4/29

TODAY WAS A SUCCES!!! We attached both the pinger and the line follower! After we removed the grabber, we started on the pinger. Even though it was a bit difficult to do, we followed through and got the pinger working properly! It maneuvers its way through objects blocking its path and doesn’t run into anything! I didn't take a video for you guys to see, however I do have a picture of what the bot now looks like!

We also built and wired the line follower, but it isn’t quite working yet. We have some kinks to work out but it shouldn’t be long before everything is ready to go! Tomorrow we put the finishing touches on our robot and begin working on our final presentation! We have definitely come a long way and I couldn’t be more proud of the progress we have made! I am so thankful for my awesome partner! 

4/27

Today was not a good day for us. We wanted to attach the pinger and line follower, but since the other team already has a line follower on their Boe-Bot, Mrs. Vestal thought we should do the grabber and pinger instead. We all agreed to it and moved forward with the building. 

However, that did not work out for us in our favor. 

This is Jordyns' 'sad face' because we failed! :(

After assembling the grabber, we realized we weren’t going to be able to fit the pinger attachment on the Boe-Bot. So, we decided to get rid of the grabber and just go with the line follower and pinger. We didn’t have much time left in the day so we wrapped everything up and headed home. It was definitely a bump in the road and set us back for time. But, we will overcome this and hopefully we’ll be back on track by Wednesday!

4/22

Today, Jordyn and I ran more programs on our Boe-Bot. We tested some programs for the speaker and ran one to make it sing Yankee Doodle! The video below shows the bot singing. Jordyn was also able to make the sound link with the LEDs on the breadboard so every time a new note was played, a different colored LED would flash! 

We were really excited to be able to do this because it means we are learning and applying our knowledge to our project! We were planning on building the line follower and pinger attachment to our Boe-Bot, but we weren’t able to get our parts. So that is on the ‘to do’ list for next week. We also started to make a rough draft of our course for the final presentation. We decided on writing a program to make our Boe-Bot move forward, backward, turn left, and turn right. We are also going to include the Yankee Doodle song and LED show as well. We didn’t get as much as we wanted accomplished today, but next week will be better!

4/21 Progress

Today, Jordyn and I accomplished even more!
We  built our Boe-Bot today to actually look like a robot. We attached the servos to the BOE, we put the wheels on the servos, and connected the BOE to the frame.We ran different programs on our Boe-Bot to make it move clockwise, counterclockwise, make sound, and reverse!

Below is a picture of the improved version of last week. In the picture you can see all the work we put into the Boe-Bot today. Here, it is connected to Jordyn's computer so we could test run different programs!

These pictures show our concentration during the whole time. As you can see we worked as a team! Whether we were both learning from the mistake we just made, or laughing because of how silly we realized the mistake was! We had a great time today and we both learned so much! I can't wait to start programming the Boe-Bot to do what we want! Stay tuned :)

4/15

TODAY WE STARTED  PROGRAMMING!!

Jordyn and I worked very hard today and got so much accomplished! We started working with writing codes, and figuring out binary numbers, making LEDs emit light, and so much more!

We finished all of the 'help' pages in the software and got all the way to chapter 3 in the manual! We connected LEDs and Resistors to our Breadboard and got the LEDs to emit light. We changed the codes to make our lights blink faster and slower.

There are some pictures below and in some you can see our excitement!

In this picture we were going over the different parts on the BOE.

Here, you can see how concentrated Jordyn was while writing the codes!

This video shows us writing a code, running the code, and watching our output!

We had so much fun today and learned a lot! I am so excited to see how far we get next week!

4/13

Today we finalized our WBS & Gantt Chart. We turned both of them in and downloaded the program for our Boe-Bot and Matchware. We messed around a little bit with both programs and tried to figure out what each program could do. We didn't get much further than this but there is more to come!

4/1 Boe Bot Progress

Today was mostly focused around our WBS & Gantt Chart. I took over working on the WBS while Jordyn worked with the Gantt Chart on Excel. We have been working very well together in finding out each others strengths and weaknesses.

