SENIOR PROJECT SELF-EVALUATION
Name: Brandi McElhaney
Project Start Date: February, 2016
Title of Project: Artificial Intelligence: The Rise of the Machine and its Impact on Society
Project Completion Date: March 23, 2016
1.In 40 words or more describe your project and the steps you performed to complete it. What did you produce or perform?
I want held an event, which featured booths, an obstacle course, prizes, and a speech that I gave. Each booth aimed to teach different aspects of AI, such as how it is represented in everyday life, where it is headed, and potential benefits and dangers. The major part of the event was a 4M Smart Robot, which is a form of weak AI, as it can move around obstacles put in its path and an obstacle course in which participant became the robot. There was also a game in which a program, Botpoet, was on my laptop and it gave the participant multiple poems that had to be identified as having a human author or robot author. For the booths, I had to create multiple tri-folds, some of which were interactive, and worksheets for people to fill out. This project was fun, but also taught people about artificial intelligence and how it affects them daily.
2.In at least 40 words explain how the project challenged you, and what sort of time challenges and resource problems did you encounter?
Communication and people skills are definitely a challenge for me sometimes, but I feel like I got over that some and was able to accurately exchange information between both my consultant, other contacts, and my audience during the event. I encountered an issue with time because I am pretty busy when it comes to theatre, as I am technical director, so sometimes finding the time to work on it was difficult, but any free time that I had was dedicated to the project. I did as much as I could in class, but some things had to be done outside of it, such as shopping and testing many of the robots. Finding large cones for the obstacle course was difficult, but I used connections to get them donated for the use of my event.
3.List and then describe 5-8 fundamental ideas/concepts/skills of your project, which you learned during your project.
Idea/Concept/Skill Explanation (how you learned it)
Survey I never created a survey before, which is interesting because I feel like that is something that I should have done before, so I originally made a paper one, but with the idea of my consultant, I made an online survey to better track what I was receiving
Planning I have never planned my own event before, so trying to stay organizing and working out every detail kept everything together. While I have event managed, it was a completely different experience to be completely in charge of all decisions.
Set-up When planning an event, every detail should be planned out, even where you are going to put each booth and piece of equipment.
Publicizing While I do work in theatre, which needs publicity, it is normally something I oversee, not something I directly work with. I worked on making the flyer and distributing everything, which is odd to take a job that normally I see takes many people and it is only me.
4. List and describe 5-8 problems you encountered in your project, and briefly describe how you solved each.
Problem & Explanation
Date
After I sent my emailed poster, my date had to change, as there was a chance a team would need the gym if it rained, so I had to move my project to a later time and re-send the posters.
Cupcakes
I was going to make cupcakes for the event, but if I had actual food, I would have to pay a custodian fee, so I decided to have candy and toy prizes.
Interruption
My project was interrupted by a basketball team that was not supposed to be there, which forced me to leave early. I tried talking with the team to get them to leave or at least stop playing while it was going on, which did not work. Since communication did not work and the coach and kids would not listen, I decided that the best idea would be to leave, as the sensitive and expensive technology could be damaged, some of which was not mine.
Signs
The signs that I had for my tables fell off because the foam board was heavier than the tape could handle, but I found a way to prop them up with a box
Dead Battery
One of the robot’s battery died, but I found a way around it by putting it as a part of the smaller obstacle course, so it simply became an obstacle for another robot.
