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.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Saturday, December 17, 2011
And the term comes to a close
It's been a very sporadic term between steady work and insanely busy with Troitsky, GNCTR, dancing, and seeing people.
Both the MTO bridge and the subway soil-structure interaction models have been going well. Though it seemed like my OpenSees model for the MTO bridge was completed, it seems like I needed to make the columns (a point of interest) a nonlinear fiber section where I specified the geometry and rebar layout. Though the return periods for the first six eigenvalues seem reasonable around 3 seconds, the current model does not converge. It seems the nonlinear elements are quite difficult to work with in terms of the dynamic analysis, connection to linear elements, and end connections. It's an interesting problem, though it seems like it would be much easier than it is since it's just a silly FE model. Oh well, I'm getting some guidance to help it be fully functional because it's needed for a thesis paper.
As for concrete toboggan, last week on Wednesday, I picked up the cement and fly ash from Woodstock and St. Marys with terry in the civil truck. Kristen's dad was so nice as to pick up aggregate, admixtures, sand, and slag. The next day I started the first mix with Richard, but due to misreading the components, I put normal cement rather than the high early cement that I picked up the day before. So the next morning, I did both the mixes (one from Misha and one from Kristen). The first got really soupy and separated (and really messy to cast into cylinders). The second was so weird; it was really sticky with so little sand and a bunch of cementitious material, and it actually formed a skin. having done the 7-day tests were generally uninteresting but the second mix on the second day looks very promising. Still have to do the 14 day test on my own since no one else from the design team is in town and available 9-5 for the test. A bit stressful but manageable.
Troitsky has had awesome progress. I drafted up a model on Inventor so that each piece is separate which will make the manufacturing process really easy once we get back together in January. Since we found out that the blocks of popsicle sticks are machineable, we just need to find the right machines to get the intricate shapes. What is also helpful is that we took the density of the popsicle blocks so that the weight of the bridge could be estimated. We have something under 6 kg which means we're in the clear. Griff has done some calculations on the deck, so it seems like we're good there too. We got funding from the Sir Sandford Flemming foundation for travelling student teams, which means that our entire trip and materials is paid for (and feels awesome).
Christmastime is coming, I'm excited though I don't have any real plans yet. Had there been more snow I would have really liked to go snowboarding, there's still the rest of the winter. The Christmas shopping has been minimal, mainly since I don't agree to buying for the sake of getting something, but keeping it for a more useful time. Personally, there's not much that I want either, perhaps a pair of shoes that aren't as perforated as a pair of sandals, but I can't decide on which ones. I just want time with my friends and family, especially before I get too busy this upcoming term to appreciate them. :)
Both the MTO bridge and the subway soil-structure interaction models have been going well. Though it seemed like my OpenSees model for the MTO bridge was completed, it seems like I needed to make the columns (a point of interest) a nonlinear fiber section where I specified the geometry and rebar layout. Though the return periods for the first six eigenvalues seem reasonable around 3 seconds, the current model does not converge. It seems the nonlinear elements are quite difficult to work with in terms of the dynamic analysis, connection to linear elements, and end connections. It's an interesting problem, though it seems like it would be much easier than it is since it's just a silly FE model. Oh well, I'm getting some guidance to help it be fully functional because it's needed for a thesis paper.
As for concrete toboggan, last week on Wednesday, I picked up the cement and fly ash from Woodstock and St. Marys with terry in the civil truck. Kristen's dad was so nice as to pick up aggregate, admixtures, sand, and slag. The next day I started the first mix with Richard, but due to misreading the components, I put normal cement rather than the high early cement that I picked up the day before. So the next morning, I did both the mixes (one from Misha and one from Kristen). The first got really soupy and separated (and really messy to cast into cylinders). The second was so weird; it was really sticky with so little sand and a bunch of cementitious material, and it actually formed a skin. having done the 7-day tests were generally uninteresting but the second mix on the second day looks very promising. Still have to do the 14 day test on my own since no one else from the design team is in town and available 9-5 for the test. A bit stressful but manageable.
Troitsky has had awesome progress. I drafted up a model on Inventor so that each piece is separate which will make the manufacturing process really easy once we get back together in January. Since we found out that the blocks of popsicle sticks are machineable, we just need to find the right machines to get the intricate shapes. What is also helpful is that we took the density of the popsicle blocks so that the weight of the bridge could be estimated. We have something under 6 kg which means we're in the clear. Griff has done some calculations on the deck, so it seems like we're good there too. We got funding from the Sir Sandford Flemming foundation for travelling student teams, which means that our entire trip and materials is paid for (and feels awesome).
