Week 2 Update

Goals completed:

• Finalize project idea
• Create design proposal
• Finalize group roles

The very first thing we needed to do this week was to finish deciding on our project idea. We mentioned last week that we liked the idea of programming LED lights to match natural daylight. In order to make the project different that what had been done before, we decided to form the LEDs into a simulated window, to act more like a source of natural light. This worked to Matt and Alex's Computer Engineering strengths of programming and circuits, and to Kevin and Kevin's Mechanical Engineering strengths of building things.

We did some shopping around and decided that we could make a window frame out of wood with some sort of translucent pane to diffuse the light and make it less like individual points and more like natural daylight, while strings of LEDs could be hooked up to an Arduino for programming. These were materials we could easily get from either the engineering department or the internet.

Once we had a good idea of what we were doing, we worked on the project proposal. Aside from describing our design idea in more detail, we also set a schedule for ourselves. The first few weeks are taken up by research, design, and learning the Arduino. After that, the rest of the work is split up between making the frame, wiring the lights, and programing the Arduino. The proposed schedule is shown below.

Table 1: Proposed Timeline for the Design Project

	Week
Task	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Research and Product Purchase	x	x	x	x
Learning Arduino		x	x	x	x
Programming LEDs			x	x	x	x	x
Mechanical Design and Build			x	x	x	x
System Integration						x	x	x
Testing							x	x	x
Final Report Preparation							x	x	x	x

We also assigned roles specific to the design project, as well as our administrative jobs.

• Matt is the lead Arduino programmer and blogmeister.
• Alex is the lead electrician and researcher.
• Kevin C. is the lead builder and recorder.
• Kevin L. is the project manager and lead designer.

After this week, we have a solid handle on what our plan is.

Next steps:

• Finish ordering materials.
• Learn the Arduino.
• Research more details on LED daylight matching and health effects.
• Design physical window design.