11/27

Personal

Rough day, improve sleeping habits. Build up artitic skill for portfolio. Finish up essays and reccos.

RP

Today was hard for me, genuinely hard, at first. I was trying to log in on my usual computer and technical difficulties drove me up the wall. Eventualy, one of the Help Desk guys came to work on the issue. In the mean time, I was relegated to another workstation that unfortunately held none of my saved work. Throughout this entire time, I repeatedly dozed into a meduim to heavy slumber on the account of no sleep in two days from trying to live both the life of an aspiring engineer and aspiring graphic artist/ art entrepeneur. It will all be rectified when I reveal to my parents my true passion and dont have to do all art stuff after the family has fallen asleep.

When I finally got through the maladies of the day, I pulled up some research on Accutron watches and the electrical and physical concepts behind them.

11/15

Personal

Get focused! Please, so you can prove everyone wrong...

RP

More research. Transferred my notes to the back of my tangible logbook.

11/14

Personal

I don't think that I am going to college for engineering anymore.

RP

Today, i worked with another student of Dr. Newcomb's by the name of Ameer Abutaleb. He went over specific and more pinpointed areas of research with me such as piezoelectricity and quartz tuning fork oscillators. He suggested that, if I sought specific, measurable results immediately, i should build and test one.

11/6-11/7

Personal

Very busy week!

RP

Researched more on the above both days.

11/2

Personal

Boring day...

RP

I received a lot of information from my tutor. He helped with much more than PSpice. He was in the process of explaining to me the program when we realized that it would be easier to teach if he knew what specifically it was that i needed to learn. From there he was really able to access the knowledge he possessed on the topic. We discussed the specific circuit layout for my system, the physical design for it (various ideas surfaced) , the math and electronic theory behind my idea and a lot more.

11/1

Personal

Pay the rest of dues and for your cap, gown and senior book!

RP

Today I focused on the pendulum simulation and the math behind it.

10/31

Personal
Halloween!

RP
A lot of technical difficulties with my computer today, but thats what the IT team is here for! Once the problems were so graciously fixed, I got to messing around with a Java-based pendulum physics simulator at myphysicslab.com. The cool thing about the site is that it lets you adjust the parameters of everything from the weight of the pendulum to length of the rope to the force of gravity. Scroll further down and it explains in mathematics and words what you saw simulated and documented (there is an optional graph for most simulated situations.)


However, the pendulum information is only half of the physics formula I need to conduct my research. The other formula I need to have realized is that of a generic human gait/walking pattern. Once i have both i must combine their formulas to align with my concept: generation of (really conversion of) electrical energy by (or from) human motion through the use of a small electromagnetic pendulum within an energy storage device.

10/30

Personal

Missed test, must re-apply...Cap and gown stuff due tomorrow, after that its all late fees!

RP

Made a lot of progress in PSpice today, started adding different components to my circuit design and tested for differentials of the voltage input and output. (see pictures)

Dr. Newcomb is stressing me getting a personal copy somewhere, but my home PCs are not fit to run such a powerful program. He said consider saving it to a secure school PC. I may decide to ask Mr. Dulce for such assistance...

10/26

Personal

ACT tomorrow at Dunbar.

RP

The final result of the last three days!

I accidentally stood up my PSpice tutor because:

rain
+
traffic
+
teen drivers
=
30 minutes late to internship.

10/25

Personal

It's Vasco's birthday!

RP

Today I worked more on PSpice and actually throughly completed an example! But then the actual system didnt work out so well so I'm going to have to badger Dr. Newcomb to help me fix it...

10/24

Personal

Still need more sleep. Need to work on shirt designs and Etcetera Mixtape as well.

RP

Today I jumped right into the SPICE program, with the coaxing of Dr. Newcomb at least...

10/23

Personal

Get more sleep.

RP

Today I visited UMD in order to get through with all the preliminary activities such as signing up with the school (and ECE specifically) directory so that I could have a university email and ID. Dr. Newcomb told me a little about how pedometers work (small magnetic pendulum switch) and wants me to apply the reverse to the energy saving mechanism I am to create. He also asked that I research Accutron watches, how magnets conduct electricity and electromagnetic coils. I've a large amount of learning to do because of my late start (and general under-information in my previous engineering courses, maybe I should have taken more rigorous coursework before this point.) I also took a book home by the name of of Simulating with Spice for some background.

10/15

Personal

Get Kallish work done!

RP

Mr. Rountree gave us our grades today, or should I say 'as of today', and I must get my work in or that 17% will never become the 88% I need and can attain. This is a funny situation, just not while I'm experiencing it first-hand.

10/13

Personal

First day of on-the-road driving school.

RP

The link was broken so I did some web surfing/searching to find the same program at a different source and sent this link to Dr. Newcomb. He has not replied yet with an opinion or anything so I am going to wait to download the version I found.

10/12

Personal

Last day of in-class driving school!

RP

After my reply to Dr. Newcomb's email, he sent me a link to a design/simulation program for circuit development to work with and learn until I can get them in person.

