Reflection

At the beginning of this project we hoped to construct a working prototype that fit the constraints, must most importantly would actually help people using NARCAN. After many months of tweaking programming and building we did that. Each member of the group was integral to every step of the design process. Maddy did a good job as project manager, Joe and Ella persisted through all of the bumps with the electronics, Kai designed the caps and separation pieces and a professional looking logo, and Sylvie and Vivian stayed on top of communication. Everyone worked amazingly well as a team, and we were consistently on the same page with our hopes and goals.

As you can see from our Gantt chart building and revising took up the most time with this project. We breezed though the problem statement, elevator pitch, Current solutions, constraints, viability, and decision matrix part of the project. At the same time we did a good job with raising money to help pay for our prototypes through SHS Foundation, and our GoFundMe page. All of the materials turned out to be pretty expensive, and none of it would have been possible, without that fundraising piece.

Gathering materials for our first prototype was one of our biggest problems. Coordinating what we wanted to use for materials, with shipping times, and getting the money figured out was very challenging. We also had a hard time getting the electronics to work with the Arduino Uno.

Our community experts were our most valued source. At first we met with Molly Dolan, a field nnurse working specifically with homeless people in the Metro area, who described more of the problem in depth to us, and gave us NARCAN, two needles, and instructions and showed us how it was distributed. Then we met with Nick Sieger, who is a computer programmer, who was able to look over our code when we got stuck. He made it much easier for us to move forward because non of us had a lot of experience fixing coding errors. Another community experts name was Luke Haun. He helped us choose a phase change material, and provided us with valuable advice to use a thermos for our fist prototype to get things moving. He also let us borrow a temperature sensor that recorded data on to the computer, which made our tests extremely accurate.

By the time we had constructed our second prototype our biggest problem was the temperature sensor giving us impossible readings. Such as our classroom is 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Ella and Joe were able to fix the by ordering more sensors, and soldering it to the breadboard.

With a few tweaks to the design of the container, and the order we put in each component, as well as a completely soldered circuit we had finished our final prototype. It met all of our constraints, and we were very exited.

Lessons Learned:

• Don't buy electronics off of sketchy websites
• Stay on top of your work, because it will pay off in the long run
• Abide by group guidlelines
• Have good communication with your group members
• Don't be afraid to reach out to new people in the community
• Don't be afraid to make big changes in your design
• Be open to new ideas
• If something doesn't work, propose alternate solutions rather then spending all of your time trying to fix it