The First Week Of Engineering
8/8/16-8/12/16
This past week, we were introduced to the class.
We learned about what Mr. Neat expects from us and the
Wednesday challenges. Our first challenge is called the
spaghetti bridge. In this challenge, we use 20 pieces
of spaghetti to build a bridge that can support the most weight.
In total though, we are able to have 120 pieces,
but in 20 piece intervals. The last 20 are for the real thing,
but the other 100 are for testing. Lastly,
we got our laptops to make this website, which is pretty cool.
I look forward to doing this more.
Spaghetti Bridge WC
The Second Week Of Engineering
8/15/16
Today in class, we started to work on our websites.
The websites show what we do in class. To make these, we are using html,
hyper markup text language. Html is what a lot of people use to make their
own website. Using basic commands, you can go from nothing to an entire site
that anyone can use.
8/17/16
Today in class, we worked on our spaghetti bridges. My group and I are trying
a design in the shape of a triangular prism. Hopefully this design will work
well. It most likely will because a motto I go by with bridges like this is
"Triangles are your best friends."
8/18/16
Today in class, we got our Wednesday challenge forms on our laptops.
Then, we copied down the problem statement along with the names of the
people in our group.
8/19/16
Today in class, we continued working on our spaghetti bridges. My group
and I are almost finished with our design. We will be testing it soon with
the weight.
8/20/16
Today, I went to the Coldplay concert at the Rosebowl. I took the Metro
Gold Line from the Arcadia station to the Memorial Park station. From there
I went on a shuttle to the Rosebowl. So when we got there at around 4pm, we had
an early dinner. The doors to the stadium opened at 5:30pm, and from there, I went
to my seat, which was towards the top and to the right of the stage. We also got these
light bands called Xylo-Bands. The bands helped to make everyone feel like they were a
part of the show, which was really awesome. There were three opening acts which included
Bishop Briggs, Alessia Cara, and Stargate. Then, at 9:00pm, Coldplay came on to the stage.
It was a very fun concert and I hope to see Coldplay live again.
8/21/16
Today, I chilled all day because I was tired from last night's concert with Coldplay.
Then, my step-brother and some family friends came over for dinner. My step-dad made
some really tastey ribs and my mom made some mashed potatoes along with mac'n'cheese, which happened to also
be really delicious, and some mac'n'cheese. After dinner, we played Cards Against Humanity.
We were all laughing so much, that our insides started hurting.
The Third Week Of Engineering
8/22/16
Today, was a Monday. I think that says enough, but I will continue and explain what
happened. In class, we started working with Sketch Up. A platform where you
can design different things. We looked at a model of a long board press, which
was interesting to see.
8/23/16
Today in class, we learned how to add pictures to our website. I added a picture
of the long board press in Sketchup and a picture of a long board press in real
life. Now I can add any pictures I want to the webpage.
8/24/16
Today in class, we worked on our spaghetti bridges. My group and I tested
out our bridge, but it failed miserably. It could not even hold the
rigging that carries the jug. After that, we started working on a
new bridge. It will use a similar design, but it will be a little more
reinforced where it broke.
8/26/16
Today in class, we had Mr. WIlton, a super awesome guy who doesn't need
any more explaining, give us a brief description of himself. Here is his
website!Mr. Wilton's siteWe also talked
about the JPL invention challenge, which is to make a Rube Goldberg machine
that transport a cup full of water and a plastic goldfish into a cylinder
two meters away. We were showed different concepts that could potentialy be
used for the final product.
The Fifth Week Of Engineering
9/6/16
Today in class, we finished up the spaghetti bridge Wednesday challenge form.
My team didn't get the best score, but we also did better than some other groups.
We scored a 6.6, where the best score was a 13. There were some groups that did not
even get a score of 1! It is kind of funny to think about that.
9/7/16
Today in class, we had our second wednesday challenge! Our challenge was to
plan a machine the can tell the difference between a cat and a dog. Of course
my group and I over-thought the problem, and we ended up spending almost the entire
class period contemplating ideas. In the end though, we went with an idea where the
machine would take a picture of the animal and then compare the picture with pictures
similar to it on Google Images. Lastly, the machine will project what the animal is on
a screen attached to it.Dog or Cat WC
9/9/16
Today in class, Mr. Wilton came in and we talked about how the JPL Invention Challenge
was going with the robotics team. Mr. Wilton helped the team to figure out how the different
concepts will work. The team currently has four different ideas that are very creative and
will almost certainly win. I am very confident that the ideas will work with little flaws.
