Finals

The Penguin Named Joseph

This is a story about a penquin named Joseph. This was not a regular penguin, however. Joseph was a Cold War veteran. He served his continent very well. He paid a price for his involvement in military affairs. During the Cold War, one of Joseph's legs was frozen off. This made his life slightly hetic, for he now had a "missing basic." Now, many people would think that you could survive in his continent without all of the missing basics, but these missing basic are extemely important to have. Joseph was not able to walk properly, had trouble steering when he swam, and had countless other troubles. The best thing he figured he could do is to take an Engineering class to regain this "missing basic." This class was called Eng 198. It was split up into two sections. On mondays, he went to build his new leg. On wednesdays, Joseph learned how to use his new leg to the best of its abilities. It was a long, hard process. Joseph needed to put a lot of extra effort outside the two classes to master his leg. However, after about four months of work, Joseph finally had all of the missing basics. He went back out into his continent and learned now that he could use what he learned on all aspects of his life. All of his missing basics were keen now. He came out on top of all of the other penguins and became the king of the penguin world. He designed systems to improve the fishing and protect from the polar bears. This learning became contagious. Every other penguin wanted to know how Joseph did it. He later shared his story for others. All of the other penguins then signed up for this class. The class became a great sucess and was able to influence the lives of not only the penguins, but all the animals on the continent.

Success!

The tank project was a success! It felt great to get it working. After it was done, there were tons of modifications that I noticed we could have made, but it was still amazing to have it work. With the complications we were having with the code, I was not sure if it was going to be able to run. However, seeing it move was a great feeling of accomplishment. It was great to see how teamwork could create something completely from scratch. This is the kind of freedom that I enjoy. We had a basic goal, which was to make something from the arduino. We could interpret this goal however we want. We came up with the idea and the plans ourselves, and were able to create a working machine. Having different people working on different components and putting them together was an amazing experience. This was a great project. The only thing I would have wished for is longer lab sessions and more overall time to complete the project. However, as Borat puts it, "Great Success!"

Tank

The robotic tank we are building is going rather smoothly so far. It has taken a lot more time than expected, but it is working out pretty well. One major problem, however, is the compatiblity of the motors with the system we have. Apparently they are not working, so hopefully that will be figured out. My main job, however, is to work on the chasis. This is going rather well. we have a basic design where the treads each have a piece of aluminium molding to screw into. They will eventually be connected by the aluminum sheet that we obtained. This will be able to hold all the electronic things. One problem we incountered was stablizing the drive shafts that are not connected to the motor. however, we figured out that the best way to do this would be most likely to create one large drive shaft to be able to go through both side drive wheels. This has not beem tested, yet so far it seems as though it is going to work rather well . The time given to complete this project is slightly shorter than what I think is necessaryr. The lab period should be extended so that there is more time every day to work on the project. We plan on finishing it hope this weekend (hopefully by friday).

Busy

I was always told by my brother and tons of other people that I would have so much free time in college that I would not know what to do with it. I have no idea what they were talking about. I am busy all of the time and have to miss out on many things to be able to do other things. I constantly have to make descisions on what I should do because many things in my life are overlapping. It can be stressful, but it is teaching me time management. However, sometimes no matter how efficently i use my time, I can not get around missing things that are important to me. I feel swamped by school at times and always have tons of things that I could/should be doing. There is not many moments that I can just have to myself. I also have been missing out on a lot of sleep. However, I believe that I am getting better at using the time I have to the fullest of its potential. I also am aware that I need rest to be able to preform the things I must do most efficiently. This can be hard at times, but is extremely neccesary.

School

So far, school has been going great. It has been rather difficult for me to allocate my time efficently, but I believe that I have been doing this rather well. My classes are for the most part not too hard. I feel as though I am learning very much, which is essentially the most important thing. I am more interested in the classes I am taking compared to high school. I have, however, had some conflict with registering for classes. By talking to some advisors, I was able to figure this out. Through all, I am sure that I will get a great education here while having a great time.

Leadership

Throughout the first couple of months of this class, I have realized that it is very similar to
The Courage To Lead program at my high school. In this program, we studied different leaders and their traits to find out what made them a good leader. We also discussed being able to follow and listen to others advice. This is very similar to many key points made by the professors of this class. A leader is not just the loudest one or the one that takes over, but s/he is the one who is able to unite the group and make everyone work together as a team to accomplish the task at hand. Leaders have many qualities, yet the "missing basics" that this class has been talking about seem to be directly linked to what it takes to be a good leader. A leader must know how to ask questions and communicate with others. A leader must have "followers" and may have to be a "follower" to others. This is the basis of networking. A leader must be able to explain themselves with brief, to the point statements. A leader must know the names and labels of what s/he is talking about in order to communicate the point. Although there are many other important qualities of a leader, these are some that we have already discussed in class. If one of these qualities is missing, the person will not be an efficient leader and may not be able to be successful in life.