Christmastime is coming, I'm excited though I don't have any real plans yet. Had there been more snow I would have really liked to go snowboarding, there's still the rest of the winter. The Christmas shopping has been minimal, mainly since I don't agree to buying for the sake of getting something, but keeping it for a more useful time. Personally, there's not much that I want either, perhaps a pair of shoes that aren't as perforated as a pair of sandals, but I can't decide on which ones. I just want time with my friends and family, especially before I get too busy this upcoming term to appreciate them. :)
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Success at last, at cost of health
I have triumphed over OpenSees, my model renders, the natural frequency is within predicted/reasonable numbers (around 2-3 seconds). This obviously makes me very happy considering this is 2-3 months in the making. It took a month to really get a feel for OpenSees and Abaqus in order to really get into it. Even though there wasn't much in-program help for OpenSees, there is a fantastic wiki page and a forum that are a million times more helpful when you do have that handle on what you are trying to achieve. Using MatLab for the laying out of nodes, loads, masses, and elements was way easier than using the tcl built-in commands of OpenSees, had I known sooner! I have pictures of my bridge, but I will wait to post them until I render them better (lines instead of dots).
Even Abaqus is going not too shabby, I reduced it to a 2D problem because all of the literature I was finding from papers and grad courses here at UW only did 2D. That's going way better! Doing some literature review to see if people have thought about what kind of foam they'd put in the ground to absorb the vibrations before they reach a structure.
In other research news, I've bounced around the idea of staying on these projects part time next term. I know I promised everyone I wouldn't take a sixth course or a URA, but this makes sense, right? Right? I'm at least not taking a sixth course, though my schedule is pretty awesome: 4th year design course, FEM, Dynamics, Structural Systems, and Applied Math: Modelling of Cellular Systems. I battled to get that last course as it's a third year AMATH course, but I heard it's good and useful cause it introduces dynamics but from the proof/math perspective. Like...nothing like that happens in engineering, so sad. Plus, it's biology, huge win, because I miss it so.
~*~*~
This week marked my first grad school application officially sent in. UBC only notifies the referees once you pay, so I figured I should just stop sitting on my application. Next is Berkeley on December 14th, UofMichigan at Ann Arbor in February, and UW in March. It starts... eep!
~*~*~
I've had the same persistent cough for over three weeks now, and it has also accumulated congestion, joy! Funny how I get the most work done when I'm sick. Definitely seems like there's something going around, but no one in my immediate vicinity is sick, good for them :). John's been super busy with his paper so it's allowed me some space to try and recover and feel better when we have time to hang out.
In other news, someone's going to ULHS next year and has a ticket already! Early bird sales were just recently and I got mine for $120. Huge savings, AND on the off chance I can't go, it will be super easy to sell without losing any money. I'm already excited. This actually threw a few things to the front of my mind, including what the heck I'm doing with myself in the summer. I had thought of Herrang, but meh, it's too lindy hopper for me. Iceland/northern Europe's still on the table, Anna's offering that I go to Scotland with her, a road trip around the US isn't bad, North American competitions/workshops are definitely an idea too (or combining the last two).
As a recap, the Naomi Uyama workshop and night with music by her and Gordon Webster was really great. I'm listening to the music from his CDs as I write this :D. Lots of life at the Button Factory, people from Waterloo (even those who haven't been out in ages), Hamilton, Toronto, and Windsor. I have great hopes for the future of Waterloo's event potential!
Upcoming stuff:
Waterloo Holiday Dance - December 2nd
Hamilton Christmas Dance
Toronto Christmas Dance
Tayler's coming to Waterloo
Christmas :D
New term
New term
TUX V - January 20th ish
Followlogie - January 27th ish
GNCTR - February 8th ish
Swing-a-dance? Quebec City February
Troitsky in Montreal - March 2nd
Pirate Swing in Ann Arbor - March 9th
busy!
Sunday, November 13, 2011
All of life's little updates
A combination of being under the weather and being busy has prevented me from posting for a while, but here's a short recap of the past month.
From the 14th to 21st, Anna stayed at my house on a visit during her fall break. She got in to town in time for the Chester Whitmore workshop, we did some vintage clothes shopping in Toronto, shoe shopping (which I bought a pair of sexy vintage Fluevogs). Sunday was swing club and curling where Anna pointed out that curling is the most Canadian sport ever, ha. Monday was the weekly dance with a jam for Anna (went on forever, poor Anna). The rest of the week we found stuff to do, including shopping for baking supplies at Ayres, winter boot shopping, and similar touristy things. I had a bunch of fun, and it felt like I had a sister for week. Definitely missed her around the next week.
Chester Whitmore workshop in Toronto - Having worked with the Nicholas brothers, Chester is known for his tap and jazz experience. He was a really fun instructor, you could definitely pick up on the older black-style of swing in his dancing, plus he was always joking and smiling. His beginner and intermediate lindy workshops were good, and the solo jazz one was awesome. I definitely listed the moves on a txt file in the car with Anna later.
