So I'm sitting by this guy in the library right now who is snoring....while he is still awake. I've made sure of that fact by stealing surreptitious glances in his direction when I hear a huge snort just to confirm that he is indeed awake.
I had to move from my nice table with the comfortable chairs to the snoring boy because the 3 individuals who joined me were too loud and obnoxious. I really wonder if each generation after each are indeed deteriorating in terms of ethics, and morals. Standard courtesies of keeping quiet in the QUIET area of the library should be something that is inherently ingrained in each individual....right?
Well, just an update on school and stuff I suppose. I got pretty sick the first two weeks of school and fell quite a bit behind. As a result of that, and because of my low confidence level in all things qualitative, I decided to drop my statics class. While the notion of having no midterms of finals is definitely appealing, I don't know how much time I could have had to study for weekly quizzes which will make up my final grade. The odds didn't seem like they were in my favor.
So, I'm down to three classes; Physics II, Chemistry, and Calculus III. I just took my Calc test last week and I am happy to say that I made the right decision to drop the statics class. This professor is really hard core, doesn't allow formula sheets, and the 3-dimensional concepts and material is hard for my tiny brain to comprehend. I studied over 20 hours for that test...and will find out how I did in 30 minutes, but the fact that all those hours went into that one specific test has made me question my efficiency and prowess at academics. I feel like people in my class who studied 5 hours or less probably did the same as myself, if not better. How depressing!
Anyway. I'm trying to not be as uptight as I was last semester, but I fear that as a result of that my grades will plummet significantly. I am considering joining the student chapter of ASME and AIAA. They both have pretty cool projects they want to work on, such as the human powered vehicle for ASME, and the Design Build Fly competition for AIAA. I don't know which one I want to do yet, but am leaning towards AIAA because they are more organized, and the competition in April is in my parent's state! Or maybe I won't participate in any of them.
O dear.
Seriously?
So with Serena Williams and her obscene words and conduct; Kanye West with his ridiculous behavior; and most infamous of all (in my opinion), Joe Wilson accusing the President of lying in a Congress session, I really wonder what's going on in the world sometimes.
This is especially true in the classrooms and my interactions amongst my fellow students. Most of the time I just sit there and think, "Seriously?!".
For example, today in my Physics II class, this scenario unfolded:
Classmate A (Male): Oh ya man. My statics professor is a great professor. He says s*** all the time!
Um, what? When does having a professor who demonstrates his ability to curse deem him a great professor? How about because he possesses an amazing teaching ability, or that he really takes the time and effort to know the student?
Also, another example. I was talking to a lab partner who is also a male, and we were discussing in our group of three what classes we are taking this semester. He is taking a MATLAB class which is basically a programming class.
Lab Partner: I can't believe [for my class] we have to actually know how to program! I mean, remember last semester when our Physics Prof gave us a sheet with code on it and all we had to do was input it and run it? Well for this class we have to write the stuff ON the sheet! We have to MEMORIZE how to structure everything, and if there's one mistake the program doesn't work! Isn't that ridiculous?
No, not really. Isn't that why it's called a programming class? I don't know, maybe I'm being too harsh on my fellow classmates (I don't think so), but I think they're really ridiculous, and rather immature. And it makes this whole process even more grueling than it already is.
CSU is rubbish
I suppose I can't speak for the other branches of the CSU system, but CSUN is rubbish. I suppose an average school falls prey to mediocrity when their funds are drastically cut by the state.
The process of going back to school has painfully slapped me in the face with why school sucks, more specifically, why returning to school as a working adult sucks even more than when you're 17. Here's a short list:
1. Taking completely worthless filler "elective" classes that have nothing whatsoever to do with my major and waste time, energy, and money.
2. Not being able to get into core classes for your major because of one of the following(I might have had personal experience with these...maybe):
- state budget cuts resulting in even fewer classes offered
- the professor is the only person who can add you to their open class, however their e-mail inbox is full and they don't attend their own office hours
3. The biggest irony of all: being approved for Calculus which is stupendous, yet being forced to take PreCalc because there aren't any open Calc classes
4. Being so far away from even beginning to see the light of MechE classes that you feel like quitting. In short, I have to take at least a year's worth of pre-reqs to even get into a MechE class and what if I don't like it then? I wasted a year in school, basically.
5. Dragging yourself out of bed to attend your conveniently scheduled Mon-Friday 50 minute class only to have a fire alarm go off 20 minutes into it and cancel class. Totally worth it.
6. Realizing once again that you aren't actually learning anything in class--that you in fact are the one teaching yourself everything in a time-controlled learning situation. I firmly believe that I can teach myself a number of subjects and what I can't solely teach myself I can learn from tutelage.
I'm almost considering applying to a different school but there's no guarantee that it'll be significantly better at say, UCLA for instance. All I know is that I sincerely detest going to school everyday and I don't possibly comprehend how I'll be able to finish an actual semester like this.
1st Day of School
I'm fresh back from the wilds of my college campus. Like the true nerd I aspire to be, I got to class a solid half hour early. I sat outside the building for awhile to forgo nervous fidgeting and unavoidable intake of classmate's trivial conversations. However, I still wanted a good seat--or a seat at all so I went in about 15 minutes early. Consensus? Precalc should be relatively easy(if I haven't forgotten all my trig). And wow, there are a lot of cell biology majors in my class.
My Intro to Jazz class went off without a hitch. I can tell right now it's going to be easy, but I didn't exactly sign up expecting it to be a challenge. I signed up because I love music and I have always had a healthy curiosity for jazz. Why is it that I love some of it so much and find some of it repulsive? The answer to that question and more will hopefully be forthcoming.
I'm listening to Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" right now if it's any indication of which subject matter I find more interesting. Ha. I had a sincere thought to brush up on my algebra and trig by running through some practice problems. That'll come eventually.
Tomorrow: more PreCalc and I start Japanese. I even rolled through all the kana today just as a refresher. On to a kanji refresher...ugh.
3 Little Words
Ah, those 3 little words that mean so much. They speak of passion, commitment, and eventual lifelong servitude to "the man". They also strike fear into my heart and warn of future financial drains. Yep, it's that time. Time to go "back to school".
August 24th is my date with doom and I couldn't be less enthralled. True, I am happy to be starting down the path of what could possibly, eventually, if I don't quit or lose interest, come to be a diploma in mechanical engineering. Which might possibly, eventually, if I'm lucky, lead to me working for Honda R&D or move to Europe to work on the next hand-made supercar. Hm.
However, I'm not happy about the hard shell of pre-requisites and electives I have to crunch through to get to the center of this particular Tootsie-Roll pop. As it stood, I was only enrolled in 2 classes which would really have any leaning towards engineering--PreCalc and Intro to Chemistry. That is, until a mere 2 weeks before the start of classes, the chemistry professor sent out a misspelled e-mail informing all students that she has some requirements no other instructor does. We would have to attend a 1-hour out of class, uncredited "discussion" as well as her office hours or "we would not pass". Really? An Intro to Chemistry class without a lab? A freaking 100-level class?
10 years ago, the Irish in me would've taken this issue up with the chemistry department and spent time drafting a wordy complaint letter. The older me is more apathetic. It's clear this teacher has unrealistic expectations and I'm not the sort to deal with that. Sure, it threw a wrench in my already stellar class lineup. But from experience, I'd rather take the class(any class) with a helpful instructor who's down-to-earth. I found another class to take in its place and hope that the fates will shine on me next semester.
