Bootcamp

Hey guys,

I thought that Bootcamp was overall a wonderful experience and was especially so because of the number of great people that were present. We all definitely connected and formed some good relationships!

Purdue is really doing some awesome and exciting research and I believe it is something to look forward too if you decide to move into this field of study. I was especially interested in the excavator and other cool test rigs that they had displayed in Maha's lab. They seem as if they are on the forefront of technology in the hydraulics field, which sounds like an awesome job to me. I also enjoyed learning more about the campus and what it would it would be like to live in West Lafayette.

I am now settled into Nashville, Tn and am only beginning to realize how awesome this town really is! I have enjoyed biking around the city in the afternoons and walking through Vanderbilt's beautiful campus (there are trees everywhere and it feels like they put campus in the middle of a forest, which is awesome, unless you are trying to find a building and then every tree looks the same ha). The first couple days of work have been interesting and I am ready to get underway on the project that I will be working on. My project deals with the material properties necessary to efficiently store hydraulic energy in an accumulator by expanding (straining) a rubber material. The rubber material properties are what I am going to be figuring out this summer.

Have a great week and I hope that your first days of work all go well!

Chris Maurice  

P.S.- There is a giant helicopter in the lab that I am working in which I have been blown away by its size alone. Unfortunately I do not know yet what its purpose serves, but its really cool.