Journal Entries

Academic Prompt: Today, we learned about Graphical User Interfaces and Command Line Interfaces. I honestly enjoy using CLIs because I am someone who works better at understanding visual things (example: clicking a button on the screen instead of searching up the exact program I want to use). For that reason, I find more value in GUIs instead of command lines; however CLIs are much faster to use. If one knows what program they want to use, they can easily search for it and open it, also making that specific interface more productive. Later on in the day, we also began using Linux, a command line interface. I found it fairly easy to use, but the programs all had their own nickname to search up, and it will definitely be hard to memorize in the future, which is why I prefer using GUIs instead of CLIs.

Personal Prompt: After a full 24 hours at UC Davis, I find living in dorms very fun, but also challenging. Waiting in line to brush my teeth or take a shower is a bit annoying, but is part of a college experience. For some meals, it has been a bit hard to find vegetarian options that are filling and healthy, but the meals here are delicious. Luckily, I packed a lot of snacks for this reason. The people at COSMOS are very kind and friendly, so it hasn’t been hard making friends.

I asked my roommate, Riya, about her experience in her COSMOS cluster, which is Introduction to Plant Microbiology. I asked her: “What is the most interesting thing you learned?” and “Teach me a concept that was new to you.”

For the first question, she told me about her lab, where she learned the interesting process on how to press leaves. They use petri dishes that have agar, a jelly looking substance, which is the surface on which the leaves are pressed onto. When the leaves are pressed on the agar, they transfer microbes from the leaf to the agar. Then, the petri dish is closed and put aside to incubate. After the incubation process is completed, the microbes on the leaf grow to a size big enough to study.

A new concept that she learned (question 2) was about the disease triangle. The triangle shows the relationship between the three factors that cause the creation of a disease: the environment, the pathogen, and the host. Using the triangle, scientists can concur the biggest variables in making a disease on a plant. A common example is the Irish Potato Famine, which was caused by a pathogen called Phytophthora Infestans. Learning about this also has a slight connection to my BioPhysics class. In class today, my teacher talked about how diseases travel in the air because their atoms follow wind currents or the atoms are random walkers, which spread quickly and multiply a lot, causing viruses. I think that this valuable information that I can apply to my class.

During class, Dr. Dad-del asked us “How do you know you understood a lecture?” and then asked us to reflect on the question. Personally, I know I understand a lecture if I can accurately describe everything that was discussed in the lecture. I would compare this statement to a video recording. A camera can record what happens in the real world, when one replays the video, the video can either be blurry or clear. The blurry video is due to a phone not being able to compress a video well. A clear video is made when a phone can compress all the pictures into a single video clearly. 

After sitting through a lecture, to know I understand a lecture, I should be able to summarize the lecture without using confusing wording. Also, while looking through my notes, even if I only wrote three bullet points, I think that I should be able to explain that whole part of the lecture from those few points. After this, I would also try to make real world connections with the information in the lecture or use what I learned in application problems on the internet. Being able to understand a lecture is different from memorizing what was in a lecture, and testing the information that I retain with resources outside of the class shows that I understand the lecture.

After visiting the California Academy of Science, I saw many endangered and beautiful species. Everything that I learned on the field trip has been discovered through research and the help of computers. For example, the fossil records have been made through radiometric dating, which is calculated using a Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer running on a computer program, connecting back to robotics and computers.

At the academy, I also watched a lecture inside the Morrison Planetarium. The lecture in the planetarium was about dark matter and energy. I never knew that the existence of dark matter is just speculation and has not yet been proven; however, it most likely exists because scientists have seen visible matter move from a gravitational pull from invisible matter. After returning to Davis, I read a bit on dark matter, learning facts about how different galaxies may have never formed without the strong gravitational pull of dark matter and how dark matter affects the movement of galaxies.

I am interested in aerospace engineering, so a robotics project that I could try to make is one that sees far into space and reports on the gravitational effect that dark matter has on visible matter in space. As of now, using only LEGO Mindstorms, I could make a simpler version of such a robot, which can measure wind speed simply by using its sensors. At the academy, I also saw someone cleaning the glass in the fish tanks, giving me an idea for another robot. I could make a robot which can automatically clean the fish tanks or feed pets in their cages.