So for now, it's a bunch of elective fluff which is probably a good thing considering I'll still be working 24-35 hours a week, 50 miles a day. God Bless America.
School Again (another 13 more posts such as this)
So Laura's classes have started/will be starting very soon. Mine starts a week after hers, and I am not in school mode whatsoever. I revamped my hours this summer and worked full time and I guess I am still stuck in that mode...not so much the studying and working my butt off mentality.
The classes I signed up for this semester will be heavy for me just because anything math/science related takes up a lot of brain power space. I am enrolled in Multivariable Calculus, Physics II, an Intro to Chem, and Statics. I am not too sure about statics because towards the end of Physics I last semester we touched on very briefly on a topic that statics builds upon and needless to say, I did not comprehend it. So, I am waitlisted in a Java programming class, which I'm not too stoked about either because the code syntax just looks plain weird to me compared to C++. I'm really hoping that I get into the Java class though, because taking Physics II with Statics sounds like torture. Or I suppose I can just take 3 classes and not whine so much.
I guess last semester, since it was my first semester back in school, was more like a testing the waters out sort of situation. Yay, I survived, but I also now know how much work it's going to take for me to even get that crispy piece of paper my degree will be printed on. This semester will most likely be testing my resolve. Do I really want this that bad? Can I do it? I guess if I survive this second round I can answer those questions.
Please wish us luck. We'll really need it, or at least, I'll really need it.
An ode to a crank pulley bolt
I'm working on my engine today. Yes, the engine that I swapped out in May. Funny how it takes awhile to get around to ticking off items on that to-do list. In my defense, I actually started working on it in July. I got a lot accomplished--breaking it down to a bare head and block.
That same day I learned an important lesson: don't wear flip flops when working on your car. Midway through my garage session I stepped on the air hose and inverted my left ankle, fracturing it. I managed to work through the pain and stay off it for the remainder of my garage time, but it was clear that it was messed up. However, I still needed cash for the rebuild, so I went to work the following morning, choking through the stabbing pain every time I had to shift gears.
I've been wearing primarily nothing but Nikes for the past month. Now that the main swelling has disappeared, it's still a bit tender, but I'm back in the garage trying to get this puppy ready for the machine shop. Then at least I can blame any delays on them. Heh.
And now, please pause with me as I share this haiku entitled, "An ode to a crank pulley bolt":
Oh, crank pulley bolt!
Please release your steely grasp
Impact:epic fail.
In other news, 2 weeks till school starts.
DIY UAVs
My husband and I were driving on the freeway today to drop off our guinea pig with a friend and suddenly I wondered whether it was possible for us to make our own UAV for personal reasons. How awesome would it be if I could stick my little piggie into the aircraft and fly it over to my friend 35 miles away! Well, I did some research and found out that a lot of people already do this sort of stuff! This is something that I would definitely want to do in the near future!
Check this out: http://www.diydrones.com
And there's also this awesome video by WIRED:
CNN ArticleHow Robot Drones Revolutionized the face of warfare
From Nic RobertsonCNN Senior International Correspondent
(CNN) -- Barely an hour's drive from the casinos of Las Vegas, a group of unassuming buildings have become as important as the trenches were to WWI. The big difference? Today's warriors are fighting without getting in harm's way, using drones to attack targets in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Remote-controlled drones, such as the Predator, are proving increasingly popular with the U.S. military.
USAF fighter pilot Major Morgan Andrews is one such combatant. He kisses his wife goodbye, drives to Creech, a tiny desert air force base in Nevada, and within minutes could be killing insurgents on the other side of the world.
Andrews fights not from the seat of the F16 he joined the air force to fly but from a darkened ground control station. He pilots a remote-controlled Predator, a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) which can spy on and attack positions and personnel without risk to its controller, shooting deadly Hellfire missiles at enemy fighters in support of fellow soldiers.
"You're talking to them on the radios as if we were in a normal airplane flying overhead," says Andrews. "You see the imagery, you know what's going on, you see what you're looking at. It's very easy when something like that is happening to project yourself there and feel a part of the battle. Like I said, your heart starts racing a little bit."
Meanwhile intelligence analysts get to see images in real time and can identify personnel on the ground.
There are now more than 7,000 UAVs ranging from the workhorse, the Predator, and its beefier, deadlier kin the Reaper, to army drones like the tiny hand-launched Raven and the larger Shadow.
The drones are dramatically tilting the war in favor of the United States. Predators, for example, played a key role in killing al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi in 2006. UAVs are credited with killing more than half al-Qaeda's top 20 leaders.
Now U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wants more UAVs. Already he has said that the next generation of fighter planes -- the F-35 that took decades to develop at a cost of more than half-a-billion dollars each -- will be the last manned fighter aircraft.
Lt. Gen. David Deptula, USAF, explains that the next phase will enable a single drone to provide as many as 60 simultaneous live video feeds direct to combat troops. Some new drones will be as small as flies, others walk -- all appear destined to work with decreasing human input.
"The future of how you use these un-manned systems or remotely piloted systems is really unlimited," says Deptula, based at the Pentagon and racing to keep pace with battlefield needs as well as Gates's demands. "We need to open our minds and think more about capability and impact we are going to achieve as opposed to how we've done business in the past."
At Creech frontline requests surged when weapons were first put on the Predator. In Iraq and Afghanistan drones have become so indispensable that missions are cancelled if they are not available
Robotic warfare expert Peter Singer, who advised President Barack Obama's campaign team and has authored "Wired for War," says that remote warfare is changing mankind's monopoly on how conflict is fought for the first time in 5,000 years. All that limits its advance is its application, not the technology.
"The barriers of war in our society are already lowering," he says. "This tech may allow them to lower to the ground. And we might already be seeing this in the strikes being carried out on Pakistan." He points out that raw numbers over the last year show the same number of strikes as the opening of the Kosovo war. "But we didn't debate about it in Congress, we don't talk about it daily in our media."
Pakistani officials say drones are killing al Qaeda leaders who thought they were beyond US reach. But even the U.S. government admits civilians are dying in those attacks too.
Singer fears the use of drones is misunderstood as cowardice, undermining the effectiveness of attacks and ultimately losing the war UAVs are fighting.
He explains that last year one of the most popular songs in the Pakistani charts talked about America fighting without honor, adding that the U.S. is "getting better and better at targeting leaders but perhaps creating a context that gets more recruits."
The spokesman for Taliban leader Mullah Omar recently told me that it is not afraid of drones, that it doesn't fear death. Deptula disagrees and quotes recently declassified comments between two Taliban leaders: "Tanks and armor are not a big deal, the planes are the killers."
He says that of more than 600 Hellfires fired by Predators, over 95 percent exactly hit their targets. Those that failed did so generally through mechanical fault, loss of guidance or a target moving at the last instant, Deptula says.
Singer cites other instances when a computer fault has turned robotic warfare into a mass casualty event. "Last year in South Africa an anti-aircraft had a 'software glitch' during a training exercise," he says. "It was supposed to fire upwards into the sky, instead it lowered and it fired in a circle and killed nine soldiers, all because of a software glitch."
For the U.S. military the gains more obviously outweigh the glitches. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of service men and women have had limbs and lives saved by bomb-detecting bots. Conservative estimates say that fighting from home and putting robots in to war has saved hundreds of millions of dollars.
