Master Plan：https://shimo.im/sheets/VOAWVaW1y8H8FYkZ/MODOC

Introduction

It is going to the end of this semester. In my IP course, I had a great time with my teammates, working together for a mutual and significant outcome. From my perspective, I have learned a lot of useful skills and come out of my comfort zone to practice my abilities. As other IP courses I took before, this time This passage is going to review my experience in my IP course during this semester. It is a reflection on myself in this team. I will review the process of my progress as well as show the regulation or self-assessment.

Experience

Part I – Climate Change

At the beginning of the course, Jonathan asked me to do some research on climate change. In the previous semester, I have learned something about climate change and politics. So I quickly think of the topic I would like to research. As the comparison between World Climate Conference in Paris and World Climate Conference in Copenhagen were not so successful in history, I wanted to figure out the potential reason which countries could not reach an agreement and cooperate to reduce the carbon emission. Later, I have read some articles on addressing the attitudes of those countries regarding to the controlling emission. Actually those countries’ concern was their own benefits (politics, right?). They did not want to control the emission to descend their speed of development. Or there was any decisive role model in the world to lead them. As a result, there was no way to reach a compromise.

Aside from my own discovery, Jaguar and Jonathon, who are our coaches, gave several lectures and presentations on the tough situation that China and the world are suffering. They talked about the Greenhouse Effect and carbon emission. By looking deeply into many surveys and data that some scholars had collected, I myself began to feel very anxious to our world, the place I have lived in. I want to quote Jonathan’s words here because that is so cheerful. That is, “我分享这些图片，因为在所有的数据、数字、图表中，很容易忘记气候变化的人类故事。它关系到地球为人类和动物提供一个和平稳定的环境的能力。有时很容易忘记这一点，因为这是一个我们不能每天在街上看到的问题。但它正在世界各地发生。” When I first saw this, I was inspired right now. This helped me stick firmly to my original decision that enrolling an engineering IP course instead of an IP course on humanity as a history learner.

Part II – Engineering – Calculating

After being one of the leaders in engineering group. Daniel and I started to design the tasks that assigned to our teammates.

The first task is to make a tutorial video on solar panels. We did this over two weeks. Each person in the team should shoot or record the screen to document something you had researched on your interested topic. This may help us know some basic principles and points that we need to pay attention later in the designing and instruct others who would like to take this project to get into the first step. I researched something about the grid system and the battery system. That was my first time to know that China has different systems in generating electricity by solar energy. And this became a big part we needed to decide.

Second, after making the tutorial videos, we began our work of collecting and calculating data of our new campus. I asked Gaozhen for the 2D graph of the campus.

Samson and I was then working on calculating the energy consumption of our school for one year. Based on the data from the 2D graph and some theories that we found, we calculated out the number. Basically, the new campus will emit almost 350000 kwh per year.

When we had the data of energy consumption, the next group of data we need to confirm was how much kwh our 500m^2 solar panels can generate for one year. The data below was collected from the Internet. Once Daniel told me that he made a programmed that could help me to calculate the data since the number during calculations would be very large. I gave the number to him, and with the help of his program, we finally knew that our 500^2 solar panels could generate 100000kwh for one year. “That is amazing!”

Part III – Engineering – Prototype Design

The next step was to design a prototype to test. We wanted to know the feasibility of our design, so we have to make a prototype. However, when we had a primitive design, we suddenly did not know whether it could work. I decided to contact someone knows this. From my father, I recognized a lot of architects that are familiar with solar panels. I called them several times to figure that out. After contacting many designers and architects, we learned that the prototype cannot be designed according to the standard of 500 (also 120) square meters, because the equipment applicable to 500 (also 120) square meters is not the same size as the equipment used by prototype, which is greatly different from each other. That means we can only design a small set of solar equipment as prototype. And after one-week contact, I firmly believe our design.

