JPL Project and the Future

While I think I can speak for everyone in that not everything went according to plan in our projects. However despite this, there is still much to be happy with what are group was able to produce. For one, I believe that the creative aspects of our project executed perfectly. The commercial was well made and funny, the poster (which I worked on myself) came out very nice and visually pleasing, and the concept for our device was very unique and stood out in the crowd. Despite our shortcomings on competition day, I am still proud of what we were able to accomplish.

Are groups biggest problem by a substantial amount was lacking direction and confidence. This mostly relates to the build itself however I am not placing full blame on the build team as they are not the sole ones at fault and worked very hard these past few months. Regardless, it must be said that the direction of the build was a bit of a disaster. With constant non-stop revisions and minimal testing, we found ourselves in a position where we felt very unprepared for the competition the day before. Had we stuck to an original idea and focused our time on testing and then making micro adjustments rather than full on revisions, we may have at least felt ready for what was to come. For future groups I will make it a priority to avoid this aimless situation again.

The one piece of advice I would give my future self for the capstone project would be to stay focused. This area is one that I struggle with a lot in day to day life, with this project only exemplifying this issue. While no major problems occurred this time around and I finished my work satisfied with what I had done, I worry that if I don't try my best to work against this issue, I may feel the consequences in ways I am not prepared.