MY LAST BLOG

THIS IS IT. Not Michael Jackson, but my last blog. I think an appropriate topic for this last blog will be... the blogs for iFoundry. I've always held the opinion that blogs as a whole are very narcissistic and egocentric and that honestly people tend to not care what you think. My opinion hasn't changed, but I do think that the people who had the great idea of iFoundry might actually care what we have to think, so there we are. And I also feel that a lot of people didn't really want to do these blogs, some did, but if you really don't want to write a blog then they just kinda rush through it and the content can be lacking or whatever. Honestly I felt that the blogs were a dumb idea and I never enjoyed writing it and I don't feel like I ever will, in part because I feel like sharing your thoughts on the web is just strange and impersonal. I think iFoundry would be do better if they set up a forum for students to talk and designed it so that students would actually want to use the forum, and then anybody could read what's going on with that forum, but that's probably not the greatest idea ever. This blog as a whole has been kind of lacking, so maybe what I'm saying is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Maybe.

The iExpo

Amazing? I think so. I definitely think ESS had the best presentation, but that opinion may be a little biased. I also think it's funny that the guy I work for (who is actually a pretty chill guy and friendly most of the time) also acted like a total jerk after our presentation with that question about the scientists who falsified climate change data, but whatever. He's Martin J. Neumann, and he is sort of the head honcho at the Center for Plasma-Materials Interactions. I don't really know him that well, but other than at iExpo he seemed like a pretty swell guy. But I'm digressing. It was really cool to see what every iTeam cooked up, and how the different personalities in the iTeams came together to make a unique presentation. I think it was really successful, but I wonder what all those people whose names made it into our song think about it? Hmmmm.

The Arduino

Hey, so this is another blog from me, and this time it's about the Arduino project. Or mechatronics project. Or whatever. I actually enjoyed this project because it was the first time I had ever had the chance to program code which then controlled something in the real world and no just do stuff on a computer, so it was both a challenge and a "fun" experience. I'm proud to say that I was actually able to code everything correctly, and I was very happy with how my group's robot turned out. Except that the motors weren't strong enough to turn it on the ground, but if you lifted it up off the ground it did everything it was supposed to haha. So basically if we had bought more powerful motors we would have had a crazy good robot, but instead we had to settle for one that just moved back and forth. No biggie.

The Classes

So I need to get a few more blogs in... soon. Well, I suppose I'll write something about the Wednesday classes for iFoundry, which were admittedly much less exciting than the laboratory work we did. Even so, I felt like the missing basics were definitely a great addition to my engineering education and they will be quite useful in the future. In fact, I may download all of those PowerPoints from the class for future reference. But maybe I'm just sucking up. At times it did feel like a lot of those classes were just a whole lot of common sense, but for the most part the lectures were quite informative. I'm not really sure where I'm taking this, so I'll probably cut it off here. Just know that the lectures weren't terrible, and they definitely livened up any reading we were supposed to do.

New Job

Just last Tuesday was the first day of my new job at the Center for Plasma-Material Interactions. I'm pretty excited to be a) making money and b) at an internship that will actually matter. From the looks of it I will be helping run experiments on the Ion-surface InterAction eXperiment (IIAX... yea, it's a stretch) and it will be my responsibility to make sure that the reaction doesn't stop midway through the experiment. It's pretty crazy I know, but I think I'm up to that challenge.

Also, the two people I'm working with most (Vijay and David) are both really chill and I definitely think that we'll get along. I also think that David, being a senior in NPRE, will be a valuable resource for any questions I may have in addition to all of the resources I already have (like the ELAs). Hi Jason. I also think that this experience will be useful because I'm toying with the idea of switching to NPRE, but I'm definitely not sure yet. I think that this will help me see a little more of what NPRE does and if I'd like it, but David (the senior) said that there are plenty of opportunities for electrical engineers in fusion research, which I'm a part of at the CPMI. And that's the reason I'm in Electrical Engineering to begin with; I feel like you can take a degree in Electrical Engineering basically anywhere you want and people will need your skills. I like the idea of not being boxed into a particular job in my future because honestly I have no idea what I want to do later. We'll see.

Steam Car Project Thing

I feel obligated to write a blog about the steam-powered car, considering it's been such an integral part of the Engineering 198 (100++?) curriculum. So I guess I'll do that.

First I'd say that actually making the car was pretty fun. Not a total blast but it wasn't boring either. Being able to hang out with my team members (Peter, Leigha, and Genevieve), as well as the thousand other members that drifted through the team, was a lot of fun. And then to think the car actually ran... well, not on our first attempt. But after a little tweaking with the soldered joints and actually putting lube on the car's axles, the car crept forward ever so slowly, as if it had just woken up or was horribly maimed. However, after a little more preparation and lube on Monday the car was merrily chugging across the classroom and out the door of the ESPL. The next step is winning all the prizes next Monday.

First iFoundry Blog

Well this is actually my first blog ever. I really feel like blogs are incredibly narcissistic, but that's against the point. So we're supposed to blog about iFoundry... okay. First I feel like the whole iTeam thing is going really well (at least for ESS). I like having a group of like-minded people that I can meet with every week and whatnot. Especially since there's not much of a social scene on my dorm's floor, the social aspect is welcome. I would say that I would like to see ESS focus less on environmental issues and more on humanitarian issues, but at the same time I understand that the environmental issues are much easier to address in a little project thrown together in a few weeks.

And that brings me to my only real complaint with iFoundry so far. I feel like we are very rushed to put together some sort of significant project and carry it out in a very small amount of time with a group of people that we just met. I think that I would prefer that the projects were the focus of the second semester of iFoundry so that we could actually put together multiple projects of substance for the various interests within the iTeams. Oh, I also don't like the Wednesday 5-7 meeting time because that's when a lot of other things are going on, but I guess that's true for any meeting time.

I'm really just rambling on here, but that's what you're supposed to do in a blog right? Oh and if you ever want to do something, just let me know. If you're my friend on facebook just look me up or whatever, and if you're not my friend on Facebook we can change that. I think that's enough for the first blog bost; I have to leave something for the next six.