Article

As part of a class project I wrote an article to go along with my blog. So here is my nearly final draft of what I wrote. Sorry if it's not very legible, taking a screen shot was the only way for me to get it online for you all. 

Blogging update

Hi readers,

Just want to give a little insight into my blogging experience since this is my first blog. I am currently in a seminar class in which we discuss how make a blog effective. We also talk about how online text is changing the way we read and write since the audience is very different from the one we address in physical published works.

Even after my class ends in a couple weeks I plan to maintain this blog at least throughout the June ROV competition, but hopefully as long as I am involved with ROVs. Most of what I've written about is my background story, but Spring quarter is when all the ROV excitement takes place, so I should have plenty to tell you.

I have really enjoyed being able to share my experiences with you and I am so very grateful for your support. I know that when I first started writing this blog you may have struggled to stay interested, but I hope that as I continue to write posts I will develop my skills as a blogger and can help you become more engaged in my story.  I also apologize for not always posting very frequently, my life with pre-med classes, work, and an internship doesn't leave me with much time or energy to write captivating posts  (or any posts) more than once a week.

In relation to that, if there are any specific topics you'd like to see me blog about please let me know. I'm always open to new post ideas and ways to add diversity to my blog. I'd love to know what you'd like to hear about.

Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you!

10 Photos from ROVs

Here are 10 neat photos taken with ROVs. These are images we wouldn't have if it weren't for the great advances in technology that allow us to explore the depths of the sea...

Titanic

http://www.gizmag.com/titanic-expedition-yields-best-images-yet-thanks-to-3d-imaging/16259/picture/121102/ 

Shrimp

http://www.engineerlive.com/Oil-and-Gas-Engineer/Exploration_Drilling/ROV_undertakes_large_scale_photographic_surveys/21744/

Barreleye Fish 

http://www.nowpublic.com/tech-biz/deepwater-barreleye-fish-sports-clear-canopy-1

Coral Reef:

http://oceana.org/en/news-media/publications/oceana-magazine/fall-2011/features/exploring-the-pacific

Giant Squid: 

http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-photos/giant-squid-caught-live-screen 

Titanic (again)

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2004/images/titanic-bow06-2004.jpg 

Sea Turtle:

http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-photos/green-sea-turtle

Nautilus:

http://blog.conservation.org/2011/03/indonesia-expedition-marine-life-abounds-raja-ampat/

Jelly Fish: 

http://www.oceaneering.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/dssi-2007-celebes-sea.jpg

Seahorse: 

http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-photos/longspine-seahorse

Which one is your favorite? 

ROV Competition Videos

Just to give you a visual for what the ROV Competition is like I found a coupld YouTube videos for you to check out

This first one is from last years competition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEZc6gcGe7A&list=UUOVz75VtSRVup4pnjOexkVA&index=1

And this one is from 2007 when I was at the international competition. You can see my team's name "P.T. Crews H.E.R." at time 2:00! And you can see us in a crowd at the beginning, but I don't expect you to recognize me...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeFctnv5vVIvVI

Enjoy!

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day

Guess what today is? Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day!

The field of engineering consists predominately of men. Our society it slated against women being involved in science and technology. Today is a day to recognize this imbalance and to encourage girls and young women to be more involved in science and engineering.

One of my friends, who is going into engineering, posted this on her facebook page today and I thought it wouls be a great thing to share with you

http://vitaminw.co/society/women-engineering-hall-fame 

If you'd like another resource to look at or a place of support for women in science here is a link to the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) website: http://www.awis.org/ I am involved in their university club on Western Washington University's campus and it has been a great resource for me.

Have a great day encouraging the girls and women in your life!

Year One

When I decided to start the club here at Western Washington University I went to the Associated Students (AS) and asked how to go about making our club official. There were three main steps: find five members, write a club constitution, and go to a AS council meeting where they ask about the purpose of your club and make it official. Those steps weren't too hard to complete. My brother, Erik, was interested in joining and so was his roommate and one of my friends. The fifth (and sixth) members found out about the club through an announcement I made in my chemistry class.

