FRESH Start!

Thanks to Divya who took the minutes before I arrived! The meeting was scheduled at the Engineering Building, not the Kim Building. Today, I learned that the Engineering Building is a part of the Math Building, and isn't in the Kim Building. Anyways..about our meeting!

Here's a brief recap of our meeting:
1) Outreach Program at BCC: Students interested in learning more about our project will get back to Amanda by February 15th, 2011 to determine when they can come and visit us.
2) NSF Proposal:
- Dr. Shah went over his edits and for our NSF proposal. The biggest problem was the little attention to scientific background, and too much justifications/broad impacts. We need more analysis on the technical components of our research, such as the implementation of the PCMs, geometry of integration of the ice box, and what is novel about what we are doing?
- We need to include references! Our rough draft only had three references. This is an anomaly from the other papers we've written which had more than enough.
- Dr. Hwang has agreed to put his name on our proposal. He will need to look over the paper before we submit it to NSF.
- We will be submitting our edited NSF proposal back to Dr. Shah by Tuesday, February 8, 2011.
3) Syllabus:
- Currently, we have very few goals after March. We must make it a priority to set more goals for the rest of the semester. By March 20th, 2011, we must set new goals for the semester.
- Marketing subgroup needs more goals. It should be their goal to add details of the marketing plan, such as finding a template.
- Blog Updates: The Minutes Keeper for the week posts minutes for both meetings and updates the blog. For subgroups, each member will rotate to see who posts on the blog that week.
- Attendance Policy: 2 excused/scheduled absences are allowed. If you are 20 minutes late, it counts as 1 unexcused absence
4) Deadlines:
- February 17,2011 - Finish the previous goals we have before Rebecca and Dr. Wallace (Gemstone staff) comes to visit
- March - Before the students from BCC come to visit, we must complete the goals regarding the icebox experiments. We want to share with the students the experiment experience we have.
- Spring Break - Prepare the end-of-the-semester deadlines, prepare to build the prototype, and finish writing parts of the Thesis so we can edit when we come back from break.
- April 22, 2011 - Undergraduate Research Day - Chance to share our research with the school
5) Miscellaneous
- Non-mentor meetings will take place on Tuesdays, from 10pm-11pm
- The Sensors Subgroup will change to the Materials/Building Subgroup
- Mentor Meetings will be at 3:45PM

This semester, we are hoping that there is more fluidity amongst the sub-groups. We want to make sure everyone everyone is participating. If you find yourself doing nothing, bring it up at the mentor/non-mentor meeting. We should all strive to do something to help our research progress.

Looking forward to a great semester!

-Young