Thanksgiving break is rapidly approaching next week and the CHAMPS are eager to complete a few more tasks based on the Prototype Inspection Day (PID) feedback before the holidays. The team delivered an overall successful presentation explaining their progress on the machine-learning prototype on Tuesday, November 14. However, the attending faculty and distinguished guests provided some criticism and suggestions for future implementation. The CHAMPS specifically presented to Dr. Rong Zhang, Dr. Edward Latorre, Naqash Gerard, Gadhaun Aslam, Dr. Catia Silva, and Manuel Ernesto Cortés.

A shared concern among the audience included the CHAMPS’ lack of understanding of the Commander data. The team is awaiting the Commander data dictionary in the upcoming weeks and discussed the issue with Verifone liaison engineers the following morning in a meeting with additional Verifone engineers. Other faculty members addressed the potential downfall of the team employing an autoencoder for anomaly detection and instead recommended clustering. The CHAMPS will research and discuss the use of clustering with Coach Zhang and the Verifone liaisons next week. Nevertheless, the team may continue to work with an autoencoder if authorized. In the meantime, the team will also continue to improve the model through research and progress on the project documentation.

The CHAMPS Preliminary Design Review (PDR) is officially approved and signed by the Verifone liaisons. This means the team can continue working on training the model while the liaisons await more data to forward. The next major step is Prototype Inspection Day early next week. The CHAMPS continued preparations for the presentation by researching and developing a recurrent neural network (RNN). Other tasks include creating an API using the prototype model for a data anomaly detector as well as documenting the model functionality. Since the Commander project is software-related, the CHAMPS are also discussing effective methods for communicating the prototype progress during the inspection day. Meanwhile, feature analysis is on hold until the CHAMPS review the data type dictionary currently being compiled by Verifone. Next week’s blog will showcase the outcome of Prototype Inspection Day and how the CHAMPS performed.

As the CHAMPS settled back into their normal school routines after a successful Preliminary Design Review (PDR) presentation last week, the necessary project revisions loomed ahead. Week 9 required the team to implement the adjustments into the presentation and report within a couple of business days post-visit. Since the project pivoted due to certain data restrictions, the CHAMPS are focusing on one type of log from the Commander going forward. The brainstorming session with Verifone from the previous week also clarified that the initial “health analysis” intent of the project was not feasible given the data the Commander currently collects. Instead, the CHAMPS will build a machine-learning model that identifies anomalous events such as potential fraud and provides warnings accordingly to merchants. The team will continue feature selection on the data available since the liaison engineers are encountering problems receiving more data necessary to train the future model.

However, now that the PDR presentation and report are updated according to the Verifone site visit meeting, team members are tasked with a variety of data analyses and research. The CHAMPS are exploring the use of recurrent neural networks (RNN) and investigating methods to scale the model for the amount of data expected from a live Commander. The team is also preparing the data analysis and preliminary model for Prototype Inspection Day on November 14th which the blog will report more on next week.

Week 8 perpetuated long nights of work on the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) presentation as the CHAMPS readied for the Verifone site visit. On Thursday morning, the CHAMPS rose around 5 a.m. on a journey to Clearwater, FL. Special thanks to Michael for driving the team there and back safely. Upon arrival, the CHAMPS finally met Brian and Darryl in person, alongside several other Verifone engineers. The two liaisons took the team and Ronnie on a tour of the office and allowed everyone to interact with a Commander model to better understand the device that collects project data. As 10 a.m. approached, the team began to setup for their presentation in the Gator Room. Despite the initial nerves, the CHAMPS delivered an excellent presentation to Brian and Darryl as well as several other Verifone engineers and data scientists including Miguel Abdo. The presentation lasted nearly two hours with enthusiastic questions and brainstorming from everyone involved.

This productive session allowed both the IPPD members as well as the Verifone liaisons to collaboratively find solutions for the problems encountered thus far and clarify the project deliverables. After the PDR presentation, Brian and Darryl invited the CHAMPS for a lovely lunch. Later that afternoon, the team returned to the Verifone offices to meet more engineers and and interact with the Commander management system. Brian and Darryl further explained how Verifone hardware is utilized across a variety of industries. The CHAMPS are now able to better understand the functionality of the Commander, what data is available, and how the team can improve the system. Plus, everyone got some Verifone swag. Another special thanks to Brian, Darryl, and Miguel for being welcoming and supportive. The CHAMPS are excited to continue working on the Commander project.