At Creech the demand for Predator pilots is so intense that it is mobilizing Air National Guard and reservists. It has also introduced an experimental training program for air force cadets from the videogame generation.Colonel Chris Chambliss, based at Creech, explains: "If you look at younger people right now, they multitask much better than I do. They can do a lot of things with a lot of different information, gather all that in. That's certainly a skill set we need."
Cadet Greg Groves, who is in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps, has never flown a plane before -- but is well aware of his responsibilities. He says: "It's pretty clear that it's not a video game, and it is real life and that what I do directly affects someone else halfway around the world. So I don't think that's going to be a big problem for me."
Groves' father and grandfather were both in the military: when he leaves for Creech he'll be the first in his family to go to war without fear of dying.
Some commanders, such as Colonel Baxter Swift, based at USAF Balad in Iraq, says the future has only just begun. He says: "It's almost like what the hot air balloon was back in the Civil War for us. 'Hey, I can rise above and look around and see what the forces are doing on the battlefield.' So now we are just in the pioneering stage."
Yet if U.S. forces can have UAVs, so can other nations. An estimated 40 or more countries also developing drones, with an Iranian UAV already shot down over Iraq a few months ago. Even Hezbollah -- a political movement, not a state --- has used them against Israel.
For his part, Singer draws another historical parallel, comparing the U.S and the UAV to the British invention of the tank in the early 20th century.
"There is no such thing as a permanent first maneuver advantage," Singer says. "The British came out of WWI with the most tanks, they invented the tank and yet they didn't figure out the best way to use it in the wars they would be fighting. It was the Germans that figured that out and it was the Germans that would be fighting and would win with the tank when WWII starts."
CNN Article on changing careers
Laid-off workers find fulfillment in new careers
By Debra AlbanCNN
(CNN) -- Alicia Azzopardi was laid off just before Christmas. It couldn't have happened at a better time.
Trent Vondrasek, who went from the auto industry to an unpaid internship, poses with his children.
"I was so upset when I left my job," said Azzopardi. "I was crying, and I just didn't know what to do."
The same week that she got laid off, Michigan State University accepted her into its accelerated nursing program. Even better, she learned she qualified for a grant from the Michigan Nursing Corps. The state-funded initiative, which provides her with a $25,000 stipend, is addressing Michigan's nursing shortage in part by rewarding workers who have been laid off.
"My tuition is pretty much 100 percent paid for, and I don't take that lightly," said Azzopardi, 28, who has a background in business and sales.
While trying to survive in the state with the highest unemployment rate in the nation, Azzopardi and others are taking advantage of their job losses by pursuing careers they've always wanted.
Michigan's 14.1 percent unemployment in May towers above the national average of 9.5 percent, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics for June.
"It's a really hard thing to change careers when you didn't want to," said Martha Mangelsdorf, author of "Strategies for Successful Career Change." But starting over at an older age carries less of a stigma than it once did.
"It's not like the 1950s where people started with one company and stayed there for the rest of their working career," Mangelsdorf said.
The oldest intern
For Trent Vondrasek, 42, chasing the dream translated to becoming the oldest intern at the Lansing, Michigan, mayor's office, after he lost his job in October as a consultant for General Motors .
But the father of three had found himself hobbled by a major career decision in his 20s that continues to plague him. He quit college to take a sales job for an auto supplier.
"One of the mitigating factors [potential employers] are looking for is, do you have a college degree? And I don't have one. Even though I've got 18 years' experience, I'm not even considered," said Vondrasek.
Now, Vondrasek is trying to break into politics, but has found that he has to make his way up the ladder. As an unpaid intern, his peers were about half his age. He also was older than some of his superiors.
"I learned a lot from them, and I think they learned some things from me also," Vondrasek said of the other interns. "Because of my sales experience, I'm used to dealing with people."
Vondrasek highlighted one episode of his new career that he said brought him exceptional job satisfaction. He helped protect a woman from losing her electricity and from a mortgage company that was threatening to foreclose on her home.
The woman had complained that agencies would not return her calls. Vondrasek used his influence and links to the mayor's office to talk with the agencies.
Vondrasek also studies political science at Lansing Community College. He's paying tuition out of his own pocket, which is a challenge as his family tightens its belt.
"I fully realize that by going into public service, I'm not going to be financially as sound as I was in the automotive industry, because I got paid extremely well for what I did," he said. "But if I can get more self-satisfaction out of it and be prouder of what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis, then for me, that's a win."
Still, Vondrasek said, he probably would not have taken this route if he had not been laid off.
Volunteering and pursuing avenues where you excel, like Vondrasek did, can help career-changers make the best of the situation, said Mary Beth Sammons, author of "Second Acts that Change Lives: Making a Difference in the World."
"This is an opportunity to look where your heart is and to follow your passions," she said.
Sammons has her own story to tell. Based in Chicago, Illinois, with a journalism background, she began writing her book last fall after losing her job as vice president of a Web site for people facing health crises.
"I had already done the second act, taking my journalism skills and putting them in a place I thought was meaningful -- helping people that were sick and dying," said Sammons, 52. "I suddenly realized I had to create another act for myself."
Her next personal chapter became writing about people who reinvented themselves.
How to manage a successful career change
For those looking for a change in direction, here are several resources that might ease the transition:
Federalstudentaid.ed.gov: Does your career change require you to go back to school? This government Web site will help you explore your financial aid options.
Safeborrowing.com: This Web site from the American Bar Association will help you decipher how student loans work.
CareerOneStop.com: Sponsored by the Department of Labor, this Web site will direct you to local One-Stop Career Centers. The centers offer job postings, training and information on the government funds available for you.
Not all jobs require complete re-education, Mangelsdorf said. Talk to people already in the industry, hook up with a professional association and find out how others navigated their way through, she advised. Still, ongoing education can give you an edge by showing potential employers that you have a "zeal for knowledge" and the most current information out there, said Eric Winegardner, vice president of client adoption at Monster.com.
Transitions don't have to start from scratch. If you're still employed, you can also switch careers within your company, Winegardner said. "They already know your work product, they trust you, you've got strong relationships there. Start talking to them about your career path and your development," he said.
A change in direction can take a toll on relationships. If you have a partner or spouse, discuss logistics and time management with him or her before diving in head-first, Mangelsdorf said.
If you go back to school, get your feet wet first. It can be challenging to get back in the swing of higher education if you haven't been a student in a while, Mangelsdorf said.
Summer
So it's been about a month after classes ended, and it's going by so fast! I haven't really been doing much other than working full time at Company. I did however get a chance to register for my classes, and it looks like everyday except for Friday I have classes from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM if I decide to drop the Statics class. So far I'm signed up for Physics II with horrible teacher, Chemistry, and Calculus III. I was hoping to take Statics or an intro to computer programming but it completely fills up my schedule and I will be unable to work. I had originally planned on taking a leave of absence or quitting for this upcoming semester, but I recently changed positions and now am working on an SAP operations job which launches mid semester. I just feel bad leaving before the project 'completes', especially since the people here have been great and are so much more professional and nice than the previous program I supported.
I am worried though because I was hoping to study up on some physics II topics and chemistry refreshers so that I'm more 'prepared' for the semester. So far, I have done zilch preparations for either. And also, for some reason before school ended I responded to an email from ASME asking if anyone would be interested in being a webmaster for their website. I have no website design/programming experience other than an AJAX class I took over a year ago through UCLA's extension program....which means I completely forgot what I learned and didn't learn. I just logged into the system today and looked at the files already developed by the school administrator and am completely lost, and clueless. I have much to learn, and so little time. On top of that I need to get my butt moving on updating this blog's About section, and About Us. Keeping busy is good :)
Grades are in!
