Week 2 Capstone Project

Week 2 Capstone Project Update

Great progress has been made this week for our project! There have been a few set backs this week but I think the class has handled them well. Although the weather has been terrible, and there was a holiday on one of our works days, Monday, January 21, 2019, we as a class were still able to take steps to getting closer to our first flight this semester. All members of the group have worked hard to step forward in our process of this semesters mission. All members made great progress on their tasks. Members of the group are doing well falling into their roles that we decided at the end of last semester.
 As manager of this project I have been trying to be involved in all aspects of the project. My main goal right now is to make sure that progress is being made each week by each member of the team. I want to assure that we start collecting data soon and so I've been working hard to help organize and keep track of these early phases of planning. I worked with Krysta Rolle this week to create a Google Document for the class. Before this Google Document we were using One Drive, and I feel like the class wasn't taking advantage of it. With our new Google Doc, we were able to congregate weekly updates, checklists, flight documents, general notes, and class photos into one area! 
During our class meeting session on 1/16/19, we split up into our teams and worked on separate projects. After finishing my work with Krysta on the Google Doc, I went from group to group making sure everyone was making good progress with their work. 
Kyle and Evan worked on making a flight area shaping map, using Arcmap (Figure 4). They also worked on making a 5 letter identifier word doc to easily organize and label each flight shape (Figure 5). I also had Evan check on everyone's schedule to make sure everything lined up properly so that he could finalize our flight schedule for this semester. 
Ian and Todd had some exciting work to do in class! Professor Hupy taught them how to pack a parachute for one of our drones being used this semester. One of their responsibilities is to learn from him and a manual how to pack this parachute and be our experts for packing the chute for the rest of the semester. I took a few pictures of them packing it and a picture of their first pack as well, which was a success when tested (Figure 6 and 7)! 
Over all, although there was bad weather, and a holiday in this weeks session, I think that everyone did a great job staying on task. My goal for next week is to get a better deadline for when we will be able to start collecting data. I also want to start thinking of a backup plan in case the bad weather continues for a few more weeks, about what data we can collect and how we are going to collect it. 

Week 1 Capstone Project Update

Week one has officially started for our Capstone Project. Over winter break, as a class, we have gotten a lot of necessary preparation done. We have had a few class meetings to help organize this semester so far. Everyone has been doing a lot of work to prepare for our first flight. I am thinking it will be in the next few weeks. We still have a lot of work to do. As project manager on this team, I have tried to be involved as much as possible in all work being done. I have asked for weekly reports from the team so I know where we are in the project and I am in charge or relaying this information with professor Hupy. So far a lot has been done including: flight schedules, meta data formatting, development of file and data storage pathing, courtesy notice document formatting, payload integration, and a lot of other planning as well. We have had two class sessions, one on Monday 1/7 and one on Wednesday 1/9. Our first class session was familiarizing the class with what this semester will look like, and getting to know our new equipment. For class on 1/9 Evan Hockridge took point in data mapping, and meta data formatting. We then had time to complete tasks within our own teams. Kyle Sheehan and coordinated our goals for next week which includes ground point work and naming points on our amphitheater map. In class, I scribbled down some deliverables I'd like to see in the next few weeks as well as check lists that I know need to be completed before each flight. You can find those note in the figures and field notes sections of my blog!