This week marked an exciting milestone for Team 14, our first in-person meeting with our liaison, centered around the Preliminary Design Review (PDR). Meeting face-to-face gave us the chance to connect beyond screens, discuss our evolving design ideas in depth, and receive focused feedback from our sponsor.
Our team with liaison during our first in-person PDR meeting – a milestone moment that energized our collaboration and brought our design discussions to life.
Exploring Paths to Data and Design
In the days leading up to the PDR, the team brainstormed multiple ways to acquire and enrich datasets relevant to lighting lifetime and energy optimization. We also evaluated several web frameworks – including Flask, Django, React, and Streamlit – to determine which best aligns with our project’s end goal. After comparing performance, visualization capabilities, and deployment flexibility, we finalized Streamlit for its simplicity, scalability, and effective data-driven visualization support in order to build the interface in order to explain how the end project looks like.
A Milestone Discussion
Each team member presented their area of progress, turning the PDR into a collaborative exchange of technical ideas and practical insights.
- Zhiyu shared the team’s dynamic data-modeling approach, explaining how time-based features strengthen the predictive performance of lighting models.
- Nikitha presented the system design architecture, emphasizing modular structure and smooth data communication between frontend, backend, and pipelines.
- Jugal demonstrated rule-based and machine-learning lighting-control strategies, proposing a hybrid dashboard for adaptive optimization.
- Satwik addressed data synchronization, access control, and reliability, highlighting how consistency across modules will support accurate reporting.
- Dhivya & Swetha explored open-source data integration options to expand model generalization, identifying APIs and datasets for lighting and energy benchmarking.
Looking Ahead
Next week, Team 14 will:
- Design an ER diagram and feature-correlation visualization.
- Develop feature-engineering pipelines for energy and dimming analysis.
- Expand the Streamlit UI with interactive floor plans, tooltips, and energy heatmaps.
- Finalize the Model Evaluation Plan and confirm our end-to-end tech stack.
Reflections
This PDR meeting was more than a presentation – it was the moment our design vision came to life. Engaging directly with our liaison and sponsor reaffirmed our direction, clarified expectations, and energized us for the next phase. With clearer architecture, richer data, and strengthened collaboration, Team 14 is ready to illuminate the path toward a fully functional prototype.