Projects
Creative chaos
Hello world!
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In early college, I was the president of the UW/Roosevelt High School FIRST robotics team, a project that became my life for several years.
The project was very much run like a start-up. The build and travel cost was around 55k per year, so I worked with a business school student who helped us write grant proposals and raise funds.
The premise of the competion was that once the year's challenge was revealed, teams had six weeks to design and build a large (~6 x 4 ft) robot to solve that year's task. Robots were subject to build, size, parts, and budget constraints.
At the end of the six weeks, all robots had to be crated and shipped to the competition.
While the build cycle itself was only six weeks, the effort was year-round. Outside of the build process, I led our year-round operations, including coordinating technical training in metalworking, video editing, and 3D animation.
The six week build was intense: we had to develop a strategy, build prototypes, decide on a final direction, manufacture all of the parts in the machine shop, wire the electronics (including an autonomous mode), and constantly test and debug.
In addition, the robot drivers needed to have access to the robot to practice maneuvering it for the competion. On top of the main robot build, we had to create a website and produce 3D animations and videos of the robot for sub-competitions.
My job was to lead the strategic discussions, ensure that all of the subteams stayed aligned and that everyone had everything that they needed, make sure that each subteam was getting access to the robot at least for some time, and to fight any fires that came up.
This was my first exposure to the world of startups, and I loved every moment of the intensity, rapid creativity and problem solving, pivoting on a dime, and having to be everything everywhere all at once.
One April Fools, some of my friends from the Robotics team and I decided to equip a trash can with wheels, motors, a mike, and a squirt gun, and drive it around campus, begging passers-by for trash (and squirting non-compliers). The project went off brilliantly!
Here's an article about it in UW's Electrical Engineering news that calls it "one of the best April Fools stunts ever pulled off on campus."
I was always sad that so few Burning Man mutant vehicles were interactive. I thought about the problem for a bit and decided that what the world needed was a giant roving interactive piano art car.
I got a group of people together (many vets of the TrashBot and FIRST), and we made it happen over the course of a few months. The finished art car
consisted of a 15' by 25' functional (via electric keyboards) grand piano built around the bed of a Ford F250. The front of the piano (back of the truck) had a platform with a piano bench that musicians could jump onto and start playing,
with a microphone for those who wanted to sing. We built speakers into the piano lid.
The bed of the truck had a cushioned lounge area for the audience. It was great!
Search and Rescue Land Navigation Hybrid Course
Rangering
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Hello world!
Lorem Ipsum
In early college, I was the president of the UW/Roosevelt High School FIRST robotics team, a project that became my life for several years.
The project was very much run like a start-up. The build and travel cost was around 55k per year, so I worked with a business school student who helped us write grant proposals and raise funds.
The premise of the competion was that once the year's challenge was revealed, teams had six weeks to design and build a large (~6 x 4 ft) robot to solve that year's task. Robots were subject to build, size, parts, and budget constraints.
At the end of the six weeks, all robots had to be crated and shipped to the competition.
While the build cycle itself was only six weeks, the effort was year-round. Outside of the build process, I led our year-round operations, including coordinating technical training in metalworking, video editing, and 3D animation.
The six week build was intense: we had to develop a strategy, build prototypes, decide on a final direction, manufacture all of the parts in the machine shop, wire the electronics (including an autonomous mode), and constantly test and debug.
In addition, the robot drivers needed to have access to the robot to practice maneuvering it for the competion. On top of the main robot build, we had to create a website and produce 3D animations and videos of the robot for sub-competitions.
My job was to lead the strategic discussions, ensure that all of the subteams stayed aligned and that everyone had everything that they needed, make sure that each subteam was getting access to the robot at least for some time, and to fight any fires that came up.
This was my first exposure to the world of startups, and I loved every moment of the intensity, rapid creativity and problem solving, pivoting on a dime, and having to be everything everywhere all at once.
One April Fools, some of my friends from the Robotics team and I decided to equip a trash can with wheels, motors, a mike, and a squirt gun, and drive it around campus, begging passers-by for trash (and squirting non-compliers). The project went off brilliantly! Here's an article about it in UW's Electrical Engineering news that calls it "one of the best April Fools stunts ever pulled off on campus."
I was always sad that so few Burning Man mutant vehicles were interactive. I thought about the problem for a bit and decided that what the world needed was a giant roving interactive piano art car.
I got a group of people together (many vets of the TrashBot and FIRST), and we made it happen over the course of a few months. The finished art car
consisted of a 15' by 25' functional (via electric keyboards) grand piano built around the bed of a Ford F250. The front of the piano (back of the truck) had a platform with a piano bench that musicians could jump onto and start playing,
with a microphone for those who wanted to sing. We built speakers into the piano lid.
The bed of the truck had a cushioned lounge area for the audience. It was great!
Search and Rescue Land Navigation Hybrid Course
Rangering
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