Disciplinary Grounding Statement for Thesis Submission
Engineering and Science Disciplines
As we work on our final project, we recognize that our project requires multiple technical disciplines. Those disciplines include software engineering, materials engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering, and environmental sciences.
We will use concepts of software engineering when programming the functions within our project. Industry-standard software engineering techniques will be used in the construction of our website, along with the development of the decision matrix our users complete.
Materials engineering is crucial to our project because we need to understand what materials can sustain the multiple climate hazards that we have outlined previously. The material composition of what is used during the construction of the energy grid matters as it affects the natural environment.
Electrical engineering is important to consider as we study the connection between the flow of energy within the powerlines and cables. For example, as the ambient temperature increases, residents are more likely to use their air conditioners and thus impacting the energy usage county-wide.
The concept of civil engineering is applied for breaking down the construction plans that our stakeholders will be proposing from the output given by our product. For our product to determine whether or not a plan is appropriate for construction in Miami-Dade, it must have a program that lists the types of infrastructures that can be applied in a specific area.
Other science disciplines to focus on include climatology and environmental sciences. Climatology is used when studying the current weather patterns as well as changes related to climate change. Environmental science is used when determining the environmental impacts of certain energy grid construction.
Social Science Disciplines
The social science disciplines our project includes are law, economics, and communication. Energy infrastructure follows legal guidelines set by the local, state, and federal governments. By understanding what the legal requirements are in Miami-Dade County we can begin to understand what changes are appropriate for our final project to recommend.
Economics plays a role in our project as one of our objectives is to determine the optimum return on investments when integrating renewable and non-renewable energy sources. With this in mind, we consider what methods should be implemented for a cost-effective solution.
Aside from communicating with one another on our team when it comes to brainstorming and project development we will also be communicating with stakeholders. During our project, we will be interviewing stakeholders to receive their feedback on our prototype.
Why does this project require an Interdisciplinary Approach?
An interdisciplinary approach is required because the outcome of this project affects government officials, utility providers, and people who live and work in Miami-Dade County. As the effects of climate change become more pronounced, we need to take into account the elevated risks climate change will pose to Miami-Dade County. Especially being that Miami-Dade County is located within a zone prone to hurricanes and other inclement weather occurrences.
We aim to leverage various perspectives to understand where our project can have the highest impact. While keeping the impacts of our project in mind, we are also mindful of the limitations of our project scope.
It is necessary to prioritize questions that focus on multiple areas apart from the engineering field, such as environment, weather, programming, and government influences.
It is necessary to gather help from ecologists, meteorologists, programmers, electrical engineers, and other professions across varying disciplines for the project to address all concerns.
Usage Of Knowledge
The methodology for evaluating and incorporating data into the platform we are creating was developed alongside our advisors at the Sandia National Laboratory, gathering their expertise and collective decades of experience to further utilize the resources available to us. Using valid sources with pertinent data was the baseline for beginning our project, which led us to seek out nationally backed research institutes that focus on climate data. An example of this, offered to us by our sponsors, is the National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC) which has provided not only climate data recorded in the past, but projections for the future with regards to the effects of climate change, perfectly fitting the scope of the project. The research methods that we are developing through this project have led to not only a wealth of resources for data but also what this data means for the project, such as giving us a clear outline for how the resilience of a system can be defined.
Our usage of knowledge is similarly being applied to the software engineering aspects of our project. The baseline knowledge amassed in our group led to the creation of our plans for implementing code into the platform portion of the project. Performance testing of all of the teammates' portions of code regularly will occur to verify the integrity of the code, where the performance testing methodologies were realized during the compilation of research on industry practiced standards for double-checking code. Additionally, the raw data of weather impacts will be processed through the code into calculable metrics that will allow the program to compare the proposed infrastructural design against, yielding a capability factor for the resilience of the energy grid.
User experience testing and user interface testing techniques have been researched by top institutions to provide us with a checklist of metrics to measure success from. The application of this knowledge will create feedback that enables our platform to be measurably intuitive for decision-makers using the tool, all while accomplishing the project objectives laid out in the problem proposal.
Advantages & Limitations of Incorporating Disciplines Listed Earlier
Advantages:
By incorporating multiple disciplines, the team gets to utilize a combination of project management skills, business skills, and technical domain knowledge.
Allows for the team to use one disciplinary field to benefit another field
For example, the usage of code review in software development helps with thinking about the route we should take with research methodologies
Limitations:
Consideration of trade-offs when incorporating multiple disciplines
For example, the electrical engineering component can have suggestions to make on the energy grid that is the most climate-friendly, but from an economic standpoint, it could run the risk of not generating enough profit
Team members can incorporate their own unconscious bias into disciplines that they are more familiar with