Expectations & Disappointments By Idalis Maldonado

Now that we as a group have decided what we want our product to be it’s a matter of figuring out of how we’re going to put it together. Our group consists of three biomedical students and one engineering student (myself). I feel bad because I feel like my knowledge is limited and I’m afraid that the “engineering” portions that need to be done are not going to be done efficiently or that they’re going to be done wrong. My group is trusting that I know what I’m doing…and it’s not that I don’t know what I am doing, I guess I just don’t want to let my group down. We are putting in a temperature sensor because we were told that our helmet was too “basic” and that anyone could just go grab a piece of terry cloth, goggles, and whatever else the helmet calls for. The temperature sensor will be added in and that is going to require me to use a breadboard and do a truth table. Although I took a digital electronics class last year, I did struggle with it. I think the best solution to this problem is going to be that I go and ask Mrs. Dadmehr for help. Overall my main concern is trying to get the sensor to work, and not letting my team down if I can’t get the sensor to work in our final product.

For the past few weeks I’ve been working on Google sketch up and it’s been kind of frustrating because I’m use to working on auto cad. But I constantly remind myself that I’m lucky that because I’m using Google sketch up that I don’t have to start my construction helmet from scratch, or re-create the things I have to add onto the construction helmet from scratch as well. What has been frustrating about using Google sketch up, is that since I’m not as familiar with it as I am with auto cad, it takes me longer to add certain pieces together or to move things around. If I could describe it with one word then I guess you could say tedious would fit this description the best. I’m hoping that after a while I can grow accustomed to how Google sketch up works and become comfortable enough with it where it doesn’t take me as long to create or add certain parts that our design calls for.