To begin, this week in Florida, we have been bracing for the hit of Hurricane Ian. Because of the inclement weather, classes were canceled at UF from Wed 9/28 through Fri 9/30. Luckily, everyone in EvapoGATOR is safe, and we’ve still worked diligently this week to meet our requirements.

While we could not accomplish everything we wanted in this short week, EvapoGATOR has still had the chance to complete some exciting new steps.

1. Emily and Alli attended the IPPD Team Building Workshop on Saturday 9/24, hosted by Florida Power & Light, and they worked with another team to receive their Lean Six Sigma White Belt certificates.
2. The team thoroughly researched vacuum evaporation systems and the thermodynamics and heat transfer behind the processes occurring within the apparatus — we each read four chapters of background recommended by our liaison Dr. MacIntosh and our coach, Dr. Jackson.
3. With Dr. Jackson, we reviewed the textbook information and constructed a detailed flow diagram of the current evaporator system.
4. We also completed our First Month Report and Project Roadmap, two documents that helped us start to plan out the remainder of the semester and our project.

With everything we have accomplished this week, EvapoGATOR is looking forward to continuing work on our concept generation and Product Design Review next week. We are also preparing a pre-lab before completing the evaporation lab next week in the FSHN pilot plant with Dr. MacIntosh.

We hope everyone is staying safe! Here is a picture of Emily and Alli at the Team Building Workshop.