On Thursday the telecommunications group had a practice midterm presentation in class. We presented our most recent iteration for a telecommunications solution in Vizag. The presentation was unsuccessful due it’s broad scope and reliance on altering public policy. The judges were very helpful in providing feedback and suggestions going forward. In particular, Param suggested using a SigFox compatible LoRa sensor as a support system for the other projects. We are using the lower frequencies bands along with LoRa sensors for two reasons: the type of data is suited to the band and that for smart cities to work they need to have a communication network that doesn’t suffer quality problems due to capacity overload. The data is suited to the lower bands even though the lower bands are slightly slower, because the individual sensors transmit a small enough amount of data that it doesn’t matter. Smart cities will entail billions of devices and you don’t want them clogging cellular bands. Thus, there is a need for communications networks that operate outside of cellular and SigFox is a relatively low-cost solution for this domain of problems. The other group projects rely on sensors communicating with a server database. The specifics of this communication were glossed over-becoming a “black box.” Our group would be responsible for developing the pipeline sensor data is transmitted on. Professor Darwin and Param are assisting our group in borrowing the equipment to provide proof of concept.

 

The lecture on Tuesday was crucial in helping our group understand failure. The guest speaker spoke a lot about his multiple failures and pivots throughout his career. We were very confident that our idea would be well received. Unfortunately, that was not the case-we were forced to pivot again. Our new idea is our third major pivot since class began, creating a lot of frustration in the group. Hearing about failure from multiple guest lecturers has given us the perseverance to overcome current and future obstacles. Our major goal this week is to create a clear and concise PowerPoint for Thursday’s presentation.

 

The Telecommunications Group

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