iFoundry!

Calculus final :[

2009-12-12T17:17:00.000-08:00

This week saw the start of my first college final experience. It wasn't exactly enjoyable to say the least. Getting motivated to do much of anything was a real chore all week long knowing that no homework would be due. But I got myself in gear around Wednesday night to start studying for my calculus exam that I took yesterday. I went in thinking I was generally prepared. Boy was I wrong! I had little to no clue how to do several of the problems, it was a real disaster. The grades are up today and I received a solid D. Which really isn't what I was expecting. Here's to hoping for a large curve!

Today I engaged in some not-so-well-deserved rest and recuperation. I took the bus home with my brother for my parents big Christmas party, that I'm in the middle of attending as I write this post. Hopefully this will get my mind of the stresses of finals week, or at least fill my stomach with some good food for a change. I'm off to enjoy the holiday festivities!

Project 2 reflections

2009-12-07T14:22:00.000-08:00

Today our second projects were due. Our project ended up not going quite as well as we had hoped originally. We ended up not being able to get our car to ride on the wall because our Arduino board was too heavy for the magnets we had. Pressed for time and ideas we had to build a walker similar to Dr. Dragic's example. We made several modifications including eyes and a photo-resistor to make it try to avoid being stomped on. So looking back some better team coordination would have been great. We had trouble getting everyone to communicate while scheduling work times and compiling the final report. I've learned that you can't really rely on people to do their part unless they specifically say they will do so.

NextGen

2009-11-28T20:41:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since we got back from the NextGen conference, but I didn't get a chance to blog about the experience. Overall it was a great trip. The conference started a little early but it was well worth it. Listening to Larry Chiang and Kevin Hartz plus others was really cool. Getting to see a number of successful entrepreneurs speak helped me and everyone who came with to understand how much it actually takes to run a startup. The return flight was a little messy, with us leaving the Stanford campus at two o'clock in the morning and all. The nap on the terminal floor was great fun! But all in all everything went well, and I would love to do it again.

Post Steam Car wrap up

2009-11-18T18:20:00.000-08:00

It's been a long while since my last post, so this one will be an overall recap of the Steam Car project we completed in the lab section of ENG198.

Our project started off slowly with a lot of problems with our solder on the boiler can. We think it was a result of second rate soldering irons in the ESPL, as the one we used in the Everit lab was much better and worked really nicely. You can see the final solder in the picture to the left. As you can tell it got a little messy, but it proved to be a functional bond. We were able to get our car working finally, but we didn't place so well in the final race. Our car was probably the second fastest in our section but due to bracket technicalities we didn't place in the speed category. Some last minute decoration got us an award however.

I'm not quite sure how to embed a video from youtube into a blog post so I'll simply post a link. The video shows our second test run of the Steam Car outside of ESPL. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E23z1XzqiDk

Very 1st attempt at posting

2009-09-09T13:07:00.000-07:00

So as the title suggests this is my first attempt at blogging about my iFoundry experience. With my discussion portion of the course coming up, I can't say that I'm looking forward to going back to class. But to make a judgement so early on in the program would probably be a bad idea. So far I've been to several discussions and several meetings. All of which are at least interesting enough to keep my attention, and they do provide some helpful information. The discussion sections more than the meetings in my opinion. Because as I see it, the aims that the iTeams have set seem slightly out of proportion. Plus, those meetings steal another two hours a week from my homework time. Maybe as the semester goes on and all the iTeams find a solid foundation and definition our goals will become a little more realistic and manageable.

Looking to the future is what keeps me working through the program. I'm not suggesting that there aren't some great students and faculty members involved in iFoundry, just that the extra time and effort isn't exactly paying off just yet. Speaking of time and effort, it's looking like I may have to cut this entry short. With my iFoundry class approaching, I have to get some calculus finished. The free pizza I'm sure to receive later is my only motivation as of right now.

-Kris Heemskerk