thursday!
-The Electrical Team
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Electrical 7/24/14
Hello,
Today, Pawel and Dillon were the only people at Harper. Diddy left us to work with mechanical at the Northrop Grumman site.
Pawel and Dillon worked on interfacing with the Kinect. Dillon successfully developed a system for the fail safe button at the top and bottom of the channel. These buttons will reset the system after every playthrough and will signal the winning sequence. Pawel researched the sound files that we may possibly use and also worked with software and connecting the Kinect to the Arduino. In the morning, Diddy completed the concepts for the informational posters.
Next week will will receive our parts and assemble the track and the belt and pulley system. We will also work on the lights and audio.
Farewell,
Us
Today, Pawel and Dillon were the only people at Harper. Diddy left us to work with mechanical at the Northrop Grumman site.
Pawel and Dillon worked on interfacing with the Kinect. Dillon successfully developed a system for the fail safe button at the top and bottom of the channel. These buttons will reset the system after every playthrough and will signal the winning sequence. Pawel researched the sound files that we may possibly use and also worked with software and connecting the Kinect to the Arduino. In the morning, Diddy completed the concepts for the informational posters.
Next week will will receive our parts and assemble the track and the belt and pulley system. We will also work on the lights and audio.
Farewell,
Us
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Electrical 7/23/14
Hi all!
Work on getting sound for the project continues. We found a couple of tracks that we like, and have found some sound effects that could be useful. Music research will continue.
The facade decorations were discussed with mechanical. General layout was established.
New possibilities for the scientific concept of the project were discussed. We agreed that we can explain the levels of the atmosphere and explain a little about each on a separate poster that will be near the game.
Dillon worked on Arduino and has gotten buttons and servos to work together. We will be working on taking the signals from the Kinect and translating that into servo movement tomorrow. Work on a fail-safe button will also commence.
-Electrical
Work on getting sound for the project continues. We found a couple of tracks that we like, and have found some sound effects that could be useful. Music research will continue.
The facade decorations were discussed with mechanical. General layout was established.
New possibilities for the scientific concept of the project were discussed. We agreed that we can explain the levels of the atmosphere and explain a little about each on a separate poster that will be near the game.
Dillon worked on Arduino and has gotten buttons and servos to work together. We will be working on taking the signals from the Kinect and translating that into servo movement tomorrow. Work on a fail-safe button will also commence.
-Electrical
Software- 7/23/14
Today we changed the two colors for the two different teams to accommodate people with colorblindness. We also kept making changes to the code to make the game better. We took out the feature of your score showing on the screen so the only way a player can see their progress is through the rockets. We wanted to do that to emphasize the physical component. Tomorrow we plan to continue to change the code to make the game faster and more reliable.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Electrical 7/22/14
Hi!
It was CDR today so the morning was taken up in the kerfuffle of revising our presentation from last Thursday and adding in details. Dillon represented us during the presentation and was able to explain to Brian, our lead, the different components of the channels as well as our internal block diagram.
After CDR, electrical formed a sub-committee under the direction of Stacey to start working on how we are going to address the crowd at MSI during the Brain Games presentation. We got started writing the scripts for what we are going to say (shoutout to Diddy!) and picking music (a highpoint for Pawel).
Tomorrow we hope to crack the Arduino code!
-Electrical
It was CDR today so the morning was taken up in the kerfuffle of revising our presentation from last Thursday and adding in details. Dillon represented us during the presentation and was able to explain to Brian, our lead, the different components of the channels as well as our internal block diagram.
After CDR, electrical formed a sub-committee under the direction of Stacey to start working on how we are going to address the crowd at MSI during the Brain Games presentation. We got started writing the scripts for what we are going to say (shoutout to Diddy!) and picking music (a highpoint for Pawel).
Tomorrow we hope to crack the Arduino code!