10/11

Personal

Wow, I just discovered that my friend Ashley is an artist!

RP

The Dean has confirmed my ID and UMD email account so that I've legal permission to be on campus. Specifically, they used language along the lines of 'being approved as an affiliate.' (!) I can pick up my ID card the next time I go there, which I informed Dr. Newcomb wouldn't be very immediate because of my need to complete Ch. 1/2.

10/6

Personal



RP

I met with Dr. Newcomb today and was very impressed with the atmosphere of his office and surrounding areas of research. We discussed a little about what the nature of my project would be and settled on kinetic energy's conversion into electrical energy. I also got signed up for a UMD ID and email account

10/5

Personal



RP

I initiated an email correspondence with Dr. Newcomb and he sounds very interested in meeting me in person.

10/4

Personal

My parents and I have come to the compromise of me going to UMD for at least two years befor making up my mind to move to Cornell or another school in NYC.

RP

Ms. Bell contacted me to inform me of a successful match with ECE Professor, Dr. Robert Newcomb! She says that he has a lot of experience with interns so I should feel right at home with him. Now I must get started on Chapters 1/2 even in spite of the little time left in this quarter.

10/2

Personal

I've joined FastWeb and the UMD Mailing List today.

RP

Nothing happened today. Besides Ms. Bell requesting a slight revision of the content in my resume for clarity.

10/1

Personal

Progrss Report is an all-time low! Bring it up.

RP

Fellow RP Intern, Vasco Mateus did me the service of showing the format with which he did his Chapters One and Two as we are both in the Engineering track and each track has slightly different parameters as far the information included goes.

9/24

Personal

Etcetera unofficial c/o '08 shirts released today!


RP

Today, I took the bull by the horns and acquired the contact information for the higher-ups within UMD's Engineering Staff and proceeded to bombard them all by phone and email until I got a massive lead with one Ms. Judi Bell, Director of the Electrical and Computer Engineering School. She told me that all I needed to do was provide her with my contact, academic and future interest information in a pseudo-resume and she would send the information out as an all-call to all of the professors.

9/2u1

Personal


My birthday is today! I spent most of it taking senior pics and sleeping though.


RP

Patricia Long, another fellow Intern, has said that there may be a possobility of working at the same building as her. The location at which she internd conducts many areas of research, giving me a good chance of finding a lead there.

9/15

Personal

Registered for the ACT today.

RP

Contacted Prof. Prakash Narayan today. He was impressed at my undertaking and really wished to take me under his wing but was currently assigned to teach an upper-level course for which I just was not yet equipped to take.

On the bright side, he referred me to three of his close collefues that might be willing to work with me.

9/14

Personal

Must start driving with Dad soon.

RP

Contacted Prof. K. Liu today, but had minor grammatical errors within my email. Mr. Rountree informed me of this fact after recieveing my CC. He (Liu) never replied.

9/12

Personal

I'm stressed already! I need to get focused.

RP

Today, I began a campaign of cold-calling/emailing as many engineering professors at UMD, College Park as I can within two periods day by day. All emails were forwarded to Mr. Rountree for posterity and advice.

My approach to the prospective internship is borrowed from fellow Intern, Vasco Mateus, in that I am aiming to take an actual college course (pertaining to my research) as a high school -aged intern.

My first contact attempt was to Prof. Hyong La. His reply was along the lines of "I had previously been conducting research pertaining to cellular networks, but not anymore. Sorry." I thanked him and moved on.

9/11

Personal

Boring, uneventful day. At least I'm in good health.

RP

This morning, I sent Mr. Rountree my revised and condensed RP Proposal for my projected--uh--project for when I'm working with a mentor in the near future. Hopefully i can get that mentor soon and dont have to change my project...

Day One

Personal Notes/ Reminders

• Working late, procrastination by excessive after-school naps.

Research Practicum

• Created electronic companion to tangible journal in the form of this blog.

8/20

Personal

School is back in session!

RP

Our first day with Mr. Rountree, we recieved the RP Packets. His debriefing addressed two groups of people: the 'haves' and the 'have nots'. He let the 'haves' know that they can already begin work on many areas; while letting us 'have nots' know that we should be diligent in getting onto the 'have' list or get on the on-campus RP class list. Fair enough.

7/1

Personal

Father Ray left for his new church today.

RP

I called Ms. Kamaladiin (sp?) and she let me know that I was unfortunately not selected for the ESTEEM Internship Program. Now, I need to find another RP Project that will be internship-worthy in time for school.

7/3

Personal

Visited our clothing printer for the first time.

RP

My father read my mind and casually brought up the technological issue of cell-phone reception in the immediate area of Flowers and suggested that my new project be about improving said reception instead of the (imaginary) project idea he thought I had at the time.

6/12

Personal

Get started on AP Packets now!

RP

Admission materials have been submitted. I just need to hope for a call to come to the mid-summer orientation.

5/21

Personal

STAR's End of the Year show is slowly coming together.

RP

Collected admission materials for ESTEEM Program at University of Maryland, College Park.