Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Cabins, Software and Life

I think I said I'd update every week last time... that didn't work too well, did it. Hm. Well, against all odds and of course against my better judgement, I've decided that my blog needed an update even if it just so happens to be 1am. So, without further ado, here is a snapshot of what's goin' on in my life and some fun pics as well.

This pic is of my friend and co-worker Robert sitting inside of one of the shakers... we had great success with the latest "Precision-controlled shaker head", and I must say, that man deserves most of the credit! What a great showing! This week we will see how the shaker head does on some olive trees for the official demo, but things are lookin' up!

I had the opportunity to contribute to the project by modeling the electro-hydraulic/mechanical system in MATLAB and designing/implementing one of the amplifiers, which was really fun. The first, real multi-domain modeling I've done that was for a practical purpose. The amplifier was a voltage-controlled current amplifier (for those of you who care) and had tunable gains dead-band compensation built-in.

This next pic is of Ash and Nate's two cats. I am definitely a dog person, but it was a pleasure spending a few hours with these two characters! This was the only shot that really captured the drama that they were acting out, but they moved way to fast for my little camera phone to see the action, weaving in and out of the chairs! ;)



This is a pic of Garrett and Stephen (my brotha and my roommate) on our little 4x4 trek on Lassen a few weeks ago. That was really fun, and (looking down, toeing in my right foot) the first time I've been 4x4ing with the crew. Definitely a great time with guys.



Garrett and his Jeep. This picture captures their relationship well...




The cabin that we are working on bringin up to snuff up in Mill Creek. I can't say that I loved the sleeping arrangement, but I think I must be spoiled on my super-comfortable bed here in Chico.



This pic is my mom and dad and brother inside the cabin. They hauled up a dryer so that we can stay for more extended periods here. Very relaxing place, that cabin. I defnitely am planning on spending some time there.



Garrett, me, Dad and Mom in front of the Mill Creek Resort Store. This is right before dinner, so we are all excited to get some shakes/malts inside. Stephen was with us too, but he was taking the picture. (Thank you, sir).



I guess that wraps up the pics, but there are a few other portions of my life that I can tell you about here. I'll be brief, because your time is valuable and my sleep is necessary...

Work:
I am currently juggling two jobs: ENE, where I am doing various electrical/computer/mechanical engineering tasks and helping with other things in those veins, and the Navy Research Group at school, where I am trying to wrap my head around the intricacies of modern computational fluid dynamics (CFD). If all goes as planned, I will be essentially stopping both of those jobs and starting to spend all my gainful employment on thesis-related tasks for NASA/Army, which I am looking forward to.

School: At school, I am taking too many classes, but in a strange twist, have had very little homework for the first 5 weeks of the semester. This semester I have 4 classes for credit and 1 class for audit. I am taking Networking, Electro-mechanical Conversion, High Frequency Design Techniques, and Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC). I'm auditing a math class called Intro to Chaotic, Dynamical Systems, which is really interesting, but I'm glad that I am not being graded there... I like the challenge, but grading can sometimes interfere with the sheer enjoyment of the subject matter. I'm happy that these classes have the content that they do, but I wish I had more time to delve into them and work on some project related to them so that I could really absorb the material fully.

Play:
I have been trying to work out by running and lifting weights and have finally (as of these last 10 days or so) been successful. Not enough basketball, but I am working on shedding a few pounds to get back to where I can really enjoy the running there. Not a crazy amount of movies, but a few good ones (notably, "Fist full of dollars" with Clint Eastwood).

Thought:
Why is it I can't dance... I have been thinking about this because I went to an Indian dance festival recently and had a really good time hanging out and dancing. Now, just to be clear, I am aware of the fact that I can't dance well, but there was some video shot by others so I could actually observe myself... wow... I am terrible! :( But, I keep telling myself, "you just need to practice"... Idunno, still pondering that one.

