Project Management¶
“A problem well stated is a problem half solved.” - Charles Kettering
This page discusses our approach to managing time and resouces to hopefully accomplish our goals by the end of the semester.
Individual Roles¶
Cooper Green - Responsible Engineer for the ground station and radio frequency communication.
Mayank Katwal - Responsible Engineer for the user interface and telemetry backend.
Vaughn Kottler - Responsible Engineer for the flight vehicle and control algorithms.
Abstract¶
Most projects require periods of learning. In some cases, learning objectives can be identified early on. One good example of such a learning objective in this context is the wireless communication between the vehicle and ground station.
We don’t have prior experience with this type of radio frequency communication. We know some amount of research and testing will be required to make an informed decision on component selection for this feature of the system.
Despite knowing this, it is still difficult to estimate the effort it will take to bring this part of the system online. This is generally true for “known unknown” aspects of a project.
Experienced engineers are often able to take a top-level “known unknown” and unpack it into a more bite-sized set of “knowns” and “known unknowns” to determine initial steps in approaching the problem and making forward progress.
This is important because “known unknowns” typically have “unknown unknown” components that can only be revealed by reaching certain milestones.
Plan of Attack¶
“If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” - Albert Einstein
We believe there is significant value in planning out the body of work before even prototyping and experimenting. The following diagrams attempt to capture how we intend to move into implementation and completion of this project.
