Enduring to the End

The hardest part of anything you do at least for most people is finishing it. This semester in school has been an absolute beast. I have had tests, projects, quizzes, and tons of homework on a continual basis. There really has been no down time if I don't plan it out in advance, but then again being a planner is a new thing for me. I typically like to be spontaneous in most cases but also be ready for pretty much anything. So in reality, I guess this has been a blessing. Anyways, the moral of the story is that the semester has been a real doozy and now I am going to update you all on my life since I haven't written on here in a while.

The projects have come from mainly one of two classes. I am in Mechanical Engineering so I have a Machine Design class where we study stresses, loads, material properties, fatigue, failure, etc. The idea is to be able to know how much a part can handle without breaking but also knowing if it does break, where and why. One of the projects we have done in this class is using a software package called ANSYS. It is an FEA (Finite Element Analysis) program that takes all these things we have talked about and applies them to a part you model in the computer. It then graphically displays the results of the loads. Here is a couple examples of our truss and bracket project.

(Loads on the Bracket)

(Stresses on the Bracket)

(Loads on the Truss)(Stresses on the Truss)

We were supposed to design a truss that could take certain loads we put on it which was also connected to a bracket that had to be designed to basically do the same thing. Besides being given the loads and the dimensions of the truss we had to pick out everything else.

Also in my engineering classes, I have a Numerical Methods class where we program code in C++ and in Matlab to compute many of these same equations. However, a computer can compute them a lot faster and if coded correctly can even determine what the optimal design of a product can be, such as designing a car, based on a variety of conditions: cost, size, forces, visually appealing, etc. These are called Genetic Algorithms. We have coded other things as well, but the only one that is not entirely useful but definitely cool was a robot. It reads the color on different plastic balls, if it is red like the Utes, it tosses it away. If it is blue, then it will take it out to the three-point line, spins, and shoots.

The last project was for my History of Creativity class. I have talked about my idea in a previous post, but the final result is posted up on Youtube at the following link: Ophelia's Syndrome (Animation Project).

However, I did have to do a couple edits on the actual animation to make it presentable and finalized. The video above is the actual animation itself and the narration and the guitar accompaniment before I finished it for Youtube. Well, this has been my life. Good life, huh?