-Electrical
Mechanical 7-22-14
This morning we finished preparing our presentation slides for CDR. We had a dry run and made sure our slides were easy to follow and understand. After we finally presented to our customer, we addressed all the questions and concerns the audience had. After lunch we worked on finalizing designs, considering alternatives, and updating the parts list. We need to start building this week, so we are planning to buy the material at Home Depot tomorrow morning and start building. Our goal is to finish building the corrals and purchase all other materials by then end of the week.
Software- 7/22/14
Today we had our CDR presentation. Afterward, we learned how to change the background of the game, change color of shapes to make sure people with colorblindness could differentiate
between the two colors, and made sure wheelchair users can play. We also found
out how to score based on color. Tomorrow, we plan to figure out how to send
the color-based scores to Arduino.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Electrical 7/17/2014
Hi!
The highpoint of everyone's day this morning was that electrical finished our drawings, parts lists, and assemblies!
This gave us time to assist our teammates as we all shuffled to finish the CAD drawings for the rest of the structure. It was a double job as we had to create drawings for two material options: one made of wood and one made of PVC piping. It was frustrating at times, but Dillon and Diddy in particular felt like the learned a lot about how to quickly assemble drawings and the right and wrong was to constrain parts.
We also made up the presentation slides for CDR. The entire slide deck was 41 slides! But it was helpful to see everything laid out.
After CDR, we were able to see some of our next steps for the coming week. We will have to order our parts and start interfacing with software team to get the actual code working!
We are looking forward to starting to code more, as we have been deep in the throes of AutoDesk Inventor and PowerPoint for the last few days.
-The Electrical Team
Software- 7/17/14
Today we changed the colors of people to be able to see them better against the background. We figured out how to only have two colors of shapes to be easier for the player. We also ran a practice run of CDR. Tuesday we plan to perfect communication with the Arduino, finish CDR, and try to have players earn color based points.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Electrical 7/16/2014
Hello!
Today the electrical team split up a little to get different jobs done.
Pawel has been hard at work for the past week working with our CAD drawings, and now it has come to fruition as he made the assembly drawings. They look great!
Dillon and Diddy spent the morning working on a circuit to make the decorative lights flash carnival style. Aaron Cohen was kind enough to come down to the Harper Facility today to assist us with some electrical questions. This was very good, as he informed us that using alternating current as we had planned could have blown us up if wrongly used. The more you know. In the afternoon, they flexed their CAD skills helping the Mechanical Team to start their part drawings.
I have been helping Stacey to prepare for CDR tomorrow. We wrote abstracts for the presentation, made risk analysis charts, and coordinated the three groups together to form a cohesive slideshow.
We are looking forward to share our progress with some Northrop Grumman representatives tomorrow during CDR!
-The Electrical Team
Today the electrical team split up a little to get different jobs done.
Pawel has been hard at work for the past week working with our CAD drawings, and now it has come to fruition as he made the assembly drawings. They look great!
Dillon and Diddy spent the morning working on a circuit to make the decorative lights flash carnival style. Aaron Cohen was kind enough to come down to the Harper Facility today to assist us with some electrical questions. This was very good, as he informed us that using alternating current as we had planned could have blown us up if wrongly used. The more you know. In the afternoon, they flexed their CAD skills helping the Mechanical Team to start their part drawings.
I have been helping Stacey to prepare for CDR tomorrow. We wrote abstracts for the presentation, made risk analysis charts, and coordinated the three groups together to form a cohesive slideshow.
We are looking forward to share our progress with some Northrop Grumman representatives tomorrow during CDR!
-The Electrical Team
Software- 7/16/14
Today we worked on our CDR presentation and did a complete
rebuild on the communications setup. We also learned how to determine a winner. We also got the program to communicate with the Arduino. Aaron came to help us by answering our questions, and by looking at our code. Tomorrow
we plan to work on having the program differentiate between the two players and finish up the CDR presentation.
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Electrical 7/15/2014
Hi friends!
Electrical was at our computers all day today as Pawel finished CAD drawings of our channels, Dillon created final drafts of the Arduino and flashing light circuit diagrams, and Aditya and I (Kristi) started researching the code for interfacing the Kinect and Arduino.