After much banging the head on the desk (literally), I've made great progress in my OpenSees model of the Essex county bridge. I have been focusing on this one since there has been interest from the MTO to obtain results. It'll be really exciting to visit the bridge this month and install the sensor (accelerometers) that was built in Sriram's lab to get and analyze real vibration data. Essentially, the framework is there, I just have to debug it, the annoying part. I really want it to work. While I was sick 2 weeks ago, I stayed at home as to prevent my officemates from getting sick. I got the most work done in weeks, hah. Looking forward to having it correctly spit out the correct mode shapes in Matlab. Also, I found out halfway through debugging my own Matlab code that the node, element, and mass generation is eons easier in Matlab than in OpenSees. So I just need to pass files between my mbp and HP (where I can run the Windows based remote desktop). I should be getting back to the Abaqus, though it's been crashing my programs of beams on a cube of soil, which is very annoying.
So two big student teams for next term are GNCTR (concrete toboggan), and Troitsy. Both have made progress by leaps and bounds in the past month. Despite issues about trying to organize a team via electronic communication now that it's established that there is a race, I just submitted initial registration for 8 people, where the minimum for racing qualifications is 6. IRS is on the same day as the race, so none of the 4th years want to go to concrete toboggan. It's great that we're getting support from the 2014 graduates because then they'll have experience and prepare their team. I'm happy that we have a theme, a name, and Liz from chem eng has been very good at designing costumes, swag, and ideas for the tech exhibit. Sponsorship stuff is hard work to contact lots of people and politely ask them for money.
As for Troitsky, Tim and I had a build session where I made a parallel strand block and he did an orthogonal pattern popsicle stick block. My block was clamped dry, Tim's air dried. Both were machineable two weeks later by Tim, Griff and myself. The parallel strand block also did very well in the lathe to make a dowel, which should become an integration part of our construction. I am really looking forward to this event because I enjoyed it last term. As a benefit, we're going to be well prepared and contenders for placing.
On Friday, I went with John to the Boathouse by Victoria Lake to listened Douglas Watson, a well-known Canadian blues musician from Kitchener. Liz, Jay, Vanessa and Brooke joined in from Toronto and Nigel from swing club came around. Though the floor was kinda tiny to dance and often filled with other dancers, it was really fun to see them play. I hadn't seen that band for 2 years and I was quite new to dancing at the time.
Last night was Swing Out to Victory at the Hamilton Heritage Warplane Museum. Dean ran it for the past 10 years, but this year Mandi took up the reigns so that Dean could relax and enjoy the event. Featuring the Toronto All Star Big Band, it was a bunch of fun to dance with so many Toronto, Hamilton, and Waterloo dancers all in one night. Everyone looked spectacular, Erika being very well dressed, Dean in his New Orleans hat (and he noticed my New Orleans shoes), and many people in vintage Canadian uniform as part of the living history enactment group. I wasn't sure if I was going to go after my meh experience last year, but this year was way better for me. More than just a few reasons, since I've now lived in Toronto and know these dancers a lot better, the event felt so natural and comfortable. The performances went all together well, and the flow of the evening was much like when Dean did it, minus a big theatrical thing where Dean's in a cardboard tank that he built.
Upcoming swing events include the Naomi Uyama and Gordon Webster night in a week and the Waterloo Holiday Christmas dance.
Gordon Webster, Toronto based now New York based pianist will be acoompanying Naomi Uyama, who will be giving a 1 hour workshop before the dance. This is unfortunately the shortest workshop that I've seen, also because I know she's good from the time I was in Vancouver. It will be a really fun night though it's a shame that it's on a Monday and Toronto people can't make it out for a work day. Also, I really want there to be more workshops in Waterloo, so I hope this one is well attended.
The Holiday dance is a joint project between the Hep Cat Hoppers and the UW Swing Club and it'll be featuring Jordan Klapman and the All Stars. Typically the UW Swing Club will host the dance, but David was able to help raise funds to pay for a bigger and better band than in past times. I just had a meeting with the exec today, and stuff like volunteer lists, decorations and DJs are quickly being settled. It's great having co-operative and energetic people in your club executive :D.
As for this week, it's relatively quiet. Monday is the weekly dance with Sandy McDonald, so New Orleans-y type guitar stuff so it should be fun and fast. On Wednesday, I'm contemplating going to the Hamilton dance since there's a few people there that I'd like to see more of since I didn't get to talk to them as much at SOTV. On Thursday, I have a ballroom social with Giulio, Arianne and Dan on Thursday. Saturday is the Christmas dinner with Sriram and the team, same day as a blues worksbop in Toronto that'd be well regarded, but I'd need to make it back by 6 pm. I don't think I have anything Tuesday or Friday, unless I'm forgetting something, which is entirely possible. I've been enjoying the crazy amount of dancing, but it does tucker you out faster.