After much anticipation, I've just learned that I can now wash my brain of all things trigonometry(har...har) because I passed! Well, I did better than passing but less than an A; you figure it out.
And thanks to astrophoenix for passing on this excellent read: A Mathematician's Lament.
According to this awesome write-up about the current state of math in the US, I just finished this segment of training:
TRIGONOMETRY. Two weeks of content are stretched to semester length by masturbatory definitional runarounds. Truly interesting and beautiful phenomena, such as the way the sides of a triangle depend on its angles, will be given the same emphasis as irrelevant abbreviations and obsolete notational conventions, in order to prevent students from forming any clear idea as to what the subject is about. Students will learn such mnemonic devices as “SohCahToa” and “AllStudents Take Calculus” in lieu of developing a natural intuitive feeling for orientation and symmetry. The measurement of triangles will be discussed without mention of the transcendental nature of the trigonometric functions, or the consequent linguistic andphilosophical problems inherent in making such measurements. Calculator required, so as to further blur these issues.
Robots!
By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: June 8, 2009
Consider it one small step — or a roll, actually — for a robot, one not giant, but significant step for robotics.
Willow Garage, a Silicon Valley robotics research group, said that its experimental PR2 robot, which has wheels and can travel at speeds up to a mile and a quarter per hour, was able to open and pass through 10 doors and plug itself into 10 standard wall sockets in less than an hour. In a different test, the same robot completed a marathon in the company’s office, traveling 26.2 miles. PR2 will not compete with humans yet; it took more than four days.
For the person who wants to buy a fully functioning robot butler, this may not seem so impressive. But for roboticists and a new generation of technologists in Silicon Valley, this is a significant achievement, a step along the way to the personal robot industry.
Willow Garage was founded by Scott Hassan, one of the designers of the original Google search engine. The company’s name is a reference to a small garage on Willow Road in Menlo Park, Calif., which was Google’s first office. The company is trying to develop a new generation of robotic personal assistants. Roboticists here and at other companies envision creating something on the scale of the personal computer industry, with mechanical personal assistants taking over a lot of drudgery, from cleaning up to fetching a beer from the refrigerator.
This is not a new hope, nor is it the first time that robots have tried to open doors, navigate rooms and recharge themselves. The Beast, a robot built at Johns Hopkins University in the mid-1960s, was able to locate standard wall sockets to refuel. And devices like the inexpensive iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaner can locate and dock with a specially designed charging station.
But roboticists said that the Willow Garage robot was the first to integrate the ability to do a number of operations in a real-world environment.
“There are other groups that have opened doors before,” said Andrew Ng, a Stanford roboticist with several students who have gone to work for the company. But, Mr. Ng said, this seemed to be the first robot able to repeatedly and reliably open doors and plug itself in.
William L. Whittaker, a Carnegie Mellon University roboticist and the winner of a Defense Department urban challenge robot driving contest last year, said it was “unprecedented” for a robot to navigate in a building reliably and repeatedly recharge itself. “These guys are the real deal,” he said.
The Willow Garage laboratory is less than a mile from another pioneering mobile robot project that was developed at SRI International in the late 1960s. The robot, known as Shakey, had little onboard computing capability and was remotely controlled by a combination of a mainframe and a minicomputer.
“In 40 years there has been a lot of progress, but not progress you notice,” said Nils Nilsson, a pioneering artificial intelligence researcher who was one of Shakey’s designers. “A lot of the progress has been made in removing the cheats we used.”
To help Shakey navigate, he said, the baseboards in the room were painted black to help identify walls, and objects were painted red so they could be identified by the vision system.
The ultimate goal of the Willow Garage researchers is to build a Robot Operating System, or R.O.S., that would greatly facilitate the work of a generation of software developers.
Microsoft is developing a similar system based on a version of the Windows operating system, but the Willow Garage effort is an open-source project intended to leverage the contributions of a number of robotics experts around the world.
Toward that end, a team of roboticists from the University of Tokyo recently modified the Willow Garage R.O.S. to run on a robot they were developing, said Steve Cousins, Willow Garage’s president and chief executive.
“The eventual goal is to provide a set of capabilities that are so generic and so universal that they can be used as building blocks in more complicated applications,” said Sebastian Thrun, director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and a Willow Garage board member.
The current PR2 robot is powered by several Intel microprocessor chips and “sees” with a combination of sensors including scanning lasers and video cameras. It is able to locate electrical outlets and navigate in a building that is designed to accessibility guidelines in the Americans With Disabilities act. Such buildings do not have doors with round door knobs, which simplifies the task of opening a door for a robot. The PR2 carries its plug on a magnet at its base.
In the recent test, one of the plugs was behind a locked door, so the robot needed to be intelligent enough to abort its effort and move on to the next plug. The doors it needed to navigate were alternately closed, open and partially open.
One of the scientists summed up his feelings about the milestone in a succinct e-mail message:
“Now they can escape and fend for themselves.”
Design It: Shelter Competition
To all you geeks out there! There's a design competition done through the Guggenheim Musuem and Google Sketch Up to create a shelter in a specific location for sleeping and working. Apparently it's Frank Lloyd Wright's 142nd birthday today. The entries are due 8/24 in case you're interested! Here's the links to the competition and more information:
http://sketchupdate.blogspot.com/2009/06/announcing-design-it-shelter.html
http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/education/sackler-center/design-it-shelter
I tried using Google Sketch Up about two years ago but for some reason I couldn't get it working. I sure hope after my SolidWorks class I'd have better luck with it, but you never know...
The winner of the design gets airfare/accommodation to NYC, so that's enough to get me to participate!
No More Trig!
Like Jennifer, my spring semester has also drawn to a close. As I walked out of class Wednesday night after my two-hour final, my lips burst into a radiant grin. My immediate thought was, "I did it! No more trig!"
As soon as I thought those words, I had to laugh a little. After all, if I keep pursuing this educational path, I'll continue to use and build upon the principles learned in trigonometry. I'm sure there will come a day when I'll look back and say, "Psshh. Trig. That was easy in comparison to (fill in the blank)."
While June is already starting to fly by, I'm still unsure of many things for this upcoming fall semester. I still don't know if I'll be part time or full time at this point, especially since so many engineering classes are dependent on completion of calculus.
I am excited at the possibility that I'll be attending a 4-year college(even if it is a cheap state-run commuter school) instead of floating around in community college purgatory. For now, it's summertime. Time to bust ass working full-time and save up for the future.
Check
I can completely close the book now on my spring 2009 semester. All grades are in, and I am pleased to say I have passed all my whopping 3 classes. In my defense, it's my first semester and I was working part time =). The hardest part after finals was definitely waiting for my grades to come in, especially my physics class. I had an expectation for what the outcome of my grade would be based on how I felt about the final and how I performed previously on tests, labs, etc. I passed, and still do not understand why I got the grade that I did, but despite my curiousity and at my husband's urging, I am going to accept it and try to not investigate it further. The bad news is that since I passed the class, I am now going to suffer this mental rollarcoaster for the fall semester with the same ding dong professor.
I have vamped up my work hours to full time now, and that took some time to get used to. I realized I was in a huge bubble the 3 months I was in school and it feels nice being able to connect with people and to work on hobbies, read, watch tv, etc. I suppose it really is a sacrifice to go back to school, not only financially but also socially as well. I didn't really fully comprehend it until it was all over. But, I guess this is all done in the sheer hopes of forging a positive future opportunity, and hopefully (fingers crossed), a rewarding career.
