Time has really flown by over the course of SEED,can’t believe we already in the sixth week, one more week to go.Anyway,I started off this week with mapping out were in the OEDK our noise detection devices would be mounted.This was done to make sure the entire OEDK was covered and it turns out the basement alone needs twenty devices, which cost about sixty dollars each.We planned on making a device which costed less than a hundred dollars and we actually met that objective.

After that, the team and i went on to perform a validity test,which involved finding out what maximum range our device could effectively pick up noise. And so we mounted the device 8ft high, played a sound at 80db first at 5ft then 10ft,then 15 till we reached 20.We did this exercise three times and at every trial we found the very same results, the device detected noise up until 15ft,anything above that was out of range. The device passed our test because it was designed to cover a radius of 15ft. We closed the day off with ordering materials needed to make five devices as we were instructed to make five.

On Tuesday,Audrey and I dived into designing the final casing that we were going to use while Dylan worked on writing assembly instructions for the device with regards to wiring. Clement on the other hand,worked on the perf boards and by the day’s end, we all had finished our tasks.

Yesterday was a day planned for assembling our components into the casing we had designed and then testing to see if it worked as expected but after the morning meeting, all that changed. Dr Wettergreen first taught us how to sandblast and later suggested we use standoffs in an effort to reduce the amount of wood used in creating the case and after some discussions,we moved forward with idea.This meant we had to re design our case and thats what the team jumped into.

With that idea in motion,we ordered different types of standoffs,plastic ones for the electronic components and aluminium standoffs for attaching the back and front layers. We also made a couple of cardboard prototypes from the ideas we had on the final casing design until eventually we came to an agreement on one design that we were to laser cut today.

And so we begun today with laser cutting wood into the front and back plates and  laser cutting and sandblasting the acrylic that is going to be used on the face on the device.This was done while waiting on the electronic components we had ordered the previous day, which arrived just after lunch.The plastic standoffs were exactly what we wanted but that was not the case with aluminium standoffs and so they had to be returned.We placed a different order,on much smaller ones from the very same company we bought them from and hopefully,they will be here by tomorrow so that we move forward with mounting all the components on the plates, attaching the plates together and then testing our device.

 

 

One more thing, we had quite a great time today at SEED lunch.The guys ordered Italian and we talked about life after graduation in Africa.

Till NEXT THURSDAY!!!!!

The long week end

Hello world!

Last week,  we had a very long weekend which made me almost forgot one of the best places I have to be at, the  OEDK,  due to the Independence holiday. Honestly, I find it difficult to believe that the Land of the free and the Home of the brave was once colonized. During the same weekend on 6th July we had my country’s (Malawi) Independence Day celebration in Dallas.

Back to work!!!

We came back to work on Sunday for just 4 hours in order to jump start our week.  This week we have been working on Arduino code for the project, low fidelity and medium fidelity prototype covers, and the electronic circuit. My specific tasks for this week were designing the electronic circuit and transferring the circuit from the bread board to the PCB.  Truth be told, I enjoy designing and drawing circuits on my PC using Fritzing, NI Multisim and Proteus but when it came to transferring the circuit to the PCB, this gave me headache because I used to hate soldering. Imagine electrical engineer who hates soldering! This week I have eaten that frog (soldering) and I enjoyed it. I have just discovered through practice that soldering is one of the hard skills  that I posses and I even taught my teammates how to do it.

We have completed all our tasks for this week.  We had  a chance of testing our prototype and it is capable of performing all the basic functions.

We also had a meeting with our client Dr Abidi who was happy with our progress. Today we had a meeting with our faculty mentor, Gene Frantz.

 

I had a lot to do to catch up with the team as from Wednesday 10 July of this week after coming back from  my dad funeral .I will  like to thank Rice 360 family and every one else  for their prayers,comfort and support that you gave me during that hard moment ,you have being more like a family to me.

As for the team we had some more challenges that arose during prototyping that made us working more harder to meet the deadlines withing the week,hopefully we will have everything done before the coming of the next Monday.

Today I had a great lunch time with the crew member.I enjoyed the jokes and stories very much with inclusion of the food,it was nice.Also we had most part of our prototype working today which is like 85% of the whole intended prototype.Hopes we can finish it up successful when we have the left parts that we ordered coming in next week hopefully.