Alright, that's it for me, time to sleep!
From the 14th to 21st, Anna stayed at my house on a visit during her fall break. She got in to town in time for the Chester Whitmore workshop, we did some vintage clothes shopping in Toronto, shoe shopping (which I bought a pair of sexy vintage Fluevogs). Sunday was swing club and curling where Anna pointed out that curling is the most Canadian sport ever, ha. Monday was the weekly dance with a jam for Anna (went on forever, poor Anna). The rest of the week we found stuff to do, including shopping for baking supplies at Ayres, winter boot shopping, and similar touristy things. I had a bunch of fun, and it felt like I had a sister for week. Definitely missed her around the next week.
Chester Whitmore workshop in Toronto - Having worked with the Nicholas brothers, Chester is known for his tap and jazz experience. He was a really fun instructor, you could definitely pick up on the older black-style of swing in his dancing, plus he was always joking and smiling. His beginner and intermediate lindy workshops were good, and the solo jazz one was awesome. I definitely listed the moves on a txt file in the car with Anna later.
After much banging the head on the desk (literally), I've made great progress in my OpenSees model of the Essex county bridge. I have been focusing on this one since there has been interest from the MTO to obtain results. It'll be really exciting to visit the bridge this month and install the sensor (accelerometers) that was built in Sriram's lab to get and analyze real vibration data. Essentially, the framework is there, I just have to debug it, the annoying part. I really want it to work. While I was sick 2 weeks ago, I stayed at home as to prevent my officemates from getting sick. I got the most work done in weeks, hah. Looking forward to having it correctly spit out the correct mode shapes in Matlab. Also, I found out halfway through debugging my own Matlab code that the node, element, and mass generation is eons easier in Matlab than in OpenSees. So I just need to pass files between my mbp and HP (where I can run the Windows based remote desktop). I should be getting back to the Abaqus, though it's been crashing my programs of beams on a cube of soil, which is very annoying.
So two big student teams for next term are GNCTR (concrete toboggan), and Troitsy. Both have made progress by leaps and bounds in the past month. Despite issues about trying to organize a team via electronic communication now that it's established that there is a race, I just submitted initial registration for 8 people, where the minimum for racing qualifications is 6. IRS is on the same day as the race, so none of the 4th years want to go to concrete toboggan. It's great that we're getting support from the 2014 graduates because then they'll have experience and prepare their team. I'm happy that we have a theme, a name, and Liz from chem eng has been very good at designing costumes, swag, and ideas for the tech exhibit. Sponsorship stuff is hard work to contact lots of people and politely ask them for money.
As for Troitsky, Tim and I had a build session where I made a parallel strand block and he did an orthogonal pattern popsicle stick block. My block was clamped dry, Tim's air dried. Both were machineable two weeks later by Tim, Griff and myself. The parallel strand block also did very well in the lathe to make a dowel, which should become an integration part of our construction. I am really looking forward to this event because I enjoyed it last term. As a benefit, we're going to be well prepared and contenders for placing.
On Friday, I went with John to the Boathouse by Victoria Lake to listened Douglas Watson, a well-known Canadian blues musician from Kitchener. Liz, Jay, Vanessa and Brooke joined in from Toronto and Nigel from swing club came around. Though the floor was kinda tiny to dance and often filled with other dancers, it was really fun to see them play. I hadn't seen that band for 2 years and I was quite new to dancing at the time.
Last night was Swing Out to Victory at the Hamilton Heritage Warplane Museum. Dean ran it for the past 10 years, but this year Mandi took up the reigns so that Dean could relax and enjoy the event. Featuring the Toronto All Star Big Band, it was a bunch of fun to dance with so many Toronto, Hamilton, and Waterloo dancers all in one night. Everyone looked spectacular, Erika being very well dressed, Dean in his New Orleans hat (and he noticed my New Orleans shoes), and many people in vintage Canadian uniform as part of the living history enactment group. I wasn't sure if I was going to go after my meh experience last year, but this year was way better for me. More than just a few reasons, since I've now lived in Toronto and know these dancers a lot better, the event felt so natural and comfortable. The performances went all together well, and the flow of the evening was much like when Dean did it, minus a big theatrical thing where Dean's in a cardboard tank that he built.
Upcoming swing events include the Naomi Uyama and Gordon Webster night in a week and the Waterloo Holiday Christmas dance.
Gordon Webster, Toronto based now New York based pianist will be acoompanying Naomi Uyama, who will be giving a 1 hour workshop before the dance. This is unfortunately the shortest workshop that I've seen, also because I know she's good from the time I was in Vancouver. It will be a really fun night though it's a shame that it's on a Monday and Toronto people can't make it out for a work day. Also, I really want there to be more workshops in Waterloo, so I hope this one is well attended.
