We went on a field trip to the Fuel Cell Partnership in Davis and were very much informed on the the progress of hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen fuel cell cars. I learned the potential future of these new vehicles and the other options where fuel cells can be very useful, such as phone battery chargers. It was very interesting and I was even able to sit in a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. It was very quiet and rather fast, much like our family's Chevy Volt. In the afternoon, our cluster went to an aerospace museum. There was a lot of information to take in, about the engines, planes, and history, but I was still able to learn a great deal.
Today was very special because in the morning, I was able to fly in a small airplane over Davis. We flew in groups of 3 and were able to oversee the whole city of Davis. It was pretty nice. But after my head hurt. Our cluster headed out for another field trip to two destinations: Moller International and DMG Mori. In the morning, we explored Moller International and discovered many new vehicles that I was unaware of. There were flying cars and vehicles shaped in a donut. It was hard to believe that these vehicles had the potential to fly in the sky with a convenient amount of fuel. The thought of vertical takeoff from your garage is mindblowing. However, contrary to the CEO's thoughts, I do not believe that these vehicles will be of popular use in the next few years. In the afternoon, we toured around the DMG Mori factory and saw machines and robots execute complex operations. I was able to learn the complexity and importance of these robots and how essential this type of technology is to our current manufacturing process. In class, we did a few labs based on motors and catapults. In our motor lab, we used copper wires, batteries, and magnets to produce a simple motor. The copper wire was formed into a loop and would be connected to the battery via paper clips. It was then placed in a magnetic field. This caused the copper wire loop to spin continuously due to the magnetic force and current in the wire. In the afternoon, our cluster performed a simple lab that aimed to produce accurate results based on previous recorded data points using a complex formula. In this lab, we prerecorded the properties of the catapult and the distance it flung the ball, and after numerous recorded data points, we were able to accurately configure the catapult properties to any distance we wanted. This is the beginning of the second week of COSMOS and we changed our topic to senors & actuators and future cars. We reviewed the basic physics of magnetic force and electricity and discussed about the forces and interactions they had with each other. Our professor also showed us numerous examples of its everyday use in forms of motors and other mechanical parts. Later in the day, another professor taught us the current progress in electric and fuel cell cars and showed us the many aspects of these vehicles that I never knew about (ex. efficiency, cost, inefficiency, etc.). These new topics seem very interesting and I am looking forward to our work in these classes this week. We went on our first field trip to United Airlines and the San Carlos Aviation Museum. We walked a lot and saw a lot of interesting things, but we were probably a bit overwhelmed with information. Our guides constantly used terms that I was unaware of and I was confused a lot of times. But, it was very educational. It was also very nice to pass by my home of Foster City. I also played ultimate Frisbee with my friends and I really sucked. A lot. I was super out of shape and was very tired, but very fun. Today was a very good day. |