Show me what I'm Looking For
Now that school is over I feel like I have so much time! I just don't know what to do with it. Actually, I have a lot of things I should be doing but am giving myself two weeks to 'rest' before starting. There's this song by Carolina Liars called "Show Me What I'm Looking For" and it would play over and over again these past few months. Anyway, I thought it was fitting for me since I felt about as lost and confused as the writer of the song. Now whenever I hear this song I will probably think back to my first semester back in school. Maybe by the time I finish I can build up a playlist capturing all the emotions that I experienced. Hm, I'll write that down.
Rambling Reflections
At last, the semester has ended. The last week of finals was grueling, frustrating, physically draining and was excruciating for me. I took the whole week off from work thinking that I would have plenty of time to prepare for my 3 classes, but I completely underestimated how much work would be required. I tend to become overly anxious when I have to study/take tests so finals weeks was that magnified 20 times. To prepare for my Physics final, I had printed out perhaps close to a hundred pages of questions I found online, and in the end I was not able to complete all the questions as I had hoped. My physics test was on Wed, while my Calc II test was the horrific last day of the week, Friday. Since I was performing the worst in Physics, I focused the whole weekend and half the week on the class driving myself, my husband, and my guinea pig crazy. I walked out of the final Wednesday not feeling like it went well. My professor is not really good at well…teaching. His tests are often filled with grammatical errors, he has incorrect diagrams for the problems and he’s even rounded wrong for the correct answer choices in the past as well as given us the wrong constants for G = 6.7*10^-11. So, I often tell my husband that it’s a crapshoot on how well one does on his ridiculous tests. The really sad thing is that if I do by a miracle pass his class, I inadvertently signed up for his Physics II class in the fall. Just the thought of enduring his class for another semester, for a total of one year is just depressing, but I can dwell on that if and when the time comes. Between Wed afternoon and Thursday evening, I studied close to 8 hours for my math final doing like was suggested by some of you of going through old problems, old tests, etc. It seemed to work pretty well and I felt a little more confident in that class despite only receiving 4 hours of sleep the night before. I had no coffee that day either! Anyway, I have two of the three grades back and am now anxiously awaiting my physics grade. I know I am far from reaching my goal of completing my bachelor’s degree in engineering, but as Laura once quoted Confucius to me, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. Well, this past semester right here is my one, single, magnificent step. And in this one tiny step, I have learned a multitude about myself and about others. Here are some things I thought of:
1. It is difficult: In my mind I knew how difficult this would be, especially for me, but for some reason at the same time I was thinking I should be able to grasp these concepts and be able to do these problems in a split second. And if I wasn’t able to, then I am not cut out for this. But apparently, a good majority of people who do this struggle through it (unless you’re some Einstein or MIT destined individual) and that took time for me to get used to, the always constantly struggling portion of it.
2. Utilize what you have :
1) Office hours: In my first round of college, I never went to a single one of my professor’s office hours. I don’t know what was wrong with me. This semester, I went to visit my professors during office hours to ask questions, receive clarifications regarding tests, homeworks, and grades. I also emailed them constantly.
2) Classmates: I didn’t do this, but I noticed that in my classes the students who collaborated with each other in regards to projects, homeworks, etc., had a leg up over loners like me who had to figure everything out slowly. I guess like they say, two brains are better than one!
3) Out of class textbooks: Like my post a few weeks ago on physics, I found it very helpful to have on hand out of class material in case you don’t understand something. For instance, in my calculus II class my teacher was teaching 1st and 2nd order differential equations using a packet that we had to access from online. Our textbook only touched on the subject for 2 pages, while the packet was cumbersome and hard to get through. So, I dug up my husband’s differential equations textbook (this is supposed to be a whole separate class I believe) and worked on problems in the beginning of the book. I believe that helped me tremendously.
3. Work through problems, many problems: Unlike my business classes in college, the classes this semester I found myself constantly working through problems over and over again as well as trying to find new ones to work through. I guess the thinking is that the more problems you do, the more you can get a feel for the subject. I guess that’s one of the biggest differences I’ve encountered for math/science classes vs. business/other classes. It’s difficult to really learn the material unless you just get into it.
4. You won’t know everything: Also unlike my prior college classes, I could read through a textbook and make pretty darn sure that I understood the concepts and process flows for how business entities are established, etc. But, what was probably the hardest for me to learn this semester is that it is ok to not be able to do all the math problems my professor assigned. I remember spending over 10 hours each week, especially towards the end of the semester and after a page of working a problem only to find it to be incorrect was incredibly frustrating. I sincerely thought for the longest time (and still do) that there was something wrong with my intellect. Imagine my surprise when my husband told me that very often it’s impossible to do all the problems correctly and still have time to do everything else for your classes.
5. All you have to do is beat the average: I always had the mentality that to perform well in a class, you had to not only know everything, but also have to perform well on the test and score as close to that 100% as possible. Of course, this is true, you can’t score a 30% and expect to get an A. I my class, mostly because he’s such a rotten teacher, the class averages for a test were around 20/45 or 30/60. As long as you’re above that average, you’ll score a B after he curves the test which is somewhat comforting. Well, I guess my point here is that I learned you don’t need to have the highest grade, or even the best grade as long as you are better than the average of the class.
6. Boys are immature. Freshmen boys are even more immature: After working for almost two years in a mostly professional environment, going back to school with fresh out of high school 18 year olds can make you feel like you’re in a circus. Since engineering is mostly men, I guess the disparity was compounded more by the fact that I was definitely more of a minority. It’s funny, when that professor from Cornell was telling me about going back to school for a 2nd B.S. he pointed out “well you know you’ll have to take some classes with 18 year olds and that’s not always that fun” but I never thought much of it until I was actually there. It’s just amazing the difference you see in the 4 years in college. The guys in my class couldn’t dress very well, didn’t smell great either, and had really weird habits that were beyond disgusting at times. This one guy that sat next to me in math (not for long) would vigorously scratch his head/hair, look under his fingernails for…stuff…and then proceed to stick his finger in his mouth to suck out the newly acquired ‘stuff’ in his fingernails. This other guy would spend the whole time in my math class popping his zits all over his neck, his face, etc. There’s more but I’m about to eat dinner soon so I don’t want to spoil my appetite.
7. People vs. You: After I told people when they asked me what degree I was pursuing and why, I’ve found that either people are completely supportive, or the absolute opposite, and they didn’t shy from showing the latter. I remember when I told my at the time manager (out of necessity, not desire) that I was going to go on a part time schedule to pursue another degree, he dryly responded, “What are you going to do with that? I really do not see a benefit for your pursuing of an engineering degree” and continued to make snide remarks in the weeks after such as, “Are you seriously going to go through with this?”. He also managed to deride the fact that I was now “poor” and “doing all that work for nothing”. Gotta love these enthusiastic people. I also remember receiving an email from my mother on the day of my SolidWorks midterm suggesting that I pursue Library Science instead as it is not as stressful. I guess my point in mentioning this is that no matter what you do, there are going to be people wanting you to fail or not believing you have what it takes and unless you know for certain why you want to do something, there’s a great chance you’ll succumb to their pessimistic outlook.