To view our WBS there is a link below.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13NrwvU8jAFbc6YPQYQ2soFramVmjE3bKCpH-cvefKX4/edit#gid=0

Our Gantt Chart was used in Excel and we weren't able to make it into a shared document. However, it was very well put together by Jordyn. Every step in the WBS is used in our Gantt.

After the break we should be ready to start building and programming our boe-bot! Stay tuned. :)

3/30 Day 3

On Monday, we presented our first problem statement to the class. Our first problem statement was, "waking up in the middle of the night and trying to find the way to your bedroom door can be dangerous." We were going to build and program our Boe-Bot to lead and clear a pathway to your door for safe traveling. After some constructive criticism from our peers and professor, we decided to go back to the drawing board. This week we thought of a completely different approach for our Boe-Bot

Our new problem statement is,

Engineering 150 students will have a better understanding of what a Boe-Bot is and what it can do, prior to beginning the project. With our help, novice engineering students will feel confident and secure about completing their final project.

COA’s EGR 150 class requires students to complete a major project, all students in this course are expected to build and program a Boe-bot to complete different tasks. Some students may not have the technical background needed to construct something of this nature and could feel intimidated or overwhelmed by the project. With this mindset, many students may procrastinate on the project, or not even complete it. If we ignore this problem, increased levels of stress, procrastination and lack of motivation may cause some students to drop the course.

We will build and program a Boe-Bot as well as demonstrate its abilities in order to provide engineering students with the knowledge needed to begin building a Boe-Bot. We will also document the building process and the demonstration itself in a video. This video will be available for future classes to watch and will be shown during the introduction of the project.

We are excited to begin building! For now, enjoy your Spring Break and stay tuned for future posts! :)

3/25 Boe-Bot Day 2

Today was our first lab class with the boe-bots.

Jordyn and I accomplished a few things today. We came up with our team contract and both signed it. We made sure that all communication will be through texts, calls, emails, and of course class times. We decided to be team American instead of Russian or Japanese. We got our Boe-Bots today as well! Looking in the box was a little intimidating, but I know we will do fine! We also wrote our first problem statement which is, "waking up in the middle of the night and trying to find your way to the bedroom door can be dangerous! We will design and program our boe-bot to help you get to your door safely! It will lead the way and move any objects out of your path." Jordyn and I started on our WBS, but we only have a few steps listed. Next class period I will have our initial WBS posted for you guys to check out!

I am very excited about this project and I can't wait until next week to present our ideas to the class!

3/23 Boe Bot Intro

Today in class we were given our major project! I am on a team with Jordyn and we will be building and programming a Boe-Bot. We researched a little on Boe-Bots and watched a few videos. We went over the time-line and due dates for the project. We haven't really discussed much, yet. However it is just the beginning of this 5-week journey! Stay tuned to see our progress!

Pizza Lab

Last week in EGR-150, we split into two teams, back row vs. front row, and conducted a lab based on ordering pizza. I was on a team with Lia, Cameron, and Jordan. Our goal was to create a WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) and a Gantt Chart to determine how long it would take us to complete all the steps in ordering pizza. There are some pictures below to show you our work!

These two pictures show our WBS, Schedule, and Gantt Chart. We thought of eight steps to take when ordering pizza. For each step we estimated how long it would take to complete and whether it was a milestone, critical path or both. A milestone is a road sign that measures progress towards completion. We decided that choosing the restaurant, finding the number, placing the order, picking up the pizza, driving back and actually eating the pizza were all milestones! A critical path is something that must be done before another task can be completed. We marked all of our steps besides eating the pizza as a milestone. In the chart, everything colored purple is an activity, everything marked blue is a milestone, and everything marked green is a task. The difference between a task and an activity is that an activity is more of a category of different tasks. All together we predicted the whole assignment would take an hour. However, we had a bit of a problem. Only one person showed to class Wednesday from team one, Robert. We invited him to our team and used his WBS instead of ours. They included much more steps and took much more time so we figured it would be more fun to do!

