Cluster 7: H4O: Hacking for Oceans
Week 2
Hey there!
It's Cynthia again; it has been a while! So much has happened in the past week - let's catch up!
Friday
Last Friday, we continued working on our devices. The science and data teams got their radios to communicate. Groups were busy CADing and manufacturing mounts as well as dipping their toes into Ardupilot, the software responsible for remote control and autonomous pathways for our instruments.
We also performed our fashion show at CosmOlympics! It was really exciting performing together and cheering on other clusters.
Saturday - Zoo!
Saturday was zoo day! We headed downtown to visit the renowned San Diego Zoo. Despite the chaos of mass transportation and the intense SoCal sun, we immediately infiltrated the park once we acquired tickets, scurrying to find the animals we love. From red pandas to penguins to the famed capybara, the diversity of the zoo was simply incredible.
There were also free kiwis. As San Diego native who has been to the zoo at least 20 times, there has never been free fruit. It was very sweet; 10/10 recommend :)
i took this picture - sarah from cluster 1! i love cynthia and sophia <33
Sunday
Three hours of dorm time during the day?! That is unheard of! After a week of non-stop activities, socializing, and learning, it was really nice having a day off. We took care of laundry and participated in some exciting activities, such as a picnic and a water balloon fight.
Monday
Cluster 7 is back on the grind. Given that we must create a minimally viable product by Thursday to test at the pool, we were all scrambling to create something that hopefully will swim gracefully through the woes of water. Before we swarmed ourselves in a whirlpool of wires and the cries of frying ESP32's, Dr. J gave us a lecture on the basics of microcontrollers and how data transfers between instruments. Those nightmarish diagrams of circuit boards? We understand them now - fear us.
We then continued with our usual round of assembling, wiring, and wrangling with the radios, which I firmly believe have an undying vendetta against us.
Tuesday
We started off the morning with a lecture from Dr. Smarr, an associate professor in data science right here at UCSD. He talked about his work, which was largely dedicated to aggregating psychological data to determine the relationship between sleep times and welfare. Fun fact: his research helped convince lawmakers to push back California high school start times to 8:30!
Dr. J then gave us an lecture on how to use Ardupilot, saving many lost souls from the trenches of confusion.
Wednesday
Saying that time is flying is an absolute (and cliche) understatement. The spacetime continuum decided to dress up as photons and is now zipping by at the speed of light. The USV teams manically assembled our boats, tested comms, and mounted the motors. The data and science teams callibrated instruments, extensively debugged code, and rewired the data collection instrument at least 5 different times.
Thursday - POOL DAY
On Thursday, we stopped by the pool to test our USVs! All the boats successfully drove in the pool. We did fry our data collection device though (12V!=5V), but it was a quick fix. We spent the rest of the day troubleshooting and adding finishing touches so our boats would work successfully at the lake tomorrow.
Gallery
