Log for 24 March 2016

Content:

- Reviewing of proposal with teachers

- Improving on ideas/ creation of new ideas

Process;

We first met the teachers to discuss on the proposal that we had submitted earlier. Our first proposal was to create a UV clock. The idea stemmed from the the luminescent property of fluorescent paint under the exposure of ultraviolet light. Fluorescent paint, under the exposure of UV light, will continue to exhibit glowing properties for a period of time even after the removal of the UV light. We wanted to harness this effect to create a more energy efficient clock and a better clock display. We believed that although UV LEDs were less energy efficient than LEDs found in most digital clocks today, our design of using less UV LEDs to 'write' the time and the lack of need for constant energy supply to the LEDs would reduce overall energy consumption. Granted, the use of the Raspberry Pi and and the mechanisms within the clock would also take up energy, but we believed that if this first trial was to work, we could create a UV clock with a circuit board that would cut down on further energy consumption. We also believed that the display of the UV clock would be far better than that of those in the current market. Mechanical clocks cannot be read in the dark and digital clocks require more LEDs and constant power supply to keep the LEDs lit. Aside from the technical advantage we believe the UV clock could hold over the other clocks present today, we were also fascinated with the interaction between UV light and fluorescent. There has been little research about such an interaction and little trials to incoporate such an effect into daily life and hence we also wanted to, during the course of our project, research and hopefully shine some light onto the issue. We also gave our project a high level of difficulty as it required first, the research and understanding of the glowing effect, and second, the programming skills such as that of x and y axis positional to move the LEDs to 'write'. Our idea got rejected and we then had a difficult time trying to think of another one.

Reflection:

Sadly, our idea got rejected. The teachers wanted us to prove with calculations the energy consumption of the UV clock against that of the digital clock. As the information on the internet is too little, we were unable to do so. Whereas, we treated the project as an opportunity to learn and experience, and wanted to test the energy consumption after it was completed to see if our hypothesis was true, the teachers wanted a useful product and wanted us to first prove that our hypothesis was true before carrying it out. We also wanted to use the project to conduct a first prototype and test the viability of using the UV-fluorescent interaction, focusing on the energy consumption less as the Pi could simply be replaced by a circuit board. However, the teachers did not agree with such a stand and wanted a final product to surface from this project. Hence, due to the many difficulties, we had to do away with the project with think of another one.

Personal Development:

The rejection of our proposal taught me that life is not always smooth sailing. However, if I have the will to learn, I should explore and experiment on my own even outside the school. The school offers us some financial aid but nonetheless some things can be done without much money. It helped me to most importantly understand the school in terms of the things they look out for in the project of the students and this will not only help me in the later proposals but through my remaining school life too.