Weekly Update

Since our last update, we decided to conduct more research on circuits and how they work.  Instead of a GPS embedded into the bracelet, we thought we can try to build a leak detector circuit. Leak detector circuits emit a sound that can alert individuals near by. Since our focus is on rural areas, we cannot create a circuit that is too advanced. A leak detector circuit is simple and easy to create.

Furthermore, this solution requires a single transistor touch switch setup, jumper wires, and a piezo buzzer. Using the jumper wires on one end they would be connected to the single transistor touch switch setup while the other end would be exposed to water. Once in contact with water that will open the paper to accept voltage or current which will lead to the standard NPN (single transistor) then causing the piezo buzzer to go off. We will also have an 1k current limiting resistor to make sure the current doesn’t go back to the NPN causing overheating to the piezo buzzer. Another feature that this system has it that depending on the amount of water depends on how loud the piezo buzzer would administer the noise. This will be a larger scale to our solution. It shows what would happen in the watch. 

In addition, we also brainstormed what materials will be used for the prototype. The face of the watch will be 3D printed. And we are going to purchase a simple watch band and put these two items together. This is what the solution will roughly look like. Moreover, we still need to print the poster and create the health education piece. Our health education piece will include more visuals due to the fact that visuals can help the residents of Bangladesh understand our solution. Additionally, the poster will include step by step of how we got to our final destination for this project. Stay tune!

 

Weekly Update!

We have finally finished sketching out our solutions and making the matrix and figured out what was the best option between the three possible solutions, which was fences around the house. The Matrix took a little while to come up with the criteria for it but we came up with: cost, efficiency, resources, applicability, durability, Installation time, funding, accessibility, environmental impact, and community support. The group started doing research on fences and we started asking questions about what the fences would be made out of. So, the research turned into researching about the soil around the houses and how durable the fences would be during monsoon seasons. While doing all this, the professors and T.As came over to our table to see where we were in the project.

They gave us insight about our solution and the problem we chose and how we have to explain how we got to one point to the another point, and because of that, we changed our engineering design and decided to do the Monitoring bracelets instead. Wednesday, we spend all class trying to come up with how the bracelet would work. We first decided on have the bracelet have a GPS embedded into the bracelet and then there would be a buzzer the parent would have and it would buzz when the child leaves the house and gets too close to the water. We were talked to again to clear up about what our problem was and what our solution was about the problem and learned that we should look up online about simple circuits. We would have to demonstrate how our engineering component would work. Next week, we would be doing more research on how to do a circuit, come up with an idea of what the design of the bracelet should look like, how its going to work, and see if we are still considering using GPS or something completely different.

Weekly Update #2

This week our main focus was on researching all 3 of the solutions we decided on last week which were; monitoring bracelets, fences around the home, and barriers separating land and water. As we did our research we began to come up with our matrix for deciding which one will be the most efficient. While doing our research we kept in mind a few things such as the demographics of Bangladesh, the cost, and the availability of the resources that would be needed and more. We also did research on the environment of Bangladesh and physical landscape of the country. We found what some of the low-income areas look like such as what it looks like where children play and how close the water is to their homes. We have not yet decided on which solution is the best because more research is needed.  

 

Weekly Update

Weekly Update!

This week, the group has worked on a matrix to figure out which problem to tackle on.The problems were caretakers were too occupied to watch the kids, water, the kids don’t know how to swim, lack of barriers, and children can drown days later due to residual effects. We all did research on the problems and we put that together in a word document and used that information to figure out the possible problems with the matrix. The problem the group chose was the lack of barriers. We have came up with three possible solutions which are; barriers separating land and water, fences around the home, and monitoring bracelets. In order for use to pick the best of the three solutions, we must do more research on those three possible solutions and then do another matrix to find the best solution.