2024-02-09 PDR Planning Meeting notes

Date

09 Feb 2024

Attendees

• Sidharth Babu

• Roy Mor 
• Ishan Deshpande 
• Pratyush Patra 

Goals

• Review IC/EV historical PDRs
• Review notes from IC/EV captains and chief engineer regarding PDR - DONE
• Establish content requirements for solar PDR - DONE
• Establish presentation guidelines for solar PDR
• Optionally make a template for PDR

Discussion Agenda

Discussion Notes

• Combustion PDR
  • Purpose: to present high level data analysis and justification for pursuing projects
  • Not specific designs yet, but mainly justifications
  • Spent 1-2 hours per system (note: were very inefficient while going through them)
  • BUT 1-2 hours including Q&A is still probably a good mark for each system
    • Q&A takes majority of time
      • honing in on why designs/changes are being made
  • Essentially a more detailed version of our SRR
    • Can be technical, but more in the sense of explaining justifications than going in-depth on specific parts
  • Comparative analysis
    • Decision matrices
    • Why do we need to do this project?
• Electric PDR
  • Set team level, system level, project level goals
  • Clear targets in terms of projects
  • Test plans
  • MVP of the system and stretch goals
  • Failure analysis of things that went wrong with previous/current iteration
  • High level schematics of new circuits/board designs
  • Ishan - they have a BSPD, might be worth investigating
    • More integration with the mechanical shit might be worth
    • Failure analysis and recovery
• Our PDR?
  • Self-contained
  • What we are doing and why we are doing it
  • Analyze and consider all options for design decisions
  • Ishan - I think it would be good to include MVP(minimum viable product) and stretch goals
    • barebones, what the system needs to go in car
• General Feedback TLDR:
  • PDR Mission statements (what do you wanna see?)
    • Ishan -  What are we building, specifically design details starting from a high level and going down to a component level, and why we think this design is the most effective at accomplishing the goals set out in SRR (justification). A layout of the work we need to do between now and CDR that we think is reasonable.
    • Sid- Here is what we are building to address the problems we outlined in SRR. Here is our initial plan of attack (diagrams etc.) with a fully thought out justification on this design (decision matrices and comparative analysis). Here is our MVP that is regs-legal, and our stretch goals. Here are some items that we would like feedback on.
    • Roy - Honing in on justification for design changes, both major and minor, and other projects that'll require manpower throughout the next design cycle.
  • PDR Official Mission: What are we building, specifically design details starting from a high level and going down to a project level, and why we think this design is the most effective at accomplishing the goals set out in SRR with a high degree of justification. A layout of the work we need to do between now and CDR that we think is reasonable: minimum viable product and stretch goals included. Analyze all potential avenues for each decision with a hyper-critical eye. Plan for testing & verification.
    
• Next year we should make the presentations on non-workdays and schedule it FAR FAR FAR in advance

Proposed PDR Structure 

1. System Introduction / Goals (1-2 Slides)

• Who are we as a system?
• What is our mission statement?
• What are we trying to accomplish (high-level statement).
  • Can be split into general goals, deliverable-focused, and longterm goals.

2. Recap / Context from SRR (5 slides)

• System Requirements (What does it have to do?)
• Requirements Reasonings (Why does it have to do that?)
• Note: This can be brief, as it was covered in SRR. However, since our SRRs were short without many external advisors, we felt recapping it here was useful.

3. Project / System Components 

• Note: Bulk of PDR is in this and next section
• What are we building to solve the problems / requirements that we have defined?
• Why are you building that in particular?
• Note: Justify your design choices and directions exhaustively.
• Comparative Analysis & Justification

1. 1. Decision Matrix that led to this method being chosen (diagram)
   2. Comparison to current method (if it exists)
   3. Comparison to other possible solutions, INCLUDING commercial / off-the-shelf options.
   4. Clear explanation of why selected method is best path forward for system & team in general.

4. Holistic Architecture Review

• How do all of the sections work together?
• What considerations have you given to integration?

5. Risk Reductions

• What could go wrong?
• What plans do you have to mitigate those risks?

6. Appendix

• Relevant regs, supporting materials 

Action items

• Each system needs to have a 1-2 sentence description of that system's overarching design goal / philosophy (Mission Statement). All of them should fall under the context of the one above.