There was a little bit of a scare regarding parts that didn't fit, however by brainstorming for a few minutes we were able to come up with an alternative method of attaching our servos that even saved us money.
We found a few sample codes to adapt, so once software sends over their output, we will be able to start testing and coding for real! We were all happy to learn that the coding community is alive and ready to help us with any type of coding challenge.
Because we defaulted back to the Kinect that can only handle two players, we were able to cut half our budget. Hopefully we will not need the wiggle room, but it is helpful to have!
Tomorrow we will be finishing all the preliminary planning and will hopefully start buying things!
-The Electrical Team
Electrical was at our computers all day today as Pawel finished CAD drawings of our channels, Dillon created final drafts of the Arduino and flashing light circuit diagrams, and Aditya and I (Kristi) started researching the code for interfacing the Kinect and Arduino.
There was a little bit of a scare regarding parts that didn't fit, however by brainstorming for a few minutes we were able to come up with an alternative method of attaching our servos that even saved us money.
We found a few sample codes to adapt, so once software sends over their output, we will be able to start testing and coding for real! We were all happy to learn that the coding community is alive and ready to help us with any type of coding challenge.
Because we defaulted back to the Kinect that can only handle two players, we were able to cut half our budget. Hopefully we will not need the wiggle room, but it is helpful to have!
Tomorrow we will be finishing all the preliminary planning and will hopefully start buying things!
-The Electrical Team
Software- July 15, 2014
Today we got the Kinect v2 from the Microsoft store. We started working with it, and found out the new Kinect was not supported for our project, so we decided to use
the old Kinect we were working with before. Because of this setback, we have
to basically redesign the entire project. We also started CDR preparations
today. We later called Julie to show her what we’ve been working on so far.
After that, we kept changing things to accommodate our new requirements. The software
team plans to keep changing the code to move forward with the project, and work
on CDR preparations tomorrow.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Software- July 10, 2014
Today we worked more with the
Kinect. We kept playing around with the code making changes as we went. We
tested the game by plugging the computer in to the projector, and having a few
people play the game. There is less delay, and it is more reliable. We figured
out how to eliminate voice, shorten people, and put in a new background. We
want to continue to work with the Kinect, and we plan on working on
communications with the Arduino on Tuesday. We also hope we are able to get the
new Kinect Tuesday and update everything we have worked on so far.
Electrical 7/10/2014
Hello hello!
We started the morning finishing up our parts list and finalizing the channel design. Once we finished the list, we moved on to finding programmable light strings to represent flames as the rockets ascend.
In the afternoon, we had a design challenge to give written directions on how to build a Lego structure built by a different team. We then had to build a different structure from a third team's instructions. If the fact that the previous sentence did not make sense is any indicator, we here at electrical had some struggles creating coherent instructions.We will have to work on that for future projects (and maybe use diagrams).
After the design challenge, we went back to work creating CAD sketches of all the parts. Pawel should be applauded for his non-stop work extruding thousands of holes in little sheets of metal. We also made a few circuit diagrams, but will have to finish it all up next week.
Hoping to be able to finish diagrams next week and start working towards CDR!
-The electrical team
We started the morning finishing up our parts list and finalizing the channel design. Once we finished the list, we moved on to finding programmable light strings to represent flames as the rockets ascend.
In the afternoon, we had a design challenge to give written directions on how to build a Lego structure built by a different team. We then had to build a different structure from a third team's instructions. If the fact that the previous sentence did not make sense is any indicator, we here at electrical had some struggles creating coherent instructions.We will have to work on that for future projects (and maybe use diagrams).
After the design challenge, we went back to work creating CAD sketches of all the parts. Pawel should be applauded for his non-stop work extruding thousands of holes in little sheets of metal. We also made a few circuit diagrams, but will have to finish it all up next week.
Hoping to be able to finish diagrams next week and start working towards CDR!
