Civil 202 CBEL Project: Operation Windshield 2014

The project is now complete and we can reflect on what we achieved over the past months. Working with our client, the North Shore Emergency Management Office (NSEMO), we created and delivered photographic and written descriptions of simulated earthquake damage at sites in North Vancouver and West Vancouver. They will use the injects we created during Operation Windshield, an earthquake training exercise taking place in June 2014. Responders will drive to sites on the North Shore, open an envelope with our simulated damage descriptions inside and report the damage back to NSEMO’s operations centre. This training operation will ensure earthquake preparedness and will test lines of communication between those in the field and the operations centre.

Poster Presentation

Following completion of the project, we created a poster presentation to share what we did with our classmates. It included relevant background information on the project and NSEMO, a description of our process and implementation plan, and some reflections on the impact of our work and the project’s relevance to civil engineering practice. We enjoyed sharing our work with our colleagues and also seeing their posters and learning about what they contributed to other organizations.

Our poster presentation.

We were excited to share our work with our classmates.

Effect on the Community

Operation Windshield will benefit citizens of North and West Vancouver by increasing preparedness should an earthquake occur. This training exercise allow NSEMO to test their response plans and work to keep their community safe in the face of a disaster.

By creating descriptions and photos of simulated earthquake damage, we handled a labour-intensive preparatory aspect of this operation, allowing NSEMO to focus on their day-to-day operations in the meantime. The injects we created are a central tool for the training operation and our work will allow the exercise to take place.

Also, our research into earthquake damage will help North and West Vancouver to become aware of possible earthquake impact on their infrastructure. The photo injects we created present potential damage to specific sites in a visual manner, assisting emergency response planners to know what they encounter.

What We Have Learned

Over the course of the project, each group member gained valuable experience that they can carry forward into their careers. The most pertinent lessons came from understanding the project’s context within its served community and through acquisition of project management skills such as planning and implementation. Each team member has shared their thoughts.

“By completing the CBEL project, I learned important lessons in project management. The project ran extremely smoothly. We were able to deliver an excellent product to our client within the deadline. This was mainly due to our extensive planning and goal setting, where we broke down large tasks into achievable milestones and set early deadlines to allow for problem solving. These planning strategies will help us during our careers. Also, working with NSEMO provided us with exposure to the workings of government. This organization works with three municipalities, and meeting with them was insightful in learning about the stakeholders and relevant institutions. Understanding how cities work is important for civil engineers, and this first exposure will be useful to us going forward.”

—Daniel Maldoff

“I believe that working with my group on this CBEL project has been extremely beneficial. I have gained valuable experience in team work and what its like to be working on a real world project with others. The ability to get along with people of various personalities and work alongside them is extremely useful in the future as a civil engineer. Working with this group, I have learned how to manage heavy workloads and how to delicate different tasks to different members depending on their skill set. Each member of the group is able to contribute in different ways, and its important to figure out each member’s interests. In addition to this, we’ve learned how to efficiently manage time and get tasks done in a timely manner. Experience in all these fields is very useful since as civil engineers, we will be required to work with colleagues on a daily basis.”

—Nishchhal Gautam

“In any civil engineering project, proper project management is needed to ensure  project success. The team learned crucial project management skills such as communication skills while completing the CBEL project. Communication skills is important in dealing with colleagues, clients, and other stakeholders so that project planning and execution will run smoothly and efficiently. Knowing how to communicate effectively and professionally is a skill that can be used not only in civil Engineering but in other industries and fields as well.”

—Veronica Velayo

“Through the Operation Windshield project, we practiced and improved mostly on team working and client communication skills. Active collaboration and interaction among team members was the key of the successful completion of the tasks. At the same time, communicating with the client clearly and effectively, constantly informing the client on the project progresses to make the client stay on track is usually helpful in meeting the client’s requirements and expectations. These are the basic skills a professional engineer should have and therefore the CBEL experience is positive for our future engineering practices.”

—Ying Niu

“By doing this project, I learned how to communicate with a real client and a real organization properly. The ability to exchange information with the other party is extremely important and beneficial. It can help me understand my client’s and colleague’s requirement better and finish the task as they want in a professional manner in future. Also, working in a group for the whole term really improved my team work ability. I now have a clearer concept about how to work in a team environment efficiently. Last but not least, by working for a real organization, I gained more knowledge and experience about how the civil engineering industry works.”