The Sixth Week Of Engineering
9/14/16
Today in class, we had another Wednesday challenge. For this one, we had to cut a block of wood
to be two inches long. We also had to make it as accurate as possible. Overall, we did not do the
best, but we were very consistent with each corner.Wood Cutting WC
The Seventh Week Of Engineering
9/19/16
Today in class, we worked more with Google SketchUp, a platform where you can design anything you
are willing to put your mind to. We made structures out of jenga blocks, which are 3" by 1". We had
to make a model of three jenga blocks in real life and then make it in SketchUp. To do this, we learned
how to copy and paste different objects and what not. I think that it is really interesting to do.
9/21/16
Today in class, we had another Wednesday challenge. This week's was about teamwork.
The goal was to move a marble down a set of pvc pipes without letting the pipes touch
or overlap. Also, everyone had to participate, so we had to hand off the pipes to one another.
Marble Transport WC
The Eighth Week Of Engineering
9/26/16
Today in class, we saw our grades.Grades
We also worked more on our websites. Last week I updated it to be perfect, but I messed something up and I lost all of it.
I was pretty mad because of it. Well, that's the past and we can't change it. We can't dwell on the past, so we must focus
on the future. For some reason, I cannot seem to get the long board press pictures to work and I have no idea
why. Oh well, I will figure it out soon.
9/27/16
Today in class, we watched a video of a guy decoding why the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blew up a few months ago.
Apparently, the pipe between the liquid oxygen tank and the fuel tank malfunctioned. That caused a huge explosion
and a very startled bird... It flew towards it right as the rocket was about to explode and almost got burnt
to a char. It was kind of very funny.
9/28/16
Today in class, we started a new Wednesday challenge which will be our quarter final. The challenge is to design and build
an arch bridge out of a single type of block unit. The bridge must also not have any adhesives and none of the parts can be
connected. Only friction can hold it together with a keystone at the top. This challenge will definitely be one of the
harder ones to complete. Hopefully we will win it!Rules
9/29/16
Today in class, we continued to work on the arch bridge challenge. We think that we might use cardboard that will continuously
stack up until both sides meet where there will be the keystone that holds the enitre bridge up. If it were to be taken out,
then the entire bridge will collapse in on itself. Since we didn't have any cardboard, we decided to experiment with jenga blocks.
Jega blocks do not work, but it helped to form a vague idea about what we might do. With the help of Google, we made some
interesting bridges that could stand up, but they did not follow along with the rules. So out the window with those designs!
9/30/16
Today in class, Mr. Wilton came back and the JPL team showed us what they have done the past week. The first design, the Kevin
arm, has made a lot of progress. It is looking really great in CAD. The second design, the tram thing, has also made a lot
of progress in the CAD world. However, there are still some doubts about how it will work. The third design, the vacuum, has
made a lot of progress as well this past week. It looks really interesting in CAD. This one looks pretty promising considering
the fact that all the ideas are still a little basic. The fourth design, the trash truck, is looking alright I guess. It seems
a little odd, but I know it will get better.
10/2/16
Today is my mom's and step-dad's anniversary! They have been together for six years now! Here's to the next six! They had a nice
dinner together at Ruth's Cris and walked around Pasadena together!
The Ninth Week Of Engineering
10/3/16
Today in class, we finished up talking about the JPL challenge. Jacob made an outlet for his design for safety. If something
were to go wrong, then the outlet would prevent any harm happening to someone or the machine. After that, we worked on our
arch bridges. Andrew, from my group, made a design consisting of foam blocks. Sadly, the idea was turned down due to the fact
that the blocks weren't all the same size. So, we will revise that for next time. Andrew is a pretty cool dude.
10/4/16
Today in class, we saw a video of a robot doing different things, which was pretty cool. It's crazy how far we have come with
technology! Even in the past 10 years, we have made so many advances ranging from the smartphone and all the way to robots! After
watching the video a few times, we went to our arch bridge groups. Andrew almost perfected the bridge, but it isn't quite as
long as we would like it to be. Aside from that though, Andrew has gone above and beyond in helping our group. Also, Jenga blocks
are bad! Don't use them in your bridge!XD
10/5/16
Today in class, we worked on our arch bridges. Andrew brought in the foam blocks to make our bridge. After a few tests, we predict
score will be around a 9.12. Hopefully, with this score, we will win and get a bit of a grade boost! Our bridge looks really cool
and official. I did also happen to karate chop the bridge and destroy it. It exploded outwards and looked awesome! The group did
get a little mad though... It was worth it. After doing some looking around, we saw that the other groups did not quite get as
far as we did. Oh well, this should give us a bit of a lead, if everything goes well.
