Blog Entry #3

During the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) project, the environment and supporting documents was good. Everyone was respectful, friendly, and was an overall fun experience. While working on the project and I felt as if the supporting materials such as the commercial or poster were well made.

However, our JPL project could have gone much better. The motivation level for our group was low at the beginning. Since no one was being graded for the build, people either stopped building to work on the graded assignments or became reliant on their team for the grade. I think the productivity and motivation went up with the change in grading policy as well as the competition deadline nearing, but it was too late. For the capstone project in 2nd semester, I think being able to choose our team, having some form of motivation, and just being a bit more responsible will be enough change to be successful. If I had one piece of advice to my future self, it would be to spend more time designing instead of instantly buying, building, and testing a new idea.