The week everyone has been waiting for has finally arrived: Final Design Review. The culmination of all of our hard work and the day-long showcase so the world can see the power of NeXtract. We were able to hear from prominent keynote speakers on topics ranging from the future of capstone design to lifelong learning in industry, hold a private demo for our sponsor, and be a part of a public showcase for our friends and family who came to support us. All in all, it was an amazing experience while being bittersweet. The team has gone through so much together in these last two semesters and it was an odd feeling to finally be finished as we loaded our deliverables into a truck that drove away into the sunset. We are very thankful to IPPD and NextEra Energy for the resources and help they have given us throughout this process, and we are looking forward to our next steps in career and life. On to the NextEra (Energy)!

This week the team presented in front of executives and technicians at NextEra Energy. We detailed the problem and solution, walking through each sub-component and taking questions of varying technical levels. Everyone was very impressed with the work we’ve done over the past two semesters.

In addition to the presentation, the team has been hard at work at finalizing materials for our Final Design Review on Tuesday. We have over 100 pages of documentation to submit as well as an informational poster and promotional video that have been created over some long nights fueled by Subway’s Footlong Cookie (see below).

Earlier in the week, we had our peer-review for the FDR presentation. It went smoothly with few notes for improvement. We have been fortunate that IPPD has afforded us many opportunities to present in front of others to hone our speaking skills.

The team started the week with a presentation in front of the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce where we discussed our project and solution with local business leaders. It was a privilege to share everything that we’ve been working on, and we’re grateful for the questions and feedback we received.

In the lab, this week has been one of iterations and small improvements. Taking the feedback from last week and our most recent testing, the team redesigned some components and upon testing, they work much better and more seamlessly than before.

We’re also continuing work on our video and poster for the final design review showcase. Through a peer review session, we now have a better understanding of how our audience is receiving our work and can improve our message and its targeting. Our FDR is under two weeks away and we’re very excited for the opportunity it presents!

This week, the team had a chance to demostrate our solution to a panel of judges. We walked them through all of the stages of our solution and even allowed them to extract a stud for themselves! We received varying types of feedback which will allow us to put the finishing touches on the project. There are few upgrades we want to make, but we are confident in the current solution being effective for our sponsor.

In the lab, we also completed our third successful extraction at our quickest time yet. The process becomes more refined with each iteration, leading to time improvements and more data points to analyze. With these consecutive successful results, we plan to modify our testing parameters to increase the difficulty of the process and observe how our system accounts for different factors.

On the IPPD side of the project, we worked in the green screen room to film our final video. The scenes will be edited together over the weekend in preparation for a draft presentation in class. With under 3 weeks remaining to our Final Design Review, the team is working diligently and feels very optimisitic while seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!

This week, the team spent time preparing for Prototype Inspection Day (PID) by completing a technology demonstration plan. This plan allowed us to identify what resources we will need in order to effectively present our prototype, such as monitors for showing previous testing. We plan on allowing judges to interact with our prototype so that they may gain a deeper understanding of how the tool is to be used. We are looking forward to gaining their feedback!

This week we completed our second successful extraction, with it taking less time than the first attempt, meaning we are headed in the right direction! We completed torque testing with the use of solvents this week, and plan on continuing with this process to identify what solvents work best. While drill bit testing this week, the team identified that the drill bit we have been using has worn down to the point where it does not efficiently create a hole, allowing us to estimate the tool life. We are looking forward to continuing testing and attending PID next week!

Based on our testing results from the end of last week, modifications were made to our design to let the tool work properly. Implementing these design changes has improved the functionality of our device. We completed our first successful full-scale extraction using our tool. While we celebrated our success, we also identified more components that require revisions, and plan on making these improvements as necessary. As we were testing, we also completed our first procedure draft, and plan on making corrections throughout the rest of the semester. We have enjoyed iteratively improving our design and are looking forward to continuing our testing!

In addition to testing, we have also completed our project storyboard, which will be used to create our final video. As we will not be testing next week, we plan on working on project documentation to allow more time for testing upon our return. The team is looking forward to enjoying the next week off for Spring break, but we plan on staying in touch with each other to hit the ground running when we return!

This week, the team engaged in a lecture on storytelling, presented by Harrison Hove. We learned about the art of making an interesting and informative video, which will help us tremendously. We’re all looking forward to getting creative with our demo video to share at Final Design Review and online!

The team also made progress in testing drill bits and overall system integration. During testing last week, we identified an issue with one of our design components, and within 5 days we were able to identify a solution, place an order, and implement the design change. Further testing of these parts was completed throughout this week, and the team is happy with the outcome. We tested our full-scale assembly for the first time this week and learned a lot about what worked well and what needs revisions. We are looking forward to continuing our testing and preparing for the next Prototype Inspection Day!

This week, our team had the pleasure of presenting our work for a second time to the Qualification Review Board (QRB) Committee. This time we presented our testing plans as well as giving them an update on the progress we’ve made since our previous evaluation. We received valuable feedback regarding out testing. As a team we were able to reflect and start to incorporate the feedback into our testing plan. We‘re very excited to share our upcoming results!

This week, our team continued with our testing plans as well as preparations for QRB2 next week. We enacted our plans, from last week, in regard to the test bench. Making some well needed strides for our project. We’ve made significant progress in the creation of our final test bench as we were able to make some time at the Herbert Wertheim Lab to utilize their water jet. Also this week, we conducted torque and drill bit testing and collected a sizable amount of data. The team is more than excited to show off our results at QRB2!