e-Services and the Built Environment: Ourania's Project Log

Our group was formed which consists of Gavani, O., Henderson, M. A., Wright, W., and Zakopoulos, V. We decided to undertake the project with the title: “Energy Services via the Internet”. We were informed that we would have critical reviews in the form of 20-minute presentations every other Friday starting the following week.

I found from an article of the Chemical Engineer a project called ScadaOnWeb, which tries to establish a certain technology as a standard platform to process monitoring and control applications that are distributed over the web. This gave me an idea of what our project may be about.

We were given an overview of the project from our supervisor, Prof. Clarke, and were told to do some reading on energy services and the technology needed for implementation until our first meeting with him on the 05/02/2002 of week 2.

Until our first meeting I had a look over the internet where I found some companies providing a form of energy and environment services mainly in the U.S. such as Pepco Energy Services company. I kept notes of the various sites I visited and found some areas we could target in our project.

We had a meeting with our supervisor who told us to concentrate our research on e-commerce, energy services and the environment, the technology aspect (i.e. website) and also to identify a target for our project. I was told that because of my background I could focus on air quality. We were also advised to have a look on the last year’s website and see what we could do, that would add something to their work instead of repeating it. We were informed that our first critical review would be in two weeks time on the 15th of February 2002. We decided for our next meeting with Prof. Clarke to be on the 11/02/2002 at 14:00.

After using the electronic databases of the library to find articles related to the energy services aspect of our project, I found 2 articles that explain the e-services and their impact on the consumers. I also continued my search over the internet.

Our group watched the critical reviews of the first three groups A, B, and C. After the presentations we decided to meet on the 11/02/2002 before our meeting with Prof. Clarke.

I researched on air quality over the Internet and made a plan of the different services we could provide and what we could include in our site. Most of my ideas came from the website of the U.S. EPA on indoor air pollution.

We had a meeting (only the group) where we decided which questions we should ask Prof. Clarke at our meeting with him. When we met him, he advised us to split our team into 2 groups. One that should be focused on finding 2 energy services that the project should target, and one that should find the necessary sensors to carry out some experiments and satisfy the quantitative side of the project. He also suggested that we should define clearly the boundaries of the project in our presentation that Friday.

During this period we worked on our presentation. I prepared a couple of slides related to the e-services.

That was the day of our critical review. The group then decided to meet on Monday next week to work on some of the questions asked in the presentation and decide on the next target of this project. At the presentation we were advised to focus now more on what we had to offer and try and implement it. The literature review should continue but on the background of our research.

I met with the rest of the group and we looked for radio frequency sensors over the Internet without much success. I informed the group that I had exams in two weeks time and that I wouldn’t be able to attend any meetings in that period but that I would be present in both week 4’sand week 5’s critical reviews.

I attended the critical reviews of groups A to C and I had an update from the group about the progress of the project.

I attended the presentation of my group and made a note of the questions that were asked.

The group met almost every day of the week working towards looking for sensors and debating on the energy services that we could carry out. It was decided that our main service would be the one of CO and that we would do a research on the effects of humidity on the comfort and health of people in a home. We also worked on the presentation we had to do on Friday. I researched the BS Standards for CO detectors, found sites that sold CO sensors and narrowed down the results to two. Finally I prepared some slides for Friday’s presentation on Carbon Monoxide. We didn’t get a chance to present on Friday so our presentation was rescheduled for next week.

Project Log: Ourania Gavani