-The electrical team
Mechanical for July 10 2014
Mechanical Team
Today the Mechanical team started off their day by finishing up the drawings of the structure. We continued to do research on the parts that we were planning on ordering. We then figured out how many boards that we are going to need to build the structure that would hold the screen and figure out which material would be the best material to project onto. After lunch we participated in a design challenge where we had to build then describe one that another team built then lastly build one with another team's instructions. Some of the things that we learned were that it is very hard to design and then give instructions based on a lego model.
The plan for the weekend is to finish up our parts list and our drawings. We will also look into to see if we are able to find any of the necessary tools that we are going to need for the project and we are also going to look into a workspace to use.
Today the Mechanical team started off their day by finishing up the drawings of the structure. We continued to do research on the parts that we were planning on ordering. We then figured out how many boards that we are going to need to build the structure that would hold the screen and figure out which material would be the best material to project onto. After lunch we participated in a design challenge where we had to build then describe one that another team built then lastly build one with another team's instructions. Some of the things that we learned were that it is very hard to design and then give instructions based on a lego model.
The plan for the weekend is to finish up our parts list and our drawings. We will also look into to see if we are able to find any of the necessary tools that we are going to need for the project and we are also going to look into a workspace to use.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Software July 9, 2014
Today we experimented by increasing
size, speed, amount, and window size in the SDK of the shape game. We reached
little victories while experimenting such as having the shapes change increase
in size, fall faster, and fall more frequently. Then Julie came and gave a
presentation on mechanical drawings. After that, we started experimenting with
the Kinect sensor. We explored how it works with the SDK, and tested the shape
game. We started to understand the code more and worked out some bugs to make
the program work better. Tomorrow, we plan on working more with the Kinect.
Mechanical
Day consisted of creating the drawings needed for the parts we will be purchasing. The structure of the project has been also drawn, it consists of the way the screen stand would be mounted as well as a booth, the area in which the players should stand a design appropriate for the height of children (2-3 ft).
After creating a materials list for each section, we took a quick trip to the hardware store in where we focused on finding cost effective alternatives to build the project (wood vs PVC etc)
After looking at prices, we realized that small things added up, so keeping a better track of what is necessary vs what we would like would help us stay on budget. To finish a strong week, we need to make sure to finalize materials and hopefully order some by Thursday in order to stay on track and on time. Good week so far.
After creating a materials list for each section, we took a quick trip to the hardware store in where we focused on finding cost effective alternatives to build the project (wood vs PVC etc)
After looking at prices, we realized that small things added up, so keeping a better track of what is necessary vs what we would like would help us stay on budget. To finish a strong week, we need to make sure to finalize materials and hopefully order some by Thursday in order to stay on track and on time. Good week so far.
Electrical 7/9/14
Hi all!
The electrical team has been hard at work all day researching different ways to mount the racing rockets.
We were debating the merits of using motors over servos for the better part of the morning. After extensive back and forth, we finally decided to use servos because it can both wind and unwind without reversing the polarity and it interfaces more cleanly with Arduino.
Following that, we began to figure out how to build the pulley track. We decided to use aluminum channels for stability. The hardest part of the day was finding a easy way to hook the servo up as a motor to the pulley. We finally found a website that sold ways to mount a gear on the servo directly. Additionally, we decided to use a belt system rather than a string/single pulley system so that we had more control over the placement of the rocket as it moves up the track.
After today, I think everyone here at electrical has a lot more respect for all the detailed researched it takes to find pieces that work together. Now we can read specs sheets more efficiently!
Tomorrow we hope to finalize our parts list for the pulley system and start sketching designs for lights!
-The Electrical Team
The electrical team has been hard at work all day researching different ways to mount the racing rockets.
We were debating the merits of using motors over servos for the better part of the morning. After extensive back and forth, we finally decided to use servos because it can both wind and unwind without reversing the polarity and it interfaces more cleanly with Arduino.
Following that, we began to figure out how to build the pulley track. We decided to use aluminum channels for stability. The hardest part of the day was finding a easy way to hook the servo up as a motor to the pulley. We finally found a website that sold ways to mount a gear on the servo directly. Additionally, we decided to use a belt system rather than a string/single pulley system so that we had more control over the placement of the rocket as it moves up the track.