”NICE LUNCH MOMENT”

Independence Weekend

It was so amazing time cerebrating America’s and Malawi’s independence. I started my cerebration on Wednesday by going to watch the Dynamo game. It was so exciting and such a spectacular thing to be part of. The fireworks after the game were so amazing and so beautiful. On Thursday, Iwatched the fireworks at the Hermann Park after the symphony perfomance. On Friday, I travelled to Dallas with some Malawian interns where with some Malawians living in Texas there was a cerebration dinner and a soccer game on Saturday. There were so welcoming and encouraged us o work hard in our projects. There were so interested in our work and excited of our progress.

Week 5

Itsbeen a very busy week and 8 hours seem to fly by. I cannot believe its already Thursday.

Its like we skipped Tuesday and Wednesday, it has been that crazy.

This week started on a very different note as we had to change so much from the design that we chose to go forward with. The Design was to be adjusted forward using a ratchet hinge and that was the main system we wished to go forward with. To our dismay, the ratchet hinge was such a hard idea to implement, ratchet hinges are not sold on their own rather as part of machines and it was hard to find a ratchet hinge that can support 250 pounds without breaking. We were advised by our supervisors to review our way forward and come up with a workable solution. As a group with assistance from our supervisors, we made a new design that resembles a hammock sling chair.

Monday, 8th July

Created a low fidelity prototype of the new design resembling the hammock sling chair. We added rods in the sides for support. From this we learnt that we needed to revise its attachment not to be exactly like a hammock chair rather only four ropes to the carabiners.

We then moved forward to create a medium fidelity prototype from fabric. We dimensioned and started sewing the design. We were unable to complete the design as we had a lot of problems with the sewing machines. It was my first time to use an electronic sewing machine and the other group members had never sewed before. I tried on many scrap fabric but still could not get the right settings on the sewing machines.

Hammock sling chair first prototype

Tuesday, 9th July – Wednesday, 10th July

We continued on the medium fidelity prototype and luckily finished. Where we couldnt sew on the electric sewing machine, we did by hand. I was getting better and better and with research i got the settings right. After setting the machine, the work was more faster that on Monday.

We tested the device and it failed as there was a tear and when we started it tore off. From this failure we learnt of the stress points and places we needed to change the sewing technique. The sewing machines were still giving some problems but we were moving forward.

We made another prototype with wider seat and back and run another test. From this prototype we learnt of the need for leg comfort insertions and a less wider back.We also got ideas on how to insert the lumbar support and neck support.

second prototype

Thursday, 11th July

We started the day by dividing ourselves into two groups and each group was to make its own prototype with different changes so that we can test by the end of the day. We were provided with more fabric which was great as we need to make as many prototypes as possible. By the end of the day we were only able to finish one prototype as the sewing machines kept jamming and we had to do some sewing by hand. I had to teach the other team members so that we could do it together. It was a slow process but luckily, Dr Hunter and Grant fixed one machine and we used it to finish one of the prototypes.

Hoping to test it tomorrow and see how well the improvements we have made have affected the design.

 

sewing the D rings

I have learnt so much in this week and am happy that i can push myself to achieve more.

Till next week, Happy minds work better.

Chiso

This week has been a very productive week as far as  our project is concerned. Finally we have been able to have our device to apply negative pressure and we are able to control the rate of pressure which eventually we should be able to apply on the wound. Starting with the kickoff we had on Sunday we have been able to make giant strides as far as the project is concerned. We managed to get most of the components of the project to work. We have completed at least ninety percent of our circuit and the part which is remaining is the part that requires the arrival of certain parts which we have already ordered. We have the final design of  our cap ready and its been molded already.

Our team has a slight lag because one of our lost his father and had to home for a week. We still managed to make progress but his coming back has helped in the progress. There has also been some challenges with some of the materials ordered as they were faulty or had different ratings as compared to the ones stated on their datasheet. I love the coordination that we have on our group as it makes it easier to e different components of the projects concurrently..

We are now in the final stages of our device after which we should be able to have ample time for testing, i look forward to it and I have hope that we will be able to accomplish our project as required by our client in Brazil. I look forward to the joy of accomplishing our project excellently as I know that it will impact millions of lives not just in Brazil but Malawi and the rest of Africa.

I was off to a weird start of this week as i had traveled for the long weekend.Plan was to return on Sunday noon but due to bad weather conditions, i managed to return to Houston Monday Evening and hence i wasn’t around the OEDK that day.

