This group blog will an overview of this week’s progress as well as take aways from Thursday’s lecture. We’ll also discuss the project ‘pivot’ we’ve made today after discussing what we each took away from the guest lecturer.

We’ve added another member, EECS student Sanjeev who has brought a fresh perspective on our groups planned telecommunication’s solution. Each of our group members has been planning our way to Vizag, taking the opportunity to visit other portions of India before and after we make our presentations to city officials. This gives us extra collaboration and practice time as well acclimate to the culture a few days before hand. Our group has scheduled our PIP meeting for tomorrow morning where we’ll showcase our current project and timeline to Mr. Darwin.

Before today, our group was planning on creating an API database that would take sensor data and store it in such a way that outside developers would be able to take the data and create smart applications for Vizag. However, the CTO of California said something profound that we took to heart on Thursday. He mentioned that in order to make a real difference in a smart city, you need not the most sophisticated and advanced platform but something small, but solves a real problem. Our newest idea, what we plan to showcase to Mr. Darwin tomorrow, is just that. We’ll be making an iOS and web app that logs network connectivity speeds in various areas of the city so that government officials and telecomm companies can access this data and provide the necessary strategic infrastructure upgrades. We’ve already sent out a survey to citizens of Vizag asking for feedback on their telecomm services, and we were met with an overwhelming amount of criticism for network connectivity. We believe this project, though limited in scope, will help solve a real pain point in Vizag.

The Telecommunications Group

Nathaniel Parke, Woody Chung, Samuel Penny, Rachel Gross, Thomas Koch