Halfway Update

At Lake Calhoun with a friend from college

Hi everyone,
My research continues to go well. I've nearly finished a simulation of a hydrostatic transmission, a previously researched version of the transmission I'll be focusing on. The simulation was sort of a practice exercise for me, to familiarize me with building and debugging simulations. In the next few days I'll wrap up the hydrostatic simulation and begin building the hydro-mechanical simulation that my research centers on.

Aside from research, my Fourth of July weekend was fantastic. I kept busy, seeing an outside performance of Love's Labors Lost, visiting the Mall of America, watching the Minneapolis fireworks, playing beach volleyball at Lake Calhoun, and hiking at Frontenac State Park near Redwing, Minnesota.

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

Week 5

Hi all!

This past month researching with CCEFP has been amazing!  My research is going very well.  My project is to determine the cause of increased electrostatic charge generation on return line mounted filters, and although I haven't pinned down the cause yet, I've made a lot of progress.  I think that by the end of the summer I will be able to figure it out.

Outside of my research, I had a great Independence Day with some of my colleges here at MSOE.  Five of us traveled down to Chicago (about an hour and a half drive from Milwaukee) and spend the long weekend exploring the city.  I've never been to Chicago before, and I really like exploring new cities so this weekend was a blast for me!  I think my favorite part was the Science and Industry museum in Chicago, which had a ton of really cool exhibits.

I hope everyone else's project is going well!

Sophia Dolan

Week 5 in Nashville!

Hi everyone,

I am going to use my free blog to tell you all about how AMAZING 4th of July in Nashville is. I went downtown for a free concert featuring three bands. My favorite was Striking Matches, and the two lead singers are actually directly from Belmont school right here in Nashville. After the performances, I got to see the coolest fireworks show EVER accompanied by the Nashville symphony. It was an experience like no other. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be doing research at Vanderbilt where I can also experience the amazing Nashville culture.

Happy halfway point everyone!

Week 5

Getting the xbox kinect to fully function with the simulation was a huge accomplishment. The main goal of the summer was to basically use the kinect in the simulation to examine the stresses the operator would experience. Also, being able to import solidworks files into the simulation is a big step as well. I feel as though everything is falling into place, I couldn't be anymore excited. 

The most exciting part about the summer, besides the CCEFP opportunity of course, is the fact that I have my own apartment now. I now know what it takes to live in the real world. It's a very exciting time in my life as well as a learning curve.

Week 5 at Vandy

Hey guys, sorry for not posting last week.

I can give you a little update about my research though. My overall goal for the project is to test the sensing capabilities of Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Embedded elastomers. The CNTs will offer greater strength and sensing capabilities to be used in our Strain Energy Accumulator. Energy will be stored in the accumulator as strain of the elastomeric material (much like an animal balloon) and resistance measurements should be able to detect any tears or cracks that may develop. We are working on methods of embedding these vertically aligned CNT's and hope to have a working material by the end of summer to test.

For this week, I would like to say that the summer has been super fun so far. My fellow co-workers have enabled me to understand the World Cup, although I am still grieving the U.S.'s loss. It also amazing to be placed in such a great city. Nashville is truly one of a kind and has some amazing musical talent. Everyone here plays an instrument (and is exceptional at it) and they expect you to be able to jam as well. I have visited the Opryland Hotel, the Dukes of Hazzard Museum, waterfalls, the beautiful Cathedral here in town, and just about every guitar shop in the city. It has been a great time so far and am happy that only half of the summer is completed!

Have a happy Independence Day!

Chris Maurice

Week Five

I can't believe it's already July and I'm already halfway through my research experience! We've gotten a lot done already, but it still feels like there's so much left to tackle, so it's crazy to think there are only five weeks left.

Outside of my research, which has been very interesting and is teaching me a lot, I've been having a really positive overall experience at UIUC. Since I'm from Champaign, I'm obviously no stranger to this area, but this is the longest amount of time I've been able to spend here since I started college, so it's been nice to explore and appreciate it again! Last weekend, my friend and I drove half an hour out of town to see the rodeo, and the weekend before that, we made the trek all the way up to Chicago to attend a public viewing of the USA-Portugal game in Grant Park (photos attached!). Both were really fun and great chances to get away from the lab for a while and spend sometime out and about.

Within the lab, I've been having a great time getting to know the other students in my research group, as well as the other groups who share our office space with them. I'm the only non-UIUC student here, but my familiarity with the campus and its surroundings means I have a lot of friends, interests, and experiences in common with the people I work with, so it's been very easy to fit in. Luckily, everyone here is into soccer, so I have plenty of folks to commiserate with over World Cup drama.

We've started testing non-Newtonian fluids on our textures this weeks, and the results have been promising so far! I should have some more finite updates on that in the coming weeks. Until then, hope everyone is doing well and has a great Fourth of July!

Nikita

World's 3rd Largest Crane in UMN's Backyard (kinda)!

The world's 3rd largest crane was delivered to the site of the #NewVikingsStadium yesterday.

WATCH THE VIDEO: http://bit.ly/1nZ5CDv