Msmith - Vaping Detection & Mitigation Pathway

Week 2
Things Learned:

Technical:

  • Obtained more knowledge on FPGAs and logic gates
  • Gained a greater understanding of vaping devices (and their harmful effects) and vaping detectors
  • Learned more about conducting/putting together a survey and what are good questions to ask/how to phrase questions
  • Learned how to send out a survey to a large population

Tools:

  • STEM-Away Forum
  • Slack

Soft Skills:

  • Found how to effectively communicate with team members virtually

Achievement Highlights:

  1. Sent out the survey that was created to get as many responses as possible
  2. Watched the FPGA Training video that I wasn’t able to make in person/ Watched the Intel FPGA lecture
  3. Attended team meeting

List of Meetings/Trainings:
7/20 team meeting, 7/22 office hour, 7/23 FPGA training (watched the recorded video), 7/27 team meeting

Goals for this upcoming week:

  • Get more survey responses early in the week
  • Work with team on Week 3 deliverables/presentation
  • Watch recorded FPGA Training that I cannot attend

Tasks Done:
In the past week,

  • I watched the Intel lecture on FPGAs. I couldn’t register at first and went to office hours to get help from the leads with this.
  • I sent out the survey to obtain data/responses. I had to figure out different ways of sending the survey so it could reach the maximum amount of people.
  • I attended team meetings.
1 Like

Week 3
Things Learned:

Technical:

  • Had more practice with FPGAs and logic gates
  • Worked on skills relating to analyzing and graphing data
  • Learned more about researching a product (& gained more knowledge on current vaping detectors on the market)

Tools:

  • Trello

Soft Skills:

  • Continued to effectively communicate with team members virtually
  • Learned more about the LinkedIn platform

Achievement Highlights:

  1. Got 50+ responses to survey
  2. Met with sub-team to plan our work for the week
  3. Finished Week 3 deliverables & presentation

List of Meetings/Trainings:
7/30 FPGA training #3 (watched the recorded video), 8/1 Vaping Co-team meeting, 8/3 team meeting

Goals for this upcoming week:

  • Work with team on Week 4 deliverables/presentation
  • Watch/attend FPGA Training/meetings throughout the week

Tasks Done:
In the past week,

  • I finished getting 50+ responses to the survey. This was challenging, but I figured out different ways of sending out the survey to reach the required number of responses.
  • I finished the Week 3 deliverables/presentation with my sub-team
  • I attended team meetings.
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Week 4
Things Learned:

Technical:

  • Had more practice with FPGAs and logic gates
  • Learned more about researching a product in a more technical way(& gained more knowledge on current vaping detectors on the market)
  • Got introduced to block diagrams

Soft Skills:

  • Continued to effectively communicate with team members virtually
  • Learned about fluency vs flexibility
  • Worked on critical thinking and drawing conclusions

Achievement Highlights:

  1. Communicated and researched with sub-team
  2. Finished Week 4 deliverables & presentation
  3. Moved from observer to participant

List of Meetings/Trainings:
8/6 FPGA training #4 (watched the recorded video), 8/7 Week 4 Team Presentations (watched the recorded video), 8/8 Vaping Co-team meeting, 8/10 team meeting

Goals for this upcoming week:

  • Figure out problems with downloading Quartus
  • Work with sub-team on Week 5 deliverables/presentation
  • Watch/attend FPGA Training/meetings throughout the week

Tasks Done:
In the past week,

  • I finished the Week 4 deliverables/presentation with my sub-team.
  • I attended team meetings.
1 Like

Week 5
Things Learned:

Technical:

  • Had more practice with FPGAs and logic gates (through 10 level challenge and labs)
  • Worked on creating and researching block diagrams

Tools:

  • Intel Quartus Prime

Soft Skills:

  • Continued to effectively communicate with team members virtually
  • Learned more about resume building
  • Practiced critical thinking and suggestion

Achievement Highlights:

  1. Met and researched with sub-team
  2. Finished Week 5 deliverables & presentation
  3. Found a solution to problem with Quartus and was able to do 10 level challenge with logic gates and began lab in Quartus