I resumed work on Tuesday and i quickly dived into coding, focusing on the data logging code while Audrey wrote the data smoothing code and Clement and Dylan went ahead and wrote led blinking code. The coding took much time than expected because most of us weren’t exactly experts in arduino and so we had to take our time in coding and consult where necessary. As the day was coming to a close, i started up on the CAD files while the rest of the team where finishing up with the coding. I finished up early with my code because we agreed we were going to incorporate the data logging with the smoothing and so i moved on to the drawing while the rest of the team successfully finished coding.

On Wednesday i proceeded to finishing the CAD drawings in the morning while my fellow noise makers where working on integrating their individual codes. The integration proved difficult because each code was working perfectly on its own but once they were integrated, logical errors arose. As the saying goes, they’s always a silver lining somewhere, from the logical errors we realized the microphone we were using was not working perfectly with sounds below 80db and hence we decided to use the previous’s team microphone.

After lunch, Dylan Clement and I laser cut cardboard in an attempt to produce a medium type prototype and after an hour of cutting and gluing cardboard, we finally made our prototype. This was my first time to use a laser cutter and it didn’t disappoint, it was fun. After gluing the cardboard together, we added the electronics inside and tested to see if the LED’s were lighting up and they did. We ended the day with a team meeting and planned to finish prototyping the next day.

Moving on to today, i started my day off with helping audrey with integrating the code while clement and dylan finished up the wiring of the prototype. The coding took some time but we finally got a breakthrough just before our meeting with the project’s faculty mentor., Dr Gene Frantz. He advised us to start our write up soon and on what to improve on. The team always enjoys our time with the guy,he’s fun.

After the SEED lunch,where we i learnt a lot about the American culture, we proceeded to test our prototype and it worked perfectly. We then moved on to look for cheaper microphones that we could buy as the previous’s team one is a bit expensive. We capped off the day with a team meeting and then BLOGGING.

Weekend IS HERE,Happy 4th of July My American Friends in China!!!!Quite a week this has been, three days packed with almost everything life has to offer. Started off the week with mid summer presentations looming and so i and my fellow noise makers dived into creating a power point presentation in readiness for that. In doing this the biggest challenge we faced was coming up with a sound map that would ideally represent the noise levels in the basement of the OEDK. After some research, we found a way around it and created an amazing 3D map off MAT LAB. Just before knocking off, we had a test run on the presentations with the help of Grant and he pointed out on where to improve and what we had done quite amazingly and thats how Monday ended.

The following day was presentations day and i spent the morning editing the power point presentation where Grant had pointed out.  The presentations were upon us in the afternoon and they went by without a glitch, Clement and Dylan presented while myself and Audrey were reserved for the final presentations.After a two hour session of presentations, the team reconvened and ventured into learning how to solder and recreating the previous team’s circuit. The soldering part went alright, it was the recreation part that gave us a headache since following the circuit we found in Decibel’s Destroyers files didn’t help. We decided to continue working on it the next day but Dr Wettergreen advised us not to waste much time on it and give it one more try the next day. The day was going as normal until supper time when an asp stung me and had me at the hospital an hour later.Am feeling much better now after taking painkillers,thanks for asking.

Today, that we wasted no time but gave the recreation of the circuit one more go,this time with well rested heads. We decided to do some research on the connection of LED strips and found out we just needed some transistors and a 12v power supply and all our problems were solved.After  this breakthrough, half the team was tasked with coming up with a circuit diagram off the successful connection we had made while the other half analysed the arduino code and tried to improve it. Audrey and I with the help of Grant managed to come up with a much improved code and successfully tested it with the circuit and it worked perfectly after some troubleshooting.

After troubleshooting, i logged on into my blog and started typing the very content you are reading right now and now, AM DONE with a huge smile on my face ready to have me some fun on this LOOOONG Weekend..

HAPPY PRE 4TH AND 4TH EVERYONE.IN GOD WE ALL TRUST,ENJOY RESPONSIBLY!!!!

I kicked off my week with a wind up on the research that me and the rest of the three ringers were conducting after which, we made an interesting mind map. On the very same day, we presented our mind map to the rest of the SEED participants who threw in some pointers of what we needed to improve on and we did just that soon after the meeting had ended.

Tuesday is the day we had the very first formal meeting as Ring the decibels, at which we assigned weekly roles to each one of us and drafted our plans for the project. I must say, the team has improved a lot since the team pit stop and we making so much noise now, literally. After assigning who was doing what, we proceeded to define our design criteria and taping the entire basement of the OEDK for Sound mapping, and this was way tiresome and something we urge no one to try.

