Progress Report
The administrative team scanned documents and created weekly email updates from Admin to facilitate improved communication.
The budget team purchased the rest of the necessary materials for the prototypes and submitted financial reports for all previously purchased items.
The communications team worked on the monthly blog post for December.
The sustainability team took the Certified Sustainable Design Associate (CSDA) test on December 14th. They were successful on the first attempt, thanks to their time spent studying guides. This was a new area of learning for them, introducing previously unfamiliar concepts. One of these was how big of an impact transportation is in the eco-friendly aspect, concerning air pollution and cost. Changing the shape and thickness of materials used can also influence how “green” the overall product is. Using this new information, the sustainability team will determine the optimal material and manufacturing of our design.
The design team met with Gary Geissinger, engineer at DigitalGlobe with a Doctorate degree in electrical engineering, along with administrative team, to give a progress report on the current design and receive feedback. We discussed the BRD nest (master station), probability of intercept, and specifics of the design. The design team has two prototypes to hold the comonates. The BRD nest is the relay station of the beacon (Baby BRD) to the emergency services.
The team is still working on the programming of the Arduino for the beacon prototype, and contacting local law enforcement to communicate the best frequency that is best for communication.
Goals for the next month
Administrative Team - Team is dissolving as it doesn’t have much of a role. The Administrative support is moving into the design team and the Administrative lead is now the overall Project Manager.
Budget Team - Purchase more materials for the prototype for MGTR.
Communications Team - Recreate the team website and work with budget team to buy a domain name. - Create social media accounts for the team (Twitter & Facebook)
Design Team - Wireless communications between beacon and the drone. - Have a working code that can receive GPS coordinates
Sustainability Team - The sustainability team will prepare for the Mid-Grant Technical Review (MGTR) by reviewing the materials being used and determining if there is a possible “greener” alternative.