10/6/16
Today in class, we had our arch bridge competition. We scored a total of 7.2! I would say that we have a good shot at winning the
competition! Most of the other groups' bridges, at least what we saw, were kind of small compared to ours. If we win, this will
be the first Wednesday challenge I have won, which would be pretty awesome. We went second though, so we don't quite know how well
we did compared to everyone else. Oh well...What our bridge looks like.
10/7/16
Today in class, we figured out who won the arch bridge competition. We got second place... The winner's bridge was made out of erasers
and was only four inches long! Each of the blocks were 7/16 of an inch. Their score was a 9.1! Our bridge, as said previously, was
7.2. We may have lost, but compared to the other bridges before my group's, our bridge was really good. Here are the results.
Arch Bridge Results. Mr. Wilton also came today and the JPL
invention challenge team talked about what they have done the past week. The designs are really starting to take shape! This is getting
exciting!
The Tenth Week Of Engineering
10/10/16
Today in class, we started off by watching a cool music video that used the vibrations to make an interesting display while sounding
pretty awesome. However, towards the end, it started to look a little funny. Also at the end of the video, they included a sort of
behind the scenes thing, which was funny looking, but interesting. Then we reviewed how to make a componant in Google sketch-up and
we made a set of stairs out of jenga blocks in it, I may have taken it a little too far though...
10/11/16
Today in class, we started out with watching a video about the MIT cheetah robot landing a running jump. It jumped up to 40 centimeters.
Then, it ran and jumped without a harness. The robot's customer is DARPA who will sell it to the army. There are also a lot of other robots
that can perform other functions such as balancing and jumping at a standstill. It looks like Dr. Neat got a hair cut too. After the video
we started to work in Google sketch-up some more. We started out with some review, but we did some more after that. I made a tower that is
built out of jenga blocks!
10/12/16
Today in class, we had another Wednesday challenge. We had to build a card tower using as many cards as we could. Sadly, my group did not
make a tower that worked. We did not get to measure our tower so, we did not get a score... The winning team's score was 13.5, which is
really tall. The score was how tall it was in inches.Tower Scores
WC Form
10/13/16
Today in class, we made a playing card in Google Sketchup. We had to make rounded edges to match the card, to make it more realistic.
I think I did pretty good! Dr. Neat even gave me a fistbump for it! Here is my card.
And here is a washing machine
10/14/16
Today in class, the JPL invention challenge teams showed us what they did this past week. A lot happened. Most of the groups were not able
to tansport their designs into the main room, so we had to go to the workshop to see them. The designs are looking really interesting now.
A lot of them had a physical thing to show off. The Kevin Arm design was made directly from the CAD design. Apperently, back in 2010, the group
that used their design directly from CAD had gotten it right on the first try.
The Eleventh Week Of Engineering
10/17/16
Today in class, we did more in Google SketchUp. We made either the stairs, a playing card, or a pencil. I made a pencil because I have already
done the other two. I think I did alright with it. I did get to use the polygon tool, which is pretty cool to make the hexagonal shape. Then, I
used the line tool and the circle tool to do the eraser along with the metal part. For the metal part though, I couldn't make it look metal because
I don't know how to make it color like that. I also used the circle tool to mak the graphite that runs along the inside of the pencil.
Here is what I made.
10/18/19
Today in class, I had nothing to do... Mr. Miller called me to the shop to have me to the safety course to use the workshop tools. I was really
confused when he told me I wasn't a part of the group even though I had been for the arch bridge. I started freaking out thinking that I had
screwed something up, but it turns out that I finished it early. He told me that I could go back to class and he gave me a high-five. I was
given a mini heart attack because at the time, I thought something was wrong, but I was appraised instead of being scolded. For the rest of
class, I was kind of bored...
10/19/16
Happy birthday to me! It is my birthday today! Today, we started school at 11:00 instead of the usual 7:50. The tenth and eleventh graders had
to take the PSAT and had to arrive at school during the typical time. All of the class periods were only 26 minutes! In engineering class, we
started a new Wednesday challenge. We needed to make a triangle with a perfect right angle, 90 degrees. The whole class thought to make one
team consisting of the entire class. Of course, that did not work, and we ended up with a few teams. My team name was The Dream Team + Lucas.
Mr. Miller, though, did not include the last part, sadly. When we were thinking of ideas to use, I remembered that I have a 45 45 90 triangle
that we could use as a template. Before we could do anything else, the bell rang.