To finish the day off, we had a Solid-works tutorial led by Grant.

I begun the following day with a presentation on the design criteria we had developed, which was improved afterwards. It was a pretty busy day as we went on to make a Gantt Chart, a table of contents binder and check out the microphones that had arrived from the order we placed the week before. The highlight of the day was probably the  collection of sound data that we did the rest of the afternoon. So we basically made loud and annoying noises and measured the levels at different points in the basement and surprisingly, most people didn’t put a smile to it like the rest of the team did. We’ll give it a try soon, maybe they will enjoy it this time around.

As of today, i and the team brainstormed on different solutions to the project, after which we proceeded to make a morph chart, screen and score our solutions. We also had SEED lunch, sandwiches and chips, where i noted the Doritos from this part of this world taste’s weird. To cap the day off, we met the Huff’s, quite a nice, chatty and cute couple and the team actually took a picture with them. The week has been fun and all i can say is, TO MORE NOISE this summer.

 

The second week of SEED has blown by pretty quickly.Started the week off with a workshop on the use of  various tools in the OEDK. Most of the tools i had never used before so this was both fun and educative and we had very good Teaching Assistants (Grant and Adulfo) who basically eased the whole process. Most of the RICE students had also used the tools before and so they threw in some pointers as to how best we could them.

On the following day,i and my fellow teammates (Majdah,Clement and Colbin) proceeded to make our low fidelity prototypes for Luna’s proposed enrichment device. After we had thoroughly analysed our designs and learnt a thing or two from them, we proceeded to make a medium fidelity prototype. Originally, we wanted to use car tires in making our medium fidelity prototype but after an hour of trying to fit tires we found outside, we settled on making one with cardboard,tape and a PVC pipe. After we had completed the prototyping,we proceeded to test it,though the tests where limited since the material we used would have easily been damaged if we put it under some specific tests e.g The Clean-ability test wasn’t feasible since water damages cardboard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We continued the tests on our prototype, performing kick,balloon and drop tests to check its safety. The prototype proved to be very safe and it did the job it was required to do very well by making sure Luna’s feeding time was extended to 52 minutes and proving she had to work for the food. We Proceeded in the afternoon by making our final presentations on the Zoo project and they were successful.

On Wednesday, we were all assigned to our respective teams that we will work with on a summer long project and i was assigned to The Ring the Decibels team. Besides myself,the team comprises of Dylan Rivera, Clement Misomali and Audrey Yao and these are incredible guys to work with. In brief,the project requires us to design a device that alerts users of the OEDK if the levels of noise in the kitchen are above threshold.The project was initially developed by first year students here at Rice, our team is looking into improving it and putting it into full use. And so,we didn’t waste much of our time but buried ourselves into research,reading everything we could find on the Project and that’s how we ended our Wednesday.

Today,we begun the day with a team meeting where each team described their progress so far,the problems they encountered, what they propose to do to solve these problems and what they will do on that day. After the meeting, we have been back to research and as of this afternoon,begun 3D printing some of the designs we found in the research documents that were left by the first year team.

In summary, it has been a very interesting week in which i have learnt a lot and am more excited of what is to come.

 

Hie,My name is Wilson Alvin Kalambo, aged 23 and am an Electronics & Computer Engineering graduate of the University of Malawi, The Polytechnic. I am one of the 6 Malawian students participating in this years SEED program.

The very first week has been fun, mostly spending time in team building exercises. Got to know the people from rice university, both the students and the professors, they are really nice people i must say. I also had the chance of getting to know their country and different cultures they have much as i tried to shed more light on my very own culture.On a more serious note, i got the introduction to the engineering design process,got my Rice ID sorted out and took a quiz on the safety guidelines on the use of various tools in the OEDK,which i passed by the way.

Also, i visited the Houston zoo,where we (the entire team) where tasked with a project which aims at designing an enrichment feeding device for an obese pig and that’s what the entire team is working on at the moment. The project should be done by next Wednesday and so far, its going great.After the Zoo visit,the entire team had lunch together and had some staff members of the OEDK as our guests and this was a nice activity since we got to know the fellows a bit more.

In addition, i have met new people and learnt a whole lot with the state of art technologies the kitchen has and these are things that have left a smile on me and am looking forward to learning even more. I hope and believe by the end of summer,i would have expanded my social capital base and increased my knowledge regarding engineering design and life as a whole.

The First Week In Pictures: