7/10
My first experience with Linux was pretty good, and overall my experience with the workstations was good. I was surprised that the actual computers weren’t actually in the room with us, and were processing our inputs from a separate room in the building. During the robotics class, we discussed Graphical User Interfaces and Command Line Interfaces. I think the GUI is a very important part of the computer because it is what makes things visually appealing, and naturally allows us to be more efficient with our work. However, the CLI is equally, if not more important, because it is the system that allows us to make inputs to the computer and use it as a tool to do what we want. So far, the best part about COSMOS has been the people that I have met, and the relationships we have built in such a short amount of time. Although I am naturally not very outgoing, it was surprisingly easy to make friends. One of the reasons I think this was able to happen is because the atmosphere at COSMOS is really fitting, and I am surrounded by many really interesting people that come from all kinds of backgrounds. Meanwhile, I think the worst thing that has happened at COSMOS so far has been trying to sleep. For some reason, the dorm was excruciatingly cold, and the air conditioning would blow cold wind for the entirety of the night. In combination with the cold dorm, the thin blankets did not help to maintain internal body temperature.
7/11
Today, I asked my roommate Mehul about his cluster and what topics they are covering. He is in cluster 2, which is about physics and engineering. In their labs, they learned how to solder, and used very interesting machines to learn more about how physics really works in a controlled environment. In his lectures, he mainly learned about how physicists discovered how the Earth really works, and how they proved that the Earth was not flat. Something interesting I learned is that there's actually some astrophysics involved as well.
7/12
I think one way you can tell that you understood a lecture is if you can remember the underlying theme, many of the points which support it, and why they are connected. When someone teaches you something, they are generally trying to relay a message, or deliver information that is all related. If you understand the message and why the information is related, then it is easy to remember. However, there are also other methods. The second method is by teaching what you learned to someone else. When you are able to share the lesson with another person, it allows you to simultaneously process the learning in your own words, which helps with memory and demonstrates true understanding.
7/13
Today, we visited the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. While we visited many of the exhibits including the Tusher African Hall, living roof, aquarium, planetarium, earthquake simulation, and rainforest, there were a few points of interest that gave me some ideas about possible robotics projects. One of the questions I had going into the aquarium was about how they fed all of the aquatic life. In one of the aquariums, we saw divers dive into the water to feed fish. While this was probably also for the visitor's experience, I felt that this process must be very inefficient, considering how many fish there were to feed. The idea that this sparked was creating an automatic feeder that could feed the fish at a set time every day. This would not have to be too complex, and I think at a scaled down model for home fish tanks, can be entirely possibly to create with the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 system. The last exhibit we went to was the earthquake simulation. They used machinery to shake the simulation room to make it feel like we were in the earthquakes of 1906 and 1989. While not entirely related, this exhibit gave me the idea of making an entertainment robot that tries to balance a ball that is placed on its flat surface. For further detail, it would be like a table shape that starts tilted, and then when a ball is placed on it and starts rolling around, it shifts it's angle to readjust and try to keep the ball balanced on the table. I think this would be a really good idea, which could utilize sensors to detect how high each side of the table should move relative to the distance from the ball. Something really interesting to me that I saw at the museum was albino crocodile. Being fully white, I imagined that the crocodile would have a really hard time surviving in the wild, as prey would easily see them approaching from a distance. After we got back to our dorms, I did a bit of research and found out that there is only an estimated 100-200 albino crocodiles in the world. While it is safe to assume that its color is naturally selected against, its skin is actually also extremely sensitive to light, which may burn in the sun.
7/14
So far, I am pretty comfortable with the motor commands, as I have had some prior experience with softwares very similar to ROBOTC. In biophysics, python is pretty new to me so strings in python has been a topic I've focused on over the past few classes and really got to know how to use and apply better. Before the start of week 2, I think I am pretty ready for robotics, but still need to catch up on some content regarding biophysics and the computational side of things.
7/17
Again, everything I learned in Python was mostly new to me. I learned about tuples, dictionaries, and immutable/mutable objects and its uses. I think this foundation is really important for when we advance into working on our projects, and making sure that we understand everything so we can piece together the parts to make something a lot bigger. In robotics, Dr. Dad-del taught us about the story of a guy who picked up some pebbles because someone told him to, and they later turned into gems. He related this to our education, and how we won't see the fruition of learning everyday and putting in all our effort until we regret not doing so. I thought that this story was really insightful, and is a great reminder that delayed gratification is an essential idea that students should be aware of and have the patience for.
7/18
While working in the biophysics lab, I learned a lot about python and worked on applying the things I learned in week 1 to real problems. We used probability, and the random library to generate outputs based on a given probability factor. In the future, we will learn to apply this to much larger problems like the gamblers ruin. In robotics, I worked on the final challenge, which is detecting and reacting with sounds to certain colors in a path. The biggest issue I ran into was varying color values. Even though I had already set the values for each color to play a distinct sound, the change of lighting throughout the day forced me to constantly readjust to get the most accurate detection possible. With bad accuracy, my robot would play sounds when looking at the ground, even though there was no tape. When I encounter frustrating situations that are out of my control, I focus on what I can control. Overtime, I have learned to handle these situations well, and just worry about what I can do about any situation.
7/19
To represent negative numbers in binary, I would make a specific combination of ones and zeros like 1001 to act as a start codon like in biology, where the computer only reads the number after this code. If the start combo was 1001, it would be a negative number, if it were 0110, it would be a positive number. To represent floating point numbers, I would similarly use a specific chain of numbers to represent a decimal point. Today, I learned to cover everything in my notes, or study guide, and remember to practice active recall to reinforce my memory of information.