This week marked the official start of our IETP project. We met our project advisor, Molla Wudye and team members from Software, Electrical, Mechanical and other departments. We discussed the expectations from the project phase, moving from idea to research. Our advisor outlined that the project needed to be original and ensure full integration of all the engineering departments. Then we parted ways and decided to do some thinking. And by the end of the week we decided the possible things we can do.

Building on our initial discussions, our group thought of specific project ideas. One member strongly suggested the automated underground water detection robot, which resonated with everyone do to its clear social impact and technical challenge. My role was to help with the project overview, highlighting the civil engineering applications and ways I can help. We submitted our detailed project proposal, which was approved by our project advisor, Molla Wudye. This moved us into the design and engineering phase where our advisor suggested that me and Biruk Arkise should bring a drawing (sketch) of the materials involved, which we did later that week.

This week involved a lot of planning. I worked closely with Biruk Arkise on initial sketches and drawings, as suggested by our advisor. We also began gathering accurate information on component costs to establish a realistic budget.

As we go in to the prototype design, I helped other team members understand the geotechnical principles behind soil resistivity .In return,I learned immensely from the software students about Arduino C++ programing (which was difficult to understand as you might expect from a civil engineer, but I tried my best) and how the code would control data. We collectively researched and finalized the list of core components we would need: the Arduino , motor shield ,electrodes, Lcd display with i2c module, wheels and others involved. 

In our final planning week before assembly, we knew all necessary components needed. We discussed in detail how the robot would function as a whole system: from wheel movement, electrode deployment into  the soil, resistivity measurement by the circuit, data processing by the Arduino, to final output on the LCD display. We reviewed the total costs ( which was more than the given 10,000 birr ) and assigned clear tasks for the upcoming build phase. This ensured that every team member understood their role in building and assembly stage, setting us up for efficient prototype construction in the following weeks. 

Each member was assigned with a specific component to buy , in my case I was assigned to buy LCD display and I2c.While others were tasked to buy the others. We all did our parts then we started the assembly and building it.