CoSMOS 2k16
Above is a colorful Android from the Google visitor center in San Jose. Although the bus ride there and back was 5 hours in all, I thought it was worth it. We were able to tour a portion of the campus and also eat at a food cafe. Following lunch, we received lectures about the Fibonacci Sequence and also how the fundamentals of math are applied to cyber security in Google. After an average dinner, my friends drew Henna on me and the designs turned out really beautiful. Our robot Kerry is still struggling to stand by itself, Jerry and I will try out a new sensor to help it balance tomorrow.
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In my free time at Cosmos, I enjoy going outdoors with friends to run, play sports and also explore the Davis campus. This is a nice flower I found in a flower garden next to the Davis Arboretum. The Arboretum is a nice area to run along because there is a clean atmosphere, nice scenery and various plants along the path. During the afternoons, our cluster likes to hit the courts and shoot some hoops. We are going to Google tomorrow so I am pretty excited.
In biophysics today we used Python to generate the paths of molecules that are randomly walking a set amount of steps. Also, we are soon going to limit the movement to inside a set rectangle on the coordinate plane. I am still able to keep up with the new syntax of Python while we work in class and labs. I am a little worried about our self-balancing robot in our Robotics class because the gyro sensors are very unstable and inconsistent. Hopefully Jerry and I can figure out how to make them more stable to ensure good data.
This is BalanceBot. Today we began on our final robotics project and I was in charge of building the wheels and body while Jerry completed 2 of the 4 arms. I am happy to finally start on the project after many challenging objectives. We have not started coding yet but we have a pseudo-code and basic idea of the code's structure. In biophysics we were taught more about the properties of temperature and also began working on a gambling simulation code. It was also very interesting to see everyone else's projects being built and changed. I was also able to catch up with a good friend from my school who came to visit Davis during lunch :). Cant wait for more lab time with BalanceBot tomorrow.
SunSplash was a really sick water park :). It was like a better version of Knott's Soak City back in Southern California. The temperature high was over 100 degrees and the sun was out for the whole day. I put on lots of sunscreen many times throughout the day though. I went on most of the rides but didn't get a chance to swim in the wave pool, oh well. Lunch there was decent and I had my first hot dog in like 3 weeks. It was fun riding with friends on the various amusements.
The field trip to Intel was interesting. We were able to tour the different labs used to test for specific qualities of micro processors. The Intel site used to be Altera but was bought by Intel about 6 months ago. The work campus was really friendly and open with lots of trees, grass and open areas. I feel like this created a more comfortable environment for employees to promote more imagination and creativity. This location focuses on self driving cars right now and also developing software. We also were able to work hands on with a FPGA and code a little to light LEDs on a board. I am eager to start on my robotics project tomorrow with Jerry :).
This piece of art is constructed with only toothpicks and glue. I am fascinated that additions to the structure are still being made. Anyways, today in robotics we worked on cleaning up our previous code and brainstorming more about our final robot project. Me and Jerry are pretty much set on our overall goals but now we need to nail down the specifics. Then in robotics we talked about probability and random walks of molecules, which I found pretty interesting. Also we began to get more complex with Python by graphing quadratic functions and calculating Taylor Series. During the afternoon there was a interesting lecture about shark behavior and I managed to stay awake throughout the whole presentation. Field trip tomorrow to Intel.
Today was our cluster's first field trip and it was pretty mind-blowing. After a 2 hour bus ride from Davis to San Francisco, we began to traverse the Exploratorium, which contained many different exhibits and activities that combined science, art and human perception. Most of the exhibits were interactive and hands on. Also, there were these big kinetic sculptures called strandbeests that are beautifully designed with only PVC pipes, zip ties and string. They can walk like animals across the beach with only the help of wind. Furthermore, I also found the different electro-magnetic interactive and educational stations very interesting. Dinner was great like usual and then I went on a run with some friends. I am looking forward to the distinguished lecture tomorrow.
Call him RoBaller. After completing the obstacle course, colored line follow course and line detecting challenge, it is about to hit the hoops. This claw/hand is a very early prototype(I put it together to take this picture) :). Anyways, during robotics we continued to learn about the history of important computer parts and began reading a book called Imagine. During biophysics we got deeper into Python and coded different mathematical functions. Jerry Xia is a good partner for robotics because we both have the same final project goals. We decided on a self-balancing robot with arms to help it stand up if it does fall. Additionally, we are thinking of making it perform entertaining actions such as dancing or boxing.
Woke up and walked with bros to In n Out for lunch. The last time I had In n Out was about a month ago so I was reminded how great the burgers and fries were. Then my group went and watched The Secret Life of Pets which I thought was amazing. After walking back to the dorms to rest a bit, we went out again for boba and shopping. Our big group explored the Forever 21 store but did not buy anything. We went back to the dining commons and later played a 'card' game in the dorms. I would say it was a pretty fun day.
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