Tech:
I have known about a program called COMSOL for a while, but have not thought about it's "place" in the world of simulation until recently when I was thinking through the relationship that MATLAB and Solidworks have to each other. I have posted before about the wonderful symbol tool that Mathematica can be, and the wonderful simulation tool that MATLAB can be. This summer I learned what a great platform it is for code generation and also for rapid prototyping. Solidworks has long been my favorite environment for generating 3D geometry and such for mechanical engineering problems, and it just keeps getting better, but it lacks the multi-domain, coupled PDE (partial differential equation) solving abilities that COMSOL can provide. MATLAB with Simulink allows multi-domain solving with a very nice block diagram editor, but cannot really deal with the 3D geometry, collisions, and especially the PDE side of things (As I understand it, Simulink is concerned with ODEs). Anyway, COMSOL find a place right in between these two packages and is useful for interfacing with both of them bi-directionally. I have no idea how much this costs, but it would be great to get a copy to play with.

Well, I guess I better call it a day. Maybe if I posted more often, these posts wouldn't get so long! Oh well, I hope that YOU have a great day!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Back in the Saddle

It is that time again: the weather is hot, school's back in and I am once again in a brand new house! Yes, I am back from the NASA/Army internship in Mountain View and plugging away at a brand new set of classes.

It is strange to think that this might be the last semester that I am actually attending lectures, but that is the way life goes, I suppose; old seasons bend to the will of the new. I thought it would be fun to post a few pics and videos of things I didn't get up while I was in Santa Cruz, so here is a quick recap of a few things that happened that I didn't post about. By the way, I have been aiming to make one post per week, but the last month or so (and especially the last two weeks) at work were killers!

Here is a random selection of where I am now, a few things that happened since my last post, and some cool shots of NASA that I hadn't posted yet.

First off, this is the new digs... I am happy to be riding the Steed once again, my favorite truck!


Next up, my mafia-born nephew Zach-Attack. Okay, just Zach, but all this little hombre needs is one of those hats that the dudes with the tommy-guns had... he was a little stand-offish the first few days, but he'll give me a smile now. What a cute little gangster! ;)



This is a pic of how I took over one of the rooms in the house with Sharon and Scott. They were kind enough to let me spread out my computer stuff and "dig-in". This was so helpful in getting work done at home... Thanks guys!



Y'know how sometimes people ask you to solve silly puzzles and mind teasers? Well, normally I just shrug these buggers off and say, "That's okay, you can solve a meaningless puzzle..." but this particular morning, I was victorious! :) This task was to figure out a way to use these three knives to form a support structure that can span the cups, even though any single knife cannot span a single spacing...



How did I do it? Okay, I'll let you in on the secret... Just don't tell anyone I told you!





I didn't get a chance to run/exercise nearly as much as I was hoping to this summer, but I did go for a run a few times a week. Occasionally my cousin Scott would join me. This is my last run. Scott told me that this one was for "old time's sake"... meaning, I suppose that as time goes on we ought to run more often... =)




A few weeks before I came back, Nate and Ash came down and visited for the weekend. It was really cool to have them hang out and we did a few activities as well. We went kayaking in Elkhorn Slew, which was really fun (Scott was attacked by an otter! [yes, he's fine]).
Nate's Birthday was on Friday, and so we celebrated it on Saturday (they came up on Saturday). Cool cake huh? Yeah, that right... I picked it out myself. Happy B-day Nate!



From time to time, when we were car-pooling, I would need to drive by this spot on base to pick up Scott from his office. Occasionally the doors were open and you could see how large everything really is... This is the world largest wind tunnel (80 feet tall, 120 feet wide) and it can pull air through the test section at 100 knots! I think I posted something about the intake for this puppy in an earlier post, it is larger than a football field!


This video is inside the model loading area beneath the test section of the 40x80 tunnel (the world second largest). The fellow talking is Bill Warmbrodt who was kind enought to give us interns a tour. The tunnel is 3 stories up...


These next three videos are just a funny task that Scott and I had to do... split logs into firewood. Normally he is a wood-splittin' fool, but this particular time (on a particularly tough log), I got him on video having a hard time getting through... pretty funny this.



Intermediate progress...


The grand finale!

Well, that's it for now. Thanks for checkin' in. I hope to post a bit more regularly from here on out, but I know I've said that before.