Well, this week was definitely a crazy one! On Wednesday, we had our exhibition which meant our portfolio and the final product had to be completed. It was a very busy few days continuously adding more to the website and to Emily herself.

Once I had completed and finalised my functionality within the Arduino, I taped together any cables I could or swapped out loose jumper cables for fresh ones to make a nice and neat environment.

I created the nose for the snowman out of ProtoPutty which actually worked perfectly. I made multiple noses to try out and then glued the one I liked the most to Emily's head. I then made my arms out of straws which were really fun to do! It was nice to feel crafty and to work purely with my eyes and judgement (and scissors of course). Once I was happy with them, I glued them on and added eyes with a marker and also glued the rest of the materials together. Then Emily was a completed snowman!

I was quite happy with the physical outcome of my project however I could have definitely done more to improve. I would have liked to glue together the bowls instead of taping however I needed to ensure constant access was available to the Arduino components in case one became loose as it was not soldered or permanently placed. I would have also loved to explore other means such as resin printing, 3D printing or laser printing but with limited access to resources, I chose the path of more household materials. This allowed me to be more creative with what I could find a use for. With my physical product complete, I was able to create my videos and take photos of such. I was then able to finish the content needed for the portfolio and add it all together.

The exhibition was on Wednesday the 10th and went from 4-7. Whilst we had a slow, lonely beginning, time actually went really fast. The day of the exhibition was an eventful one for me with an unforeseen family emergency but thankfully things worked out and I was able to attend. Between having guests in our channel, our team would visit other channels to see their final products. It was really nice to see the other teams as we have seen their constant progress through the contact sessions this semester. I love how different ideas can evolve within the teams and within different themes. Receiving feedback from people who have only seen the final product and not the entire progress was great! They come in with a fresh mind and can give you different kinds of feedback. This got me thinking about why exactly I did things. Sometimes I didn't even really know my reasoning behind small little things, such as why we chose the name "Emily". Whilst I decided to incorporate a temperature and light sensor, I feel like I should have focused on one feature. This would have dedicated more of my time to improving just one sensor rather than trying to jump between the two continuously.

I enjoyed working with my theme and my team however there are a few things I would have changed/hoped for differently. I really wished we were able to take the course as it was intended and work as a team. I know we could have produced a pretty cool product with all of us together but it was not viable with COVID-19. The course was really fun and hands-on and quite intense but was a great final course to take before graduation.

I really loved my other team members' projects and to see which direction they went with and how it ended up. It was really great to see the differences and I think they all did an amazing job. If I were to re-do my product, there is a lot of inspiration from their "Emily"s I would find very beneficial to incorporate into my own project. This again makes me think of the results we could have produced an amazing product with all four minds put together.

All that is now left to do is to write my critical reflection and then the course is over!