10/20/16
Today in class, we finished up the Wednesday challenge we started yesterday. We lost, but we were very close to the winner. My team, The Dream
Team, made two triangles. We only submitted one though.Angles WC Form
The 12th Week Of Engineering
10/24/16
Today in class, we started out by getting the results from last week's Wednesday challenge. We got second place on it, only within around 0.025
away from the first place group. We learned there is strength in small numbers. With the mega group, it was a total catastrophe. Some of the members
did not even know they were a part of the group. Someone also turned in another triangle after the group had turned one in. Apparently, only four
people did the work in the mega group. That is not what I wanted to do. I actually wanted to some of the work, which is why I joined a little group
with only five people compared to the twenty in the mega group.
10/25/16
Today in class, I showed Dr. Neat my Wednesday challenge form from my Birthday. Apparently, I am one of the few who actually did upload it online
yesterday. So good job to me I guess. After that, I did not do much. Just a lot of waiting and writing this out... The seats today were all messed
up. They were scattered everywhere from wall to wall, except for the throw rug. The other day, I noticed a sore in my mouth. I kept accidentally
brushing over it when I was brushing my teeth, and I had to stop because of the blood coming out. And then, I did it again, except this time, it had
more blood. In class, I also started on a LEGO brick in Google Sketch-up.
10/26/16
Today in class, we had another Wednesday challenge. We had to figure out how many candy corn could fit on a typical 8.5 by 11 inch paper. We calculated
the area of the bottom of the candy corn to be 0.1875 inches squared and the paper to be 93.5 inches squared. To find out how many could fit on the
paper, we divided the area of the paper by the area of the candy corn. It turned out to be around 499 candy corn. Hopefully we will win! Here is the
form for it.Candy Corn WC Form
10/27/16
Today in class, I updated my website on Filezilla to have yesterday's Wednesday challenge form. We almost won though. We were two candy corn off compared
to the winning team who was only one off. For being second, we still got a prize. It was a partially full container of candy corn. I probably should not
have expected much more, since it was Halloween themed. I also finshed up the lego brick I made in Google Skethcup.
10/28/16
Today, it rained, but only for a little bit. Then, it came back pretty hard during second period, but it stopped a few minutes later. In class, Mr. Wilton
came, like usual. The JPL teams showed what they did last week. The modified trash truck idea has finally made their parts after a pretty long time now.
Their design however, still looks kind of wierd. Hopefully, their design will end up working out, but it doesn't really look like it will. The vacuum team
also came up, and they showed what they have done. They built a vacuum chamber and did some other small things. The kevin arm has made some fantastic
progress. They built the entire device this past week and they have just made a contraption that prevents the cup from spraying the water 10 feet away.
The 13th Week Of Engineering
10/31/16
Happy Halloween! In class, we watched a video about the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and its collapse. Then, we were assigned a project to do a bridge report
on a bridge from a list on Dr. Neat's website. Evan and I are doing it on the Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado. We had originally wanted to do the Colorado
Street bridge in Pasadena, but it was taken. Then, we thought that if we couldn't do the Colorado Street bridge, then we would do a bridge that actually
is in Colorado.
11/1/16
Today is the first of November! I have made it through a few months of school! So tired though... Last night, we got thirty trick-or-treaters! That is more
people than we have gotten in the past six years combined! In class, we made a lego brick in Google Sketch-up, but I already did that. So then, I just added
to it to make it look a little better than it already was. And then I was bored. I was so bored that I started to talk about politics.
11/2/16
Today in class, we started a new Wednesday challenge. We need to design a capital e in Google Sketch-up. We would be partnered with another team, and we would
trade designs and fabricate them with cardboard. We finished the design part pretty quickly and had nothing to do for the rest of the period. It is supposedly
going to be heating up tomorrow. I am not looking forward to that. Here is the form.Cardboard E WC Form Here are the E's we used. Also, here
are the results of the challenge.E Results
11/3/16
Today in class, we continued to work on the Wednesday challenge. We got our other group's design and built it, except, it took a while to get though. I spent
a decent amount of time being bored. I ended up drawing it out on the cardboard and cutting it out with a box cutter. There wasn't a ruler available, so I had
to eyeball it. I hope I did alright.
11/4/16
Today in class, we had a subsitute teacher. He was kind of loud. Mr. Wilton came too and the JPL invention challenge teams showed the class what they had done
this past week. We had to go to the other room to see them. Before that however, we watched a video about motors that Mr. Miller showed us. It was pretty neat.
Hehe... See what I did there? I need a life.
The 14th Week Of Engineering
11/7/16
Today in class, we found out our partner groups for the E Wednesday challenge. We decided who's E we would use to turn in. We chose the other groups, the one we
designed and they fabricated. Our E did not turn out very well... Then, the people whose websites were shown to the class got candy. they got full-sized candy bars.
Since Jess did not want her's, she gave her Twix to me, which I happen to really like.