List of Meetings/Trainings:
8/12 Office Hours, 8/13 FPGA training #5 (watched the recorded video), 8/15 Vaping Co-team meeting (watched the recorded video), 8/17 team meeting

Goals for this upcoming week:

  • Work with team on Week 6 deliverables/presentation (organize and find trends in data)
  • Watch/attend FPGA Training/meetings throughout the week

Tasks Done:
In the past week,

  • I finished the Week 5 deliverables/presentation with my sub-team
  • I went to office hours to try and solve my issues with downloading Quartus. @mandyTT9T helped our team by sharing her screen and opening Quartus in a meeting we scheduled. We were able to do the logic gate challenge and start the lab.
  • I attended team meetings.

Week 6
Things Learned:

Technical:

  • Had more practice with FPGAs and verilog
  • Worked on skills relating to analyzing and graphing data and finding trends in said data

Tools:

  • Worked a lot with google sheets this week

Soft Skills:

  • Continued to effectively communicate with team members virtually
  • Learned more about what an engaging presentation looks like
  • Gained more knowledge on publications

Achievement Highlights:

  1. Compiled data and communicated with sub-team about splitting the tasks
  2. Analyzed and graphed compiled data
  3. Finished Week 6 deliverables (report and presentation)

List of Meetings/Trainings:
8/20 FPGA training #6, 8/21 Publications meeting with Mandy (watched the recorded video), 8/24 team meeting

Goals for this upcoming week:

  • Insert information into final presentation slides
  • Complete final assessment
  • Watch/attend FPGA Training/meetings throughout the week

Tasks Done:
In the past week,

  • I finished the Week 6 deliverables/presentation with my sub-team.
  • I attended team meetings.

Final Self Assessment
Things Learned:

Technical:

  • Gained more knowledge on FPGAs, logic gates, verilog, and block diagrams
  • Learned more about conducting/putting together a survey and distributing said survey
  • Had practice with thoroughly researching a product/an industry
  • Worked on skills relating to analyzing and graphing data and finding trends in said data

Tools:

  • STEM-Away Forum
  • Slack
  • Trello
  • Intel Quartus Prime
  • Google Sheets/G suite

Soft Skills:

  • Found how to effectively communicate with team members virtually
  • Learned more about the LinkedIn platform, fluency vs flexibility, resume building, engaging presentations, and publications
  • Worked on critical thinking, drawing conclusions, and providing suggestions

Achievement Highlights:

  1. Sent out survey and obtained as many responses as possible (50+ responses)
  2. Completed all deliverables that were assigned; focused on analyzing the survey data towards the end of the internship
  3. Completed assigned FPGA Training labs in Quartus

List of Meetings/Trainings:
7/14 Introduction to FPGAs by Aravind Dasu, 7/16 FPGA Training #1, 7/20 team meeting, 7/22 office hour, 7/23 FPGA training #2 (watched the recorded video), 7/27 team meeting, 7/30 FPGA training #3 (watched the recorded video), 8/1 Vaping Co-team meeting, 8/3 team meeting, 8/6 FPGA training #4 (watched the recorded video), 8/7 Week 4 Team Presentations (watched the recorded video), 8/8 Vaping Co-team meeting, 8/10 team meeting, 8/12 Office Hours, 8/13 FPGA training #5 (watched the recorded video), 8/15 Vaping Co-team meeting (watched the recorded video), 8/17 team meeting, 8/20 FPGA training #6, 8/21 Publications meeting with Mandy (watched the recorded video), 8/24 team meeting, 8/27 team meeting, 8/27 FPGA Training #7 (watched the recorded video), 8/28 Final presentations

Upcoming goals:

  • Successful continuation of this project

Tasks Done:
In the past weeks,

  • I finished the Week 3-6 deliverables/presentations with my sub-team and completed the final presentation with my team.
  • I worked on assigned FPGA Training labs/challenges
  • I switched from observer to participant
  • I attended team meetings.