We definitely devoured the pizza once we got it! I thoroughly enjoyed this lab and it really helped me to understand how to do a WBS and Gantt chart! Thank you to everyone who contributed to the price of the pizza and a special thanks to Lia for driving!

Disciplines Report

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6R8kgy_1dyVOTItR1o1QkV3TWs&authuser=0

My Disciplines Report. I wasn't sure if this is how you wanted us to upload this assignment, but here it is! Please let me know if you have trouble viewing it!

Enjoy!

Regional Aviation and Technical Training Center

On March 4^th our EGR150 class took a trip to the RATTS Lab in Currituck. Until that day, I had no idea what this place was all about. I’ve never really been interested in airplanes or any type of machinery, but after the trip I was definitely amused! There are a few pictures below so you can get a feel as to how our trip was!

The first picture I took was in the first room we toured. This room stores about 3-4 airplanes that need any mechanical work done to them. I took a picture of this specific plane because of the COA emblem on the tail, and of course our school colors!

The second picture I have is of a room filled with manually operated machines. Here, students learn how to manually operate these machines before graduating to the computer-operated machines.

In the same room their oldest machine is held, a lathe. A lathe is a machine shapes parts of a material. Usually metal.

Next we saw the Maxiem Waterjet machine. This was very interesting to me because I never knew you could cut metals with water! This machine uses a grainy, sand-like substance and mixes it with water to cut through a variety of materials.

Finally we got to see a 3D printer in action! This was my favorite part of the whole tour. After all the buzz about these printers, I finally got to see one do it’s job. The first picture is the software you download to your computer. With this software you can design and customize your product. Although the video is a bit short, you can see the printer shaping the plastic into the design on the computer screen!

I thoroughly enjoyed our trip! I had so much fun and I learned a lot of cool new things! Plus, the bathrooms were awesome. ;)

Transportation Success/Failure Report

Each student was assigned a successful structure and a failed structure. We were to research and report different aspects of each structure and present them to the class. My assigned successful structure was the Millau Viaduct Bridge in Millau, France. My assigned failed structure was the L’Ambiance Plaza in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Transportation Success: Millau Viaduct Bridge, France

•      Official Name: Le Viaduc de Millau

•      Location: Millau-Creissels, France. It stretches across the valley of the river Tarn. It is the chosen solution for taking the A75 Motorway.

•      Designers: Michel Virlogeux and Norman Foster

•      Design of Bridge: Cable-stayed. A cable-stayed bridge is one in which the weight of the deck is supported by a number of cables running directly to one or more towers.

•      Length: 1.55 miles

•      Height: 343 meters

•      Cost: $524 million

•      Construction on the bridge started October 10, 2001

•      The bridge opened to traffic on December 17, 2004

•      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbQc5QgH4Ws

The YouTube video link will show you different angles of the bridge. It is a beautiful bridge and you will certainly enjoy it!

The bridge has received many awards for their outstanding structure and architecture. Below are the listed awards.

•      Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award

•      International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering Outstanding Structure Award

•      The Building Exchange Award- Best Use of Architectural or Structural Design in a Regeneration Scheme, 2^nd Place.

•      Wallpaper Design Awards- Best New Public Building

•      ECCS European Award for Steel Structures

•      D&AD Gold Award

•      Travel & Leisure Design Award for Best Infrastructure

•      Singapore Construction Excellence Award- Civil Category

This bridge was a success because it eliminated traffic congestion, became a tourist attraction, and reduced travel time for drivers. Below are some pictures of the truly beautiful bridge.

Sources:

•      "Highest, Longest : Viaduct De Millau." Highest, Longest : The Viaduct De Millau. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. http://www.abelard.org/france/viaduct-de-millau.php

•      "Viaduc De Millau." YouTube. YouTube. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbQc5QgH4Ws.

•      "Foster Partners." Millau Viaduct. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. http://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/millau-viaduct/

Transportation Failure: L’Ambiance Plaza, Bridgeport, Connecticut

•      Official Name: L’Ambiance Plaza

•      Location: 210 Washington Avenue Bridgeport, Connecticut

•      Building Type: High-rise Building. A high-rise building is a building greater than 75 feet in height.

