Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Week 8 Lab + Week 9 Lab Prep

Objective: Dry-run presentation of final Freshmen Design Presentation

Date: May 22, 2014

Today in lab:


  • Present PPT prepared for the dry run
  • Get feedback from Dr. Allen and the Teaching Fellows
    • Design Matrix is unecessary; just the summary will keep the section simple and concise
    • Don't rush through the presentation
    • NEVER discredit ourselves by saying "Because we're only freshmen and have insufficient knowledge..."
    • Further explain design a little (why that formation and number of donuts? etc)
    • Don't be nervous
For next time:
  • Memorial Day holiday!!! (Mon 5/26)
  • Remaining groups - not us - will finish dry-run presentations
  • Prepare for final presentation
  • Practice individual presentation slides! :)

Monday, May 19, 2014

Week 8 Lab Prep

Objective: Prepare for this week's preliminary presentation

Date: May 19, 2014

Today's Discussion:

  • Week 8 Team Assessment
  • Presentation prep
    • Add decision matrix
    • Other solutions
    • Add block diagram
    • Experimental results + analysis
    • Design model (Creo)
Figure 1: Completed Model of Product 


Figure 2: Really cool mess-up of the model
  • Experiment materials
    • Make prototype
    • Get take-out cup from Hans
    • Motor oil
    • Camcorder
For next time:
  • Finish prelim PPT by Wednesday 9pm
  • Continue preparing for experiment

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Week 7 Lab

Objective:


Date: May 15, 2014


Today in lab:
  • Check progress with Dr. Allen
  • Stuff to research
    • Sponge absorbance vs Design absorbance
    • Will our product suffice when another Gulf of Mexico incident happens?
    • Currently popular oil spill solutions?
    • Overall shape of donuts connections - how big? Star formation? Line formation?
    • Costs of competitors, approximate price per unit


For next time:
  • Start on preliminary PPT presentation for next lab
  • Bring in sketch and 3D model of product (donuts!)
  • Group consultation appointment with Engineering Librarian on Tue May 20th 3pm-3:20pm

Monday, May 12, 2014

Week 7 Lab prep

Objective: Discuss and analyze results of last lab's experiment, work on draft of Final Report due by lab this week

Date: May 12, 2014

Today's meeting:
  • Chi-Square Goodness of Fit test, testing
    • Ho: percent change in sample mass is approximately equal to the expected values
    • Ha: at least one of the observed percent change in sample mass differs from the expected value
    • Use significance level 5% (alpha = 0.05)
      • Results:
      • From the experiment, there is sufficient evidence to support the claim that hair absorbs 2x its mass in water, 10x its mass in an oil-water mixture, and 12x its mass in oil!!!
  • Q's for Dr. Allen (to ask on Thursday)
    - Is appropriate for the presentation to incorporate a little humor (especially puns)?
         --> This problem just got hairy!
         --> It's about to get mesh-y!
         --> So... wat'er we waiting for??
    - Is it possible to get a projector, so we won't need to prepare a larger scale demo?

For next time:
  • Finish individual report parts by Tuesday night
  • Finish editing and submit on Wednesday
  • Bring laptops to create PowerPoint for week 10's final presentation

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Week 6 Lab

Objective: Continue making progress with lab

In lab:

  • Make block diagram of project
  • Check progress with Dr. Allen
  • Begin experiment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    • Lab coat and goggles preparation
    • Set up scale
    • Prepare the five mixtures for experiment

 Warning! This is about to get hairy!!!!!!!!!!




















For next time
  • Lab space open Friday (tomorrow) 3-5pm
  • Will continue and finish hair absorbency test







Monday, May 5, 2014

Week 6 Lab prep

Objective: Confirm materials for lab, finalize lab procedures, split up final report parts, and continue research

Date: May 5, 2014 (Cinco de Mayo!!!)

Today's Discussion
  • Lab materials all set, but only have one hair type
    • Will test absorbency in various solutions instead of absorbency of various hair types
  • Research for Thursday
    • Overall structures of mat
    • Regions and placement of polar and non-polar materials
    • Possible materials that could be incorporated (i.e. nanotubes)
  • Split up final report parts, details sent in email to group

For Thursday:
  • Bring in individual research and some sort of visual (diagram, 3D model, etc) 
  • Present to the group (in the second hour of our lab time)
  • Vote on whether each proposed idea is feasible for the not-so-distant future and whether we want to include it in our final presentation ppt

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Week 5 Lab

Objective: Continue to make progress in project

Date: May 1, 2014

Today in lab:

  • Group updates with individual parts
  • Check up with Dr. Allen (see notes and images)
Notes:
Notes 1: Materials and hair sample measurements

Notes 2: Solutions for next week's experiment

Notes 3: From discussion with Dr. Allen

Images:

Image 1: Scale for measuring mass of nets and hair samples

Image 2: Net with ruler

Image 3 and 4 (from left to right): net stretch out with ruler, motor oil in container


For next time:
  • Prepare last of lab materials
  • Prepare to finalize lab procedures and data collection/ analysis methods