This week was full of ups and downs.
Tuesday: Thankfully, Florence’s VISA application went smoothly, and he plans to be in Houston next week! David was not so lucky, so we will continue to meet virtually as he navigates this challenging process. Personally, I was disappointed to hear that bureaucracy had once again sought to ruin my plans. On the flip side, we will have no choice but to establish and effective mode of communication; our team meeting with Dr. Holmes facilitating sought to solve that problem, but unfortunately David’s meeting with the VISA officers meant he was unable to attend. I am hopeful that we can get back on our feet and go make something awesome!

Wednesday: On our Womb of Warmth project, we have completed over 2/3 of the preliminary testing! This means we are almost on track to be complete Week 4, which is exciting. We had a team meeting for KIMK(the nuance of the pun is what makes it a great team name!) but technological issues and a power outage hindered our efforts. As a result, Megan and I worked independently for the most part, finishing up some documentation and planning. In essence, we were reviewing what we’d made for the 4th or 5th time; sometimes, it can feel pointless to accomplish busywork without a reward. Hopefully tomorrow is better!

Thursday: Today we met with our team leads to clarify our progress. With their guidance, we moved up our timetable to complete brainstorming by the weekend and order the necessary parts for the extruder. We changed our mode of communication to WhatsApp audio, and thus far it seems to be a sound alternative(pun intended). Additionally, we attended our third networking lunch, and thus I acquired my lunch for Friday(the life of a college student). 

Friday: Today, we attended an important Design Workshop led by Dr. Hunter that helped us craft our brainstorming plan. When Florence arrives on Monday, we will be able to jump straight in and hopefully have a prototype by the end of the week!