8. People For You: On the other hand, you have those who are blindly supportive and you wonder why. I mulled over this decision for almost two years, and in that period of time I seeked out advice from those who have been there. There was this professor at Cornell that was a principal investigator for one of the programs I was supporting at the time, and on a leapt of faith I emailed him after noticing that he had a B.A. in English, and after enrolling for a Ph.D in English he went back and got a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering. He then proceeded to receive his Master’s, and ultimately his Ph.D. The correspondences we had were extremely encouraging and beneficial, and I remember being so surprised that he had so much belief that I could do this, even though we’ve never met and only kept in touch through email and a couple times through the phone. Maybe through his own trials in achieving his dreams he has come to believe you can do anything if you set your mind to it. There are others, coworkers, friends, who have been a blessing in providing their support, but my sister and my husband rank up there for helping me muster just enough courage to take a leapt. And of course, having Laura as a sort of modern pen pal has been inspiring and she’s been such a pillar of support as we both wrestle with this dream. It important to filter out the negativity towards you from people who aren’t supportive and to focus on the ones who do believe in you.
9. Last but not least, have faith. Have faith in yourself, in the system and in God.
Falling Off the Tightrope
For nearly the past 8 weeks since I started my full time job, I've been precariously wobbling atop the tightrope of my college career trying to maintain some sense of balance. It's as if my work is giving me continually more and more balls to juggle as I'm shimmying across and this last week represented the point where juggling and balance were lost as I went careening downwards(thank god for safety nets).
In short, I'm going through an intense training program at work which involves learning massive amounts of information(both written, oral, and practical) in a short amount of time. My fellow co-workers and I are then required to pass a series of written and practical certification exams. The culmination or "final" if you will was held this past Monday which consisted of a 19 page two-part exam with mostly essay format questions. The second half of the exam consisted of information from 2-4 page reports I and my co-workers had written and presented on Friday of last week. It was clear much cramming needed to take place last weekend to prepare.
Although daunting, what scared me more was my trigonometry test coming up on Wednesday. Consequently, much cramming was needed in order to succeed on that test as we finished the chapter last week and hadn't yet applied the material.
Still both were totally doable in the grand scheme of things. That is, until my engine died on the way home from work Thursday night. Living in public transportation scarce LA, arranging a ride became top priority. Thankfully I have some exceedingly smart, resourceful, and hard-working friends without whose help I would not have been able to get to work or school this week.
Monday was my 6 hour written exam at work which left me glazed over and burnt out. I noticed that my brain seemed to be operating in "safe mode" thereafter. I was able to study some on Sunday and prioritized my time towards trig with subsequent study sessions during lunch breaks and all evening Monday and Tuesday. However, I noticed a trend that my brain was not able to remember anything new. Seriously. The information we covered the previous week in trig would not stick no matter how many breaks I took, matcha tea I drank, or herbal energy pills I popped. Not even a good night's sleep started things fresh.
By Wednesday I was frazzled, desperately trying to grasp math concepts during my work lunch break and fatigued. I went into my test that evening with a sense of impending doom but a positive effort to do my best and see what happened. I was actually surprised by the fist half of the test which in my opinion was pretty easy. The second half of the test slaughtered me. It was full of new concepts we learned that I truthfully had not absorbed. Without even getting the test back I know for a fact that I failed it.
I'm completely disappointed about that, no doubt. I left class Wednesday feeling stupid and directionless. Since I tend to be pretty hard on myself, I tried to take into consideration all the crap that went down in my life this past week from my car dying to the unique situation of having to study as much if not more for work at the moment as part of training. Granted, this training will pass eventually but it still upsets me that my time is being so torn from concentrating on my studies at the moment. If I didn't have such passion for this job I know for a fact that I wouldn't be able to handle the added stress.
What I'm taking away from this experience is the ill-effects of procrastination and how it will turn your hair prematurely white. I've learned that if you are attempting to undergo a stress-induced stroke brought on by holding down a job and going to school that you should take advantage of every valuable minute of every day. In fact, that's probably a good lesson for anyone. The weekends I was decompressing from work I could have been studying my work material and homework so I wouldn't have gone through system overload at the last minute. Carpe diem, students!
Am I a big enough nerd?
As I've been going through my math classes this year, I've started to ponder the question, "Am I a big enough nerd for this?"
Seriously. At first I was surprised to discover that I didn't loathe math as much as I thought I did. After I passed Intermediate Algebra with flying colors, I was feeling much more confident in my skills.
Now I'm 4 weeks away from finishing my Trigonometry class and I'm just about out of steam. I've taken up the hobby of slacking off on homework. Sure, I'm working full time now, but when I get home from work I could totally bust out the textbook and cruise through 30 problems. However, when I get home from work I kick off my shoes, grab a refreshing nonalcoholic beverage, and let my brain download the day's events.
All I can say is it was a hell of a lot easier to find time and initiative to study when I had all day to do as I pleased. Oh, to be financially independent and jobless!
So aside from work taking time out of my schedule, I've been giving a lot of thought to how much determination I have to actually follow through with an engineering degree. I feel like I should be geeking out on all things engineering related and eating general math problems for breakfast. Truth is, when I'm not in school, I rarely think about math. I think about making CD mixes, driving, working on my car, locations for 1 am photo shoots, and learning to play guitar again. I think about how much I love working outside and never doing the same thing twice.
Then I think about me as a future engineering student. I see me cursing at traffic as I commute to school and hauling boatloads of books. I see me being bored in class. I can imagine me turning down opportunities to go to shows or write blog entries in order to run my brain cells on a never ending treadmill of Calculus problems. I foresee the creative section of my brain shriveling up and dying as my camera collects dust on the shelf.
Then I try to look ahead to me as a mechanical engineer. I envision me sitting at a desk in a cubicle on a computer putzing away on CAD designing some I-beam. I envision me being super freaking bored and financially stable.
I'm not sure if these visions are completely fictional or the product of an imagination with no frame of reference about what actual engineers do all day. I have no problem sacrificing time or hobbies for something that will eventually pay off in terms of my ultimate happiness and hopefully as a positive contribution to society too. But at this age, I will be seriously pissed if I make the commitment to dump everything in my life except for school and I emerge as little more than an humanoid calculator given tasks to compute.
To put it in perspective, if someone told me that I would be technically challenged and creatively inspired shooting photography or pursuing music, I wouldn't hesitate to change my major. I'm just not convinced by the curriculum that I see at CSUN that a Journalism major is that challenging, or more importantly, even worth it. In fact, I would rather be an engineer any day than sit in a radio station newsroom again. For me, it seems like my constant debate: pursue a traditional degree and pretty much be guaranteed a good job or pursue a creative career and be in limbo financially but possibly be happier overall. Hmm...
Thoughts?
What? No Homework?
I just sent an email to my math professor asking for some homework problems to do over the weekend. I'm not crazy, I swear. You see, ever since the beginning of the semester (January), he's always assigned homework problems, usually 25 - 35 problems due every Friday. Because during the week I am completely drained from school and work, I usually try to do as much homework as I can over the weekend to lighten the load a bit. It usually takes me about 2 hours to do about 10 problems, so it takes me quite a bit of time to get through all the homework sets due at the end of the week. So, imagine my surprise when I logged onto my blackboard account to find that there was no homework posted! I thought he had forgotten so I emailed him but surprisingly he replied and said no homework was due next Friday. That really worries me. I'm afraid at the last minute he's going to tack on a bazillion problems that I will not be able to finish because of my turtle like pace in figuring out math problems. So, it's weird to not have to worry about math as much this weekend. But then of course, that forces me to have to tend to my other 2 classes, which I am not too excited about.
