iExpo

Last night we had the iExpo. I think that all of the groups had very good presentations and I hope that numerous students decide to participate in iFoundry in the future. It has definitely helped me.

The Missing Basics

iFoundry has taught me numerous things.

It has taught me the importance of interpersonal relationships. Having good relationships with people will help me have a more positive work experience and work more productively.

Modeling is also very important along with labeling. They both are crucial when doing a project.

Asking questions is also key. By asking question you can get to get a better feel of what you can and cannot do and it will prevent you from making very simple mistakes.

I think that the most important thing to remember is communication. It is important to be able to effectively communicate with other people on projects and just in the work place in general. It is also an important life skill.

Project 2

For project 2 we have decided to use Connects to build a frame so that we do not have to cut wood. We then decided that we would use the motor to have wheels in the back turn while the servo is used to steer. It was pretty easy to wire it, and Jeremy said that it was not that hard to write the program. We might add something that detects lights and reacts one way or another. We also have a driver for it.

Registration

I just registered for classes and I think I have pretty good schedule. I am taking 16 credit hours, but I might go talk to my advisor so that I can take another class. I want to take one of the new classes that are on the iFoundry website.

Steam Car Demo

Today we had the demo for our steam car; our car did extremely well. We got 1st place for Fastest Steam Car, Most Aggressive, and Best System. We also got runner up for Fastest Start. I am happy that we won so many awards, but I wish that we would have won the Straightest award. I think that our car did not always go in a perfectly straight line because it was going to fast. If we would have tightened the wheel a little bit it would have slowed down, but I think that would have helped it to go faster. I also wish we had time to paint the car so that it looked better and also to make modifications to it in order to improve performance.

Here is a video of one of the races and a picture of the car with all the awards:

Making the Steam Car

Making the car took a couple weeks, and we ran into a few problems. Probably the biggest problem was not having enough time in lab. I wish that we had more time to work on the car, maybe another week, so that we could modify the design to make it better.

Here is another video of the steam car:

Steam Car

We finally finished our steam car and it works!