Facilities:

• Polysilicon 320w solar panel *1
• 220V50Hz inverter *1
• Charging controller *1
• Battery *2
• Bracket *1
• Pv cable *15

Then I contacted some companies that could give us a reasonable offer. We received two different offers in all:

This version contains some delicate instruments and they are not necessary for us to do the prototype. Thus the budget at first was very high, closed to 10000 RMB. Finally we checked the facilities above and communicated with the company to eliminate precise equipment to control the cost.

This version is the final one with some basic facilities and suitable equipment to build our prototype. And the cost is also much cheaper than the first version.

I had a great conversation with the clerk of that company. Through almost two months’ work, I got a contract from the company. Now the contract has been approved by Moonshot and have been signed as well as sent back to the company!

Part IV – Checkpoints

Before Checkpoint 1, I was the leader of writing our project proposal. I led my teammates to do the brainstorm and structure design. After splitting responsibilities and tasks, we started combine some information provided by other groups to form pieces in the project proposal. Through two-day work, the first draft of our project proposal was finished. And the feedback from others seemed good. Although later we have modified some points at different periods, the main structure and materials were the same as before.

Before Checkpoint 2, we met some challenges that no one cared about Checkpoint 2. I was very angry and anxious. Immediately, I organized most of the leaders to take part in the preparation work. We worked at late night, having a 5-hour call and hurrying other teammates to complete the feedback sheet. Fortunately, we submitted all the materials. At the same time, I helped Kolento and Yang with the elevator pitch, too.

Before Checkpoint3, I was not the main one who charged this at this time. I was glad that Frank could actively take this responsibility. Under the instructions by Frank, I wrote my engineering description in time. What’s more, on that presentation day, I keep staying in our meeting room to help Frank answer or clarify some questions when someone was interested in our project.

Self-assessment

Things I did well

• During this semester, I practiced my leading skills in many dimensions. I have facilitated some sessions effectively. Besides, I took part in resolving some misunderstandings that I found in our project team.
• After Checkpoint 2, some members came to me to complain something. I noticed the invisible tension was gathering. I immediately found Jonathon to talk about this, giving some feedback and information to him. At last, this crisis was well dealt and disappeared.
• I feel proud of my effort that contacting many outer resources. Those architects and companies gave me a lot of helping hand when I got stuck.
• I carefully checked the first offer, I found the company wanted to deceive us because they assumed me could not recognize the facilities. However, I told them the facilities were too expensive and not necessary. Then the second offer came. I saved a lot of money by checking the offer.
• I managed tasks to different learners, helping them with things they are interested in and splitting up groups, I made some of the decisions whether people are capable of doing certain tasks or not
• When we got the contract, I still needed to do a lot of work to ensure we could sign it. I communicated with Jonathan, Tingting and Nick from Moonshot. Besides, I also talked with the one who is in the solar company. After all, the contract has been approved by Moonshot. I think I did very well in information balancing and multilateral communication

Things I need to improve

• I made two big mistakes during this project. The first one is that we finally only got 120m^2 instead of 500m^2 because of my negligence of talking with Gaozhen. This caused that we needed to calculate all the numbers again, delaying our work of the full system design. I need to collect as much information as I can before deciding something. If the information is not complete or incorrect, all the things we have done would be wasted. That is too bad. I should always keep in mind that collecting information effectively and doing more instant communications to clarify the circumstance. The second mistake is that when Samson and I first calculated the energy consumption, the energy we calculated equals to the amount of one hydroelectric power station’s generating capacity. We did not even notice this until Daniel told us! It turns out I need to develop some craftsmanship spirits to be careful persistently.
• I spent too much time deciding whether we were going to use the grid system or the battery system. And I assigned this work to someone who was not suitable. As a leader, I should criticize myself. I will assess the task first and reasonably assign the work to the people. Strength management and time management are the skills that I still working on.
• I can’t inspire all learners to use their advantages while working with each other. I think my way to instruct them is not so good. As I leader, next time, I will spend more time talking with them in order to know what they think, clearly explaining to them the results if they could not finish the tasks.
• I did not have much preparation to the full system design because I did not have an idea on that task. I should tell Jaguar that I need help next time to ensure that we can follow our project schedule.