•      Structural Material: Composite Structure. Composite structure is a set of interconnected elements that collaborate at runtime to achieve a purpose.

•      Foundation System: Spread or Shallow Foundation. This is a type of foundation which transfers building loads to the earth very near the surface, rather than to a subsurface layer.

•      Architectural Style: Modernism

•      Main Usage: Residential

•      Height: 205.21 ft (estimate)

•      Width: 63 ft

•      The building collapsed during construction April 23, 1987

•      Killed 28 construction workers

•      There were 16 floors above ground

•      The building was constructed using the lift-slab method. The lift slab method is a method of constructing concrete buildings by casting the floor or roof slab on top of the previous slab then raising the slab up with hydraulic jacks.  

On the day of the collapse, at approximately 1:00 pm, workers were using a 12-ton horizontal jack between the two towers. Around 1:30 pm the ironworker was installing wedges in the west building, the worker heard the first loud bang, looked up to see the concrete “cracking like ice.” The floor slab above him collapsed onto the levels below. Within 2-10 seconds both towers collapsed completely.

The exact cause of the collapse remains unknown, however there are a few theory’s that have been made. They are as follows.

Ø  First Theory: Instability of the wedges supporting the 12^th floor and roof package. –Thornton Tomasetti Engineers

·        Wedges supporting the 12^th floor and roof package at the column were unstable and started the collapse. They state that a wedge supporting the package rolled out leaving the shearhead at this level supported by a single wedge. Additional movement of the slabs may have caused the remaining wedge to roll completely out, causing the buildings to collapse.

Ø  Second Theory: Jack rod and lifting nut slipped out due to a deformation of an overloaded steel angle welded to a shear head arm channel. –National Bureau of Standards

·        The NBS concluded in their investigation that the failure began at the buildings most heavily loaded column. The testing determined that when the shearhead and lifting angles were loaded with forces nearing 80 tons, they had a tendency to twist. During the lifting process the shearheads and lifting angles were loaded close to their maximum capacity. The angles deformed under the excess of force of the three 320 ton slabs, causing the jack rod and lifting nut to slip out of the angle and hit the column.

Ø  Third Theory: Global instability caused by lateral displacement. –Failure Analysis Associates

·        FaAA consultants focused on the response of lateral loading and overall torsional instability. In the absence of lateral loading the building would be completely stable. In the presence of lateral loading, the slab could become flexible.

Below are some pictures of the collapsed building.

Sources:

•      L'Ambiance Plaza, Bridgeport | 200341 | EMPORIS." L'Ambiance Plaza, Bridgeport | 200341 | EMPORIS. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. http://www.emporis.com/buildings/200341/l-ambiance-plaza-bridgeport-ct-usa

•      Web. 11 Mar. 2015. http://failures.wikispaces.com/L'Ambiance Plaza

•      Removable Forms (Cast-In-Place)." Cast-In Place/Removable Forms. Web. 11 Mar. 2015. <http://www.cement.org/think-harder-concrete-/homes/building-systems/cast-in-place>.

Chapter 4 Notes

1. Basic Presentation Skills

Ø  Preplanning

¨      Who is my audience? Know the age group, prior knowledge, and demographics about the topic, and what positions or opinions may hold.

¨      What is my purpose? What do I hope to accomplish? What response do I expect? What will the audience learn from my speech?

¨      Where is all the equipment I need? Where will the talk be held?

¨      When am I on the program agenda? Will I be the first presenter? Or the last one before lunch? If I’m first, the audience will be more alert. If I’m last, the audience will be more restless. What can I do to keep the attention of my audience?

¨      Why am I doing this talk? Why are they here?

¨      How long should I talk? Only few people can focus for more than 20 minutes. Shorten your talk so that people will ask for more information.

Ø  Preparing the Verbal Elements

¨      Which of the following statements makes more sense?

Ø  A: wile perambulating in the antithesis of the metropolis to evade the intemperate brouhaha thereof, my visual cortex perceived an ophidian.

