I have been trying to get the sensor to give me significant results and have had a lot of trouble with that. I mostly did research and experimentation to try and get it to work.

This week, I attempted to collect preliminary data, which made me realize that I would need an air compressor in order to obtain meaningful data. I added this to my proposal and made some modifications to improve it overall.

I met with my mentors 3 times to discuss the proposal’s feedback and what I can do to improve it. I also reached out to some folks whose previous work could help me. I decided on my end product as a result of that. I also decided to change a few things in my project based on the feedback I got. I will start with a simpler artist style to replicate and if that goes well, I will move to the more complex one. I will also most likely change my sensor from an “air quality” to a CO sensor because that will allow me to see more variation on campus, but I will have to obtain preliminary data before I can make a final call.

This week

• I met with Seth Hopper concerning light pollution on campus and different ways to measure that, so I have some ideas to test.
• I was introduced to some of the fire department’s devices to measure air quality, which will help me improve my design to get better data.

This past week, I did my literature review presentation and got caught up with class assignments. I also created a framework for my project and obtained the Arduino air pollution sensor I will use so I can start testing that. I did I third pass on some of my most important sources and I am 85% ready for the proposal.

After filtering through many different project ideas, I finally decided to create an aesthetically pleasing data visualization of pollution on Earlham’s campus. I have written a literature review of 15 sources on all of data visualizations, artistic factors that influence them, pollution health effects and awareness of them, as well as multiple projects that use Arduino to collect and display pollution data.

• Realized two of my ideas don’t really work at all and so I need to search for new ones
• Learned that I really need to work on something I’m interested in because if I’m not it’s going to be hell
• Met with my adviser and talked about my current ideas and how to find new ones
• Read the papers I found and submitted the notes I took on them

These are super vague ideas, and I don’t know if they’re doable, but that’s what I came up with:

1. App/Game for experiencing different cultures
2. Tone analyzer
3. Text editor extension for good code-writing habits