Walk!Man Update (Yari + Geena)
This week we confirmed Stanford's role in the project by solidifying the scope of work. We will be performing research online and through surveys and focus groups, while our Tsinghua teammates will continue to update us about their interactions with CleanAir Asia and specific goals of the app. They have done some research on the benefits of walkability, and they've looked at CleanAir Asia's current walkability app, to see what needs to be different.
They told us that the app will hopefully be used by people in a wide variety of cities, so we hope that through our research we will be able to find some ways to make that realistic. We've begun our literature review, and we've found a wide variety of walkability metrics and surveys, which we're parsing through.
The Skype session went well and we have a nice group dynamic.
Click "Read More" to view updates from all project teams.
This week we confirmed Stanford's role in the project by solidifying the scope of work. We will be performing research online and through surveys and focus groups, while our Tsinghua teammates will continue to update us about their interactions with CleanAir Asia and specific goals of the app. They have done some research on the benefits of walkability, and they've looked at CleanAir Asia's current walkability app, to see what needs to be different.
They told us that the app will hopefully be used by people in a wide variety of cities, so we hope that through our research we will be able to find some ways to make that realistic. We've begun our literature review, and we've found a wide variety of walkability metrics and surveys, which we're parsing through.
The Skype session went well and we have a nice group dynamic.
Click "Read More" to view updates from all project teams.
Micro-Travel (Alec, Valerie, and Adriana)
In the past week, we have continued exchanging emails with our Tsinghua counterparts to gain a better understanding of the goals and methodology for the project, and to find out where Sean and Coco are in their research. They got back to us with the results from their research (in English) that we can go through and base our surveys/research on. We will modify it and add additional questions.
In defining our scope of work, we developed a clearer understanding of what we are going to do to contribute to Sean and Coco’s research. We are going to modify their current research methods by adding our own perspective to both their surveys and field research. We also established a timeline in our scope of work for the steps we need to take to reach our project goals, which include analyzing, obtaining, and compiling additional research.
Sean is coming to Stanford this week, so we are planning to meet with him at some point on Wednesday (the exact time is not scheduled yet). We (the Stanford part of the team) are meeting tomorrow to solidify the final draft of the Project Scope of Work.
Green Cloud (Laura & Caroline)
Wukong (Steven & Christina)
Our first Skype chat was very prototype-ish. Connection issues made it difficult to communicate as well as see each other's faces.
As for the project, we had trouble understanding their progress and what they needed from us. They asked us to look into freight initiatives/research in the US, but it wasn't clear to either side how the research would help the project. It seems that most of the research has already been completed, and the team is set on making a video for Clean Air Asia. After reflecting upon our Skype chat, we eventually realized that the best way we could contribute to the project is by complementing their video and determining methods to make it as effective as possible. After all, their is much more to a good product than a good product - there's marketing, consumer reception/feedback, and analysis of the possible impact it can make.
As the Scope of Work is the assignment for the U.S. counterparts, we have decided to take on the bulk of the assignment. In addition, it seems that the Tsinghua students are already sped up on much of the information that is involved in the Scope of Work, so it made sense that the U.S. part of the team needed to catch up with the Tsinghua students.
In the past week, we have continued exchanging emails with our Tsinghua counterparts to gain a better understanding of the goals and methodology for the project, and to find out where Sean and Coco are in their research. They got back to us with the results from their research (in English) that we can go through and base our surveys/research on. We will modify it and add additional questions.
In defining our scope of work, we developed a clearer understanding of what we are going to do to contribute to Sean and Coco’s research. We are going to modify their current research methods by adding our own perspective to both their surveys and field research. We also established a timeline in our scope of work for the steps we need to take to reach our project goals, which include analyzing, obtaining, and compiling additional research.
Sean is coming to Stanford this week, so we are planning to meet with him at some point on Wednesday (the exact time is not scheduled yet). We (the Stanford part of the team) are meeting tomorrow to solidify the final draft of the Project Scope of Work.
Green Cloud (Laura & Caroline)
- We did our second video conference last Thursday with one of our Tsinghua teammates. One member of the group from Tsinghua University left the project. We are now working with Yipei and Sophia only.
- The videoconference went very well. We went over the questions we sent them by email about the project and got all the information we needed to complete our scope of work.
- Yipei told us what they discussed during the meeting with Clean Air Asia. Clean Air Asia asked them to do a survey of 60 truck drivers to get more significant results. Yipei and Sophia will put together a first draft of questions and Laura and I will review the questions and propose changes. The first task of the Stanford team is to research green freight apps and initiatives in the USA and Europe.
- We sent an email confirming the tasks and this enabled us to agree on what we should do.
- We will also use Teambition to share documents and as a project management software for the team. We will also use Evernote to work on common documents.
- Finally, we engaged in active photo sharing on Wechat!
Wukong (Steven & Christina)
Our first Skype chat was very prototype-ish. Connection issues made it difficult to communicate as well as see each other's faces.
As for the project, we had trouble understanding their progress and what they needed from us. They asked us to look into freight initiatives/research in the US, but it wasn't clear to either side how the research would help the project. It seems that most of the research has already been completed, and the team is set on making a video for Clean Air Asia. After reflecting upon our Skype chat, we eventually realized that the best way we could contribute to the project is by complementing their video and determining methods to make it as effective as possible. After all, their is much more to a good product than a good product - there's marketing, consumer reception/feedback, and analysis of the possible impact it can make.
As the Scope of Work is the assignment for the U.S. counterparts, we have decided to take on the bulk of the assignment. In addition, it seems that the Tsinghua students are already sped up on much of the information that is involved in the Scope of Work, so it made sense that the U.S. part of the team needed to catch up with the Tsinghua students.