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All content is written, photographed, and edited by our amazing COSMOS students!
Who are we?
We are cluster 7, a group of high schoolers who are all passionate about robotics and research. Most of us are on our local FTC/FRC/VRC teams and have been doing robotics for 2+ years.
Weekend Activities:
Moat building at the beach
Some res life pot painting
Dawg at the beach!
Our Inside time adventures!
The makerspace 3D printers we fight for everyday!
Monday - Day 8
After an exciting weekend at the beach (and time to get more sleep) we came back with more energy than ever! For pretty much the entire day, we worked on our USVs. Teams were in a variety of places - some were starting their CAD, others were finishing up printing their parts and preparing their robots for a test run at the pool on Friday!
Since we're now manufacturing our robots, many students got to learn how to use the UCSD fabrication equipment. The hum from the 3D printers and light from the laser cutter were some of the only constants in our bustling lab!
After a very active day in the lab, we went back to our dorms... but instead of playing card games whilst we waited for dinner, we had a different plan in mind. Today was the first day we were allowed to go outside the dorm area during downtime. The opportunities were endless (unless it was past the campus border) and many students went to the nearby restaurants and shops to pick up some food that they've been craving. While some of the stores were closed (panda express 😞) there were still a ton of places to go! Some of the fan favorites were Target, a nearby boba place, and Yogurt World (which gave out a cosmos discount)!
Overall, today was fun and engaging, yet exhausting. Everyone is getting more amicable with their group mates and we all *hopefully* will get enough sleep tonight.
Tuesday - Day 9
Its Tuesday which means its ethics day! we continued working on our presentations and videos in our groups of 3 (or if you're lucky 4) until we headed out to Cafe Ventana's for lunch.
Today was another work day. We were still waiting for the flight controllers, so whilst we waited, we got creative. We 3D printed some swords (and spent forever taking out the supports). We also created custom wooden name plate for our lanyard using the laser-printer. We continued CAD-ing mounts for our sensors and trying to get the radios and sensors to work.
Data Lecture time! Here's some tables drawn by Mike:
Engarde! Here's some swords we 3D printed today! (left & top)
Lock in because its soldering day! We soldered our new flight controllers!
Wednesday - Day 10
Our day started with great news from Professor Silberman: both the flight controllers (to pilot our ships) and flotation devices for our autonomous vehicles had arrived earlier that morning, and now we can begin preparing for our first pool test. Unfortunately, since the materials had arrived so late in the program, our originally scheduled test on Friday was moved back to leave time for assembling the robots. Regardless, we pressed forward and continued working on our vehicles throughout the day.
After returning from lunch, the students broke into groups to begin working on our final projects. The data teams began calibrating the pH sensors under Mr. Mike's guidance, stopping to troubleshoot and adjusting the sensor's sensitivity to give accurate readings. Meanwhile, the hardware and autonomous teams began assembling the electrical and hardware components. A lot of people tried things they weren't used to. We had software students working on soldering and some CAD designers learning more about the autonomous. Overall, we improved at a lot of different skills today and can't wait to keep working away at our robots tomorrow!
Using the 3D printers also means repairing some broken ones!
Our Sister Cluster (C11) hard at work on their cars!
Our fav cosmos puppy Stevie!
Our boogie boards just in time for next weeks lake test!
Thursday - Day 11
Our day started with a meet-and-greet with former COSMOS alums over zoom. The presenters ranged from current-day professors to recent high school graduates, who each had unique stories of their stay at COSMOS and how the program impacted their social lives, educational pursuits, and future careers. The conversation was very spirited with people from a variety of perspectives, and all students learned a lot!
After the presentation, most groups began finalizing their ethics videos by recording their audio. To do so, Mr. Mike allowed us to explore the makerspace, the larger area around our classroom, to locate a suitable recording booth. Some groups chose to record outdoors, while others settled for rooms filled with the soft hum of 3D printers while they discussed the ethical complexities of their presentations. By tomorrow, our ethics videos will be finished and turned in for grading by our professors, wish us luck!
Towards the end of the day, we continued working on our final projects. Our autonomous groups finished troubleshooting the flight controllers, while data folks tuned their radio connections to begin collecting data from our autonomous vehicles. Meanwhile, students continued using 3D printers and the makerspace's laser cutters to fabricate mounts for the various components in our waterproof boxes. As we reach the halfway point of the cluster, our groups will begin assembling their USVs and eventually collecting data from the nearby Miramar Lake.
Squishy time! Heres photos of C7 (and C11) students with Squishy, the very round hamster we printed today!
And here's some of todays productive activities!
Listen to what we're listening to!
Newest Edition!
We have added a new photographer to our team: Trisha!
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