Thursday, May 22nd
This week's lab was a memorable busy week for us. The instructors commented on our final draft proposal. They clearly told us what to write and not to write in the proposal. We have to be more creative by writing a clear proposal which will be the fundamental of our product's presentation. It is very different from the project proposal at the beginning of the course.
Besides that, the instructors advises us to test on the different combinations of the coiling materials. We have to create various variables and carry out an experiment to get a result and an answer which one of the combinations is the best one to be used in this project.
We got a better and a clear understanding on what we will do in the remaining labs of this course before the final presentation. Once again, we divided different tasks among our group members. Some will focus on the experiment of the coiling materials to get the best muscle fibres, some will focus on the construction of the window, and some will focus on writing of the final proposal. We are looking forward to successfully get these jobs done and achieve our satisfaction before the final presentation.
WEEK 8
Wednesday, May 21st
We finally got the time and appliances needed to proceed with our coiling process properly. On this night, we gathered together at Aiman's house to try to coil the sewing thread and the fishing line. At first, it was quite hard to start as the fishing line is hard to be attached to the drill. But then, after we figured the way to tie it to the drill, we managed to do it smoothly. Here are some pictures of our progress of coiling that night.
Thankfully, the coiling progress went well as we proceed to examine the expansion for heat using the hair dryer. After applying heat to the muscle fiber, the muscle fiber really contracts although the contraction is not that similar to the one in the original video of coiling done by other researchers.
WEEK 7
Thursday, May 15th
As mentioned before, during this week, we intend to print the model of the Green House that we design using the 3D printer. Asyraf revised the design of the Green House as he has to make it in smaller scale to be fit in the 3D printer. Besides that, we also did the Draft Final Report that is due on Friday. After a great discussion on what should be put in the Draft Final Report, the report is finally done on that day. Later on Friday, we got the appliances such as the drill and hair dryer that we borrowed from Reva. We hope that our progress of coiling will be smooth later on.
WEEK 6
Thursday, May 8th
During the sixth week, we were planning to produce a small scale model of the Green House using a 3D printer, but unfortunately the 3D printer was occupied by other project. So, we intend to do it on the next week. We also had our blog checked by Dr Ellis and other instructors. A few comments and suggestions lead to some improvement of our blog. Other than that, despite the lack of proper appliances to do the coiling of the sewing thread and fishing line, we managed to coil it manually by using pens and our bare hands. The result was unexpected, we got a better result that last week. The coiling of the muscle fiber looked more regular and nice. Plans for next week; printing the model of the Green House, coiling of the muscle fiber and testing of heat reaction of the muscle fiber.
WEEK 5
Thursday, May 1st 2014
It was on the fifth week of the quarter that we had our fifth formal meeting at the lab. The fifth meeting is like a stepping stone to us as we got the design of the window done by using a 3D design software, SolidWorks. Credits to our project designer, Asyraf. We also tried to coil the fishing line and the sewing thread that we brought to the lab but due to inadequate appliances and apparatus, our effort doesn't produce a great result as the lines coiled but not in a uniform manner. We will try to coil the lines again next week using a more proper apparatus and hope that we will get a better result. Besides, we will also test the effect of heat on the muscle fiber and measure its percentage of contraction due to specific heat. Next, we will also try to print the model of the green house by using the 3D printer. Other than that, we keep our progress on track and tried our best to realize the concept of the thermally muscle fiber implementation on green house's window in future.
WEEK 4
Thursday, April 24th 2014
The fourth meeting lead to even more clarification on the concept and things that we should learn and work out. After doing some research and discussion among the group members, we decided that we would not implement any new materials in our project such as the 'metal that breathes'. We thought that with the implementation of more new materials in the project would require more time and focus research.
Besides that, we divided the task of doing more research regarding the materials needed to build a thermally muscle fiber, the suitable condition in a green house, the ways to implement it to a window of a green house and the mechanism of the window with the implementation of the muscle fiber.
As for that, our group leader Zaifrul did a research on the most suitable sewing thread to be used in the project which lead to the selection of nylon thread as the best sewing thread. The sewing thread will be twisted with combination of fishing lines. The selection for the fishing lines was tasked to Adib. He did a research on fishing lines that lead to two best fishing lines which are monofilament fishing lines and copolymer fishing lines. After he did thorough researches, he proposed to the teammates to choose the monofilament fishing lines. So, the team decided to used the lines as our main component for the muscle fiber.
Furthermore, Aiman did a research on the green house which includes the whole idea of greenhouse and its usage and also determining which aspect of greenhouse should this group be focused on that might help to achieve project goals . Other than that, Asyraf and Irfan work on the mechanism and design of the window that is applicable to the green house. Dr Ellis and Reva also gave some great ideas on the design of the window of the green house which really help us in designing it.
Early draft of the window mechanisms
During the weekend, we went out to buy the sewing thread and fishing line needed for the project and we found it at Walmart.
We also work on the design of the window using the 3D Designing software, SolidWorks and here's a sneak peak to the design of the project.
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Thursday, April 17th 2014.
The third meeting proved to be quite fruitful for us. We met up with each other and discussed further about the project, mainly about our expectations and goals on about this project. We were very fortunate to receive some advices from Dr. Ellis and Reva Street.
One of the things that had triggered our interest was about a 'metal that breathes' which was suggested by them. As a result, the meeting had really breathed some motivation and inspiration to drive us forward in making this project successful.
WEEK 2
Sunday, April 13th 2014.
To see things more clearly, we made a visit to Horticultural Center at the Fairmount Park. On this day, there was also a Cherry Blossom Festival held there. We took the golden opportunity to see the beauty of nature and stop by at the green house located in the park. In the green house, we observed the situation and the structure of the green house and tried to imply it to our project of implementing a thermally responsive muscle fibres at the window of the green house.
WEEK 2
Thursday, April 10th 2014.
Today, we recruited 2 more members. After a complicated discussion, we have decided to apply the artificial thermally responsive muscle fibers on windows of Green house. This is to ensure the ventilation in the Green House would be in an optimum condition. Thus, we have added this idea in our Design Proposal.
Then, we have submitted the Design Proposal before the class ended. At the same time, we have showed our Blog to the instructor to be reviewed. That's only for this week's lab. We are looking forward to search for a free time to start accomplishing this project seriously. :)
WEEK 1
Thursday, April 3rd 2014.
At around 3 o'clock in the evening, all of the students had gathered in LeBow 132 and sat randomly. After an inspiring introduction by Dr. Ellis, students had been given the opportunity to voluntarily throw out their opinions and ideas regarding the projects for this course.
After that, students are divided into a few groups according to the projects that they chose. So, we are a group with the project on "Thermally Responsive Muscle Fibre". Hopefully all of us will put 100% effort on this project and can finish this course successfully. :)
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