After today, I think everyone here at electrical has a lot more respect for all the detailed researched it takes to find pieces that work together. Now we can read specs sheets more efficiently!
Tomorrow we hope to finalize our parts list for the pulley system and start sketching designs for lights!
-The Electrical Team
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
7/8/14 Mechanical Mayham
Our group took a trip to the Microsoft store to research the new technology that comes with the Kinect 2.0.
Aside from that, we also began to look at what materials we would need to construct the mechanical portion of our project. Additionally, we began to compose a parts list so that we can keep track of our progress, and order any parts accordingly. After lunch, Christine Love visited us and gave a presentation on block diagrams, and how they can be a useful tool for planning a project. Immediately, we began work on creating our own diagrams. Tomorrow, we plan on completing our block diagram, make a trip to a hardware store, and determine specifications for our build based off of kinect capabilities. Thanks for reading. MECHANICAL MAGICIANS OUT!!!!!
Group Breakout Sessions
Electrical Report
Electrical met for the first time today. Our part will involve taking the output of the Kinect and using that to control the servos and lights. We are unsure of the capabilities of the Arduino Uno, and are considering using one or multiple boards depending on if we want to divide the processes for the lights and servos.
We learned that we must confirm the capabilities of our components before designing around them. We learned that an Arduino Uno is capable of handling multiple signals at once and can power at least 5 servos.
Tomorrow, we will continue researching components and making final decisions on hardware.
Electrical met for the first time today. Our part will involve taking the output of the Kinect and using that to control the servos and lights. We are unsure of the capabilities of the Arduino Uno, and are considering using one or multiple boards depending on if we want to divide the processes for the lights and servos.
We learned that we must confirm the capabilities of our components before designing around them. We learned that an Arduino Uno is capable of handling multiple signals at once and can power at least 5 servos.
Tomorrow, we will continue researching components and making final decisions on hardware.
July 8, 2014- Software Team
Today we researched the Kinect SDK, and the specs of Kinect
v2. We then asked a Microsoft store employee about Kinect v2 and the SDK. After
we studied the existing v1 program, and discussed how to interface with the
Arduino to be able to drive the Servo motors. Later we learned about block
diagrams, and made them for our project. Tomorrow, we are going to start testing the current Kinect's capabilities.
MSI Field Trip
Hello!
On Wednesday we had the pleasure of visiting the Museum of Science and Industry to talk more with our customer and see the space we are going to be filling. Unfortunately, our main contact Bryan was unable to meet us, but Collette was there and was able to give us a quick tour of the facility and also got us into the Energy Garden exhibit.
We visited all the exhibits that combined physical and virtual components. The main ones we looked at were the shadow garden, the butterflies, and the interactive kinect exhibit. The kinect exhibit was very close to what we hope our exhibit will be, so it was very cool to see the capabilities of the kinect. We were able to free roam the museum for a bit before lunch.
In the afternoon, we went to the Omnimax theater and watched the Flight of the Butterflies. After the show, we went back to the Future Energy and went through the presentation with the games. All the Future Energy games were powered by "kinect-like technology" and many were motion sensors instead of touch screens.
We are moving more into the design stage and planning, so we hope to be able to report more later!
-The HIP Team
On Wednesday we had the pleasure of visiting the Museum of Science and Industry to talk more with our customer and see the space we are going to be filling. Unfortunately, our main contact Bryan was unable to meet us, but Collette was there and was able to give us a quick tour of the facility and also got us into the Energy Garden exhibit.
We visited all the exhibits that combined physical and virtual components. The main ones we looked at were the shadow garden, the butterflies, and the interactive kinect exhibit. The kinect exhibit was very close to what we hope our exhibit will be, so it was very cool to see the capabilities of the kinect. We were able to free roam the museum for a bit before lunch.
