Proposal V1.2

Media Business Project 2023-24 
Project Proposal 

Team Name:  KitKat

Student Names: Tala Dabbagh, Éanna Burke, Katie Healy, Killian Harte

Project Name: PERIL

Version:

V 1.2

Synopsis:

An artificial intelligence tool that will recognise the warning signs of a volcanic eruption and activate evacuation protocols around the 9 active volcanic sites across New Zealand. 

Project Aim: 

To reduce injuries and fatalities caused by volcanic eruptions in New Zealand. Our solution will help reduce the chances of a volcano eruption going undetected, and then calmly direct people away from dangerous areas and towards safer locations during an eruption.

Team Roles:

Project Manager: Katie

Head of Design: Éanna

Head of Research: Killian

Head of Testing: Tala

Background: 

Volcanoes are highly unpredictable and pose a unique challenge to disaster management authorities. The amount of data available to analyse is limited, and different volcanoes can exhibit different behaviours. Observations that help to predict eruptions for one volcano can’t reliably predict eruptions for another.

       In New Zealand there are minor eruptions every few years. Since 2000, there have been 5 eruptions in New Zealand: one in 2006, one in 2013, two in 2015 and one in 2019. There were 22 deaths during the 2019 eruption, and the previous four caused at least 1 death each. There are currently 9 active volcanoes, with elevations ranging from 137 metres to 2796 metres.

Objectives:

1. Understand our problem

• Why did the pre-existing safety measures fail so terribly in 2019?

2. Research our problem

• How can we increase the chances of detecting an eruption early?

• What have people not tried yet?

• How can we utilise the current infrastructure to our advantage while guiding people to safety?

• Record and develop our ideas by using loose sketches and scribbles

3. Build our initial prototypes

• Build our first prototype by bringing together the best elements the designs we've sketches out as individuals.

• Test our prototype with people we can rely on to be honest

• Look at what our testers thought did work and what didn't work.

• Reassess our design by creating solutions to the problems that were flagged in our feedback.

4. Build our final prototype

• Finalise our design through feedback from our prototype presentation, followed by a final round of testing.

• Create our report based on the work we've undertaken for this project.

• Create and present our final pitch to our client. 

Timetable: 

Week 6 & 7: Complete our research and start ideating prototypes for our solution.

Week 8: Submit our work for the Research & Management Assessment and create the first version of our prototype.

Week 9: Develop our our initial prototype based feedback we get during testing.

Week 10: Present the current iteration of our prototype in our Prototype Presentation.

Week 11: Create our final prototype based on feedback from the Prototype Presentation and a final round of testing. We also begin finalising our report.

Week 12: Present our final prototype to our client and submit our report.