August 8, 2008
Today, Amber and I are working on the small tasks we need to do to finish off the project and leave it ready for whoever works on it next. Our trip to North Carolina went pretty well, more detailed summaries and pictures can be found below or on the Publicity page.
Amber and Janet
We flew from St. Louis to Raleigh/Durham on Monday (August 4) and made it to our hotel safely. On Tuesday (August 5), we took a taxi to UNC - Chapel Hill, and met with our host, Jason West. Our presentation at UNC went well. We presented to about 10 faculty and graduate students from the School of Public Health, and they all seemed interested in our project. After the presentation and lunch, we spoke with several faculty members and graduate students, and we were given tours of the aerosol lab and smog lab at the university. Wednesday (August 6) was the day we went to the EPA. There, we met and talked with Jim Jetter, our host at the EPA. Then, we were given tours of the small chamber labs, the biocontaminant lab, and the large chamber lab before lunch. After lunch, we presented to 15-20 people who also seemed intereseted in our project. Finally, we went on a green building tour of the EPA campus. On Thursday, we flew back to St. Louis and then drove back to Rolla.
At UNC - Chapel Hill.
Amber presenting at the EPA.
Janet presenting at the EPA.
July 23, 2008
We have finished creating all three scenarios for the consumer interface that we had been trying to finish for the end of the project (kitchen, bedroom, and garage). We have also completed a rough draft of out final paper, and the second draft of our powerpoint presentation. Monday, we spent some time on an initial run through of the presentation for Dr. Tauritz and have made changes based on that, and we intend to run through the new version sometime today. In addition, we intend to make a video demo of the final product of our project to include on CDs we hand out at our presentations tomorrow. Finally, we created a CD label for said CD and have printed a test CD that came out very nicely.
We have airline tickets and hotel reservations for our trip to North Carolina, so we are almost done planning the trip.
Amber and Janet
July 23, 2008
This past week, I have been working on finding values for the variables to be in used in the different scenarios of the consumer interface. I have found information for most of the variables for the cleaning products in the kitchen scenario, but had to make a few guesses. I am continuing to work on finding the values for a few other scenarios as well as verify my guesses.
Janet and I are busy trying to get the final tasks of finishing the scenarios, preparing a powerpoint, and writing our final report before our trip to North Carolina. We have made final arrangements and will be travelling to North Carolina on August 4, presenting at the University of North Carolina on August 5, presenting at the Environmental Protection Agency on August 6, and returning to Missouri on August 7.
Amber
July 21, 2008
The lab interface has been completed, although there are a few improvements that could be made, time permitting. I have been working on the consumer interface for the past couple of days, and the first scenario is close to completion. The rest of the scenarios will follow the same formula, so adding addition scenarios shouldn't be too difficult. The hardest parts so far have been getting the page layout set up the way I want it to look, and dealing with the differences between Firefox and Internet Explorer.
We have gotten sufficient funds for our trip the first week in August, so plans for that are continuing. At the moment, we are looking at leaving August 4th, presenting at the EPA and UNC, and returning on August 7.
Janet
July 10, 2008
I have been continuing to work on finding acceptable ranges for all the variables. I have been focusing on the partition coefficient and the fractional coverage. I had some problems with these variables, but think I have a good basis now. Soon I believe I will review the ranges I have compiled with Dr. Morrison to make sure I have not made any mistakes. After I have done this, I can give Janet the final ranges (at least for now) for her to use in range checking of the lab interface.
By next week, Janet and I should begin working on the consumer interface. I have been working on the drawings of the scenarios for us to use for this. I also will begin working on finding the standards for different compounds in indoor air from various organizations as well as the values we will input into the solver for each scenario.
Janet and I are beginning to plan s trip to the Research Triangle in North Carolina to present our project at the Environmental Protection Agency and hopefully a few of the universities in that area. As we continue to make the arrangements for the trip, Dr. Tauritz and Dr. Morrison are raising some more money for the trip and contacting people in the area to organize presentations and tours.
Amber
Hard at work:
July 8, 2008
Recently, I have been working more on the lab interface, using Javascript to make it more user-friendly. There are a few things I have left to do with the web server, including working out type conversions and adding range checking to the user's inputs. I hope to have that finished and be started on the consumer interface by the end of the week.
Amber has been away for the past few days due to a death in the family, but she should be back by tomorrow.
