C, Seeing, and Smooth Seas

We learned coding in C, got people to look at our lines, and it looks like we have smooth sailing from here on out!

Eddie sat us down and taught us the basics of C, so we could understand exactly what was going on when developing the solution. We had a nice few moments of trying to display “Hello World!” and doing basic math, then all rewrote the lines code from scratch to get a grasp of how C works. After that, I wrote an entire testing code for simulating the Kasupe procedure on a laptop. It wasn’t too hard; once I got the syntax down, the coding fundamentals from other languages translated very well.

We also conducted a survey on how easy it was for people to use the lines on the Kasupe. They would input the volumes they see at the lines into a Google Form, feeding straight into the big Better Syringe Sheet. We tried to get measurements at the RMC in the morning, but didn’t have much success. We went back around lunch, though, and I ran into a bunch of people I knew, including Richard from my ENGI 120 team, who volunteered to help with our survey.

The data was really good! For the most part, people got correct enough measures of the lines, and spent less than a minute doing so. When they did mess up, however, it was usually by a lot. While this sounds really bad, it’s actually great news! Far from expected results should be easy to filter out. It looks like our job ahead should be easy!

We (minus Julia, she was at a wedding) designed a backup checks system to protect against these kinds of extreme results, involving checking the lines and sensor data against each other, but also against known data. It was a huge undertaking, but it saves syringes while still saving lives. After ironing it out, all that’s left is finishing implementation, documentation, and presentation!

 

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