Thursday, June 19, 2014

Week 3 Andrew A.

I was surprised by how much computers dominate research now. The actual lab equipment is not used as much as I anticipated, though since I am working on simulations, so I do not get to spend much time in the lab. As far as the computers go, the complexity of the systems that can now be modeled with them amazes me, as I was a bit overwhelmed when I was introduced to the axial piston pump simulation that Maha is working on. I think the most positive thing for me has been the people I am working with, as they have been extremely nice to me and helped me if I have a problem or do not understand a concept. Another perk of working with simulations is that I have built on my knowledge of Matlab, as that is a very useful tool for any engineer. The only part that has been a bit frustrating for me is finding the trends in the data and then figuring out how to explain them, as there is a lot of post-processing you have to do before you can actually look at the data. The majority of my time is actually dominated by filtering and cutting out the bad data, which was surprising to me. All in all, though, it has been a positive experience and I am very grateful for the opportunity to work at a research lab of this caliber.

-Andrew

No comments:

Post a Comment