Posted on

Team Status Report for 2/18/2023

What are the most significant risks that could jeopardize the success of the project? How are these risks being managed? What contingency plans are ready?

The most significant risk that we are facing right now is being behind because we just changed our whole capstone project idea last week. We received lots of feedback from our proposal presentation, and we believed that it would be best if we changed our idea. Our previous idea contained a lot of moving parts that didn’t necessarily fit together, but we tried to force them together. In addition, we decided to switch because, as a whole, we are more passionate and interested in our new project idea. Lastly, the original idea had some fundamental issues regarding practically and cost that made it seem as a whole more infeasible.

Because this is a huge setback, we are working overtime in order to not fall too far behind. We started to order parts already and are in the process of finalizing our design review presentation.

Since we are changing our project so late in the semester, we have a contingency plan that involves creating a simple MVP project first, and then building on it when we have time. This allows us to create a product that meets our expectations while not overcomplicating it and bringing in too many factors. We would love for our project to be as complex as possible, but with the given time, we realize that it may not be feasible to add every single component that we want.

Were any changes made to the existing design of the system (requirements, block diagram, system spec, etc)? Why was this change necessary, what costs does the change incur, and how will these costs be mitigated going forward?

Because we completely changed our project idea, we have created a new requirements for our the new design of our system. The first set of requirements is that we want our product to be light and portable (weight and size) while still retaining a level of robustness. These changes are necessary so the user can have the accessibility and agency to conduct music arrangement and composition anywhere they are. Additional requirements were regarding number of chords, volumes, and octaves the user could play on this piano. This was also necessary since the user needs to feel that this product can be worth-while to use rather than the effort used to find a real piano. These requirements provides the fundamental needs of the arranger and composer so that our product can stand on its own uniqueness (portable) and be differentiated from most pianos. Lastly, the requirements that target accuracy is beyond paramount for the user since they desire a reliable and accurate product for their needs. If our note and playback is inaccurate, then it won’t be sufficient for the user to enjoy using this over other pianos.

The costs that these changes incur take up our own time to edit and develop these changes to the design.  Moving forward, additional costs to our time can be mitigated by finalizing our design after the design review this next week so there won’t be any confusion and fewer errors.

Provide an updated schedule if changes have occurred.

Here is a link to our new GANTT chart: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Cjl4wdKSUFSZtF_5Mw1JuqtcA23wlrnsTV8MYDUDK88/edit?usp=sharing

Please enumerate one or more principles of engineering, science and mathematics that your team used to develop the design solution for your project.

We used the reliability principle of engineering to design how each of the components in our design, when integrated, would remain functional while also providing the user a strong sense of our product’s robustness and accessibility. We designed our product to be simple so that it would remain lightweight and portable for the user including dependencies on everyday devices (phones and laptops) so the user would not have to bring additional equipment with them to enjoy a level of satisfaction that comes with playing the piano anywhere they go.

 

Posted on

Caroline’s Status Report for 12/18/2023

What did you personally accomplish this week on the project? Give files orphotos that demonstrate your progress. Prove to the reader that you put sufficient effort into the project over the course of the week (12+ hours).

In the past week, we decided to change our project idea, so I helped research more different types of distance sensors that could fit onto people’s fingers. Due to the fact that we changed our project idea, I created a new GANTT chart to accurately reflect our new project. I also ordered some pressor sensors that we want to use so that we could be on track next week. In addition, I helped create slides for the design review next week.

Is your progress on schedule or behind? If you are behind, what actions will be taken to catch up to the project schedule?

I believe that we are currently a bit behind schedule because, in our new GANTT chart, we aimed to have finished our breadboarding by this week, but we have not finished ordering or have not received the necessary parts that we need for our project. In order to combat this, we will be starting on other tasks simultaneously while we wait for our parts to arrive.

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

In the next week, we hope to have a preliminary demonstration of how our pressure sensors can work and how we can use the CV to track fingers.

Please list the particular ECE courses (if any) that covered the engineering science and mathematics principles your team used to develop your design? If there are no courses please tell us how you learned those principles over the last week?

I will be using the information and content that I learned from 18220, 18021, and 18290 for our project.

Posted on

Caroline’s Status Report for 2/11/2023

What did you personally accomplish this week on the project? Give files or photos that demonstrate your progress. Prove to the reader that you put sufficient effort into the project over the course of the week (12+ hours).

In the past week, I worked with my other team members to produce our Proposal Presentation Slideshow. This involved researching and adding more information regarding our scanners, batteries, and PCB. From this research, we determined that we wanted our PCB to have an RFID module, Bluetooth module, accelerometer, and break beam sensor. I also created a GANTT chart so that we can keep each other accountable for our tasks and so we could have an even labor distribution. In addition, I presented our presentation to my fellow peers and we received lots of feedback on our proposal.

Is your progress on schedule or behind? If you are behind, what actions will be taken to catch up to the project schedule?

I believe that we are currently a bit behind schedule because, in our GANTT chart, we aimed to have all of our research and ordering done this week, but we have not ordered any parts that we need for our project. In order to combat this, we will be ordering our parts and I will start on the PCB design as soon as possible.

What deliverables do you hope to complete in the next week?

In the next week, I hope to finalize our project idea and order the necessary parts for our project. From the feedback that we received, we realized that we might need to pivot our idea slightly in order to create the best product that we had in mind. In addition, because it will take time to design and order our custom PCB, I will try to start designing our breadboard so that our next steps aren’t postponed because of this.