Did I say blog awards?

I was so mixed up today. As a matter of fact, i've been mixed up all week. I actually thought today was Wednesday or that blog awards was on Tuesday....major disappointment. Well on another note, tonight is the last night we have with our Pre-PDRs before they are torn apart by the staff. I am hoping that each of our sections were extensive enough to be considered "complete". I have to admit that I am a little scared to hear what they may have to say about it. I hope everything is complete. I am keeping my fingers crossed!

This Darn Pre-PDR

Well we are moving along with our Pre-PDR. It has been kinda hectic trying to get everything accomplished and actually knowing if we are doing everything correctly. We are doing our best, but there has been a couple of disagreements along the way. For the most part, I feel like my group is very productive. Oh yeah I said my group. Just the other day, Nedgby was the team leader, but somehow I was "elected", but it's no big deal with me. Later tonight we are going to ham class to learn some more interesting facts. I can't wait!! :) Right now I am about to head to the lab for the blog awards!!

I'm still forgetting to blog

This is really getting sad. I only remember to blog during the weekday but enough with the excuses. Friday was a great day for the girls. The guys decided to stay home and work on the Pre-PDR. We went to the observatory with Dr. Jim. It was my first time actually looking through a telescope of that size. I thought that the magnification and power of the microscope was the reason why we couldn't see heavenly bodies in such great detail; however, Dr. Guzik informed us that the size of the microscope plays the biggest role. The first object we seen was Saturn. I was in such awe, and I couldn't believe I was actually looking at it. It looks exactly how it does on pictures. We also looked at two star clusters. One was the oldest object in the universe (I think). It was about 15 or 16 billion years old and 25,000 light years away. We looked at a binary star system located in the handle of the big dipper. We may have looked at other objects, but these are the only things that will come to memory. Anyway we did have a great time on Friday night.

WBS

Today was a day filled with learning about the Work Breakdown Structure. This is a very useful tool used when you are trying to complete a complex project. It helps to ensure that enough time is put into each aspect of the project so that it can be complete by a certain deadline. It also helps to estimate costs so that a budget can be kept. Dr. Guzik showed us a quite nifty resource to use to make preparing a WBS quick and easy. This software, called Microsoft Project, allows you to type in all major tasks and to add sub tasks. You then add the estimated time for each task, and the software prepares a schedule showing you what span of days the tasks will be covered in. It is a really helpful tool that I will be sure to use.

I didn't know there was so many rules

Today we finally met our blog critic, Ms. Fava. She came to tell us all about how to utilize a powerpoint as an "aide" to our presentation, not as the presentation itself. It turns out, there are many rules you have to go by when you are constructing a powerpoint. I never paid attention to the format or colors of each slide and I never kept anything consistent when I did powerpoints in the past. I had colors everywhere! There was a different style and color pattern on each slide. After this session, however, I have learned that a professional powerpoint has to be consistent throughout. You have to make sure that it can be read easily. By this I mean putting dark text on a light background, but maybe the darker tones should be used as opposed to bright reds and yellows. The design of each slide also has to be the same on each slide. I already knew that appearance speaks for you before your mouth does, but Ms. Fava reiterated this to us. Also it is good practice to make eye contact with members of the audience and make sure that you convey to the audience that you care about the fact that you are presenting to them. All of this information as well as more that I may have forgotten to include will be very helpful to me in the future because of all of the upcoming presentations my Pacer partners and I will be giving....soon :)

JFK said it

I'm embarrassed to say that I had never even heard of the quote. “In this decade, we will send a man to the moon and return him safely to the Earth” is what JFK said before the our first mission to the moon. Man I can't believe how much I am panicking trying to write this blog right now. I keep forgetting to do my blogs so much that I have to reset my password everytime I do it. That's really sad. Anyway today we talked a lot about documenting. Our pre-PDR is due next week and we spent today talking about what all is included in this document. We also discussed some things that will be included in the construction of the payload. Well I can't win today so I will talk to yall later.

Was I supposed to be blogging?

Aw man! I feel absolutely terrible for not blogging these last few days. It's like I only remember to do my blog when I get to the lab and by then it is too late. Other than forgetting to blog, everything else has been goin quit well. We have been making programs to read the ADC on our board, write to and read the EEprom and read the clock. For the most part it wasn't difficult, but i'll admit that I had to ask MANY questions before the task was complete. I know what the programs are meant to do but i'm not good with programming syntax, and that's my major problem. Today we constructed a circuit that is capable of measuring different inputs such as pressure and temperature, and producing an output signal that we can write to EEprom and later read off as valuable data. The staff also decided to give us a little break today, and when we get back at 4:15....time for prizes!!

I want my Yoda. Oh and Dr. Sinha, watch your back! :)

Man I can't believe that the first time I won somethin, I wasn't even able to accept the award. I didn't get the memo that you had to actually be present to win. Dr. Sinha you didn't have to take my prize :) Anyway I plan on being at the next drawing which is tomorrow!!

I thought we were finished

Today we did some more work on the skeetersat. I thought we had finished up yesterday, but we had to do some modifications and see if the skeetersat still worked. It was a little difficult and time consuming. It was also dangerous. We had a few people burn themselves trying to "unsolder". Anyway i'm still not done so I have to come back later to finish up. :(

It's just practice

Today we practiced how to solder. It's a good thing that it was just practice. Actually I faintly remember soldering in high school in my technology class. I don't know how well I soldered today. Everone said it was good but maybe they were just trying to be nice.

$ Cha-ching $

Man I am so happy to finally see that green. I thought I was gonna have to spend another night eating raisin bread and bananas. :)

This will be exciting :)

I am so glad that I could come and have this experience. Everything has been going well except I was late on my first day :( I will be on time tomorrow!!

Hey!!

Hello everyone!! :)