About me
I'm Simera Bedassa, and I'm in my fourth year of learning civil engineering. I'm studying in Adiss Abeba Science and Technology university. I want to help build a better world. I'm interested in the challenges of making strong buildings and roads that last a long time. I hope to help create new ideas that help people and make our communities better places to live. I want to work hard and make a difference.
My contribution
As a civil engineer, I focused on making sure the physical setup of this prototype was strong. I ensured the components were securely housed within the provided enclosure so the system wouldn't be easily damaged. I advised on where to place the device for the best readings, considering factors like airflow. My role was to ensure the prototype is stable and suitable for real-world testing, and to consider the long term stability. I also thought about how the system could be used in different places.
I started by meeting with my team members and the project advisor to set up roles and what each person would do. After this, we talked about the project's goals, what it would cover, and what we needed to finish. As a next step, each team member was asked to think of two project ideas to show at the next meeting.
Finally, we made ways to talk and used tools to help manage the project so we could all work together easily.
During this week, we showed our ideas to the team. My idea for the project was:
Solar-Powered Water Purification System
The Solar-Powered Water Purification System project is about making a cheap system that uses sunlight to give clean drinking water to towns. This system uses solar panels to power water cleaning steps, making sure that water is clean from bad things and safe to drink.
Each team member showed their ideas, pointing out the details and how they could help people. With these ideas in mind, we talked about which idea best fit the project's goals and used different kinds of engineering. After thinking it over, the team chose the Arduino-Powered Air Quality Monitoring System as the main project. We also found a second idea as a backup, just in case the main project had problems.
The team finished picking the project idea, choosing energy-making sidewalks after looking at if it could work and if it helped with green goals. Roles and what each person was responsible for were split among team members to make the project plan, making sure all parts of the project were included. Each member was given different parts based on what they were good at, like research, design, and cost counting. Regular meetings were planned to talk about progress and put the parts together into one plan.
The team finished and sent in the project plan for the Arduino-Powered Air Quality Monitoring System. Each member's work was put together into a plan that covered important things like goals, how to do it, what we needed, and what we expected to get. We sent it in on time, making sure we followed all the rules. We are now waiting for comments from judges to move on to the next steps of the project.
During Week 5, we had an online meeting to check our progress so far and plan the next steps for the Arduino-Powered Air Quality Monitoring System project. Key things we talked about were making the project timeline better and thinking of ways to improve based on early comments. The team also gave out tasks for the next steps, like making a test system and getting the needed parts. We all shared our thoughts and ideas, making sure we talked clearly to keep the project going and agreed on our goals.
During Week 6, the team went to get the needed materials, including air quality sensors, Arduino microcontrollers, resistors, capacitors, and wires. A full work plan was made to help us with the project.
We made the diagram pictures and model design, showing how the system would work.
For testing, my job is to use Proteus to test the circuits to make sure things work well. And for making the software, we made basic plans for using Arduino code to take data from the sensors and control the system, as well as making a way to show the air quality data on a screen.
We had a meeting to talk about progress and decide what to do next for the Arduino-Powered Air Quality Monitoring System project.
We worked on putting together the test system this week. This meant connecting all the parts, like the sensors, controllers, and other electronic parts, into one working unit. We had to be careful with the connections and put each part in the right place to make sure the system worked as we planned.