blogging

Although blogging is something I enjoy more than many other types of homework, I have unfortunately found that when I am frustrated with how things are going, I completely neglect blogging altogether. This is a problem, for both my grade and for keeping track of our progress, and is definitely something I am working on.

As for the group...and the project, and the progress... Again, hard to talk about without frustration and neglect, but powering through- my group is great. Everyone brings a lot to the table and we have very easy, free flowing conversation. People are motivated and there are moments of excitement and advancement in ideations as we look at books and websites people bring to our meetings. The project, is less than we had originally hoped, and we are definitely less excited about it than we had hoped we would be, BUT we are not dwelling in this.

We continue to meet nearly every net yet have nothing tangible since the small mechanism we had made for Friday's class. Finally, we put together a budget, and the beginning of prototyping is in site.

We have moved away from the inefficiencies of laying the panels on a flat plan, and have opted for something to increase its interaction with human beings as well as the sun. Our plane of moving solar panels has morphed into a 3D surface protruding out from a gallery wall and attracting potentially curious people towards it.

Inspired by the Mimosa plant, which reacts to touch, be continued to brainstorm how to engage a human being via our surface which is powered by the sun.

With today's meeting we have changed the motion of our solar panels to a flipping motion instead of an up and down movement. We have changed the sensor from one sensing voltage to one sensing proximity, and we have completed our budget.

I am still very concerned that our dome is no more efficient than the plane we had in mind.