Rae La Soul

I promise this will not be a geek post in it’s entirety, but prepare to enter geekdom for a minute.

I started my first full week of classes this week, began my project in the lab, and I also transitioned into my role as Robotics instructor for the high school engineering camp here on campus. Things are definitely moving and moving full speed ahead. I decided to completely bar all interaction with social media if it isn’t conducive and beneficial for my roles. I have noticed that I’ve been able to get much more done without allowing to be distracted by social media.

 

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, my project for the summer is to create the “skin” for a humanoid robot (a robot that resembles a human) using software to design 3-D objects and then create those objects with a 3-D printer. I’m still in the beginning stages with learning to software and how to actually design body parts and I’m still pretty intrigued.

I’ve started with the arms (pictured above) and it’s honestly not as easy as it sounds and definitely not as easy as I thought it would be. The machine used to create these parts is listed below. There’s so much to be taken into consideration when calculating the measurements while designing. But since this will most likely be what my project/thesis will consist of to complete my Master’s, I still have plenty of time to get everything right.

As far as my Robotics courses for my students, things are going pretty slowly but we’re progressing. I’m not sure who’s more ready to get to the assembling and programming of the robots–me or the students. Of course I understand that there is a process that needs to be followed so that concepts are understood correctly, but my 9th & 10th graders would prefer to skip that part. My juniors and seniors have a better understanding. And to me, since they’re a bit older and the group is smaller, I’m a bit more comfortable and less strict with them.

Speaking of my students, I know many of you follow me on Instagram so you saw when I posted the photos below after the ESI Parents Workshop. I was told the day that I found out I would be teaching the Robotics courses that I would have to give a brief introduction of the course and introduce myself. I wasn’t a bit nervous and that’s probably because since I’ve started graduate school, I’ve been presenting and speaking before crowds. Everyone seemed amazed at my role as a graduate student, researcher, and an instructor. As I looked out at those in attendance, I saw smiles all over the room and that was a really wonderful feeling. And the applause after my speech was extremely satisfying.

I met several parents who came up to me after the program was over to introduce themselves to me personally, but whom also wanted to know more about what I did and what I do and how inspiring my story was. One student in particular (the one above in blue) and I held a nice, lengthy conversation about the field of robotics and his interests.

And it dawned on me that I am truly in love with all that I do.