The team completed the IPPD program this week. It was an amazing experience. The team finalized their FDR presentation and presented in front of 50 members of American Express. In addition, they finalized their poster shown in the image below to specifically showcase the drive-through scenario. Lastly, they finalized their promotional video that was showcased at both presentations. The team would like to say thank you to the coach and sponsor for a great experience!

This week, the team put the finishing touches on their video, poster and presentation. They met with the sponsor to receive one last round of feedback, and were informed they would be making their final presentation in front of over 50 Amex employees! In addition, the team reviewed their FDR with their coach and are awaiting any feedback to finalize it. Morale is high, and the team is ready to “knock some socks off” at next week’s presentation!

This week the team worked on their video and poster for the drivePay application. The video focuses on how the application makes in-vehicle payments, particularly for drive-throughs, more convenient. In addition, the poster showcased some of the measured statistics the team collected, such as average transaction time as well as rating from end users about the UI. The team also put finishing touches on some of the software and tested new beacons in a more realistic setting with vehicles. The team will begin filing out the outline for SLDR and is excited for the final stretch!

This week the team began preparing for the end of the semester. The team upgraded the bluetooth beacons they will use for their final solution. They also developed an outline for the FDR report. Lastly, the team developed a story board for their promotional video. The video will focus on showcasing the convenience of the DrivePay application. The team will work on the video this coming week in addition to putting some finishing touches on their project as well as some final testing.

The team successfully demo’d their prototype at the prototype inspection day this week. They received valuable feedback from the faculty and staff present. The team was able to simulate a drive-thru experience for the judges, and used the bluetooth beacons to successfully set up a queue of customer orders. The team will integrate the feedback they received as they work to finalize their solution. Specifically, they will make some edits to the UI to make it as seamless as possible, as well as work on their locating algorithm to increase the sensitivity of the bluetooth beacons.

This week the team continued to develop their testing plan. In order to be successful, they wanted to ensure that they thoroughly tested their prototype. They were especially concerned about testing the end to end interaction at scale. A large part of this was ensuring the bluetooth beacons gave accurate data, which was difficult to do given the interference caused by having the beacons outdoors. The team brainstormed and developed a plan to equally space out the beacons throughout the drive-through and use the data from the three closest beacons to build the correctly ordered queue for the merchant. The team is looking forward to implementing this plan after spring break!

The team successfully presented at QRB2 this week. They were able to highlight a much smoother updated merchant UI, as well as a robust business plan, specifically for smaller businesses. The team will continue developing their testing plan, incorporating the feedback to specifically test interaction between the merchant and customer. All in all, the team again received overwhelmingly positive feedback and is on track to complete their prototype. They will now move on to working on ensuring the system properly handles the queue of orders, especially in regards to cancelled orders, and developing a solution for the in-car dash display.

This week the team continued to prepare for QRB2. The team worked to implement the feedback from the sponsor about updating the UI as customer orders came in. In addition, the team hopes to incorporate the Bluetooth beacons to distinguish which orders belong to which customers. They also plan to finalize the business plan particularly for small businesses, focusing on market entry and potential competitors. All in all, the team is excited to present the rest of their project plan at QRB2 and believes they are on track for success!