Overall, the trip to the California Academy of Science was a wonderful learning opportunity and (most importantly) fun.

Academic Prompt: Throughout this whole week, I have learned basic motor commands using C programming and a lot of python programming. Having not programmed once prior to COSMOS, I feel like I have learned a tremendous amount, being more confident in my ability to program robots from the beginning of the week. Using strings and other python related codes has been more challenging to learn, but I feel like I can write basic code. I know that I am not as good at python programming as other students in Cluster 5, and I feel like I still need help with the basics of the language. Luckily, our teachers are going over the Jupyter Notebooks to help clear my concepts and fix my code. I think that the courses are detailed and there is nothing much that I need to review, but I definitely need to study some more on my own.

Personal Prompt: Sometimes, cognitive illusions have made me make simple errors in my math class and tricks me into believing I know a concept when I actually don’t. When doing some math, I may think that I know how to solve the question, not realizing that I have to solve it a specific way or I simply write equations wrong. Seeing something that is similar to what I have been before causes me to assume that I know what I am looking at, even if it is a new concept. For example, when learning cross sections in AP Calculus AB, I usually assumed I needed to revolve the figure across an axis instead of actually calculating the cross section.

Academic Prompt: I learned how to properly make and implement a dictionary in my code today. I think that I could use such a concept in BioPhysics when connecting RNA triples to codons. Tuples are also another interesting thing I learned, because they are unchangeable. I think that the best use for those is when I need to create graphs and other important things which need fixed data sets. When we start making codes in BioPhysics, I can put certain concepts into strings and then dictionaries, so definitions can be found easily; however, without knowing the final project, I do not know the best places to apply the new information that I learned.

Personal Prompt: I always try to understand all the information that I receive. In the story of the stones, a simple man took stones which turned into gems the next day. This is a metaphor for taking in information and applying it for future, important situations. I will apply this to my own life by trying to take in all the information that is shown to me. While I love learning, I know I forget facts every now and again, but I never know what information will help me in my future. Sometimes, these facts may never be used in my life, but oftentimes, the little stones I pick up are things that I mention in conversations, helping me make new friends. Unfortunately, I cannot think of a specific story I have like Dr. Dad-del’s student, but I know that I have been in similar situations as that student.

Academic Prompt: Today during the lab, I finally finished the task about making the robot follow a green line. The trick was to make it turn one way while on the green line and turn the other way when it was off the green line. I also learned how to make tones on my robot. While the light from the windows messed up the shades of the tape on the ground, it was still interesting to learn how to collect the color values. The main new concept I learned is finding tone values. I had to find the frequencies of certain notes to make a song, and researching the frequencies and matching them to the colors was a tedious and interesting process. I truly tried to understand how to complete this task because it will be an important part of the final project I code with Alexis.

Personal Prompt: When I encounter frustrating situations, I always try to breathe and try to approach the problem in a new way than I previously did. Sometimes, these situations cannot be controlled by me, no matter how hard I try, and so I need to try to accept that fact and change my mindset. Frustrating moments also can be there just to test my patience, so I also need to keep calm and composed at all times. I usually handle hard situations well, for I have worked very hard to not let my anger get the best of me. While I do have the moment sit on my mind for hours, I do come to terms with the fact that sometimes, we run into problems that may take hours to days to solve.

Academic Prompt: To represent negative numbers, complex numbers, and floating point numbers, I would create my own simple language. Negative numbers will begin with an arrow pointing left, for negative numbers exist before 0, while positive numbers begin with arrows pointing right, since they only exist after 0. Complex numbers will be shown using whole and negative numbers with an imaginary number (i). i will simply be placed behind the number written. So, a complex number which is 17-14i would be written as 17<-14i. Lastly, floating point numbers will simply be represented with decimal points. So, 3.14 would just be 3.14159 or 7 would simply be 7.00000. 