I thought it was great that we had a variety of majors in our club: Kinesiology, Geology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Plastics Engineering, and Electrical Engineering. The downside of our very diverse club was discovered very quickly. We didn't have enough experienced engineers to solve our electronic dilemmas. The method of circuit building I had used for many years wasn't compatible with the power requirements of the university level competition and we didn't know how to adjust our design to make it work

This is when things started falling apart. Before Spring Break our budget authority was asked to place a purchase for the necessary parts. But without anyone's knowledge, except for our budget authority's, the items were placed on back order and would not arrive on time. And this person went AWAL a couple weeks before the qualifier, so we had no way to get the info we needed so change the order or place a new one. And time was of the essensce

We were at a total loss and I spent 15min every afternoon in my chem professors office discussing our options. The day before the competition we buckled down and made a make shift system with LED lights to in our circuit in an attempt to lower the voltage across the motors (something the expensive, and missing parts, were supposed to do). By midnight, we had motors and cameras held to our frame with zip-ties. Our ROV looked like something you'd find in the junk yard. But it was built. We named it Njörðr [nyawrd] which is a Norse god associated with the sea.

All we had to do before leaving for the competition in 6.5hrs was test it. We had never been able to find a power supply that would give us 48V and 40amps. So...we did what any dumb desperate college students would do. We used 4 car batteries, two of which were still in cars. It was a dark parking lot, it was raining, and, well, there were some sparks, some screams, and lots of racing hearts. And the result? When I held the controller in my hands and flipped the switch to move the motors the lights turned on, but the motors didn't turn. 

It was very disappointing. The hours and hours we'd spent over the last two quarters finding dedicated members, raising money, and building the ROV, were gone. And we had nothing but a square PVC frame with yellow and green lights to show for it. But we had fun and decided that things could only go up from there. And they have!

Monday Memory: Starting ROV club at WWU

Throughout my next three years of high school I focused on school and sports. I didn't really care about ROVs anymore. I was enjoying being in public school (I was taught at home from 1st through 10th grade) and the new friends I made there. I liked being one of the top girls on cross country team, the only triple jumper in track and running the 4x400m relay and competing at State. I preferred being the cross country and track team captain over a robots team captain. Then when I started school at Western Washington University I was offered a seat on the Women's Rowing Team (which for those of you who haven't heard of them, they won nationals 7 years in a row). I spent about over 25hrs a week at rowing practices. 

My sophomore year I decided I didn't have time to row anymore. Waking up at 4:10am every morning meant having to go to bed at 8:00pm if I wanted to be half awake during my classes. Constant exhaustion (and no break on Saturday), cold and rainy weather, blistered hands, and a lack of social life didn't quite out weight my love of rowing under the stars, watching the sun rise, making amazing friends, and being a varsity athlete on the #1 DII rowing team in the nation. Sometimes I wish I still rowed, but then I think about all of the things I get to do now, that I couldn't have done otherwise.

My favorite class I've taken so far at WWU was General Chemistry. Why? My professor. He was new to the university setting, but that made it even better. He had taught middle/high school student before so the analogies to tricycles and s'mores made chemistry easy to grasp. He was also the kind of professor that was able to get the class to actually WANT to ask/answer questions in class. By the end of the second week of class he knew the names of all 200 students. He was always blowing things up in class. By the end of the first quarter I was considering changing my major to Chemistry. 

Right before Christmas break my professor started out the class time telling us about research opportunities on campus and that if we want to go to grad school we need to do something to make ourselves stand out. He ended his pep talk with: "If any of you want to build robots, come talk to me". That was it! That was the moment when I knew I wanted to get back into building ROVs again. I thought about the time commitment over break and when I got back in January I went to his office and talked over my idea to start a ROV club on campus. He agreed to be our clubs mentor and helped me get the resources I needed. (He is also the one that convinced me I was capable of pursuing medical school and shouldn't hold myself back, but shoot for the starts.)

The first year as a club was a rough one. We (all 5 of us) started late and the only money we had was the $50 that my professor gave us to get started. 

More to come....