SustainabiliTree

• Understanding what all the members of our team were passionate about

• Determining the best method to display energy consumption data

• Building a circuit to light up an LED

• Creating a rough prototype of a tree

• Met with Olin College’s Associate Energy Engineer to understand what data we were able to receive and how often we were able to receive it

• Met with IT about setting up this sculpture long-term

• Built a couple of iterations of a scissor lift for the tree to move up and down

• Decided on using a threaded rod system for the tree to move up and down

• Attached branches to the tree sculpture

• Built a base for the sculpture

• Created a working prototype of a tree moving up and down

• Created our first iteration of LED flowers

• Used final material to create the sculpture

• Finalized circuitry and attached it to the base of the trunk

• Integrated the mechanical, electrical, and software subteams’ work

• Used an LCD Screen to display the date of the energy pulled

• Setup Rotary Encoder to calibrate the stepper motor during testing

• Attached LED’s to flowers and programmed them to change colors to represent the percent improvement each day according to the data

• Made the tree move up and down according to data pulled

• Finalized integration of all subsystems

• Decorated the tree in order to create an aesthetically pleasing look

The day before the final demo, our microcontroller (Adafruit ItsyBitsy M0 Express) blew out and rendered us unable to have a kinetic sculpture on Demo Day. Before it blew out though, we reached our MVP and one stretch goal. Here is everything our tree was able to do until right before Demo Day:

• The tree was the height that corresponded with an energy usage value, with a taller tree meaning less energy being used

• The lights turned green if the energy used was less than the day before, and turned purple if it was more

• The LCD screen displayed the date of the data being shown by the tree