Finals are in 3 weeks and I am pretty freaked out, but calmly freaked out... I am completely at a loss of how to prepare/study all the material in an organized fashion without psyching myself out by getting overly anxious. My physics final makes up 35% of my final grade which worries me a lot. I've never been good at taking tests, especially cumulative finals. I study for them but for some reason I always perform badly on finals. *sigh*. If anyone has any good study/preparation tips, please feel free to share!
The Art of Balance
When I first started attending class again for the winter intersession at my local community college(CC), I thought little of it. Sure, I was putting in a good 4 hours every Monday-Thursday not to mention study time, but I was unemployed and had the luck of leisurely completing my coursework.
Fast forward to the current full-length spring semester and although I'm only taking one class that meets one night a week, suddenly my world has been turned upside down by the appearance of The Job. Yes, it appears even I am employable(and loving it), working 40 hours a week.
Now that I'm working again, I can truely say that you'd have to be slightly off-center to want to work full-time and go to school full-time. It's a huge challenge and I tip my hat to those of you doing this very thing. Heck, even part-time work is a burden. Add on to that social obligations and relationships and you've got one heck of a schedule.
Everyone has their own way managing their time. Mine used to always consist around putting everything off till the last minute. Now that I'm older and less willing to suffer from sleep deprivation, I've found that taking advantage of even little amounts of free time really speeds up the completion of my tasks. This is also a great way to break up a huge block of homework or start seemingly insurmountable projects.
Ultimately, it comes down to just how much of a workload I'll eventually be able to handle. I want to be optimistic about it, but I truely won't know until I'm in the thick of it. I know I'm throwing my work/life balance towards school for the short term and hopefully I'll reap the rewards for it later on.
Motivation
I met with an advisor at another university before I started this semester, and he warned me about the high turnover rate at the freshman/sophmore level for engineering. The reason according to him is that the first year - year and a half of engineering classes are all not directly related to engineering; they're your calculus(es), physics, chemistry. After 2 months into the semester...I can see why he might be right! But I knew all this before beginning, so it doesn't explain the sudden lack in motivation. I'm mentally attributing it to burnout but I think on a deeper level it's because I'm still constantly battling myself on whether I'm making the right decision. Usually going back to school vs. being on autopilot for a career path I don't particularly enjoy always comes out on top, and it still does, but it's slowly drawing out at an equilibrium which frightens me.
Anyway, there's just been a dark cloud hovering over my head this week which hopefully will clear up soon. I found a nice list for motivation whcih applies well for my situation.
1. Have a cause
2. Have a dream. A big dream.
3. Be hungry
4. Run your own race
This one I think is really good for me to keep in mind. While mindlessly browsing on Facebook or a site equivalent to that, I find myself getting slightly depressed when I see everyone from high school/college moving on to law school, masters and PhD programs. I often feel like I'm going backwards rather than forwards so this is good for me to just focus on myself and not compare with everyone else.
5. Take one more step
6. Let go of the past
This is also important for me to learn. All the memories from the past and negativity is still a great part of me which sometimes feeds into the negative thoughts I generate. This will probably take some time to overcome but I think it can happen.
List from http://www.lifeoptimizer.org/2008/10/22/self-motivation-how-to-motivate-yourself/
Physics, how I hate thee
You (don't) suck at math.
Just mentioning the fact that I'm enrolled in a math class usually immediately elicits a gag reflex in other people, followed by personal math horror stories and always one of the following phrases:
1. "I haaaaaaate math."
2. "I suck at math."
I understand, my friends. I used to say the same things. It's not like I started loving math all of sudden when I decided to be an engineering major. It's more that math is par for the course, so I decided to be a woman and suck it up.
Then the most surprising thing happened. When I actually started paying full attention in class and trying to learn math, I started actually liking it. Weird, I know. And what's even more sick and twisted than that, I started to get interested and excited about math.
The most marked difference in my understanding of math concepts wasn't due to a brain transplant from a recently deceased genius. Nay, I started understanding and liking math because I took an interest in it. In other words, I have a passion for math now.
If you think about something you like doing, a hobby like say playing video games for instance, chances are you do it because you have an interest in it. Personally, I don't really like video games because I suck at them. Why do I suck? Well, aside from my parents never buying me an NES when I was younger, most adult video games are hard to master and hence, I give up because I don't have the passion to commit hours to learning all the kick and punch combos of the new Street Fighter 4.
See how I said I suck at video games? I admittedly suck because I don't want to practice. For most of us, hobbies or subjects like math, science, Japanese, yes, even video games require practice to become skilled at. *Most* of us don't just start playing complex video games from 4 years old nor do we start busting out mad calculus equations without the proper training.
So what I'm I trying to say? I'm saying that if you have a true interest in something, you can do it. Excluding outside factors, many times, the biggest inhibitor of your success is your own damn self esteem and lack of determination to reach your goal. Don't be afraid to push yourself and make your brain ache a bit, whether that's for a college major, career choice, or just in your extracurricular hobbies. Many times the extra effort pays off in the end.
Nanogenerators and self learning robots!
I like browsing technology sites and came across these two articles today which seem pretty fascinating. I'm currently interested in robotics, biomedical and green technology which these fit into. Hope you enjoy them too!
From Scientific American: "Can Robots be Programmed to Learn from their Own Experiences?"
Excerpt:
""A truly useful personal robot [must have] the ability to learn on its own from interactions with the physical and social environment," says Stoytchev, whose field of developmental robotics combines developmental psychology and neuroscience with artificial intelligence and robotic engineering. "It should not rely on a human programmer once it is purchased. It must be trainable."Stoytchev and a team of grad students are developing software to teach robots to learn about as well as a two-year-old child. Their platform is a humanoid robot that sprouts two 60-pound (27-kilogram) Whole Arm Manipulators (WAM) made by Cambridge, Mass.,–based Barrett Technology, Inc., each tipped with a 2.6-pound (1.2-kilogram) three-fingered BarrettHand."
Link to rest of Article: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=robot-learning&SID=mail&sc=emailfriend
Also from Scientific American: "Nanogenerators"
Excerpt: "Just as a machine won't run without a source of power, a device built at the nano-scale is of little use if it doesn't have the energy to work as a sensor or drug delivery particle. Since there isn't a battery in existence yet that's small enough to couple with a nanodevice, researchers have sought to power their microscopic creations with energy drawn from their surroundings. This energy so far has come primarily from chemical reactions (such as the oxidation of hydrogen peroxide), but that may change. A new study published today in Science describes the creation of a nanogenerator that transforms kinetic energy into a continuous flow of direct-current (DC) electrical energy."
Link to rest of article: http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=nanogenerator-2009-03-26
Testing the waters
When I was a wee lass, my family used to frequent the Jersey shore. Thus, it came to be that I would learn to swim before riding a bike. Learning to swim wasn't without complications. Luckily, my parents cared about my well-being and did their best to preserve my life by outfitting me with a ridiculous orange contraption that was little more than an inner tube sewn into a nylon vest. In the early days of my oceanic swimming, I was pulled down by the undertow gasping for air and unable to fight my way out. Luckily, the obnoxious inner tube lent me some buoyancy and quite possibly saved my life on more than a few occasions.
