This week was a huge milestone in our team’s progress, because we were able to present our work from this semester to our liaisons from NextEra Energy at our System Level Design Review (SLDR). We were extremely grateful for the technical feedback we received from our coaches but also the coaches of the other teams in our presentation room. This presentation served as an approval for our hard work and plans for next semester where we will begin a more hands-on, iterative manufacturing and testing phase. This week, we sent our final memos, completed our individual evaluations, sent our SLDR reports for sponsor approval, and closed out the semester. Over Christmas break, our team will maintain communication and finalize our design’s internal and external components in SolidWorks. We also plan to place purchase orders for electronics and other structural materials before and during break. With this preparation, our team can hit the ground running in the first week of the spring semester. We look forward to sharing our progress along the way in our future blog posts!

As students, we had this week off to celebrate Thanksgiving. We are extremely thankful to be involved in such an interesting project with a supportive sponsor company, NextEra Energy. Our SLDR presentation is approaching quickly, and we look forward to practicing when we all get back to school.

This week, our team had the opportunity to present our SLDR presentation to our peers and other coaches. We received a lot of helpful feedback on our presentation’s format, style, content, and visuals. The coaches were pleased with our figures and CAD models which explained the process in depth and reduced confusion for first time listeners. We also got to answer more technical questions about the problem that our product solves which will prepare us for the real presentation when we return from Thanksgiving break. Before then, we intend to submit our SLDR draft and wrap up additional testing. When we return, our liaisons from NextEra Energy will join us in Gainesville for the presentation, and we will conclude the semester with an established plan that they can sign off on. This includes details on our product plan, prototype, risks, drawings, models, and material purchases. We plan to order our electronic components after the break and perform tests before the semester wraps up. We look forward to presenting our work!

This week we had the opportunity to present our work and first prototype idea to faculty, coaches, and other students. Although we might not have a complete manufactured prototype, we were able to showcase our CAD designs, assemblies, machined testbench, and other visuals of the problem we are solving. We used the testbench to demonstrate our tool for the judges, and we received valuable technical feedback. We plan to continue testing and further develop our CAD designs before and during Thanksgiving break, so that we don’t fall behind on our schedule. Additionally, we are placing purchase orders for all of our necessary components, so that we can test the electrical subsystems in parallel with the mechanical systems. We can’t wait to see our ideas turn into a physical product!

This week we continued with our experimentation plans in our subteams. The main goal for this week was to model our design’s components in Solidworks and work on physical deliverables for the prototype inspection day next week. During this presentation for engineering faculty and our coaches, we hope to gain valuable feedback on the feasibility of our designs and show them our current progress. Before then, we had a few last minute tests that required machining in the Herbert Wertheim Lab and empirical calculations for the forces and torques that our design will experience during operation. Specifically, we were able to put our testbench design together using woodworking and metal cutting on the waterjet. This was a super cool experience, and we can’t wait to present our work!