‘engineering’
Catch-Up with Nathan and Victoria: Chapter I
Nov. 17, 2012—Good evening, blogosphere. As has been my modus operandi for this semester, I am going to open this post with an apology. I’m sorry for disappearing for weeks on end, only to return for short stints filled with vague hints at the life I’ve been leading off the grid. The world is full of strange...
Say YES to Success
Nov. 6, 2012—For the past week, conversations seemed to have centered around classes and YES, the system that Vanderbilt uses for course registration.
The Mechatronics Master
Apr. 27, 2012—As I mentioned in a post near the semester’s beginning, my Mechatronics class culminated in a final design project. I celebrated Rites of Spring (click here for Victoria’s article) by staying up very very late night after night in order to design, build, troubleshoot and complete my project, and the fruits of my labor (the system and the 10-page...
Final Projects
Mar. 26, 2012—For better or for worse, there are a lot of indicators that I’m becoming an upperclassman (see Figure 1). I have a lot of (sometimes unwanted) responsibilities in ROTC, I’m finding myself considering leadership in multiple school organizations, and my schoolwork is maturing from problem sets to more design and analysis-based projects.
How I Know the Robots Are After Me
Mar. 1, 2012—Earlier in the semester (MUCH earlier), I talked about my first day of Mechatronics class. I mentioned the kit we’d be working with, complete with Arduino micro-controller, circuit components, and other such tools. Each week in February (the kits came into the bookstore late), we’ve had an assignment involving creating or modifying code for the...
The Engineering Overlap
Jan. 24, 2012—I'm not sure if I've at all mentioned that I'm a Mechanical Engineering and Math double major. Now, then. The price of these two excellent majors is that every semester feels the same: engineering and math until I've actually forgotten how to speak English coherently (this blog is my only outlet for such language).
Microspheres and DTI: What Am I Doing Here?
Dec. 7, 2011—This afternoon, I got a chance to see two presentations by Master’s candidates in the Biomedical Engineering department. Surrounded by rabidly hungry grad students (it was actually really funny to see them race for the free pizza), I was first treated to an intellectually stimulating presentation on smart microspheres developed to release drugs in a...
Registration Woes
Nov. 20, 2011—Registration for the spring semester began about two weeks ago, prompting the semesterly panic among Vandy students as YES (the registration system) fails to provide that which we need. For others, who are in no way related to me at all, the panic results from finding out that several classes on the planned schedule for...
Finals Warfare
Apr. 26, 2011—The counterweight trebuchet is a medieval siege weapon used to fling large projectiles at or from castle walls, and was one of the most accurate and revolutionary weapons of the Middle Ages.
Scheduling Begins
Mar. 17, 2011—It’s halfway through March and we’re entering the home-stretch. A (mere?) six weeks of class and a finals week lay between me and a very, very long summer break. It might come as a surprise, then, that the scheduling process for next semester (Fall 2011) has already begun. While it logistically makes sense to open...