Personal Prompt: To prepare for tests, I learned that I should make my own practice tests. I usually search up study materials, but now I know that I should make my own and then check it with other resources, like my friend’s study materials. I usually only read my notes, but I now learned that I should annotate my notes with new information when reviewing. Simply reading something is not enough to comprehend the material that was gone over in class, so I need to do something extra.

Academic Prompt:

1. Computers represent floating point numbers by using numpy/np. Numpy helps make long numbers like pi show most of their decimal points. While it does not calculate pi with all of pi, it rounds it to a close enough digit where the answers found are practically the same as the actual number. It is important to keep in mind that the answers found using numpy are not the actual numbers, so if I use numbers like pi to solve sin(pi), the answer I get is not going to be 0, but it will be close to 0. This will make answers slightly different than the actual answer, so I have to be careful when using numpy to solve equations using python.

2. I should use lists when I use numpy arrays only if I may change a value later in the code. Numpy arrays are unchangeable, so they should only be used when there are specific values I need to apply in the code. Numpy arrays in the form of lists can still be changed, meaning, if there are certain values that I want to change, for example on a chart, I should use lists, since those can still be replaced.

Personal Prompt: I always compare myself to others in my classes, but I try to make sure that thinking about them does not interfere with how I do in the class. I think it is healthy motivation, for comparing myself to others helps me realize if I am struggling in class or if I am at the same level as the other people in class. This also helps me know if I should spend more time studying and how I should study.

Academic Prompt: To answer the first question, prime numbers have been used in security and cryptography. When hackers want to take an encrypted message, they have to go through riddles of numbers, solving them and eventually decrypting it to show a message. Prime numbers, due to their nature of being divisible by nothing, are difficult to solve, for they must be solved by fractions and other irregular numbers, making them take extremely long to solve. Prime numbers can rarely be solved, and therefore, can never be used to hack something, helping them protect information on various devices using code with a basis of prime numbers. For the second question, I believe that perfect numbers can never be odd. The equation to find perfect numbers begins with 2^n (2 to the power of n number), and anything divisible by 2 can simply never be a perfect number.

Personal Prompt: I think that writing the journals today was helpful because it helped me plan out what I should do during lab time. The journal simply helped me write down my goal for class, but that goal was unreachable. Reaching the goal and following my plan was always in the back of my mind, causing me to rush while working and try to follow what I wrote, rather than doing what I should do to actually move on. Once I realized this, I began to ignore what I wrote in my journal and worked with the flow, which was significantly more productive. Journals like this are a good way to learn, but not in projects where I have to design something from scratch. If I followed a given outline, it may have been more useful, but when I simply need to figure everything out myself, it creates unnecessary stress for myself.

At the exploratorium today, I saw many wonderful attractions, helping me learn about various topics from the human eye, “systems chaotic”, and how particle accelerators work. All of the attractions are interactive, giving people a chance to figure out how one thing affects another and making it a fun experience.

While looking around, only one thing struck me as something that could connect to a robotics project. Many of the inventions require a lot of space to use, like the Listening Vessels. The Listening Vessels are two large disks (that look like plates) which are placed at least 100 feet away from each other. When someone is inside of one, and if they talk, the other disk will relay the sound, and a person sitting inside the second disk will hear it. The only downside of the Listening Vessels is that if a third person was in the middle of the two disks and began speaking, their voice would interrupt the first person’s statement, and the second person would hear the third person talking, rather than the first person. Therefore, the robot project idea I have is to make a control robot. When there are attractions that require a lot of space where people may walk through, it could guide people around the attraction, helping people enjoy using that invention without a distraction. This robot does not need to be used only for the Listening Vessels, for there are various attractions in the Light Gallery which use a fair amount of space and where people refuse to walk around the attractions. I believe that making a robot like this could make the experience of various attractions much more enjoyable than as of now.

