I have faced lots of problems over the past months just to be able to get my thesis subject this semester. Fortunately, the problem had been partially been resolved but another problem was brewing up – our research proposal was still in pending status as of the moment.

One of our team members had talked to our adviser about this and for by some twist of fate, the Computer Engineering Department chair had now become a co-adviser.

Initially, our group had proposed the Autocart, which is much like the regular pushcart you see in supermarkets only this time, you do not need to push or pull the thing. Instead, you will just have to wear a belt that contains a sensor and the cart will automatically detect wherever its master is. There had been problems for this proposal perhaps because of the scope and limitation of the project so our Department Chair decided to suggest two other projects.

The first one involved the detection of water level in a river, which would be part of a flood mitigation project by the Civil Engineering Department of the school. It sounds neat, right? Anyway, technology is already present to help determine the water level easily but the problem is sending real-time data from the river, where the device is located, to the school, where the main computer would be stationed. If possible, we would also have to publish the data on a website so that it is readily available to every Internet user all over the world.

The second proposal was like a mobot (mobile robot), which would be able to move within a certain range using GPRS and the Google Maps application. Initially, we could test it out in our schools’ soccer field or any other plain surface.

The problem with the first one is that there were many things to learn. The data would be transmitted from the water level detector to cellphone to another cellphone, which would then be uploaded to the computer and to the website. With the second one, we will be having problems with obtaining the GPRS device because they were too expensive – not practical for us undergraduate students.

In the end, we chose to go for the first proposal. My choice had been such because I believe the downside of the project is also an added advantage. I am an irregular student who is behind many subjects and doing this project would give me a chance to learn a lot more, beyond what the school offers.

Anyway, that would be it for now. I hope that I would be an asset to my team, even if I have very limited knowledge for now. Perhaps I should take the advice of my teacher to read at least 50 pages of a book each day. I’m off to the library now.