4B - Week 1 :D

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.

Research, research, research!

I've neglected this blog. I found that after a few school and co-op terms that I did not have the same quoms with engineering as I once did. I believe it was just a few odd experiences in my early co-op terms that made me cynical of an organized profession. At this point, I've established that it's the societies and practices on the periferi of engineering that I'm concerned with (such as the Tool in the UW engineering circles), and involvement with these groups is voluntary.

Current school term - I have been steadily progressing through 4A for the last (almost) 3 months. This term is was timber design, concrete design II, steel design, law, structural analysis, and 4th year project. My favourite course was structural analysis since it feels the most fun. Admittedly, picking up Matlab after almost 3 years was a bit intimidating, but it came together quickly. This was the first structural modelling course I could take in undergrad, and seeing as how I liked it, it will not be my last. Steel was a slog but definitely necessary. Concrete II was useful and I enjoyed/understood the complex components better than I ever understood Concrete I. 4th year project was fun, challenging, with a bit of luck tossed in there for good measure. Kristine, Ben, Tim and I were able to get Dr. Scott Walbridge as our advisor before the term even started. This helped a bunch with the first few weeks of class so that we weren't scrambling at the last minute. Even though this term's project was only to get a project scope, develop three alternatives, evaluate them, and choose the best, we kinda started with our solution and worked backwards. One of Dr. Walbridge's projects is the development of a reusable steel plate design for temporary roads. The uses can range from road washout, rockslide, or construction. Due to the 4th year project, we had to narrow it down to a road bypass while the realigned Highway 7 between Kitchener and Guelph would be rebuilt (thanks to Tim on that suggestion). The project went super well in my opinion, the lifecycle cost analysis was very detailed, it may have been in Kristine's dreams, but it turned out great. Now it's on to actually using that option and designing the thickness more accurately, road textures, plate connectors and all that jazz.

URA - During this term I worked with Dr. Robert Gracie on a computational mechanics project using magnesium. 'In situ TEM compression testing of Mg and Mg–0.2 wt.% Ce single crystals by Jia Ye,, Raja K. Mishra, Anil K. Sachdev, and Andrew M. Minora', describes the qualitative results of a micro column axial conpression test on magnesium. Magnesium is cheap and strong but brittle, so the hopes for car manufacturers like GM would be to find an alloy of magensium that would retain the first two qualities of the pure substance and yield in flexure. Setting up a model of a column of magnesium at room temperature and putting it under compression, I would hope to see how dislocations or twinning occur. At the moment, I'm still working on the rate of loading that will best show these dislocations. Almost there!

Swing dancing - During my previous co-op term in Toronto at MMM Group, I got to go to Followlogie in Montreal, which was very awesome. I'm in the process of planning to go to ULHS, which is at the end of September in New Orleans. I'm told it's a lot of fun and I can't wait to dance with a whole bunch of talented dancers and musicians. Currently the president of the UW Swing Club, I'm a frequenter of the 'dancing in the park' at Waterloo Park, Monday night dancing at Maxwell's Music House, and when I can make it to Toronto I pop into Dovercourt and the Imperial. Because of Tuesday night class (law), I've had to skip on the Hamilton dances (boo).

GNCTR - It started out as me being one of three design team captains, then Carleton University bailed on hosting the concrete toboggan race. Then a few UW students (myself included) looked into doing it in Waterloo or teaming up with Western to host (but Western never replied). In the end, Calgary volunteered so that the competition would not cease to exist for the 2012s. Problem is that the only weekend Calgary can do this event coincides with UW's Iron Ring Ceremony, so most of the 4th years are backing out of the toboggan race. Being as fond as I am for old secret traditions, I was one of the few 4th years to continue with concrete toboggan because I find it so awesome. I now find myself the new captain of the entire team. A little intimidating but I'm sure it'll be a blast!

Fall 2011 - So the job I had set up a while ago in Toronto fell through before I even started, which got me all a flurry to find something new. Since I'm interested in grad studies after undergrad and that I'm finished work reports, PDEng, and my work term credits, I set out to find a prof in the structural engineering field that would have a spot for me. With a bit of luck, my structural analysis prof had never taken on an undergrad before but was willing to take me on! I applied for NSERC funding a month overdue (obviously I applied when I found out I no longer had a job), the civil undergrad secretary put it on rush and I got it just two days ago. I'm very excited about this opportunity

Fall term -