This is my 2nd semester taking trigonometry. After I keenly decided to go back to school for MechE last summer, I knew I was going to need to brush up on my math skills. The Fall 2008 semester marked 10 years since my last college mathematics class. Since I wasn't enrolled at a 4-year college yet, I trekked down to my local community college to sign up for what would be the 1st of many super awesome math classes(can't you just feel the sarcasm?).
Judging from my transcript, I was approved for trig, which bypassed the need to take the 2 lower level classes, Elementary and Intermediate Algebra. This would've been fine if say, I had taken algebra a year ago or so. I was a bit concerned about how I would fare, but forged ahead with determination.
Luckily, I landed the best math teacher(aside from my pops) that I've ever had. Yet even with his teaching and a coherent book, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. I was struggling to remember basic algebra rules which hindered my understanding of the new material. At the same time, I was reading, "What Color is Your Parachute?" and according to that book I had the skillset to be a photographer or novelist. It was like I was playing Monopoly and got dealt a community chest card that read, "You have not passed math and you will proceed to study liberal arts."
It was at this point, shortly after the 1st test of the semester that I lost my previously strong determination to study math and just plain ol' gave up. It was as if I was a 5 year old all over again trying to fight the wrath of the ocean, my stubby legs flailing about helplessly. I was convinced that I would sincerely be happier as a journalism major.
And I stayed somewhat convinced of this fact until a certain someone named Jennifer planted a small seed in the desert garden of my engineering dreams. She encouraged me to actually talk to real live engineers and the faculty advisor at the college before I let assumptions close the door on engineering. I realized a few very important lessons in the process:
1. It's best to directly ask questions of people who are actually working in the field you want to go into, not the people who switched from a MechE major or your business major friends(no offense!).
2. Speaking to an engineering faculty advisor informed me of the exact classes I would have to take and realistic workloads. The best thing I took away from this experience was that for an engineering major it is particularly crucial to study at least 1-2 hours for every hour spent in class per week. Therefore, a 5 credit hour class should warrant about 5-10 hours a week in study time outside of class.
So here I am again; another semester gone by but not without some valuable lessons learned. This time instead of just jumping in the water, I'm armed with my swanky orange innertube of realistic expectations, support, and additional mathematic knowledge to take on the worst trigonometric undertow the ocean of college can sock me with.
Solidworking
I have Solidworks on the brain! I've been preparing for my 1st midterm on Monday these past few days so I thought, why not write a post about Solidworks! I have never taken a computer modeling class up till now so at the beginning of this class, the software was very vexing and frustrating for me. It certainly had a steep learning curve for me. But while it's extremely disheartening at times when you just can't get the reference plane at the right angle, it's also extremely satisfying once you complete the design. It's like a miracle for me each time and I always am in awe that I somehow fuddled my way through it.
Before signing up for my class, I had three options for 3D modeling: Autocad, Solidworks, and Pro-Engineer. In terms of pricing for each of the softwares, Pro-E and Solidworks are about $5,000 per license. Here's a good article summarizing the pros and cons of 3D modeling softwares: http://www.design-engine.com/stories/battleofthebands.htm
Although any of the three mentioned modeling softwares above should be adequate for design, it looks like most job postings for mechanical engineering at least prefer Solidworks or Pro-E experience. But, from what I was told by other engineering professionals, once you learn one it's easy to pick up another.
The text book we're using in class is called "Introduction to Solid Modeling Using SolidWorks 2008".
I really like the text book. Each chapter introduces a concept they're try to teach, such as Parametric Modeling Techniques, and they have a step by step tutorial providing great screen shots of the actual software program for you to follow. After that they have several exercises for you to complete using the techniques that they demonstrated. Of course I'm sure most texts are as streamlined and coherent as this, but some printouts my professor gave us to work off of were horrible in terms of clarify and comprehension which made my appreciate this all the more. There's a student software access that comes with the textbook so you can activate the program for a limited period of time (I believe it was 4 months or so).
So here's a few examples of what can be done in SolidWorks. So far we've just learned how to construct individual parts, I think assembling multiple parts together is the second portion of this class.
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Bundled with this student edition software that I'm using, we also have eDrawings, or something like that. After we make a part we can import the dimensions and the part itself as a 2D drawing like below.
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So, I guess that's about it from me about SolidWorks for now. Here's some cool links for more information on this nifty software program.
Main Site: http://www.solidworks.com/
Blog: http://gabijack.com/
Wikipedia Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SolidWorks
Engineering Organizations
Today after my physics lab, I dropped by my school's SAE club to check out what they do. It's pretty awesome! I know nothing about cars, except for that it needs an engine and fuel to run (quite pathetic for what I want to go into, I know) but I like looking at cars and learning more about them. The SAE club is in the process of building a car for SAE Baja in June and it's so amazing how much work goes into it. The only deterrent is that they team is all guys, which yes, I know, I should come to expect from being in an engineering major. I knew going into this that I'd definitely be in the minority in classes, labs, and external projects, but I didn't realize how much of a factor it could become in determining the 'full experience'. The guy telling me about SAE was saying how he'd really like a girl to join to 'diversify' the team, and he did say that the only girl they had before left and never came back after the guys started throwing wrenches at each other. C'mon, wrenches?
I really would like to join but right now work and school is sucking up way too much time. Perhaps I'll join next year? I'm trying to look into other engineering organizations for next year when I may have more time to dedicate. So far I'm looking at Society of Women Engineers (SWE), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Out of those three, it looks like only SAE has 'hands on' projects where I can fully appreciate learning and applying engineering principles. If anyone knows of any other hands on student competitions please do let this blog know!
Inaugural Post/Introduction
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? … We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
- Akeelah and the Bee
Have you seen Akeelah and the Bee? It’s not really a popular movie, but it is by far one of my favorite movies. It’s about a little girl growing up in an area that isn’t particularly known for academic achievement. But, she has a proclivity and talent for spelling and makes it from her middle school to the national spelling bee stage. She’s an underdog, and it’s inspirational. The quote on the top is from a scene in the movie when her spelling coach is telling her if she wants to succeed, she will have to believe in herself. I guess I identify a lot with that instance, emotion, and struggle.
My parents emigrated from
Growing up I was interested in electronics, gadgets, and anything technologically related, but because of my childhood and the dearth of encouragement from my parents I never even thought I would have even a chance to hold a technical profession. So after high school I narrowed down my options to major in International Business for college. I graduated in 2007 and started working at an engineering firm in
After much research, I decided to pursue a 2nd bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. While researching and looking for others ‘like me’ I happened to come across a post that my blog partner (Laura) posted on a networking site. We got into contact and I’m glad to say we’ve been able to share our fears and hopes with each other throughout this scary, frustrating but hopefully rewarding ordeal. For me, the hardest issue to overcome (other than the multitude of math classes, and Physics, my nemesis!) is my confidence in myself, pushing aside all those accumulated years of self doubt. I guess I’m rambling too much for this first post, but if I do by a miracle complete this arduous task, I hope to end up in a biomedical/robotics industry creating nifty gadgets to improve the lives of those in third world countries, or even in 1st world countries (if that’s even a term). I also hope to use my experience to help other girls who may have doubts about themselves to believe and just try, because you never know what may happen.
Outside of school and work (wait, I may be laid off soon!), I like to read, run, swim, play music and just veg out, although those stress relieving activities are quickly diminishing this semester with classes occupying most of my time.
Working part time and attending school full time in a world full of boys are sure to provide tons of blogging material especially in this economy so I hope you stay tuned to what we have to offer and share.
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