This week, our team focused on preparing for the PDR peer review. After completing our report and presentation slides, we sought feedback from our coach and practiced together. On Tuesday, we presented our PDR to three other teams (Addtronics, SimpliciTea, and Marine Animal TrackeR), and also listened to their presentations as well. During this event, we received valuable feedback on our PDR. We met with our coach on Tuesday evening to hear his thoughts about our presentation as well. Using all of the feedback we received, on Friday we were able to meet as a team and make the necessary adjustments to our presentation, including choosing a more visually appealing template and making the figures easier to read.

On Wednesday, the electrical engineers met to work on characterizing the solenoid with equations, and to learn how to interface with the ultrasonic ranger sensor and accelerometer that we received from IPPD. After a long whiteboard session, we were able to determine a set of equations that characterize the solenoid more accurately based on the properties and positioning of the coil and plunger. The resulting equations from that meeting are pictured above. On Sunday, the mechanical engineers plan to meet in order to solidify the housing design to the furthest extent it can currently be finalized. Moving into next week, our team has been making adjustments to the PDR report and practicing the presentation in preparation for the real PDR event with our liaison on Wednesday, October 20th.