In March, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck the globe and Cal Poly’s campus shut down and switched to remote learning, we realized that our senior project would no longer be able to be conducted in person. This was a tremendous challenge that we faced as a team simply due to the fact that in-person meetings and research would not take place. Online learning was something that was new to everyone when Spring Quarter started in 2020. Students and faculty were slowly getting adjusted to this new way of life and learning. Communication with individuals relevant to this project had been severely affected, and this was the greatest challenge we faced since our project relied heavily on communicating with faculty and getting their input/opinion on what we wanted to accomplish as a team.
We didn’t let this stop us, however, and we tried our best to reach out to as many people as we could on campus, both students and faculty. There were delayed responses, and in some cases we got no replies, but we were very persistent in our efforts. In addition to delayed responses, we were not able to access campus resources due to its shut down and the shelter-in-place protocol issued by the state authorities. Our ability to collect in-person data from offices and labs was affected. Our team has been at a fair disadvantage from the start of our senior project to say the least in regards to communication with others. However, given the circumstances we have still made a lot of progress and have researched and planned what needs to be implemented on campus once this pandemic is over and students are able to return back to Cal Poly.
As of now, Fall Quarter 2020, we are experiencing the same challenges that we were faced with earlier in the Spring. We are still unaware of when we will be able to return back to Cal Poly, however, we hope to pass on our project to future students who might be interested in taking over our senior project. This quarter, we were lucky enough that one of our team members was able to access campus and place a bin in the Engineering East - Building 20, at Cal Poly. However, since a very limited number of students are present on campus, and since 3D printing has greatly reduced, we have been unable to collect accurate amounts of data and test our project. We are also still unsure as to when this pandemic will end, allowing campus to be re-opened so we can have access to the labs and offices at Cal Poly and communicate more effectively with students and faculty.
Despite the challenges we have faced this quarter and last, we have been in communication with UC Berkeley, and they have given us better insights into how they conducted a very similar project on their campus. We hope to continue working with them on our efforts and research and learn as much as we can to make effective and sustainable 3D printing on the Cal Poly campus.
Our team will continue to persist through these tough times and brainstorm more ideas on how to successfully implement our project. We will continue to have weekly meetings, reach out to students and faculty, and gather as much research and analysis as we can. We will also leave the project active and in place with recommendations for next steps that will allow a continuation effort carried out by a new project team. Professor Murray will also continue to oversee the installed elements of the project and looks forward to assisting a continuation effort.
