Meeting Minutes 8-21-2008

From GT RoboJackets

Contents 1 General/TE Sessions 2 Mailing Issues 2.1 This information is now on the Wiki 3 Server 4 Intro Meeting 5 Retooling/Clean-up 6 Proposals 7 Budget 8 Dang Mobile 9 FIRST Kickoff 10 IEEE Robot Club 11 Shirts

General/TE Sessions

• ME account: ~4k (short because we are owed some that hasn’t come in)
• Labview licenses : ~20 are on the way They are here in the Tin
• Don’t know if laptops are available still
• Booking rooms starts September 2nd so that’s when we should start TE sessions?
• If we can’t book a room, what should we do?
• Try and get Student center ballroom if necessary.
• Maybe get the Flag Building?
• Planning to have around 10 sessions
• Sent emails out to teams that were here last year. But we should send follow up emails
• What’s the curriculum and who’s presenting at each presentation?
• Intro/intro mechanical, 4 more mechanical meetings, a few electrical, 4 LabView meetings (starting from scratch)
• Need volunteers. Will send summary/ppt the night before about LabView. Then one person will sit down with each team and teach them the lesson.

Mailing Issues

This information is now on the Wiki

• UPS will only send mail to central receiving for each department.
• UPS will not send mail to any other specific address on campus
• ME Central receiving is the best option

Server

• Physically running
• GT will provide name services on campus
• RoboJackets has to go through SGA for them to recognize that RoboJackets can get website with campus IP address and run there.
• Website is needed and might have it up and running tomorrow Is up and running thanks to Roman. Woot!
• SGA needs to send an email to Neil Bright at OIT so that he can say that robojackets.org and .gatech.edu are good and can be on campus DNS servers

Intro Meeting

• September 4th 7pm but meet at 6:30pm in Student Center Ballroom
• Each team in responsible for making a poster about their team.
  • Each team has an aisle by their table that they can put a poster on
• Short intro talk, presentation?, and then send to tables
• Need Battlebots and IGVC Posters

Retooling/Clean-up

• Already cleaning small cabinet downstairs EE room is clean. Thanks to all those that came by.
• Buy the stuff we need for the year and clean up --Still need some other tool items

There will be a wiki page created and you can put a list of things you need on it

• Need someone in charge of cleaning mechanical area (people who have been and worked in that area) (Saturday?)
• All teams need to clean up shelf area and organize tools (know where they are)

Proposals

• Around two pages
• Explain how much you’re going to spend.
  • three main items: the background, the solution, and the methodology.

Background: For current projects the background contains the previous year's results and more specifically all the successes and failures. For new projects, the background is all the information needed to understand the proposed project. In either case the background is motivation for the solution.

Solution: The real meat of the proposal, the solution is what is being proposed. For current projects this could be new ideas to solve the problems specified in the background, or this could be new ideas that will help the team do better in competition. For new projects the solution should spell out to the group what the project being proposed is all about. General detail should be given and the focus shouldn't be on the specifics. For example, instead of mentioning specific parts, try to mention capabilities and requirements. By keeping it general you can save the amount the space needed to write the solution and can keep the proposal focused on the big picture.

Methodology: The methodology is the how of the proposal. It includes details like schedules, and resources that will be needed. It also includes the budget, probably the most important part of the proposal. The budget should give general numbers for each aspect of the project and the only parts that should appear on the budget are the big ticket items -pieces of the system that are very expensive or are crucial to the success of the project.

• Get status on four projects that haven’t been build yet
• Page of writing and page of numbers (emails). And extended version will be a technical report for that
• Nice to include a schedule.
  • Ex: The team will develop this much by this time
• Due the 4th of september

Budget

• Crunch? --Damn Skippy!
• Need to give out some reimbursements
• TE , FIRST, Wachovia/TE funds are there
• 500 in cash box
• Try to get things donated but there will be fixed costs
• Getting money from companies is difficult but ask for supplies so be creative on how to get stuff for free
• For now, be conservative in spending

Dang Mobile

• Needs a Catalytic converter
  • UPDATE: S&S Muffler quotes us at $179 for aftermarket $265-275 for Jeep part. These numbers include installation. 30 mins and they have the parts there. 10% for students. No sales tax if paid in cash.
  • Still need to goto pull-a-part. (Field-trip anyone?)
  • Pull-a-part doesn't sell catalytic converters but they do sell the muffler.
• School does not own the vehicle so can’t leave it on campus anymore
• Has no insurance
• Keep it in Marietta (Roman’s Subdivision) or at Mick’s place Still at Phill's place

FIRST Kickoff

• Have to have everything setup by the 15th
• Andy’s done most of it, but need to reserve the location
• Buy a portable container to put kits in (if necessary)
• Who’s going to pay for everything? Need 2.5K in cost
• Talk to Henrik, Jeremy, Dr. Book

IEEE Robot Club

• Lot of the members are graduating, so try to absorb them into RoboJackets?
• But can’t put them under our funds
• Make an anouncement for membership

Shirts

• Postpone? -Yes
• T-shirts (under 500 dollars)
• Still have some polos left

Back to Meeting Minutes