February, 2016

We have a new project until April 29th. We will use what we have been learning to solve/work on a solution to a global challenge. This project will be a great way for me to learn even more about the design process. I want to create a program with Pi and X-Bee that collects and compiles data from solar panels. This could benefit poor communities.

Here is my original through process about this project.

	Choice A
Global Challenge of Interest?	Impoverished Communities “How can education make humanity more intelligent, knowledgeable, and wise enough to address its global challenges?” How can education help people get out of poverty? Lack of efficient renewable energy/lack of use of renewable energy, that is in turn leading to Climate Change
Hot Areas Being Researched?	Development of Efficient Solar Panels and Storage Methods Education (#1, when all people have access to free education) X-Prize will develop an open source and scalable software for children to teach themselves. attempt to make education universally available
Skills and Tools you could develop expertise with.	programming > getting a wireless connection with the XBee to transmit a raspberry pi’s data from the installed solar panels to another, accessible place camera for raspberry pi could be another source of data to collect
Local Organizations Addressing the Challenge	Green Mountain Power Renewable Energy Vermont
Possible Ideas/Importance	If existing solar panel installations, possibly implemented into impoverished communities or communities with optimal sun exposure, were collecting and transmitting data, this data could be used to calculate the energy production capabilities in nearby areas for business/homes. This data could be used to educate, while energy is being produced to allow for production or lighting in a community. How the energy is used could also benefit the education within the community or the wealth of the community.

January, 2015

We are doing the final exposure to design tools unit. We built little cars with a program to run them. We didn't do much design work on them, but I find it valuable to trouble-shoot the building, the circuits, and the Arduino software.

Aside from this, I really enjoyed our Processing assignment. I challenged myself to use the Arduino for this project. I learned a lot through creating and trouble-shooting it, both about programming, the "design" process, and about how to get Arduino and Processing to communicate.

My processing program is an interactive art piece.

Watch this Video on Vimeo to see it and listen to an explanation of how it works.

December 17, 2015

The solar project is interesting, but we got to experiment with a program called Processing. It is for coding and I find it even more interesting. I want to learn more and I want to understand the practical and useful applications. We are soon entering the UVM part of the class and I wonder how that will be. How will it work? What will we do? I'm nervous and excited. We were told to think about the question, what do you want to become an expert on? What indeed are my choices?

Women in Science Update - April 10

December 3

We made a “lamp”. I had to wire the sockets up. It is really interesting to se how these things work, thing I see even more excited. It is cool that the options on and off on a light switch are the 2 commands that can be combined to create something as complex as a computer.

December 10

Window Tour

December 17

Electric Workbench

January 8

Lindsey Sullivan - the water treatment chemical engineer.

She showed me the process that they use to clean the water they get from CWD. 40% is used in water towers, some evaporates, and the 60% super, pure, clean water so clean it would eat up a metal pipe by bonding with the other atoms. It needs to be clean to clean the waffers. And particles would damage them. She walked us through the rooms with all the processes take place. It was interesting, as she spoke, to hear how her job involves so many different science pieces that I have been trying to gather, from chemistry and engineering, to problem solving and even biology because of the microbes in the water and even the ph that they have to take ito account. I liked being exposed to two very smart FEMALE engineers! She went to Case Western University and took a semester off for a Co-op. They also both shared advice with me about the college application process.

January 21

Steve Moffit - chip design

January 28

I talked to a computer science guy and a business/design guy. I like being exposed to so many different paths, jobs, and opinions. They hoften have common advice for a junior beginning the college search process, but every week I learn and take in more. Today was particulaly invigorating. He suggested… to keep your education broad (interdiciplinary!!!), be open, explore schools (and important things to keep in mind, like companies that attend the job fairs, the ability to the class in the diffferent schools, and being on the lookout for opportunities to broaden your horizons The advice is really good as I consider college options. I decided against Amherst and Smith recently partially due to the ideas I’ve been collecting.

February 10

Virginia - Business

March 16

Test Floor Tour

March 23

Failure Analysis

• Ann Smith - talk about college

April 7

Electronic Workbench

21st of November

The seniors in this class don't seem very driven. I had to work with my solar panel bracket team to make the first two sections of a Design Report. I have repeatedly felt throughout this project that if I didn't take charge nothing would ever happen. That was no different in class that day. I worked on a section called Technical Review for most of class, I did some research, wrote more than a page of Technical Review. When I finished, I realized that together they had written even less than I had during the class. In addition, we were given an example that told us what was needed in each section. Some of what had been written didn't even make sense based on the given examples. Why are these senior so lack luster? Why did they even decide to take this class? Many seem to lack motivation and to lack any talent for writing despite being seniors. I need to talk to my teacher about my group experience. I am very uncertain about the value of this class sometimes.

November (Women is Science)

November 13
We talked about how engineers use logic (a type of Algebra) to create complicated circuits and chips. Although the general capabilities of each separate current is on or off, they can combine many layers and using logic can create things as complicated an iPhone chip. Simulators test the accuracy of these logic based designs.

November 18
Judy took me on a window tour of the chip production process. There is so much that goes into the production of the chips. Some cool facts include the fact that these chips are so small that the people working have to wear full body suits to avoid getting any skin or hair on them and ruining them. The rooms are sealed by doors that push air out so that dirt is not blown into the room. Many toxins and gases are used throughout the process. I found it interesting that IBM or Global Foundries "makes" there own Nitrogen. It freezes at a different temperature than Oxygen and so they can extract it and release the rest back into the atmosphere.

Reflection
This is allowing me to view the world of electric, mechanical, and chemical engineers. Nothing that I've seen has sparked any passion like at CSG. However, I do admit that it might just take time. I believe that expose to and understanding these skills and processes is valuable experience.  A job in a facility that simply produced technology is not at the top of my list, or even to design said tech. I am more interested in how the company deals with their toxins, acts towards the environment and other humans, and its efforts to be environmentally friendly. Hmm. Sadly these disciplines do not seem to mix despite being so connected.

12 of November

In Design class, we are building solar panel brackets that can optimize energy product. We have been learning about electricity, circuits, and solar power. We will be using that knowledge in this project. I don't LOVE the project, but I think that it is good for me. We have groups of three. I am with two seniors (I am the only Junior in the class). Although they do contribute, I feel like I am the leader by default. Me? The leader by default? I don't think I could have done that a year ago, but I realized that every experience at CSG helped me to grow as a leader. I practiced every day whether I was aware of it or not. I am a leader in this class despite being a year younger than everyone else.