Ravennittes
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System Architect - Ch 43
🕑 Added 2024-10-18 16:00:10 +0000 UTCI met up with Dinesh a week before finals to see where we were for the project and what still needed to be done. I was done with my business plan and with the logistics around sourcing materials or outsourcing manufacturing. The numbers weren’t amazing—which really meant that while the whole thing was a fun exercise, it wasn’t an actually strong plan long-term.
“I have the prototype working,” Dinesh said, showing me video of it working.
The thing was a mess of wires and clamps. The inside of the tank was filled with water and the impeller inside was being turned by a motor on the outside. He used dye to show the motion of the water.
“So the next would be the probes, right?” I asked.
“Yes. I ordered them but they haven’t arrived yet.”
“How long ago was that?”
“A month, maybe?” he shrugged.
“That’s a problem,” I pointed out. “We’re going to face issues if those don’t come in soon.”
“I’ll take care of it,” he declared.
I hoped I wouldn’t have to step in, but it was on my radar. I’d been part of enough team projects to know that this was something that happened more often than not. I’d give it another month before I ordered the part myself sine I was the one who would have to do the programming.
“Alright,” I said. “What about making a nicer stand for it? Like 3D-print something for the impeller and another bit for the motor outside?”
Dinesh shrugged.
“I’ll try to make something.”
After we said bye and went our separate ways, I sent him the files of what I’d been working on. Aside from some minor changes like pictures and such, I was effectively done with the business portion of the project. I was very nervous about the programming part. That was somewhat mitigated by the fact that I could always ask one of the professors or maybe some students for help with it.
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My fears were well founded. After the finals—which I did well in—and winter break, I came back to learn that the sensors had still not arrived. I didn’t blame Dinesh outwardly, but I knew he dropped the ball somewhere along the line—whether that was due to his incompetence, shipping delays, or poor choice of manufacturer. Regardless of the reason, I ordered some sensors from a reputable domestic shop that would arrive in two weeks.
Despite the problems with the sensors, he had created a well-designed stand to hold all of the components both inside the tank and outside it. He thought ahead and made everything adjustable to allow for little changes without having to remake the parts.
When the sensors arrived two weeks later, Dinesh helped me connect all the parts together so I could begin my final portion of the work. While I did so, I asked that he make a first draft of our report.
The programming—while difficult to get started—turned out to not be too much of a problem. With some free weekends and lots of testing, I got all of the sensors functioning with the controller. That also allowed me to program in settings for the motor depending on what the sensors picked up. Using the sensors, I was able to grab a bunch of data. Everything from the efficiency of the magnetically-driven impeller to how much the speed of the impeller affects—or didn’t affect—the other variables.
I sent all that information to Dinesh when I had finished. He suggested we meet in the lab to go over what had been done and what still needed doing. I agreed.
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“Show me what you did,” Dinesh said when we were seared in front of the aquarium tank.
I used my laptop to connect to the controller and went through all of the functions and data outputs.
“Wow,” he said, impressed. “You did a lot there. Any idea what we might do for a routine to show it off when we have to present?”
“We have to present?” I asked, my heart leaping into my throat.
“Yeah. Ten minutes per person.”
“I have… no idea,” I admitted. “I didn’t think about it because I didn’t realize.”
“Yeah, so there’s the presentation, the joint paper, and our own personal parts.”
“What if the paper has all of the data we collected, the code, the business plan… all of that. Then we go in, show off the tank and how it works and present our parts of it. You do your design stuff. I’ll go into the business part. We can share the data and the coding part of it? It’ll be hard to show off stuff working in such a short presentation, right?”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Dinesh said thoughtfully. “I’ll send you what I’ve done with the paper. You can add the stuff you did or make changes and send it back to me. Then, I guess I’ll work on my part of the presentation?”
“Sure,” I nodded. “I hope you’ll be the one to carry the tank. There’s no way in hell I’ll be able to lift it.”
I struck a strong pose with my arms.
“All noodle.”
Dinesh laughed and poked my arm. I didn’t really feel anything but I did act like he pushed me over. I exaggeratedly flailed my arms while laughing.
“Yeah, I got the aquarium tank,” he said.
“Awesome.”
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I edited the paper and put together my part of the presentation over the next month-and-a-half. Classes remained difficult—if manageable. I had less time to devote to the project than I wanted to, but I think it had turned out alright. Dinesh and I met in my dorm to practice our presentation the week before we were scheduled to give it.