Ø  B:  I saw a snake while taking a relaxing walk in the woods.

¨      Although A seems more intriguing, it obscures the underlying meaning.

¨      Remember the 4S formula:

Ø  Shortness: Use short sentences, avoid too many details, and do not talk too long.

Ø  Simplicity: Avoid wordy, lengthy phrases.

Ø  Strength: Use active voice and action verbs, not passive voice and “to be” verbs.

Ø  Sincerity: Convey empathy, understanding, and respect for the audience.

Ø  Three Structural Parts

¨      Introduction: Purpose: to capture the interest of the audience. Hook your audience.

¨      Body: Purpose: to keep your audience interested. They will continue to pay attention if you keep the material interesting and relevant to them.

¨      Conclusion: Purpose: to pull it together.

Ø  Summarize the major points

Ø  Show appreciation for the audience’s attention.

Ø  Allow for few question’s

Ø  Be sensitive to your audience.

Ø  Visual Aid Helpful Hints

¨      Keep slides simple

¨      Make slides in landscape format.

¨      Present data in simple graphs rather than in lists or tables.

¨      Lots of media

¨      Use bullet points

¨      Large text is the best

¨      Use high contrast colors, no light colors or fancy fonts

¨      Use a light background and dark print.

¨      Keep backgrounds simple.

2. Presentation Dos and Don’ts

Ø  Dos and don’ts

¨      DO:

Ø  Relax

Ø  Speak slowly and clearly

Ø  Drop your hands

Ø  Rehearse

Ø  Arrive early

¨      DON’T:

Ø  Turn your back to the audience

Ø  Read verbatim from the screen

Ø  Cover your mouth

Ø  Chew gum

Ø  Play with your notes

Ø  Fidget

Ø  Tell inappropriate jokes

Ø  Say ‘um’ or ‘uh’

3. Basic Technical Writing Skills

Ø  General Guidelines

¨      Be clear.

¨      Use 10 point font size and 1.5 line spacing.

¨      Generally, prefer past tense verbs.

¨      Define any terms.

¨      Present facts or inferences.

¨      Number and caption all tables, figures and appendices.

¨      Proofread and edit several times

¨      Read it twice.

¨      Spell out a number that starts with a sentence.

¨      Keep the leading zero with a decimal.

¨      For long numbers don’t spell them out.

¨      Use the dollar symbol

¨      Watch for significant figures.

4. Proper Use of References

Ø  ABCs of evaluating information offer a useful start.

¨      Authority: is it clear who is responsible for the site?

¨      Bias: what is the purpose of the article? Is it free of obvious bias?

¨      Currency: When was the information created or last updated?

¨      Use sources that have been reviewed by experts.

¨      Secure a peer review

¨      Compare the information found with content from other websites or from reviewed sources.

¨      Corroborate the information.

5. E-mails to your college Instructors

Ø  Email etiquette

¨      Be sure to correctly address the recipient.

¨      Use an appropriate subject line.

¨      Sign your full name and include contact information if appropriate.

¨      Change your sending name to your full name

¨      Keep it brief don’t use one continuous paragraph.

¨      If you expect a response, be sure items are clearly defined.

¨      Use correct capitalization and punctuation. Spelling does count.

¨      Check your work before sending it.

¨      When waiting for a reply, give a grace period of 48-72 hours.

Ø  Example:

¨      I don’t know what is going on with the computer but I have been trying to upload the assignment for an hour now and it will not work. I have to drive to (State) tonight so I wont be able to fix this problem later. I can not files on Monday so you can see when they were last saved and show you them then. I really need this one point. Please consider this.

Ø  Better Solution:

¨      I have been trying to upload the assignment since 6 pm, and will continue to try; however, I wanted to email you this assignment since the deadline of 10 pm is approaching. The system will let me browse and select a document but not do anything when I hit submit. I have tried to use a wired connection instead of a wireless, with no luck. Do you have any suggestions for fixing this problem? Thank you in advance for your assistance.