Blog Posts

Peer Review Preliminary Design Report Presentations – Blog #6 10/10/2025

Published:October 9th, 2025
Category:Fall25

Presentation week!! This week marked an important milestone for our IPPD Team 14 as we successfully presented our Preliminary Design Report (PDR) for L.A.A.R.K: AI-Enabled Lighting Asset Management Platform for Facility Operations, sponsored by LiteSeeker Solutions, Inc.

our team successfully completed the Preliminary Design Report (PDR) presentations, marking a major checkpoint in our IPPD journey. It was an insightful experience that allowed us to consolidate our ideas, validate our initial assumptions, and receive constructive feedback from our coach, sponsor, and peers.

Preparing for the PDR was both intense and rewarding. We spent several days refining our slides, ensuring that each section, from project objectives and architecture to risk management and roadmap, reflected our collective understanding. Coordinating across multiple disciplines (AI, web development, and BIM integration) helped us see how each part fits into the overall system.

During the presentation, each member contributed to different sections, and the teamwork truly showed. Explaining our design architecture, House of Quality, and technical measures in front of faculty and sponsors built our confidence in communicating complex ideas clearly. We also learned how important it is to balance technical depth with simplicity when presenting to a diverse audience.

The Q&A session that followed our presentation was particularly engaging and insightful. The coaches, TAs, and fellow students asked thought-provoking questions that challenged us to think beyond our prepared slides. Some questions focused on the feasibility of our Revit integration, others explored how our predictive model would handle real-world data variability, and a few addressed user experience and scalability. These discussions not only clarified certain technical aspects but also helped us identify areas that need more detailed validation in our next phase.

Moving Forward!

Based on the valuable feedback we received during the Q&A session from our coaches, TAs, and peers, our team plans to move forward by incorporating those suggestions into our next steps. We will be meeting with our liaison sponsor to discuss the feedback in detail and align our approach accordingly. The focus will be on refining our design decisions, validating our technical assumptions, and ensuring that our implementation plan reflects both the sponsor’s expectations and the insights gained from the review.

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System Architecture Progress – Blog #5 10/03/2025

Published:October 4th, 2025
Category:Fall25

This week our team shifted gears towards research and data preparation for a bigger picture: the system architecture.

We spent a lot of time together at the whiteboard, sketching out how all the pieces connect to our platform. The session went collaborative and lively; we debated over flows of data, clarified what belongs inside the system, and agreed on all the external factors. Revit for lighting asset data, facility managers and technicians as our users, energy usage feeds, and the ML models powering predictions.

This session brought different angles to the discussion. While some of us focused on technical data flows, others emphasized on usability and how the users interact with the system. This mix of perspectives helped us get to the bigger picture with practical details, and made sure that our architecture isn’t functional on paper, but also has a meaningful purpose.

After a long session of redoing things over and over we finally had a System Control Diagram that gave a structure for our project, which highlights the importance of data, generating predictions, producing reports, floor plan overlays, and maintenance alerts. This makes sure that we all are on same page among ourselves as well as with liaison.

What stood out most for us is the clarity we gained from this exercise. Instead of jumping directly into the code and ignoring basic features, we now have a top-level blueprint that anchors the whole project. It also surfaced important questions which we will be tackling further, like how to gather historic data, what should be the features for our prediction model, and what type of graphs should the energy dashboard contain.

MOVING FORWARD!!!

We look to refine this architecture and start mapping the concrete tools and components. This will bring us closer from generating the high-level design to actual dashboard elements and predictive maintenance workflows.

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From Confusion to Concept – Blog #4 09/26/2025

Published:September 26th, 2025
Category:Fall Semester, Fall25, Team-14

Every great project begins with questions. When we first looked at the Scope of Work (SOW) for our project with LiteSeeker Solutions, our team found ourselves in a state of uncertainty. The project seemed ambitious: building an AI-enabled lighting asset management and digital twin platform (L.A.A.R.K Lite) for facility operations. At first glance, it felt overwhelming—new technologies, broad expectations, and many unknowns.

But that’s exactly where the journey started.

Behind The Scenes:

This week, our team split tasks to cover different aspects of the project: Nikhitha and Dhivya reviewed research papers on related work and similar project outcomes, Jugal created wireframes for the dashboards, Satwik explored the tools provided by our liaison, Swetha analyzed the data and pulled out initial insights, and Zhiyu worked with Revit models and the app.

It’s just the beginning, but these behind-the-scenes efforts are setting a strong foundation for what’s ahead. Each piece of work brings us closer to building the Model and understanding the challenges we’ll face along the way.

From Ideas to Action: Shaping Our Project

We began with a deep dive into research papers and case studies that connect to our project goals. By studying related works and similar solutions, we gained clarity on what has already been tried in this space and what gaps still exist. Alongside this, team brainstorming sessions helped us generate and refine ideas, ensuring that we bring together multiple perspectives before moving forward.

To translate these ideas into something visual, we designed wireframes of the dashboard, allowing the team and our liaison to see how the platform could look and feel. These early sketches make abstract concepts concrete, helping us identify what features matter most to facility managers. Through concept generation, we’ve started evaluating different possibilities, narrowing down toward the version that will best serve the project’s objectives.

Since data plays a central role in our solution, especially for predictive maintenance and energy insights, we conducted initial exploration that already gave us useful findings while also highlighting challenges we’ll need to address. On the technical side, exploring tools, APIs, and Revit models has been crucial for testing feasibility and preparing for integration.

This combination of research, brainstorming, design, and technical exploration is helping us transform big ideas into actionable steps toward our final project outcome.

Moving Forward..!!

