Week Nine Update

This week, much was accomplished.  Together our group was able to complete a relatively final draft of our report.  However, a few formatting and citing issues must still be discussed with our advisor.

Next week, we plan to take the comments that Kim will provide and make the necessary changes to our report.  We also plan on completing our PowerPoint and meeting at least once before our presentation date to rehearse.     

Week Eight Update

We found out that we are expected to present a PowerPoint presentation as well as an Engineering Report by the end of this project.

We will have drafts of these done by the end of week nine and final drafts ready for week ten.

We have decided which parts of the report we will each write as follows:

Title Page – Vy
Abstract – Kendria
Intro – Andrew
Technical Activities – Serena
Results- Steve
Future Work – Steve
IEEE – Vy

PowerPoint – Kendria and Vy

Andrew & Serena – Amounts and costs

Week Seven Update

This week we got down to more specifics of our project.  We found that the four longer sides of Korman are 1463.57in (37.1746m) and the shorter corners are 674.615in (17.1352m).  With these dimensions and the decisions we had previously made about what exactly to put on the roof, an AutoCAD rendering of our proposed design was completed.  The AutoCAD file can be downloaded here.

In the following weeks we plan to get the estimated costs of our project and write the final report.

Week Six Update

This week each of our group members focused on finding more scholarly journals instead of simply articles online.  We were able to find more than enough journals.  Our group members have each read up on the articles and journals and we will make decisions on exactly what elements we want for our roof.

This coming week will will gather the prices, constraints, and arguments for convincing Drexel admins that this roof is a positive contribution towards out university.

Also we made these decisions:

-Intensive (6in or more of soil); energy-saving and aesthetics

-Dr. Brehm: most roofs will support this extra load so no need to buy extra support (14lb/ft²)

Materials:

-vapor control layer

-thermal insulation layer

-support panel?

-waterproof layer

-drainage layer – gravel

-filter

-soil – 8in deep

-bench/seating?  (weight?)

-trash cans (weight)

-fences

-path of some sort?

Plants:

-ferns

            -Northern PA Fern

-flowers

            -Turtlehead Flower

            -Dark Blue Closed gentian

            -Summer phlox

            -Yellow Pansies

-grass

            -standard grass?

New group roles:

-Kendria:  Artistic Drawing

-Steve: AutoCAD Rendering

-Andrew:  Dimensions and IEEE

-Serena & Vy:  Working on report

Things to keep in mind: time frame, cost, benefits, possible drawbacks, staircase, runoff

Week Five Update

This week we split up the responsibilities more so for research:
-Steve & Serena:  Plant Life
-Andrew & Kendria:  Mechanical Structures
-Vy: Building Codes

We were able to find quite a bit of information on each of the topics linked below:
Philadelphia Building Codes
Extensive vs Intensive Roofs
Native PA Plants
Year Round Plants
PA Wildflowers
Erosion Control
Costs Estimates for Plants