In the afternoon, we went to the Omnimax theater and watched the Flight of the Butterflies. After the show, we went back to the Future Energy and went through the presentation with the games. All the Future Energy games were powered by "kinect-like technology" and many were motion sensors instead of touch screens.
We are moving more into the design stage and planning, so we hope to be able to report more later!
-The HIP Team
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
AMERICA DAY!
Hi all!
Everyone was extra happy today because it was AMERICA DAY!
In the morning, we met at Harper to go over the ideas to present to MSI. We made PowerPoints for each idea along with flow charts and parts lists.
Then before lunch it was off to Northrop for AMERICA DAY! We got to eat lunch outside, listen to veterans share there experiences, and enjoy the dancing and band of PEHS.
After lunch, Mike Day was kind enough to come and give us a refresher presentation on how to write requirements and the basics of systems engineering. Using his presentation as a jumping off point, we translated the instructions MSI gave us into concrete requirements.
We voted on which idea was our favorite and a shooting gallery style game using a motion sensor won. We are a little worried about the scope of the project though, so it will probably have to go through a lot of refining before we start building.
We are all looking forward for our trip to MSI tomorrow!
-The HIP Team
Everyone was extra happy today because it was AMERICA DAY!
In the morning, we met at Harper to go over the ideas to present to MSI. We made PowerPoints for each idea along with flow charts and parts lists.
Then before lunch it was off to Northrop for AMERICA DAY! We got to eat lunch outside, listen to veterans share there experiences, and enjoy the dancing and band of PEHS.
After lunch, Mike Day was kind enough to come and give us a refresher presentation on how to write requirements and the basics of systems engineering. Using his presentation as a jumping off point, we translated the instructions MSI gave us into concrete requirements.
We voted on which idea was our favorite and a shooting gallery style game using a motion sensor won. We are a little worried about the scope of the project though, so it will probably have to go through a lot of refining before we start building.
We are all looking forward for our trip to MSI tomorrow!
-The HIP Team
Monday, June 30, 2014
6/30/14
Hello!
Today has been a very eventful day. We started the morning at the Northrop Grumman facility in Rolling Meadows where we and the 20 new-hires had orientation. We learned more about Northrop Grumman as a whole (who knew there were so many international facilities?) as well as what Electrical Systems specifically is in charge of. After the presentation, we filled out the many onboarding forms and headed over to the Harper Professional Center.
At the center we had a mini-design challenge of creating a rubber-band powered car out of cardboard, rubber bands, skewers, and other office supplies. This was important as we saw some of our strengths (hands on enthusiasm) as well as our weaknesses (fully sketched out plans...).
Later after lunch, we brainstormed different carnival games we could create for the Museum of Science and Industry. After everyone brainstormed three ideas indicidually, we presented our top idea to one another and voted to narrow it down to three group ideas we were really excited about. We then fleshed each idea out more, adding sketches, pros and cons, and potential scopes of each project.
We hope to continue working with those three ideas for the rest of the week to make them even more refined for our presentation at MSI on Wednesday!
-The HIP Team
Today has been a very eventful day. We started the morning at the Northrop Grumman facility in Rolling Meadows where we and the 20 new-hires had orientation. We learned more about Northrop Grumman as a whole (who knew there were so many international facilities?) as well as what Electrical Systems specifically is in charge of. After the presentation, we filled out the many onboarding forms and headed over to the Harper Professional Center.
At the center we had a mini-design challenge of creating a rubber-band powered car out of cardboard, rubber bands, skewers, and other office supplies. This was important as we saw some of our strengths (hands on enthusiasm) as well as our weaknesses (fully sketched out plans...).
Later after lunch, we brainstormed different carnival games we could create for the Museum of Science and Industry. After everyone brainstormed three ideas indicidually, we presented our top idea to one another and voted to narrow it down to three group ideas we were really excited about. We then fleshed each idea out more, adding sketches, pros and cons, and potential scopes of each project.
We hope to continue working with those three ideas for the rest of the week to make them even more refined for our presentation at MSI on Wednesday!
-The HIP Team
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