Ideas, ideas, ideas! That's what this week was all about. To start off work on our final project, we were each tasked with coming up with 20 needs and two solutions per need - resulting in a grand group total of 120 needs and 240 solutions! Fortunately, prior to lab, each group member had to choose their top 5 needs, bringing the total to 30 needs and 60 solutions. During lab, we systematically began tossing out ideas by 1) practicality, 2) complexity, and 3) mechanical level. To elaborate, the last criterion on that list was for determining if a solution was more mechanical or electrical in nature. It was fine to have some electrical components, but if a solution or set of solutions focused too much on the electrical side, it was removed. After all, this course is MMAE 432 - Design of Mechanical Systems!
With approval from Professor Spenko, we continued to do research and come up with different ideas in preparation for the "3 Needs Presentation" in the following lab on February 9th, where one of the three ideas will be eliminated.