The Holiday dance is a joint project between the Hep Cat Hoppers and the UW Swing Club and it'll be featuring Jordan Klapman and the All Stars. Typically the UW Swing Club will host the dance, but David was able to help raise funds to pay for a bigger and better band than in past times. I just had a meeting with the exec today, and stuff like volunteer lists, decorations and DJs are quickly being settled. It's great having co-operative and energetic people in your club executive :D.
As for this week, it's relatively quiet. Monday is the weekly dance with Sandy McDonald, so New Orleans-y type guitar stuff so it should be fun and fast. On Wednesday, I'm contemplating going to the Hamilton dance since there's a few people there that I'd like to see more of since I didn't get to talk to them as much at SOTV. On Thursday, I have a ballroom social with Giulio, Arianne and Dan on Thursday. Saturday is the Christmas dinner with Sriram and the team, same day as a blues worksbop in Toronto that'd be well regarded, but I'd need to make it back by 6 pm. I don't think I have anything Tuesday or Friday, unless I'm forgetting something, which is entirely possible. I've been enjoying the crazy amount of dancing, but it does tucker you out faster.
Alright, that's it for me, time to sleep!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Update on research work
Just a quick update on those projects I have ongoing this term.
The Open Sees bridge-modelling has been going well, with its expected stops and starts associated with learning a new (open-source) program in addition to getting to know the project. There is minimal theoretical learning on thsi project because so far it has been very similar to SAP2000 or ETABS: build a model. It's a stick model of the bridge with all of the area, inertia, and modulus of elasticity parameters stuffed in. I had a bit of a struggle getting the dynamic analysis to work since the static model was very simple to implement. Open Sees wiki has saved me multiple times and its examples are what I have used as a starting block (specifically Example 8). Now that the dynamic nonlinear analysis is working when each span is one member, I am trying to discretize the beams such that they are broken into 1ft (it is in imperial) segments. Having a bit of trouble making it behave, but I am sure it has to do with my syntax, nodal generation or something.
The Abaqus model. It took quite a while for me to actually get Abaqus on my laptop (2 weeks I think, but considering I started early that's not too bad). At the moment I have a soil block with a simple reinforced concrete stick-model of a frame. On the other I have a sinusoidal load being applied at a frequency that should be within the seismic range. The soil does not have any special spring constants in it yet but just the modulus of elasticity. I divided the block (10m cube) such that the upper 1m of the soil has the finest mesh and between 1m and 4m down has a medium-sized mesh. I am to be testing the mechanical vibration frequencies (20 - 60 Hz), but this paper, Simulating the dynamic response of a soil-pile system using Abaqus, gave an equation for a seismic load and I will therefore try this out first. I find debuggin in Abaqus head and shoulders above Open Sees, but that is to be expected with proprietary versus open-source software. I ran this simulation with seemingly no errors for about 30 minutes on my laptop, I went to get a coffee, and my computer had gone to sleep, so unfortunately it did not complete. I will be trying it again tomorrow.
On the university application side, on October 5th (right after coming back from New Orleans), I successfully completed my Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS), and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERCC) master's scholarships. I was very grateful to Dr. Sriram Narasimhan for guiding me in writing my research topic and to Dr. Robert Gracie and Dr. Scott Walbridge for their references.
Now that the funding is done, time to get onto actual university applications. So UW is a given that I will apply, but their deadline is at the end of the first quarter in 2012 so I have a while yet. The first two I started with are University of California at Berkeley since I've heard such great things about their structural department from multiple professors. Their application process is by far the most intimidating and the most involved, perhaps not the best one to start off when my nerves are concerned. A big essay for the statement of interest in graduate work at UC Berkeley, and a personal statement highlighting how we're an examplary leader or battled adversity. I'm almost all done and I have my first drafts of my essays. The second university on the chronological list is the University of British Columbia. After my visit to campus in September, I'd be excited to work there for the sake of enthousiastic professors and a great atmosphere. This application for UBC was much more relaxed, maybe it's the Canadian influence. Lastly, the one I just started tonight is the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Somewhere in between UC Berkley and UBC, the application does not seem to be too bad. I've heard great things about UofM, their structural dynamics people, and Ann Arbor in general. I hear they have a decent swing dance scene too (judging by Pirate Swing and KISS ME in Ann Arbor).
Anyways, that's my engineering update.
The Open Sees bridge-modelling has been going well, with its expected stops and starts associated with learning a new (open-source) program in addition to getting to know the project. There is minimal theoretical learning on thsi project because so far it has been very similar to SAP2000 or ETABS: build a model. It's a stick model of the bridge with all of the area, inertia, and modulus of elasticity parameters stuffed in. I had a bit of a struggle getting the dynamic analysis to work since the static model was very simple to implement. Open Sees wiki has saved me multiple times and its examples are what I have used as a starting block (specifically Example 8). Now that the dynamic nonlinear analysis is working when each span is one member, I am trying to discretize the beams such that they are broken into 1ft (it is in imperial) segments. Having a bit of trouble making it behave, but I am sure it has to do with my syntax, nodal generation or something.