Janet
June 30, 2008
This past week, I have continued reading papers and reporting the acceptable ranges of the differnt variables. Janet and I have also continued drawing out scenarios for the consumer interface.
Amber
June 26, 2008
This past week, I finished coding the last version of the multi-variable solver, although running more tests on it may be helpful to make sure it is correct. I have also been working on modifying the lab interface for the new version so that it interacts with the solver properly.
Janet
June 18, 2008
As Amber mentioned, we made several modifications to our main equations during our last meeting. After I finished the last version of the multi-variable solver that I've been working on, I began adding the new specifications and modifying it to create the newest version. At the momement, I have finished coding the new version and I'm working on testing and debugging it.
Amber and I have spent some time clarifying small details of the project with our faculty advisors as several questions came up as we were working. We have also been working on drawing out the scenarios that we will present in the consumer interface.
Janet
June 16, 2008
Last week, the team made some more modifications to the set of equations so we could account for any air purifiers in the house as well as some of the products made from the reactions with ozone. These additions added more complexity to the equations and should allow the simulator to be used for more scenarios.
Janet and I have created a list of scenarios we would like the simulator to be able to solve. The team also has brainstormed on how the consumer interface will look and what information the consumer will need to give as well as how the information from the solver will be displayed to the consumer. We have chosen one particular scenario to sketch what the consumer interface will look like.
I have continued to search for more papers discussing the variables in the equations, most currently focussing on the transport-limited deposition velocity. I have been reading the papers and reporting the acceptable range from each paper for this value.
Amber
June 10, 2008
I have been working on modifying the GSL multidimensional root finder to work with the set of equations we have. It works for the equations in Amber's assignments 2 and 3-1. I am currently in the process of modifying it to work with the equations from assignment 3-2. Following that, I will work on integrating it with the web server.
Amber and I have also been working on lists of major tasks for our respective sides of the project, and we spent some time brainstorming a list of scenarios we want the simulator to be able to solve.
Janet
June 4, 2008
This week I am working on a report to summarize the progress done on the environmental side of the project over the past two semesters. I will be continuously editing and adding to this report as we continue to work on the project. I will also be continuing my research on the variables in our set of equations. This will be what I focus on at least for the first week.
Amber
May 5, 2008
Janet and I presented our research last Wednesday at the Missouri State Capitol. We had people approach our poster with interest in the project and in the quality of indoor air. I enjoyed sharing information about our project to these people.
Janet and I in front of our poster at the Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol.
Amber
April 29, 2008
As Janet said, tomorrow we will be presenting our research to the state legislators at the Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol.
I have continued researching air exchange rates. I am currently trying to use SciFinder Scholar to find articles that have cited the articles I have read. This is a process that takes a long time however and is progressing slowly. My plans for the following week is to continue researching air exchange rates and maybe continue onto researching the other variables.
Amber
April 29, 2008
This past week, I've been working more with GSL (the GNU Scientific Library). They have a numerical solver for multiple equations with multiple unknowns that should suit our purposes. I have thus far looked at an example, figured out how to compile and link the library properly, and began to modify the example for what we need to do. I have also fixed security on the web server so that it will only allow numerical input.
Tomorrow, Amber and I will be attending the Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol (UGRDC) to present our research to the state legislators.
Janet
April 22, 2008
I have been researching the ventilation flow rate variable in our equation set. This involves researching air exchange rates. I have read about the variable in a few journal articles. This next week I will continue finding information about this variable by reading other articles that have been cited by the articles I have read. I will then continue focusing on the other variables.
Next Wednesday, Janet and I will be presenting our research at the Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol. The Tuesday before we are going to do a practice presentation during our weekly research meeting.
Amber
April 8, 2008
The poster is done and in our possession. We would like to thank the Computer Science Department for purchasing the poster for us. We are now preparing for tomorrow's research conference.
I have been working on collecting information about the variables in our equation set. I still have a lot of work to do to have a complete compilation of data for all the variables.
Amber
April 1, 2008
As Amber said our poster is finished and we should be able to get it from the library soon.
For the computer side of the project, I have begun looking at different C++ libraries that I could use to solve linear systems with multiple equations and multiple unknowns. At the moment, the two most promising ones seem to be GSL (GNU Scientific Library) and TNT (Template Numerical Toolkit). I will continue to investigate these this week. In addition, I have begun trying to interface between the website and the C++ programs I have written. Output and calculations seem to be working correctly, although input is causing some difficulties. Hopefully, I will be able to resolve those problems quickly so that we can present a prototype of the program with our poster at the Undergraduate Research Conference next week.
