About Me

My name is Josabet Dawit. I am from Addis Abeba and currently a student in Addis Abeba Science and Technology University. I am studying environmental engineering in the hopes that one day i might be able to contribute in the betterment of our world so that people will be safe and healthy. And I am very passionate about my field of study because the most important thing for me in life are the people in it and environmental engineering will help me to give them a green and clean place to live in.

Weekly Reflection

Week One

The first week I got to meet my group mates and advisor. And that helped me to have a feel for our group and understand what kind of project best fit us. We were also able to discus about the orientation two days back and what we should focus on  for our project. We talked about which sustainable goals our project will tackle and what problems we can solve with the budget we were given and the limited time we had. It was an interesting challenge that helped us to come up with uniquely varying ideas based on the fields we are studying.

Week Two

The following week i spent reading the IETP materials and guidelines we were provided in the orientation and by our advisor. I also brainstormed and searched ideas that were suitable to a group that contained about seven departments of engineering in order to have space for everyone's contribution. By the end of the week we had a meeting with our advisor at the arranged time to exchange ideas. 

Week Three

This week we went over the ideas once more to make our final decision. After some discussion we realized some of the ideas worked really well together. In the end from the top three project nominees we chose to make a smart house that uses rain water to produce electricity along side a smart garden. We also put forth our contribution to the project that is specific to our area of expertise. 

Week Four

We met up to talk about how we were to proceed on the proposal that we will submit for the coming week. We divided up the topics each person taking one so that in the end to collect and compile into one full proposal. we also discussed in details the procedure we will be taking to make our project. and the parts each one of us are going to take and work on.

Week Five

The fifth week was the week were we divided the project between departments and worked on finding materials with manageable costs. We made further editing on the proposal. We also decided which materials we can buy and which ones we can make by ourselves. And this helped in controlling the budget under what we were provided. In the end we had all the information we needed on the costs from places that will sale the materials we wanted.

Week Six

We started purchasing the materials we needed. Since the budget was limited we had to find places we can negotiate for a smaller price. And with the new material we got we begin working on the project in our respective groups.

Week Seven

After acquiring the needed materials we gathered all of them to see how we can combine them to bring the project to life. That helped us to see if there were any other material we might have overlooked in our purchases. We also discussed how we can combine the parts of the project from each group in a cohesive way.

Week Eight 

We headed straight to prototype fabrication in this week. I was in the group of civil, chemical and environmental engineering where we worked on the food production side by creating the smart garden. We also worked on building the house and structuring the position of all the parts of the project in order to fit them on the plywood.

Week Nine

Over the course of the week, we primarily worked on improving the prototype's design and adding new features. We took some time to come up with ideas for different ways to improve usability and maximize effectiveness. Nevertheless, throughout this time, we ran into problems with energy production. The motor generator we first purchased turned out to be ineffective for the needs of our project. As a result, we had to look at other motor choices that would fit the requirements of our project.

Week Ten

one of the ways we solved the problems we had on production of energy was by integration of a specially designed, 3D-printed component for the power generator with the goal of maximizing energy production.

Week Eleven

We brought our subgroup's results together and tried to see if the result was as we had hoped. And the product was a pleasant surprise.

Week Twelve

This week we focused on finishing up our report and  preparing the presentation to our advisor.