The Abaqus model. It took quite a while for me to actually get Abaqus on my laptop (2 weeks I think, but considering I started early that's not too bad). At the moment I have a soil block with a simple reinforced concrete stick-model of a frame. On the other I have a sinusoidal load being applied at a frequency that should be within the seismic range. The soil does not have any special spring constants in it yet but just the modulus of elasticity. I divided the block (10m cube) such that the upper 1m of the soil has the finest mesh and between 1m and 4m down has a medium-sized mesh. I am to be testing the mechanical vibration frequencies (20 - 60 Hz), but this paper, Simulating the dynamic response of a soil-pile system using Abaqus, gave an equation for a seismic load and I will therefore try this out first. I find debuggin in Abaqus head and shoulders above Open Sees, but that is to be expected with proprietary versus open-source software. I ran this simulation with seemingly no errors for about 30 minutes on my laptop, I went to get a coffee, and my computer had gone to sleep, so unfortunately it did not complete. I will be trying it again tomorrow.
On the university application side, on October 5th (right after coming back from New Orleans), I successfully completed my Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS), and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERCC) master's scholarships. I was very grateful to Dr. Sriram Narasimhan for guiding me in writing my research topic and to Dr. Robert Gracie and Dr. Scott Walbridge for their references.
Now that the funding is done, time to get onto actual university applications. So UW is a given that I will apply, but their deadline is at the end of the first quarter in 2012 so I have a while yet. The first two I started with are University of California at Berkeley since I've heard such great things about their structural department from multiple professors. Their application process is by far the most intimidating and the most involved, perhaps not the best one to start off when my nerves are concerned. A big essay for the statement of interest in graduate work at UC Berkeley, and a personal statement highlighting how we're an examplary leader or battled adversity. I'm almost all done and I have my first drafts of my essays. The second university on the chronological list is the University of British Columbia. After my visit to campus in September, I'd be excited to work there for the sake of enthousiastic professors and a great atmosphere. This application for UBC was much more relaxed, maybe it's the Canadian influence. Lastly, the one I just started tonight is the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Somewhere in between UC Berkley and UBC, the application does not seem to be too bad. I've heard great things about UofM, their structural dynamics people, and Ann Arbor in general. I hear they have a decent swing dance scene too (judging by Pirate Swing and KISS ME in Ann Arbor).
Anyways, that's my engineering update.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Motorcycle ride to Belfountain
On Friday, John and I took off to Belfountain on his motorcycle now that the leaves are changing colours. My dad, an avid motorcyclist, talks about the roads around Belfountain all the time. Below Are some pictures of what we saw, which was absolutely gorgeous. We definitely went up and down the main stretch a few times (once to take the video). Taking pictures from the back of the motorcycle is fun!
Saturday, October 8, 2011
New Orleans.. who dat? WHO IS THAT!
New Orleans! Yes, it's been too delayed to post, my apologies, I have still been riding the vacation high. There will be a detailed breakdown, but as a summary it was an absolutely fantastic trip! I can't believe it, the music, dancing, buildings and people were fantastic. Let's start at the beginning...
Thursday
My dad is kind enough to drive John and I to Dean's house in Hamilton at 6 am. Coffee was involved and rightly so! From Hamilton we drive down to Buffalo where the border crossing was very quick, which always something I'm concerned about (considering we had hours before the flight, it was totally fine). So, I didn't use my Polish passport like I threatened to, I behaved. I flew with Dean both there and back because when we were planning we were the only Southwestern Ontario people that knew for sure that we were going.
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| Ann and John at Buffalo-Niagra Airport (Photo credit: Dean Villafuerte) |
We parted ways from John who was flying an hour and a half later through Atlanta whereas we were going through O'Hare in Chicago. Oh ya and my bag was searched, then I realized oh shoot my Swiss army knife was still in there. Ha! They missed it and let me go. On the first flight, I was sitting in front of Dean and no one knew were flying together. At the end of the flight he reaches forward and ruffles my hair and says "Oh you have nice hair!". The look on the face of the guy next to me was priceless. Dean's great.
At O'Hare we met Jasper and Kevin Bacon (aka Phil). We were all sharing the same flight and had fun picking out the swing dancers in the crowds at the airport. There weren't too many but it became more apparently in New Orleans later.