Academic Prompt: Dr. Dad-del took allotted class time to talk about Alexander the Great to show us the importance of education. Alexander the Great conquered several countries, uniting them, and marching on to reach his goal. While his army wished to stop and take breaks, Alexander pushed towards what he wanted, and in the end, he knew that he would die with nothing but what intangible items he owned, aka, his knowledge. When Alexander died, he left behind the idea of the Library of Alexandria, which his successor built. The library was a combination of all the knowledge that people around the empire discovered. What Alexander left behind was an idea to unite the world through information. Dr. Dad-del wanted this to be an analogy for us. We can create as much as we want, but it is what we leave behind that will keep our memory alive. So, what we do in Robotics class does not matter, but what we deliver and how we make an impact with it is how we will be remembered at COSMOS.

Personal Prompt: Today, Alexis and I struggled to find a blueprint for our transforming robot. We spent a good hour scouring the internet and thinking about buying instructions from a vendor online. Eventually, we tried to build a robot which kept falling apart. We were going to scrap the whole project, but we kept on trying to improve our idea until we finally figured out how to properly create a transformer robot. Through our failures, I learned that if something I try does not work, I need to try to improve and change the project. I cannot just scrap it and give up on my original idea, I need to take a new approach to solving the problem, and that is what I did, and we eventually were able to make a stable prototype.

Random walks help model the way certain atoms may be moving throughout the air. Particles always move in random directions, and that may change the viscosity or  temperature of certain objects. When these particles diffuse into their surroundings, their surroundings change. For example, when Carbon Dioxide has a random walk, it may end up diffusing in a body of water, making the water more acidic. Due to this information, I suspect that a particle’s random walk and its diffusion into its surroundings plays an important role in science because it can explain how ecosystems keep their balance and how certain things are formed.

Academic Prompt: The challenge of making the transformer get up has been quite difficult, but me and Alexis have figured out a way to make it work. The color sensor is challenging the code we made, but through testing, we may be able to solve the issue. The color sensor seems to be broken too, so Alexis and I may change the sensor and a bit of the design.

Personal Prompt: I feel like I have dealt with the time constraints fairly well. Alexis and I are nearly done with our project, and I think, even though our project is simple, it is do-able in our time frame and interesting to code. Of course, I have been very frustrated this week because a lot of people say our project will not work and is a bad idea, so I am quite annoyed; however, I am proud of the work Alexis and I did.

From my project in BioPhysics class, I hope to gain a deeper knowledge in Python. These past three weeks are the only weeks I have known how to code in Python, and I am proud of what I learned, but I know there is still much more I can learn. Also, the final project will be the first project students will do themselves, meaning that what I code then will be my own work. While this will be very challenging, I am excited to see the final product. For Robotics, I plan to learn how to be calm when I am frustrated. Today, the robot constantly fell over, even though it worked on friday, which made me very annoyed. From this, I learned that sometimes the robot won’t work, and it would not be my fault, but the fault of the old materials, and I hope to learn how to approach these situations better, even when I am angry. To complete both of these projects, I think I need to stay focused in class. The Robotics project is nearly done, but I know I need to allocate more time to finishing the BioPhysics project, so if I want to complete both projects, I need to be on-task all the time for the next four days.

To finish my project, Alexis and I need to build a cave, decorate it, and finish coding the distance sensor. Tomorrow, Alexis and I will test the bot, since during the 6-8 session, we finished coding the distance sensor. After that, we will complete the cave, and then begin creating the Ignite presentation. For the presentation, I am thinking we will do 30 slides, so one slide every ten seconds.

I think that this philosophy is something I already live by. I like to see how much I have grown, but I also do like comparing myself to others. I can improve my perspective on this topic by comparing myself with others less and documenting my growth in certain areas.

Dr. Dad-del says that all the students learned a tremendous amount in only four weeks of COSMOS, and I agree. I learned how to code in Python and C-Programming, and learning two languages at once was a challenge. On top of this, I used my engineering knowledge to build two robots and code them from scratch, given various tasks to complete. While this may seem like a little bit of work, I had to work from ground 0 to gain the knowledge to code and build, and I am proud of that work.