11/8/16
Today is the Presidential Election... *sigh* In class today, we had a pretty relaxed schedule. Our goal was to add pictures of the E into the Wednesday challenge
form. Sadly, my group was unable to do that because of some service issues, but I was able to add a picture of it thankfully. After that, I worked on the birdge
report power point where I made some decent progress. It is actually almost done. I just need to finish adding some pictures to the slides. I think that it looks
pretty cool!
11/9/16
Today, we had another Wednesday challenge. I, however was picked by Dr. Neat to be a judge, along with two other people. The challenge was to figure out the
difference between two weights and to figure out how a scale works. The judges just sat in the back as the groups worked on the challenge. The ratio between
the two different weights was 1:4. One was a quarter of a kilogram and the other was one kilogram. Here is the form.Kilogram WC Form
11/10/16
Today is the day before Veteren's Day, so take a moment to thank any veterens you see for their service. Anyways, in class, Mr. Wilton came and the JPL invention
challenge teams showed off what they have done the past week. They are all almost perfect, except for the one with the pully system. It still has a lot of work
to do compared to the others.
The 15th Week Of Engineering
11/14/16
Today in class, we finaly finished up the E Wednesday challenge. After that, everything was pretty relaxed. We just worked on whatever needed to be done whether
that was updating the websites, or working on the bridge report. I chose to work on the bridge report because it was the only thing I had that needed to be worked
on.
11/15/16
Today in class was very layed back like yesterday. For others though, it isn't. Today was designated to working on the bridge report, but I already just about
finished it... I just added a video and some final touch-ups. However, the video is playing terribly in powerpoint. It is all choppy and hard to look at. Hopefully,
it is just a rendering issue and will be fixed for when I present it. That was about it for what I did. I am very, very bored. Also, here is the link to the workshop
safety course.Safety Course
You have to be logged in to see it.
11/16/16
Today finally cooled off compared to the last week and a half. Anyways, in class, we had another Wednesday challenge where we had to stick two alluminum pieces together
using one of the multitude of addhesive options. We used duct tape, naturaly, because of its stickiness. In the end, it looked like a hot pocket! When we tested it out,
it did not even budge. To be honest, none of them tore apart. Here is the challenge form.Sheer Force WC Form
11/17/16
Today in class, we started off by talking about yesterday's Wednesday challenge, and no team won it because none of the things broke... Since super glue takes too much
weight to pull apart, those teams could not test theirs out. For the rest of class, we just finished up our Wednesday challenge forms and worked on other things that
needed to be worked on.
11/18/16
Today is the last day of school for the next two weeks because of Thanksgiving, the time for you t obe thankful about absoulutely nothing and to eat so much food, that
you can't get up the next day. In class, the JPL invention challenge teams showed what they will show at the competition tomorrow. Also, tomorrow is my little sister
Allison's birthday! She is turning six years old! They grow up so fast...
The 16th Week Of Engineering
11/28/16
Today is our first day back from our Thanksgiving break. Over the break, I went to Yosemite and hiked a bit, but we stayed in Oakhurst which is just outside of the park.
My dad and I hiked up to Nevada Falls. 3 other people and I had to go to the workshop to decide on something to build out of some type of metal, either steel or alluminum.
We are goingto make a model house out of steel. This will involve cutting and welding the steel together to make a basic cube shape along with a triangualer prism.
11/29/16
Today in class, the JPL invention challenge teams showed a presentation on the competition that happened on the 19th. Sadly, they did not make it to the finals, but 2 out of
3 groups did not get disqualified. That is a good thing... I guess. Anyways, I had to make up a sketch-up of the arch bridge from a while back because I was in the other room
yesterday. Here is the picture.
11/30/16
Today in class, we had another Wednesday challenge. We had to design a tower out of only three materials. Pretzel sticks, marshmallows, and graham crackers. It took a while to
figure out a decent design, but we managed to do it. We also made a text document to tell the building team what to do when they build it tomorrow. Hopefully, the design we have
to build will be alright. Here is the form.Food Tower WC Form
12/1/16
Today in class, we finished up the Wednesday challenge by building the design we were given. It was terrible! We were doomed from the beginning! The way it was designed, it was
almost impossible to do it. However, none of the other designs worked out very well either. The highest one was less than a foot. So, it was not too bad I guess. Hopefully next
week's challenge will be better.
12/2/16
Today in class, we had a pretty laid back class period. There was Mythbusters being played, but you could also work on your websites. I chose to work on my website because I was
very behind. My last entry was from Monday! I had to make up so much content. I had to do the Wednesday challenge form, Tuesday's through Today's entries, and i had to add the
arch bridge sketch-up.