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| Jasper and Ann at O'Hare Airport (Photo credit: Dean Villafuerte) |
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| Ann and Phil at O'Hare Airport (Photo credit: Dean Villafuerte) |
Landing at Louis Armstrong airport, we headed to our hotel and met Anna who had been there since 11 am. Poor her! She already spent the better part of the day walking the streets of the French Quarter so she was already tired when we got there. Running out for some groceries, we met up with John when we got back so the whole team, Dean, Anna, John and I, were together. After a quick dinner, where Anna and I had our first jambalaya of the weekend, we walked along Bourbon Street. Oh jeez is that place full of alcohol, drunk people, and specialty stores. Anna got beads thrown at her. Seriously, she they just tossing them at people, so you ca go home and act all scadalous but did absolutely nothing for them, hah. Dancing that night was at the House of Blues, a locale widely used throughout the weekend. It was a bit tough to start out dancing, personally, because it took a while to find the people you wanted to dance with. With 17 people representing Toronto and Southwestern Ontario, it was easier to dance more with them to get my dancing legs in gear. That lasted nice and late, then John and I went with Steve and Caitlin to Déja Vu, a bar in the quarter where John had gator balls, similar to chicken balls. A crowd of dancers merrily sang to Bohemian Rhapsody and a few other favourites at the top of their lungs.
Friday
First full day in New Orleans! The morning and early afternoon were leisurely after the travels the day before. The boys shopped for hats and shoes, which is quite funny due to its backwardsness. In all fairness, the stores we went to were suited for men, so Anna and I just hung around as John got a sweet pair of blue leather shoes and Dean met the nice old lady that helped him find hats last year (it was a really cute encounter). Walking towards Jackson square, we pass Trashy Diva, a set of three stores: clothing, lingerie, and shoes. We check out the first two (Dean and John being in the nearby used bookstore for that second part). Stuff was super cute, I just couldn't pick out anything in particular in the flurry of new sights and sounds, sensory overload!
The afternoon was the second line parade where we danced down the streets of New Orleans to parading musicians. We started with two sousaphones, a trombone, and a few more brass instruments and acquired some along the way. It was absolutely brilliant, lots of people came out to take pictures, to join us, or watch from their balconies and listen to the music. At the front of the parade was Toronto representing with Kevin Bacon, Krister, and Jasper.
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| Anna, Ann and John at Second Line (Photo credit: Dean Villafuerte) |
Friday night was at the Wax Museum, which was a really nice venue. There they had Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns with a few other bands. This was the beginning of the slow lindy competition which was fun to see. Normally I've seen Jack and Jills, solo jazz, and fast lindy. I thought it was going to be sketchy like solo blues but it was all good. It allowed people time to play around in their swingouts. At the end of night, I was changing my shirt for the late night, and before I left, Anna was hugging a couch cushion to the couch she was slouching on. One of the servers walked past and said he thought she was pregnant with a baby of another colour (he was African American and the couch was green....ya, that comment totally made my evening!). Late night (which is not slow blues dancing like you would think in Toronto or Waterloo, it's the same tempo as the rest of the night...fast!)
Saturday
Another leisurely morning because of the 4 am bed time. Anna and I went to the ballrooming lesson with Faulty (Mike) preceeded by coffee at Envie, which became the coffee place of choice for dancing since it was close to the French market. The guys went and did their own thing (apparently bonded over breakfast which is cute), and Anna and I had a hard time finding the location of the lesson. Finally finding it, they were late anyways, so it was all good. Admittedly, haplessly running through the French market was noteably awesome. The lesson was funny, the main thing that sticks out was his explanation of counting; by numbers, describing what you're doing, or scatting. His scatting was funny, and is totally being added to my repetoire. Also two-step is under-utilized, it's so fun. In addition, I may have further developed my reputation at a lead starting at this lesson (and throughout the weekend), and a lead that could actually do the moves.
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| Anna, Ann and John at the French market (Photo credit: Dean Villafuerte) |
After the lesson was social dancing at the same place in the French market interspersed with the showdown entries. We tried to convince Kevin Bacon and Krister to sign up, but Phil didn't want to even after we offered to set up a fundraising event on Facebook. Unfortunately it was too late to sign up Jasper and Krister. I'm really glad Lunou and her partner did really well. All of the participants were amazing. The French couple who was the obvious favourite did some crazy moves like him dive rolling through a hoop she made with her arm and leg.
Saturday night was the big dressed up night at Generations Hall (whipped out the black/red dress with the crinolin). Music by Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns, troupe and couples performances, showdown finals, and solo jazz competitions. After a brief issue with Phil and Jasper not being called up, they ran onto the floor and busted out the moves. We were all super proud of Phil who did very very well and almost made it to the top three. He brought in some non swing stuff that is truely Phil. The social dancing was also lots of fun with a new addition to the Toronto crowd being Lawrence, appearing in typical Lawrence fashion...for one night only.
