Tuesday: First day back, and it started with a bang. The GNCTR mailbox in the EngSoc office was stuffed full of envelopes, thankfully with cheques inside. The day also included the printing of Swing Club posters, getting URA paperwork submitted and of course getting course materials. Lots of planning for concrete toboggan. It was really fast-paced, I didn't expect it to ramp up that much, but it was great. Oh yes, and the 4th year project started with Ben, Tim, Kristine, and I. This term'll be interesting because we'll be doing the detailed design of the modular steel plate road design.
Wednesday: Today I got to check out the AMATH 382 course: computational modelling of cellular systems. It seems like it'll be a refreshing course from taking entirely structural courses for the past 2-3 terms. Combining molecular biology and computational dynamical systems, this combines my continued interest in biology with more mathy stuff. The break around lunch was used to meet up with my project team and flush out what kind of details we wanted to cover before consulting Walbridge (our advisor). New topics include an FEM model that I'll build on ABAQUS (from my experience in my research and what I learn about the program in my FEM class), connections and anchoring to the ground, road geometrics and how to span small holes like washouts.
Thursday: First thing in the morning, Kristen, Misha and I head to the UW Architecture campus in Galt. Using their CNC cutting machine, we fed it the negative of the SolidWorks slab model for the sled. Gluing together a few sheets of 4 in. dense foam, it roughly cut out the shape we needed. We took turns babysitting the machine while the others mounted on wood board for carrying purposes. This took the whole day but Misha and I went back to class for the afternoon for structural dynamics. Meeting Walbridge, we got a very positive start with some great pointers of what else to investigate in our project. Thursday night, I went with Cass to Fearless Heart Yoga and decided to try a 2-week unlimited new-to-studio deal. We both enjoyed it, and celebrated with Booster Juice.
Friday: Kristen heads back to the Architecture campus for the last piece of the formwork, and we get it back on campus.
Saturday: Back to campus! Kristen and Misha picked up the plywood that would build the box around the foam formwork. We sanded the formwork to smooth out the rough cutting from the CNC machine (since we did the fastest passes to save time). We used the same contact cement that we used to glue the pieces of foam together for the formwork to glue a lining made of painter's plastic so that the concrete does not stick.
Sunday: Sunday was the return of the UW Swing Club! I was very excited because there were lots of new people in our beginner class. We did 8-count swing outs in beginner lesson, and introductory balboa. My hope is that we have even more people after the Clubs Day with the additional point that people are more settled into their term schedules. After swing, John and I went to his place and we spent time with his family since his brother and his family from Vancouver were over for the holidays. John's nieces were adorable, one just shy of 3 years and one 6 weeks. Very different personalities already but both extremely cute! No curling for me on Sundays, there wasn't any room left on the roster, sadface. Instead, I had a Doctor Who-turned Sherlock night where Ian and John came over to watch the first two season two episodes of the mini-series. Personally, I like it a lot better than the movies, Sherlock is more like the books and very similar to House's character.
