We’re half way through SEED, and as promised, I have a solution to report! I also have some fun stories from our Friday potluck and Fourth of July bash. But first on the solution. It’s not what you would normally think of when you think of a design solution. We’ve called it many things in the past week or so, everything from machine learning (wow…), signal processing (um…), and lines. Just. Lines. But none of these really describe it well enough, so let me do my best.
Basically our solution is to take lots of data points for the unknown syringe, and combine those to get a better estimate for what the flow rate should be. We would first like to use the existing sensors in the Kasupe, and find a relationship between what these sensors measure to what the flow rate should be. How are we going to do this you might ask; well, we’re planning to measure many syringes, like at least a hundred, more towards three hundred. A lot, I know. But this is the only way we’re going to be able to implement our solution, so we are going to dive in and get to it.
As for the second portion of our solution, what we call “lines,” the idea is to get a length measurement for the body of the syringe. It’s like a mini ruler, but simpler; literally, just two lines. The nurse will input the volume she sees at both lines, and the Kasupe will internally calculate the length to volume ratio, to adjust the flow rate as needed.
We are all super excited that we picked a solution, now its time to get to work! But not without a little SEED bonding first…
This week had two awesome SEED events: the potluck and the Fourth of July party. We had a lot of fun, but let me talk about the food (since we all know I have a particular affinity to food by now…). The potluck had some amazing chili by Nick; I would say the perfect amount of spice for good chili. To pair that, Julia indulged us in her world famous cornbread. Rebecca made an amazing amount of a Brazilian dessert made of condensed milk. I brought chicken salad (my mom’s special recipe of course), Xiayao brought cute ice cream cones, and the list literally goes on and on. A true success I would say: lots of pots, and lots of luck everyone had enough food!
The Fourth of July bash also included great food! We successfully grilled without setting anything (or anyone) on fire. That in on of itself was a surprise, but the food was the real highlight. Picture juicy burgers (almost too juicy… yikes), crispy hot dogs (potentially burnt on some parts… yikes), and much more. It was a feast fit for the Fourth of July. And to round out the night, we watched the fireworks from the top of Martel College, close enough that our eardrums hurt. It was a blast.
It was for sure an exciting week, between the potluck, solution picking, and Fourth of July. Sometimes when its been a long week, you just need to enjoy some happy fish created on Adobe Illustrator… so I’ll leave you to it!