Making friends with some of the Quebec City crowd, we went out for beignets and coffee at Café du Monde before the late night. Hopefully I'll see them at Swing-a-Dance, if I have time next term. Much silliness ensued with Dean, icing sugar and a camera. The late night was fun as usual, with people getting progressively more tired earlier in the evenings due to the shear volume of dancing done.
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| Anna, Ann and John at the House of Blues (Photo credit: Dean Villafuerte) |
Though I didn't always dance every song there, the House of Blues was all unstained wood on the inside where the dance floor was sunken 3 steps from the sitting area, so you could lean up against a post and watch the dancers for a bit. Or if you were one of the cool people, you frequented the bar and people watched from afar. The night ended with the DJs playing bad rock and rap music to clear people out, which was actually quite effective in previous nights. This night people got into it. When a few disco songs came on Caitlin started to do the hustle with John and Andy, and decided to take it into the breakdancing jam circle that had formed. There was cheering for new people entering the circle, then dead silence of confusion as Caitlin and Andy gracefully hustled. Meanwhile we laughed our faces off from the back.
Sunday
This is when I found the shoes. The glorious shoes. I had missed the Trashy Diva shoe store before, and being kinda like 'hey John got cool shoes and I can't find a thing here', we went inside and oh man it was so nice. Also I found the pair of forest green Remix shoes that I had seen on 2 girls since Thursday night and I totally loved them (one of the showdown judges and Mia). I had to buy them, they were super super comfortable and are totally cute. I haven't worn them out yet, I'm sad at the thought of them getting stepped on while dancing! Maybe I'll have to dance only with John one night when he wears his new shoes cause he has the same feeling. Also, the cloche hat I saw there I just ordered because it couldn't fit in my luggage. Swing dancer discount, yeah I really like this store! The lessons and bar hopping day. It started off with a two step lesson from Peter Loggins that John was really looking forward to at the Spotted Cat. Ok, so the leads weren't great, but the lesson material was nice. The best part was when John asked Peter some questions after the lesson, Peter went into a bit of a history lesson which was fun to listen to. The summary of the history of the reintroduction of lindy hop is: screw triple steps. It took people too long in the 90's to get their swingouts with triple steps from the start. Starting with two step and building it up is way more successful.Then wandering over across the street (drinks in hand if people chose to drink) to D.B.A. where Peter and Mia did another lesson but this time in balboa. After seeing that it was the same people in the lesson, we passed on going in rotation, but followed along from the sidelines. The floor was also not very conducive to swivels, fish tails or anything done properly. I really enjoyed the introduction to new technique and I definitely want to try it out next Monday night at the Button Factory...with someone who can lead balboa.
Sunday was when Jay and Liz came into town and we were going to go to Coops again after having been there the day before. It's this fantastic cajun cooking where the coleslaw, rabbit jambalaya and fried chicken were all fantastic. Jay, Matt and Steve from Toronto all raved about it, and they were totally right. Since Jay and Liz went right after they landed, our timing got a bit off so it was just Anna, John and I.
Sunday was great cause after checking the other bars, D.B.A. was the one with the best music going on, and the whole Toronto crowd congregated there. It became the Imeprial pub all over again with us being loud and obnoxious in the back. Such things included a call and response to "She'll be comin' 'round the mountain when she comes" and people responding "that's what she said", it was great. On the street outside of D.B.A., there was this giant cart wheel with random drums and things to hit percussively. It was a bunch of noise but it worked. The guys just handed us drumsticks and it was totally fun. Also I got a piggy back ride from Jay which was cool cause I've never been so tall and my head almost hit a sign (he did give warning, which was thoughtful). This is when we actually got time to go to Coops with Jay and Liz, though Anna had gone back to the hotel to rest up before the evening dance. Man, they are such fun people and made freinds so easily it was hilarious. We ended up missing Tuba Skinny because of the good music at D.B.A. and made it for the late night band. By this time, all of my toes were blistered, Anna's legs couldn't move, Dean was exhausted, and John had his ankle stepped on hard. So we called it an earl(ier) night at 2 am and went back, packed up a bit for an early departure the next morning.
Monday
After saying goodbye to Anna who was leaving later that day (and she slept with the box of Kashi cereal by the way). The rest of the flight home through Atlanta was pretty routine. They put me with the box scanner, I was not amused, Normally I opt for the pat down instead, but because I was travelling with people, I didn't want to be a burden on their time. I am not amused with the US and their security protocols. Also I could have avoided it if I didn't forget that my ipod was in my back pocket since it was my boarding pass.
John, Dean and I got back to Waterloo, stopped off at John's house, had some tea, I had some vegetables because I missed them. Then we went to the West Coast night where we gushed all night about how much fun we had. Also I had my little booties and danced hustle, which was hilarious cause I felt like trolling the dance. We ended the night with Pepi's (it's no Coops), and thus ended our adventures.
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