Weekly Project Update:

4-19-12: The team's presentation at the Student Research Symposium was very well received. We are taking our reviewers' ideas to heart and will factor them in as we prepare our final presentation for the semester. In addition, we are sending an abstract in to the ASME 2012 International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition in Houston, Texas. Wish us luck!

4-12-12: Everything is complete for the Student Research Symposium tomorrow and we are excited to present our project to a new audience. We are still figuring out the specifications for our truss and analyzing its stresses. The team met with our NMT advisor to discuss our controls system and we are making progress.

4-04-12: While we are still putting a strong focus on our controls system and the next prototype, we are also preparing for the Student Research Symposium on next Friday. We will be having a meeting with a professor to discuss our controls system and will hopefully have our FEA on the truss completed soon.

3-29-12: The mounting of the water ballast tanks is being halted until we complete the FEA on the truss supporting the mirror and contact Champion Truss for more information. Our controls system is making progress: we have the transfer functions we need, but still have to consider more factors into our design.

3-22-12: Today we presented our mid-semester progress. It went smoothly and we are excited to hear feedback on our project. In addition, we're working more on the controls system, will confinue our water ballast work soon, and are making progress on our detailed FEA.

3-1-12: Our focus has shifted a bit to our reports and presentations; mid-semester presentations are next week. In addition to this clerical work, we are still making plans to test out the ballast system.

2-23-12: We've sought help from the Electrical Engineering department and several Mechanical Engineering faculty members for our controls system. We will be meeting with some continuously, and thus might be picking up a team advisor.

2-16-12: In addition to the ballast testing, we also still need to work on the controls. In addition, the junior members are continuing their work on the third prototype. A more concise design concept might be prepared before the end of the semester.

2-9-12: We have begun work on our parts inventory and will be working more on it during the following week. We have also submitted our entry into the design symposium in April. We are getting more detailed information on how to finish our controls system as well.

2-2-12: Now that the first presentation is finished we are focusing our time on the fabrication of the heliostat. We will begin researching the controls system, working on the water ballast system, and work on a parts list. A schedule of our planned progress can be found here.

1-26-12: Our first presentation, the proposal, will be next week. We are preparing for that as we finish and submit our scheduled activities for the semester. A more detailed schedule may be up soon.

1-19-12: The first design meetings for seniors and juniors took place this week. We'll be getting our new members up to speed, planning and scheduling our progress for the semester, and continuing the construction of the prototype.

Old Update Sections:
Fall 2011 Updates
Spring 2011 Updates
First Prototype History