—Zehua Zhang

 We are thrilled to have delivered an excellent product to NSEMO that is of benefit to its community and appreciate the project management skills and experience we have acquired. With the project complete, we are proud of our work and will carry this experience forward into our careers.

The project is mostly complete and NSEMO has received the requested work. Our combination of written and photographic injects will effectively assist our client in conducting their earthquake simulation exercise in June. This blog post provides a recap and reflection of our implementation process.

Review of the Implementation Process

Our implementation plan is well-documented in previous blog posts. The main labour involved preparing the injects for our client, which required the following steps:

• Identifying simulated earthquake damage sites
• Collecting photos of sites for photo injects using Google Street View
• Modifying photos to include earthquake damage using Adobe Photoshop
• Composing written injects using Microsoft Word
• Compiling all injects and formatting them for uniformity

Another large task ahead was delivery of the injects to the client. We had understood that we were to provide a presentation to them, which would have required preparation and a trip to their office for delivery.

What Went Well

The key to our success was our teamwork and communication. By setting aggressive deadlines and dividing work between members into manageable loads, we were able to create the 50 required injects within the project timelines. Expectations from other group members were clear, which allowed all members to understand what was required from them and deliver. There was a positive group dynamic which allowed for comfortable communication and collaboration.

One concern going into the project was learning and using Photoshop to create doctored photos. Only a few members were familiar with the program beforehand. Also, most of us did not have a copy installed on our computers. We discovered that a month-long free trial version of the software was available for download from the Adobe website, which allowed each of us to have a copy on our personal computers for the duration of the project. Each member took it upon themselves to learn the software, which turned out to be quite intuitive. There were few issues with completing the Photoshop work thanks to all members’ adaptability and willingness to learn.

Photo injects were created using Adobe Photoshop to layer composite images depicting earthquake damage.

Ensuring quality and uniformity of injects was another possible hurdle, and this was overcome by foresight and communication. Before any injects were created, we agreed on a file naming convention and created a shared Google Drive folder for completed work. Establishing this framework beforehand saved a large amount of formatting work later.

Unexpected Hurdles

In general, the project went extremely well with few major issues. We did however meet some minor issues communicating with our client at NSEMO. Meeting with NSEMO, our contact indicated wanting frequent updates on our progress, and we received feedback that our updates were too infrequent in the initial phases of the project. We remedied the situation and provided weekly updates to NSEMO.

Our group had met early in the project to establish our timelines and milestones and established a schedule that would ensure completion of the project by the allotted deadline, but our schedule also considered our workload in other courses. Because we were busy in early February with midterms and such, we did not make much progress on this project at that time and, as such, did not have updates to report. Although the project was very much under control and not being neglected, our client likely became concerned.

Reflecting on this, we could have avoided this situation by sharing our work schedule with our client so that they were aware of milestones, deadlines and quiet periods. Also, having foreseen a deviation from the weekly updates schedule, we could have indicated a date to expect the next update.

Deviations from the Implementation Plan

Creating the injects proceeded exactly according to our implementation plan. However delivering the injects to our client was modified based on a change from our client.

We had originally planned to schedule a meeting with NSEMO and deliver a presentation with our injects. However, as our project proceeded, NSEMO requested that we simply share our Google Drive folder with them so that they could download the injects directly. Instead of preparing a presentation, work shifted to making our Google Drive folder presentable and ready for use by our client.

What We Achieved

In the end, we successfully created 50 injects for NSEMO’s Operation Windshield. These were a combination of written and photographic injects that describe and depict earthquake damage at sites in North Vancouver and West Vancouver. While we are unable to share our deliverables on this blog due to their sensitive nature, flipping through our collection of modified photos captures the magnitude of what we have accomplished, and NSEMO has indicated satisfaction with the results.

Out of the two groups working on this project, we made efforts to split the workload equally within all members. A total of 50 injects (written and pictures) are required for the client therefore each group was given the task of producing around 25 to 30 injects. There are two main tasks for this project, creating the injects and delivering them to the client.

The team, hard at work.

Preparing Injects

• Completed by: each group member
• Resources required: Software – Photoshop (free trial version available), Word
• Time required: 30 minutes per inject = 3 hours per group member
• Timeline: March 10 – 20

Both teams met and brainstormed a list of 50 sites for simulated earthquake damage. Once completed, this list was divided in half, 25 sites for one group and 25 for the other. Then, the sites were divided evenly among group members. Each group member was made responsible to some photo and some written injects for a total of 5 or 6 injects each.