“Look what finally turned up,” he said.
He showed me a beat-up package with tape all over it. Inside were the sensors he’d ordered. Half of them were obviously broken. The others remained in questionable condition.
“That took a long time,” I said. “Wow!”
“I know, right?”
We talked through our parts of the presentation and the joint part as well. I gave criticism and pointed out things he missed. He did the same for me. By the end of the evening, I felt we were as prepared as we were going to be.
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I hard a hard time falling asleep the two days before the scheduled presentation. I even had coffee for the first time in this new life—and nearly gagged on it. The caffeine did help to get me going, though. It was what I needed to get through all my normal classes and to the presentation without falling asleep.
I brought my laptop and all of the files with me to the presentation room. I saw Dinesh seated on the floor outside. The aquarium tank was half-filled on a push cart next to him. The kind of cart that schools used to roll the TVs around on a long time ago. The impeller, sensors, and stand were all integrated together on the cart. The electronics were attached to a battery since we couldn’t be sure there would be easy access to an outlet in the room.
“Ready?” I asked Dinesh nervously.
He nodded.
“Good,” I agreed. “Me too.”
As the minutes ticked by, my body stewed in the nerves. I was tingly and antsy. I was cold and nauseous. Eventually, the door opened to reveal three students with different expressions on their faces. Two looked pleased and were excitedly chatting. The third looked more subdued and was minding her own business. I stood up. It was time.
I helped Dinesh push the cart into the room. Inside were three professors—one from each department. I saw their surprised expressions upon my entrance. I did my best to ignore them while plugging in the laptop and pulling up the presentation. I felt the eyes on me the whole time. It made me feel like a zoo animal and did nothing for my nerves.
“Before we begin,” said one of the professors—an older man with pale skin and white hair that grew like a bush on his head. “It’s just the two of you? Do you have a third member of your team?”
“We do not,” Dinesh answered.
“I see. Thank you.”
I made the presentation fullscreen and introduced myself before ceding the floor to Dinesh to begin his portion. He went over his design philosophy, the problem we were trying to solve, and the process by which he created the prototype. He covered the data and gave a demonstration of how it worked.
All the while, I stood there nervously awaiting my turn. Ten minutes is a long time to just stand there. The nerved made me bouncy. I struggled to not move too much nor distract Dinesh from what he was explaining to the professors. When the slide with my name on it popped up on the projector, I knew it was my turn. I cleared my throat and began to speak.
“I handled the business plan,” I said. “I started by researching—“
I went into detail about the cost of manufacturing the product, the patent situation, and potential profitability. I included everything from the market size to several cases for investment returns. In the end, I concluded that while it might work, it wasn’t very profitable as it currently stood. Maybe with improvements or manufacturing overseas would it become profitable—and even that brought its own issues.
Then Dinesh and I went over the programming. Though it had been me doing that part, we shared the responsibility insofar as there was no third person. I explained the rational behind the programming decisions while he covered what capabilities the sensors gave to the controller and how it could respond. Then it was time for questions.
“Dinesh,” asked one of the other professors—a middle-aged woman with short black hair, “why did you choose this project in particular?”
“I have saltwater fish at home and have run into these problems,” he said.
“Eddy,” she said, “You did a wonderful job for being so young. Did you run into any problems because of your age?”
“It’s why we have only two members,” I said. “I also struggled to get answers over the phone when asking for pricing and manufacturing details. They either thought I was a woman—where they would at least give me what I was after—or though I was a child playing a prank. When that happened, email usually got better results.”
“I see, thank you,” she said.
The professors shot question after question at the both of us for another ten minutes before they thanked us for our time. I followed Dinesh out of the room.
“How do you think we did?” I asked.
“Pretty good,” he said. “You saw how many questions they asked about all of the details. It was things we covered pretty well, I think.”
I nodded.
“So what now?” I asked.
“Let’s put this away and go celebrate!” Dinesh exclaimed.
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I barely made it back to my dorm that night before I fell asleep on my feet. I’d gone with Dinesh to the cafeteria to eat and then back to his off-campus house—I trusted him enough by that point. There, we played video games and hung with the rest of his friends. He even introduced me to his girlfriend, who seemed nice enough.
We played games until well after sunset. He started drinking beer with his roommates and girlfriend. That was fine at first, but soon everyone started getting loose. Then they got too loose—his girlfriend was beginning to get handsy with Dinesh, and the others started making crude jokes about it. That was when I knew it was my cue to leave.