Right now, we’re at an exciting stage, our foundation is in place. We’ve built a shared understanding of the problem, drafted possible solutions, and created the first visual and conceptual wireframe prototype of the web dashboard.

As our next step, we will be working on the Preliminary Design Architecture. This stage will help us map out the system’s structure, refine the flow between components, and ensure that all the research, wireframes, and technical insights align into a cohesive design. It marks the bridge between ideation and implementation, setting the foundation for development in the coming weeks.

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Organizing and Research – Blog#3 09/19/2025

Published:September 19th, 2025
Category:Fall25

Organizing Resources and Setting Foundations

This week was all about getting our project resources in order. Team 14 officially moved from early brainstorming into building the foundation we’ll need for the months ahead. We set up a shared OneDrive folder to keep everything organized, making sure the data we collect is well-documented and easy for everyone to access.

Liaison & Coach Meetings
This week, we had productive meetings with both our liaison and our coach to align on next steps:

Liaison Discussion -We confirmed that our first actionable task is to begin working with the lighting cutsheets (PDF format). The team will extract and reformat key specification fields into structured CSV files. This step will standardize vendor data for integration into the asset management database and eventual synchronization with Revit workflows.

Coach Discussion -With Dr. Andrea Ramírez-Salgado, we focused on the documentation pipeline. Specifically, we discussed structuring deliverables (e.g., Preliminary Design Report (PDR) and System Level Design Report (SLDR)) to align with both sponsor requirements and IPPD expectations. Emphasis was placed on maintaining traceability between the Product Design Specification (PDS), Technical Performance Measures (TPMs), and future prototype demonstrations.

These discussions clarified immediate priorities and ensured that our data preparation and documentation strategy are synchronized across team, coach, and sponsor expectations

Project Organization

Here’s how we structured things so far:
Code & Lighting Industry Info: We’ve started gathering resources on tools, standards, and best practices.
Background Docs: Uploaded materials include asset management ecosystems, AI opportunities for LAARK, and Autodesk’s current offerings. These are helping us frame our research directions.

Team Progress & Research Directions
We’re aligning our work with the Product Design Specification (PDS) and its performance benchmarks:
1. Interactive floorplan viewer with clickable lighting assets
2. Web-based system accessible across devices
3. Predictive AI for fixture replacement (≥90% accuracy)
4. Consistent data sync across Revit models, dashboards, and maintenance logs

These targets (our Technical Performance Measures) will guide us as we start designing and testing.

Looking Ahead:

Next week, Team 14 will begin shifting from resource organization into early data preparation and project management deliverables:
Lighting Cutsheets Processing – Start extracting critical fields from PDF cutsheets and reformat them into CSV datasets. This will make the data machine-readable and ready for integration into the asset management dashboard.
Project Roadmap – Build a high-level roadmap outlining all development tasks leading up to the System Level Design Review (SLDR). The roadmap will capture sponsor deliverables and prototype milestones while excluding minor IPPD tasks.

With these steps, we’ll move from setup to execution mode transforming raw data into structured inputs and translating project goals into actionable milestones.

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From Planning to Progress – Blog#2 09/12/2025

Published:September 14th, 2025
Category:Fall25

This week was a turning point for Team 14 as we began shaping our ideas into action. With clear guidance from our liaison and coach, the team is aligning on expectations, responsibilities, and the path forward.

Meeting with Liaison

Our team had a productive meeting with the liaison to review project requirements and specifications. This discussion gave us valuable insight into the company’s expectations and helped us fix a regular time slot for liaison meetings. We also prepared a presentation to communicate our initial thoughts and had an introduction session with the Liaison Engineer, setting the stage for future technical discussions.

Meeting with Coach

We also met with our coach, Dr. Andrea Ramírez-Salgado, to discuss project expectations and confirm a consistent schedule for team and coach meetings. These conversations are helping us build structure and keep communication strong.

Team Collaboration

Through a Brain Walking activity, we gathered ideas from all members, which sparked creative ways to improve our outcomes. We also discussed the product’s needs versus wants, a key step toward defining priorities. Additionally, the team emphasized the importance of creating multiple dashboards, including 3D floor plans, asset management, and energy optimization.

Looking Ahead

Next week, we plan to establish clear milestones, work on the liaison engineer’s expectations, and continue gathering product requirements and specifications. Our liaison is in the process of sharing data with us, which will be crucial for formatting documentation into usable datasets for predictive ML models.

By the end of this week, Team 14 is no longer just planning — we are actively building momentum. With clear goals, supportive guidance, and a collaborative spirit, we are moving steadily toward success.

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Kick-off meeting – Blog#1 09/05/2025

Published:September 5th, 2025
Category:Fall25

Team 14 Kick-Off: A Fresh Start with Energy and Purpose

This week marked an exciting milestone for Team 14 — our very first official team meeting. Everyone came together with genuine enthusiasm, eager not only to introduce their own strength toward the project but also to discuss about their questions and thoughts moving forward.

Team Member Meeting (on Sep. 3)
At the second day after the team established, the first meeting is organize on Zoom to exchange the information in our mind. By carefully went thourgh the solution documentation and the possible milestones, we formed a list of questions that we plan to solve during our meeting with coach and liaison.

Meet Coach (on Sep. 4)
Bring our questions of this project, our team member had their first meeting with coach Dr. Andrea Ramírez-Salgado. An in-depth discussion, covering the goal of project, the possible expectation from client, data access, AI benefits and more, was hold during the meeting.

By the end of meeting, there was a shared sense of confidence. Team 14 isn’t just a group of individuals anymore; we’re a team with a coach, a plan, and the motivation to succeed.

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