Journal

Monday, July 9th

One thing that surprised me about dorm like was that after dinner, we more or less could do what we liked. I like that the college professors who are teaching me are experienced and knowledgeable. Overall, I enjoyed my first day of classes at COSMOS.

Tuesday, July 10th

One thing that I learned today was that 10 moles of atoms can fit inside a glass of water. We also started coding in C today and made several programs. Eventually, we are going to start learning Python to simulate the movement of cells.

Wednesday, July 11th

We had our first guest lecture today, which was about robotics and artificial intelligence. The presentation was very interesting and entertaining. After the lecture, we had another session of computational biophysics.

Thursday, July 12th

To improve my experience at COSMOS, I can work on improving my programming skill in C, which would help me in both classes because we are using C in both of them. It would also benefit me to get better at Python, because we are eventually going to start using it.

Friday, July 13th

In the beginning of the day, I had a lecture on computers. I also had a biophysics lab after lunch. I enjoyed going bowling after dinner.

Saturday, July 14th

Today, COSMOS went to San Francisco. We went to Pier 39, Fishermen's Wharf, and my favorite, Ghirardelli Square. Afterwards, we took a boat cruise around the bay.

Sunday, July 15th

I had a free day, which meant that I had no classes today. I got some homework done and went bowling again. We also played pool.

Monday, July 16th

We had our first lecture from Professor Singh today, which was about what makes water so essential to life. I also decided on my robot project, which is a chasm-crossing robot that will lay down a bridge and then cross it.

Tuesday, July 17th

Today, my cluster had a field trip to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. I went to many exhibits and learned many new things. Afterwards, I went to watch the movie Incredibles 2, which I enjoyed. I did not have any of my usual classes yesterday.

Wednesday, July 18th

For our Distinguished Lecture series, today we had a guest speaker named Harry Gray who talked about harnessing solar energy. In biophysics, we continued to program in Python and created a program which calculates and displays the populations of hares and lynx.

Thursday, July 19th

Today, I started constructing my bridge-crossing robot. I also participated in Casino Night, the evening activity for that day, where I won a considerable amount of candy. In my biophysics class, I learned about DNA and RNA and how they work.

Friday, July 20th

I made a program today that converts a DNA sequence to an RNA sequence and prints out the amino acids. I also went bowling again and continued to construct my robot.

Saturday, July 21st

We had a trip to John's Incredible Pizza today. I played at the arcade there, and won a lava lamp. I also went on the bumper cars. After lunching there, we came back to Davis. I ate dinner at the DC, and then stayed at the dorms until night.

Sunday, July 22nd

I relaxed today and didn't do much. Our cluster went bowling against Cluster 9 and won by 17 points. Later, I played a card game called Exploding Kittens and won. I got 3rd place the second time I played.

Monday, July 23rd

Today, I continued building my robot. I also went bowling again. In the evening, I participated in Trivia Night, where my team won 3rd place. In biophysics, I learned about random numbers and random walks in multiple dimensions.

Tuesday, July 24th

In biophysics today, I experimented with random numbers. I made a program to find the value of pi, and another program to graph the gambler's ruin problem. I continued building my robot today, and learned many new things.

Wednesday, July 25th

Today, we had a guest lecturer who talked about the Los Alamos lab in New Mexico, where the atomic bomb was invented. I also went bowling again and continued to work on my robot. In biophysics, we talked about probability theory.

Thursday, July 26th

Throughout the course of the day, I continued working on my robot. In biophysics, I made programs that simulated random walks in one-dimension and different casino games like poker, blackjack, and slots. I went bowling today as well, and improved my technique of spinning the bowling ball.

Friday, July 27th

Today, I finished the robot for robotics. The only thing left now is to build the bridge. In biophysics, we learned about random walks inside a box. I went bowling today and enjoyed my day overall.

Saturday, July 28th

Today, I woke up very late, at about 11:40. Right after I woke up, I left to eat lunch at a sushi place. In the evening today, we went to a pool and park. I enjoyed myself a lot while I was there. We also had a barbecue prior to going to the pool. We came back relatively late at about 10:00. Curfew was extended again today to 11:30.

Sunday, July 29th

The last Sunday of COSMOS 2018! My cluster went bowling against Cluster 6. Afterwards, I played pool with some people in my cluster. The rest of the day, I stayed in the dorm area and relaxed.

Monday, July 30th

I continued constructing my robot today and started working on my program for biophysics. I also went bowling in the evening.

Tuesday, July 31st

Today, I watched the movie "Ant-Man and the Wasp" at the Davis theater. I enjoyed the movie a lot.

Wednesday, August 1st

My experience at COSMOS is nearing its end. I finished my robot and my biophysics program today. In the evening, I relaxed and spent time with my friends.

Thursday, August 2nd

Today I finished the poster and video for our robotics project. I also helped out some of the other groups. I went bowling in the evening again.

Friday, August 3rd

Today was my last full at COSMOS. Everyone did their robotics presentations today and then moved their robots into the Mondavi Hall. In the evening, everyone went to a park. where I played Frisbee and BS. I had a late night after coming back because curfew was at 12, although I stayed up after that.

Saturday, August 4th

Today was the last day of COSMOS. The closing ceremony was today, where everyone got awarded a certificate. I also got a picture of our cluster and got it signed. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at COSMOS and learned many new things.