5. Outline the process hours spent in completing the project.
A.Estimated total hours spent on project: 45 hours
B.Estimated total steps involved in your project: 23 steps
Steps
Date
What
Time
1
2/4/16
- Planning the date for my project
- Emailing between Ms. Godfrey and I, and Mr. Pratt and I about building usage
2
2/6/16
- Creating worksheet
- Creating survey
- Planning out obstacle course and creating materials list
3
2/8/16
- Fixing Weebly and researching pictures and design
4
2/9/16
- Planning tri-fold/booths
5
2/11/16
- Sent Numerous Emails
- Progress Report
- Edit worksheet
6
2/14/16
- Working on obstacle course
7
2/16/16
- Poster
- Flyer
- Composing Emails
- Editing Weebly
- Facebook Page
8
2/17/16
- Testing Obstacle course
- Deciding to redo obstacle course…
9
2/18/16
- Editing time on all flyers/posters/smore
- Re-emailing all smore.com flyers (all emails typed)
10
2/21/16
- Re-planning obstacle course
- Gathering materials from last made obstacle course that are still usable
- Making new material list
11
2/22/16
- Obstacle Course work
12
2/26/16
- Create survey
13
2/27/16
- Get papers together for tri-folds
14
2/29/16
- Paint obstacle course
- Find new glue
15
3/2/16
- Find obstacle course materials
- Ex: Large legos
16
3/09/16
- Write progress report
17
3/10/16
- Work on trifold
18
3/11/16
- Create survey monkey survey to replace paper surveys
- Create business cards for survey monkey link
- Update Weebly
19
3/12/16
- Tri-folds
20
3/14/16
- Outline speech and what to say with trifolds
- Create Facebook Page
21
3/15/16
- Search and test computer programs for table
22
3/16/16
- Obstacle Course Test with Blow up robot and cones
- Obstacle course test with materials and small BB8
- Botpoet test
23
3/17/16
- Shopping for prizes and materials needed
- Week reminder email
24
3/18/16
- Boxing up prizes
25
3/20/16
- Signs for tables
26
3/22/16
- Pack up all materials needed
- Test all robots and plug in for charging
27
3/23/16
- Set up event
- Event
- Clean Up event
2 hours
35 minutes
28
3/24/16
- Final Progress Report
- Weebly editing
- Documentation
Total: 30 hours 15 minutes
6.List materials used.
- Tri-folds
- Foam Board
- Paint
- Robots x3
- Computer
- Candy & toys
- Zip lock bags
- Sharpies
- Tables
- Table cloths
- Large orange cones
- Zip ties
7.List all people who helped you on the project and briefly describe the help given.
Aaron Pratt: My consultant; he helped check all of the things I did and make sure that everything was done well and worked.
Jeffrey Shook: He helped me take pictures and run the obstacle course while I was going through information.
Nancy Curtis: Loaning me a really cool remote control robot for the obstacle course (it was a big hit).
8.How does your completed project compare to the picture you had in mind when you started the project?
It is different because I thought the 4M smart robot was going to be the biggest part, but I obtained more robots as time went on, which made it less important. The artificially intelligent BB-8 was definitely a great part of the event and I didn’t think I was going to have a demonstration with something that close to A.I.
9.If given the opportunity, what would you do differently now that you speak from experience?
I would have used more pictures on the tri-folds because I feel like they may have been a tad wordy, but I don’t think they were bad.
10.Now that the project is completed, explain/describe the stretch or challenge you encountered/experienced.
I don’t always have the greatest of public speaking skills, but the longer the project went on, the better I felt. I can present things and give speeches, but the one-on-one conversations about the information I was trying to teach people made me a tad nervous because that is what I have trouble with, but I felt it helped me a lot.
11.Beyond the project itself, what did you learn about yourself?
I learned that sometimes, even if you encounter a problem and try to communicate to solve it, it does not always help, so I’m glad I know when to stay and when to walk away. With the basketball team, I tried to communicate with them to get them to leave or stop, but I feel as if I made the correct decision in leaving to protect the technology, as not all of it was mine and what was mine was very expensive, such as my laptop and the artificially intelligence BB-8.
12.What grade would you give yourself on the project? Justify the evaluation of your grade in at least 25 words.
Grade: 100
Justification: I feel like this is a project that I worked very hard on and overcame difficult challenges that could have affected my project, but I didn’t let it. I took it in strides and worked to fix them.