Janet
April 1, 2008
Janet and I have finished preparing our poster for the two upcoming research conferences. The first conference is the Undergraduate Research Conference here at the Missouri University of Science and Technology next Wendesday, April 9. We are doing a poster presentation. This will also be good practice for our next conference, the Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol where we share our research with Missouri's lawmakers on April 30th.
I will also begin working on collecting information from different journals and papers about the variables used in our equation set. By gaining this information, we will be able to set the proper range of values and a suggested normal value for each of the variables. This will also allow me to understand the fundamental equations even more.
Amber
March 17, 2008
There have recently been some unexpected snags in getting working Unix/Linux programs to run on Windows for testing. I'll be working on resolving these issues as well as looking at existing libraries for solving multiple equations with multiple unknowns this week. Last week, we mostly worked on our poster for the research conferences we'll be attending, as Amber mentioned, and it is now almost completed.
Janet
March 11, 2008
This week Janet and I have been working on preparing the poster for the two research conferences we will be participating in during April.
Amber
March 3, 2008
Lab: We have continued to inject pinene and ozone into the chamber to record the data from the reaction. We are doing multiple experiments with a range in the rate in which we injecting pinene into the chamber.
Equations: I added to the set of equations from the research I did on reaction probability and fractional coverage of the reaction surfaces. The set of equations is getting close to being a good model for the reactions taking place in the chamber.
Amber and Janet in front of the laboratory chamber.
Amber
February 22, 2008
Computer: I was successful in creating a program that solves for an unknown variable in the first equation we worked with. I did the same for the second equation, but the program doesn't always produce the correct answer. The web server runs successfully on the Linux computer in the lab, but I have had trouble getting it to work remotely. I am attempting to solve both problems this week.
Janet
February 16, 2008
Lab: The past two weeks, we have continued to inject pinene and ozone into the chamber to record the data from the reaction.
Equations: The most recent changes to the set of equations I am creating was to research the deposition velocity. I added more detailed equations to find the deposition velocity. This weeK I am going to do research on the reaction probability and the fractional coverage of the reaction surfaces. From the information I gain from this research, I can add to my set of equations.
Amber
February 6, 2008
Computer: This week, I'm going to work on getting the web server up and running on the machine running SUSE Linux here in the lab. I'll also be working on a program that will produce an answer to an equation when the variable that needs to be solved for is not known ahead of time. Finally, Amber and I will be working to figure out the specifications for the variables we are using so far.
Janet
February 2, 2008
Lab: This week, we decided to try moving where the syringe pump injected the pinene. This change seems to have allowed us to see the signal increase of the FID when the pinene is injected into the chamber. I ran two experiments at different injection rates of pinene into the chamber to find a good rate for our first experiment. I also ran our first experiment of injecting both pinene and ozone into the chamber allowing them to react.
Equations: I looked into more detail at the reaction taking place in the chamber including surface reactions and gas phase reactions. These equations I am working on will take into account both the ozone and other compounds entering the chamber and the reactions that take place for both of them. Janet created a program that solves the basic equation I created last week.
Computer: Janet has worked this week on installing linux on the computer she is using for research.
Amber
January 24, 2008
Welcome to the INDAQS project Janet! We made some changes in the team last week including adding Janet.
Lab: This week we have started introducing pinene to the chamber. We are trying to find at what concentrations the FID will begin having a signal increase. There are a few problems with these experiments that we are troubleshooting to see where the problem takes place: the syringe pump, the FID, or somewhere between the two.
Equations: I have begun working on the set of equations we will use in the lab. I have solved the basic equation of finding the concentration of ozone in a room given the air exchange rate of the room, the concentration of ozone outside, the amount of ozone appliances put off, and the amount of ozone lost due to reactions. In the following week, Janet is going to work on programming a way to solve the first basic equation. I am going to be looking into more detail at the ozone being lost to reactions creating a modified set of equation that allows for other compounds to enter the chamber and react with the ozone.
Amber
The former INDAQS team:
From left to right: Ekaterina Holdener, Meredith Springs, Elizabeth Babb, Ashley Lang, Dr. Glenn Morrison, Amber Loftis, Dr. Daniel Tauritz
Diary Entries from Fall 2007