Welcome to this home page of mine. I am using this site to provide supporting materials for my MIT application. I am new to the world of website authoring and specifically to google sites, so this site will be growing and changing as I figure things out. At this point I have loaded enough materials to give a better feeling for my background and interests that are mentioned in the application but not able to be conveyed due to the constraints necessarily imposed by the application form. I appreciate the opportunity to show off a bit of the crazy, interesting, active world that I live in!
ROV - Marine Robotics - Marine Biology
For the past couple of years, I have been working with remotely operated underwater vehicles. I was first introduced to underwater ROVs at the MIT Edgerton Center with underwater "Quidditch" matches, and I have been interested in them ever since. In the summer of 2008, I built an underwater vehicle out of PVC piping to bring up to ASRA summer program in Glacier Bay, Alaska. Using this ROV, we were able to see changes in silt concentrations off shore of tidewater Glaciers. The summer of 2009, my dad, brother and I designed and built a higher quality ROV using clear PVC and aluminum for use in Kasitsna Bay, Alaska. Unfortunately, the clean conditions of a laboratory do not match the harsh conditions of alaskan waters. I accidentally tied a clove hitch with the tether around the dock piling forty feet underwater, and I was lucky enough to get a diver to go down and retrieve it. Currently I am working on a new design, which should be ready for use in Kasitsna Bay in the summer of 2010.
Time Lapse Photography at Kasitsna Bay
During the summer of 2009, I traveled up to Alaska to attend the Alaska Summer Research Academy at University of Alaska in Fairbanks for a course in marine biology. The module flew down from Fairbanks to Homer, Alaska and stayed in Kasitsna Bay NOAA Laboratories. Along with all of our equipment, I brought a Canon A720IS using CHDK software, which provided a hack for the camera so that it could take time lapse photography. I also had one underwater housing fit for the camera that could withstand water pressure up to 100-foot depths. Using this equipment, my group and I captured interesting parts of Kasitsna bay both above and below the water using time lapse. We were able to take time lapses of chiton moving in low and high tide, the movement of the tide in and out of the laboratory, the alaskan underwater community fighting over bait placed forty feet under Jackolof Bay dock, and an anemone eating a piece of a horse clam.
Singing and Performing
Singing is a strong passion of mine. I am currently the leader of my school's a cappella group "Mixed Nuts," a third-year member of the LHS Madrigal Singers, leader of my school's valentine Quartet groups, and school singer of the National Anthem at sporting events. All of my groups are involved in community service, like caroling in the town and performing for the elderly. I also am strongly involved with the town in singing. I have sung the National Anthem at town baseball games such as the town little league World Series. I also sang "America the Beautiful" as well as the National Anthem on Veteran's Day on the Lexington Battle green with the LHS marching band. Apart from singing, I am strongly involved with my schools drama program, participating in three musicals and having a lead role in "Assassins." This fall, I was asked to sing "Till the Last Shot's Fired" by Trace Adkins at Raytheon's "Missions Assurance Day," so I arranged and performed the song to close out the ceremony.
(The following slideshow contains some movie clips that can be played by clicking on the movie window)
MIT related activities
I have been active with MIT for a long time. In my sophomore year I was a member of FIRST Robotics team #97 which was sponsored my MIT. That year our team won second place at regionals. I am a frequent visitor of the Edgerton Center where I help out with programs like the "Saturday thing." I also have built several devices at MIT including my underwater vehicle. For incoming freshman, I have helped get them acclimated to the Boston and Boston suburb environment with canoe trips and campfires. I have even given a presentation about some of my projects, like presenting the camera mount I created that reacts to head movement using an IMU to a Boy Scout troop that was visiting MIT from Florida. Apart from building things, I have been involved with the MIT Logarythms and the MIT Logalumns (alumni of MIT Logarythms). I have actually sung with both groups in different concerts and events, and even had the privilege to do some recording in the Logarythms recording studio.
Tree Work
I was about 2 years old when my uncle put up a 55ft high rope swing in the woods by our new house. I've enjoyed doing treework or chopping wood with my dad ever since. This summer I finally got top honors and did the climbing while my dad did the ground work. It is a whole different world up in the trees. It is like waking up inside a physics book, where tension vectors, and bending moments, and friction are immediate life and death matters and not just ideas. The experience was a metaphor for how I try to live my life, overcoming fears with knowledge and the courage to achieve... in this case learning to trust not just the rope, but my own ability to employ the right knots, to make safe cuts, and to be comfortable dangling 60ft above the man who ”showed me the ropes“.
|
|