The group member responsible for an inject must research the site, compile a photo if required (from Google Street View), perform the Photoshop work or create the written damage description, then upload the completed inject to a shared Google Docs folder.

For resources, this task requires software and time. Word and Photoshop are the primary tools. All group members already have Word installed, and a free trial version of Photoshop is available, so there are no financial costs. Each inject is estimated to take 30 minutes for a total of 3 hours per group member.

This task does not present any significant risks to group members, nor are there safety issues. However injects must be kept confidential since their public perception could raise alarm and potentially negatively impact any private businesses depicted, or could be perceived as a threat.

Presenting Injects to NSEMO

• Completed by: each group member
• Resources required: Software – Prezi or PowerPoint
• Time required: 5 hours preparation and 3 hours delivery
• Timeline: March 24 – 28

NSEMO has requested we deliver a presentation to them with our injects. We will be compiling this presentation as a group, and all team members will participate equally. We are waiting to hear from NSEMO on the presentation date, and we will be delegating two team members to deliver the presentation. We will be creating and delivering this presentation in conjunction with the other group.

We are currently discussing which presentation software to use, considering Prezi and PowerPoint. These applications are already installed on each team member’s computer, so there is no financial cost.  We expect to spend 5 hours as a group preparing the presentation and 3 hours delivering it to NSEMO, including travel time.

There are no significant risk issues with this task, however it is crucial for us to remain professional when interacting with our client at NSEMO, which means the presentation must be of excellent quality.

Indicators of Success

The number one indication of success is overall client satisfaction. Operation Windshield, the emergency response drill that will use our injects, will take place later this year in June. After receiving positive feedback from the event, we can consider the project successful. In the interim, our client’s evaluation of our work is our guiding feedback. We have been communicating frequently with NSEMO to ensure we are on track.

After learning more about NSEMO and the project, we sat down as a group to discuss our next steps. Since our main task for the project is to create 30 injects that will display different scenarios after an earthquake, we brainstormed critical sites where these scenarios can take place. We classified sites as critical if they are crucial to the city’s day-to-day operation such as hospitals, schools, roads, etc.

We also brainstormed on the kind of damages these sites will experience. Our initial ideas for damages included:

• Cracked walls, broken windows
• Blocked roadways
• Indoor pipes bursting
• Spills and leaks
• Power outage
• Small fire

Once we had gathered our thoughts, we met with the other team working with NSEMO to share ideas and divide work. We first combined our initial critical sites and damages list with that brainstormed by the other team, and then we sent our preliminary list to NSEMO for feedback and approval. We discussed dividing the sites between our two teams by geographic location.

Once we received the go-ahead from NSEMO for the sites we selected, we met again with the other team to finalize the list of sites and the simulated damage for each site. In the end, we achieved our goal in creating a list that contained 50 sites with different damages.

The inject will show a critical site, like this bridge, with a manipulated earthquake damage (Photo: Google Street View)

We narrowed down our list of sites and damage based on possibility of the envisioned damage occurring, site significance to the city, and the urgency of response the site should receive. For example, we chose a hospital that will experience power outage over a restaurant that will have cracks on its walls.

Another crucial decision was how to obtain the photos needed to create the injects. When compiling our list of sites, we had used Google Street View to virtually visit potential sites and check their viability for simulated damage. We were very impressed with the images in Google Street View and decided that we would use screen captures from it as much as possible. Any photos that we cannot obtain from Street View will require an in-person site visit to take the photo.

Timeline and Milestones

 We assessed our client’s deadlines, due dates for the CIVL 202 course and our overall workload to compile a plan of action for completing the project. The plan is reflected in the Gantt Chart below. Completed milestones are indicated in gray and upcoming in blue.

Our Gantt Chart, showing timelines for project phases (please click to enlarge)

Timeline Overview:

1.  Meet with NSEMO for project details* – February 4
2. Create action plan – February 10-14
3. Create list of inject sites – February 17-28
4. Delegate sites and editing -March 3- 7
5. Compile pictures of critical sites – March4-9
6. Complete set of pictures* – March 9
7. Editing of Pictures – March 10-14
8. Write Descriptions – March 10-14
9. Compile all injects – March 17-22
10. Deliver injects to NSEMO* – March 24
11. Create poster for presentation – March 24-31

*Key milestones