The Preliminary Design Review (PDR) draft is submitted and the peer review presentation is complete. Week 7 comprised hours of editing, research, and data analysis. On Tuesday, October 17 the team received thousands of financial log entries from Verifone, and members rushed to examine the contents prior to the weekly Thursday liaison meeting. After a fruitful conversation with Darryl, the CHAMPS are preparing for the official PDR presentation next Thursday. However, now that the major assignments of the week are finalized and travel plans are set, the CHAMPS must review class feedback and implement necessary improvements in time for Coach Ronnie to review.

A common issue arose during the peer review presentation—audience members were confused about problems the CHAMPS have been facing regarding a machine learning solution. The team must clarify the issue at hand, prepare to discuss the pros and cons of machine learning versus classical programming solutions, as well as identify the type of data needed to build a machine learning solution. Week 8 presents a pivotal point for the project. Stay tuned for the outcome of the PDR presentation to Verifone.

The IPPD Preliminary Design Review (PDR) draft is imminent, so the CHAMPS team spent Week 6 preparing the preliminary system architecture as well as performing analysis on the Commander data features. However, during the research process, the team identified missing data and was unable to produce a cohesive solution from the examinations completed through HiPerGator. Although the team understands the data better now, further research is required to generate a machine-learning model. On Thursday, the CHAMPS met with Coach Ronnie and Verifone engineers Brian and Darryl to discuss the findings and determine the next step. Michael held a wonderful presentation that helped answer most questions but also led the team to reevaluate the project needs.

The CHAMPS resolved that more Commander data, like financial records, are necessary to develop the machine-learning concept; although the team is experiencing some problems obtaining such data due to large file sizes. Nevertheless, the CHAMPS will prevail. The team has several tasks to complete following this past Thursday’s meeting. The CHAMPS will continue to analyze the data provided last week as well as the new data and documentation that is expected to arrive next week. The primary goals are to identify new patterns, explore several big-picture ideas, establish what type of features are still needed, and complete the PDR draft. Back to work, team.

Week four featured another exciting meeting for the CHAMPS team and coach with Verifone liaison engineers, Darryl Miller and Brian Russell. The Commander Health Analysis Project progressed to conversations about real data, feature selection, and machine learning models. We reviewed a snippet of the Commander software report that we expect to thoroughly analyze next week. The CHAMPS team is currently awaiting approval to proceed with HiPerGator training—The University of Florida supercomputer that will house Commander data for project use. Thanks to the data visuals, the team can specify further training to build a solid foundation of knowledge in preparation for receiving the data.

IPPD coursework for this week included the completion of Product Design Specifications to prioritize customer needs, clarify target values and set technical performance measures. This documentation was later approved by Darryl and Brian on Thursday. The team also began work on the Project Roadmap assignment and is organizing tasks on Jira for week five.

We are proud to present the official Team 16 project name: CHAMPS—Commander Health Analysis Model and Predicting System. The final selection employs the preexisting “Commander Health Analysis” name, as specified by our coach, and combines the “Predicting System” utility our team will develop throughout this course. Week three also included two meetings with our coach, Rong Zhang, wherein we introduced ourselves, improved the team name and logo, finalized the stakeholder model, as well as prepared for our first meeting with the Verifone liaisons. Then, on Friday, we officially met two Verifone liaison engineers to discuss the company overview, software specifications, and project architecture. We are excitedly awaiting to receive the data for our project next week. In the meantime, our team is reviewing machine learning courses and completing the standard IPPD coursework. Explore the Meet this Team page to learn more about Team 16 as our programming journey unfolds.

Welcome to the Team 16 blog! As the second week of this course has come to an end, IPPD put the pedal to the metal to offset the late August weather delays. Our team is excited to have officially connected on Tuesday and began preparing for two successful terms with Verifone. Team 16 will enhance the existing Commander software that connects convenience stores and gas stations with an artificial intelligence (AI) powered site health report system. After enthusiastic introductions, our team effortlessly determined roles, communication methods, schedules, and organizational systems. Team 16 also completed their charter and first weekly memo as a group then started the individual Scope of Work (SoW) assignment. We are currently awaiting our first meeting with coach Rong Zhang on Saturday. In the meantime, members are finalizing the project name and logo. Look forward to the Meet This Team post next week as well as the official logo release.