Week 33 : A Quick Recap

First things first, I apologize for the delay on these posts. For a bit of context it was only this last Wednesday that I finished my last midterm, of which I did pretty good. With all those wrapped up and my passing grade secured it means I can devote time to make a poster for all the upcoming symposiums and conferences we will participate at.

The Aquino in it's striking
periwinkle chassis

As for where the project is currently well I have changed the method of data collection for starters. After a conversation with one of my S-STEM mentors, I was told about a program many people use for plant growth using a collection of photos to calculate the surface area of stems and leaves. Originally I was hoping to record the plant's growth using a small surveillance cam and condensing the footage to generate growth rates with pixel measurement ratios. Preparing to do this, I was informed that due to the use of what is at it's core a live feed camera I would need district level approval as it would be on a school network. As a week or so went by I was given the impression that they might take a while to get around to my request as there are issues with more gravitas that require their attention, which makes sense. Finding an alternate way to get highly accurate data was the next question, though I still hoped I had the possibility of using the camera as all footage would be stored on a server and would mean I would not have to buy external storage. With the newly mentioned software in the mix now, my partner James and I have decided to aim towards the use of this new method instead as it only takes minimal storage space.

The rectangular break in question

As for the Aquino, well it would not be one of these weekly update if I didn't post about a sudden problem that has been encountered. This week it was the pump, the last thing we wanted it to be. This last Thursday, James and I were preparing to start the experiment with a preliminary run to see if the hardware and software were good to go, that was when we noticed a hole in the pump. The pump we are using is made of a black 1 cm thick plastic chassis with a thinner 1/3 cm and less dense plastic used for it's gears. Our best guess is that the pump could have simply fell with the plastic chassis snapping off a part of it's chassis. Evidence pointing towards this is a perfect rectangular hole being  the culprit, meaning it could just be on part of it's manufacturing. In all fairness the chassis was from when I started this project so it is no real surprise that it is finally time to upgrade.

Despite what I regularly post on here, it feels like I am just dawdling in circles with no genuine progress. As of now it is unlikely that I will have any substantial data to present at these upcoming presentations, but I hope that a live demo will help curve any lack of confidence that my judges might feel in my project's legitimacy.