Timeline and Executive Summary

Problem Statement

Temperature controllers currently on the market lack many essential, modern features such as the ability to control the device from anywhere and real time reporting of errors that occur.

Technical Challenges

The focus of our system is to be able to control the heating element with precision. This is challenging because there is a delay between heating a heating pad and it warming the medium. Therefore, we have to come up with control strategies to not overheat our medium and not let it cool to quickly. Another technical challenge of ours will be reading the temperature accurately. This will be done through the use of a thermocouple. On the software side of our project, there will be challenges in designing packets to send our data to our website.

Project Management Challenges

Our project consists of many blocks that are all interconnected. The most important issue that we will have to work on is making sure that all of our interfaces can connect properly. This will come down to our team's communication and designing the project together. There are many deadlines up ahead, so the team will have to use good time management to create a successful project.

Executive Summary:

Fall

During the first few weeks of the term, our team spent a lot of time learning about the project scope and the end goal of the project. After clearing up any confusion the group had during our second meeting with our client, the group worked towards completing the high level system design such as making requirements and creating a block diagram to display. Additionally, the group decided how the different project roles would be split. The group continued to meet with the client throughout the term about every 2 weeks. These meetings were used to make sure any new design ideas continued to align with the stakeholders idea of the finished product. By week 10, the group had completed the block diagram and systems requirements, and had completed the research required to implement the design.

Winter

The group began winter term by determining the criteria required to prove that the project had met the requirements. During this time, the group also started to begin implementing the design for the project. By week 3. the group had finished the user interface, the enclosure for the device, and the server used to communicate between the device and the website. By week 6, the group had finished all of the blocks that had been finalized fall term. This included the first draft of the PCB and website. The winter term ended by verifying that are system met 6 of the 12 requirements. Additionally, project management artifacts such as the website and artifact repository were updated.

Spring

Due to COVID-19, development towards completing the system stopped during spring term. This left a large amount of project management tasks for the group. The first few weeks of the term were spent finishing the project summary video and preparing the artifacts required for the virtual expo. After the virtual expo ended, the group moved to completing all the documentation for another group to continue the project. This included completing the closeout packet and updating and reorganizing the groups artifact repository to make information easier to find for anyone who adds to the project in the future.

Takeaways

One of the main takeaways from the project would be to thoroughly research everything that will be used in the implementation of the project design. The group did not spend enough time researching all of the parts that were used in the device. This caused problems in implementation that required extensive changes to the original design in order to meet the requirements that were originally made. Due to the abrupt end to the project, our team hopes that another group will be able to continue where we left off, using the next step documents as a guide for new ideas to enhance the project.

Timeline:

This timeline represents the four phases of development for this project: conception phase, design phase, test phase, and merge and present phase.

• The conception phase encapsulates the requirements and high level design of the project.
• The design phase encapsulates the design of the system blocks
• The test phase encapsulates the testing of individual components before merging
• The merge and present phase represents putting the blocks together to complete the system and finishing documentation