Robots Ate My Job!

Click here to learn more at marketplace.org

Monski Pong!

Niki has integrated some flex sensors (resistors) with an Arduino to control a straightforward "Pong" style game. Nice!:

"Fail Early, Fail Often"

You all have heard me say this a lot lately. Don't take my word for it, here's some data from the Marshmallow Challenge:




We've done a lot of "Design-Build" challenges in our classes, should we give this one a go?

Here's a screenshot from the video that cuts to the heart of the issue. If each marshmallow from the diagram is an attempt, why is it that the Kindergartner's end result consistently outperform MBA students by more than 100%?:

Pneumatics!

Stan, Ruy and Armando have built the first operational piston system for our Machine Control Capstone Project. Nice job guys!

? - How could you employ this system in your robotic marble sorting solution?

Working on Solutions

Joe, John and Kingston in progress on solving one aspect of their marble sorting robot!:

Kinect-a-thon

Nice job Jackson:

Mobile Game Development: Enrichment Lesson 2!

Hi All,

Thanks for a great class this afternoon.

Between now and next week, please do the following:

1) What's a "game"? Come up with a short definition of a game (the shorter the better!). If you made bullet points, what would the key aspects of a game be? Keep it to three or four ideas.

2) Watch the Orb Smasher tutorial. The tutorial is about 45 minutes. It can be found on the learning corona website.

3) What questions do you have? Create a list of any questions you have about Corona SDK or using Lua. These questions will help me adjust our experience.

Don't Lose These!

Dear Principles of Engineering Students,

Please do not lose any of these sensitive items! We only have enough for one for each group:



These items are essential to the pneumatic systems we can integrate into our capstone projects.

What are pneumatics? How are they similar and different to hydraulics?

Click here to find an image of how we can set up a pneumatic compression system for our Fischertechnik kits.

#4!!!

"In the history of space flight, only four entities have launched a space capsule into orbit and successfully brought it back to earth..."

Who is Elon Musk? Why should you care?



?- What is Entrepreneurship?

?- How close did Space X come to failing?

?- Describe a moment where Elon's resilience played a role in the company persevering with their efforts.

?- Describe a problem that the Space X team overcame.

Kinect Projects

I'd like to see our Kinect team make some progress on something awesome. Maybe this would be a good first effort?:
You can find more out about this (including the processing code) here.

Fest!

The San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering! Starting tomorrow and running through next week.

CSF Connect-a-thon!

The Coronado Schools Foundation (CSF) supports our school with money that's not availbale from the state. Our program depends on this help!


Please click through here to see the Connect-a-thon tonight!

2nd Annual Egg Drop Challenge!

We will conduct the 2nd Annual Engineering Egg Drop Challenge next week!

Your goal is to design and implement a solution for our client that allows us to drop an egg from our class balcony onto the concrete below without it breaking.



The PLTW 12 Step Iterative Design Process (click to enlarge):




Our agenda for Egg Drop Week (next week) supports an iterative design process:

Monday is "Prep Day"
Team up with a partner
Define the challenge, criteria and constraints.
Brainstorm solutions.
Identify materials to bring in for "Build Day" (block day)

You must bring in the materials you want to use for Block Day!


Block Day is "Build Day"
Use the materials you've brought in to realize the vision of your design.
Crash test dummy eggs will be provided.
You may test your design off the balcony


Thursday is "Test Day"
Click here to see correct drop technique.


Friday is "Iteration Day"
Redesign as necessary.
Reimplement your design.
Capture your experience in your portfolio.


Score
An Achievement System will be used to score your effort on this activity.
The number one priority in this effort is to not make a permanent mess (no Jello, materials that will stain, etc. If you have any question about materials, please see Mr. Olson).
Our next priority is to have a great time solving this challenge! :)
Please note that all materials used in your solution must be "delivered" from the launch location (you may not place additional material on the target from the ground for instance).

"Don't Hate The Player,..."

"...Hate The Game..."

We've been playing Diplomacy in our Engineering Projects class. The game can be cut throat but it's a great tool for practicing our negotiation skills.





Negotiation is at the heart of business and business is at the heart of developing innovative technical projects. Our engineers will be better armed to drive future change!

Machine Control: Capstone Project 2012!

Welcome to our Principles of Engineering Machine Control (Robotics!) Capstone Project for the 2011-2012 school year. This is an exciting opportunity to work with your partners to develop a unique solution to an open-ended problem.

You will earn "Achievements" based on both the process you apply and the product you build. The team that earns the most "Achievements" wins!

This project is worth 7 points per week we spend on it and is capped at a maximum of 25 points. The top team will earn 100%. The second place team will earn a 92%. The third place team will earn an 89% and the fourth team will earn 85%.


Process Achievements:

Organize it!: Title your post and organize it by section in a logical manner.

Brainstorm!: Provide at least four of your team’s brainstorming ideas for the design solution. This should include brainstorming sketches. Each sketch should include labels and descriptions for communication.

CAD!:
Use our Inventor CAD software to model a prototype or your final design. Post screenshots of your model.

Enter the Matrix: Evaluate your solution ideas (4 minimum) using a decision matrix. Determine the best solution to the problem. Explain your rating system and share insight on why you rated your solutions as you did.

Design Solution: Create a detailed pictorial sketch or use 3D modeling software to document the best solution, based upon your team’s decision matrix. Your sketch or 3D model should include a rationale for the design selected as the final design solution. Each sketch should include labels and descriptions for communication.

"I've Made a Few Special Modifications...": Document modifications made to your design during implementation. Explain the reason for the modifications and describe how the new design solution will solve the problem. "Story" is the split between expectation and outcome. Tell us a story regarding what your plan was and how it actually came out! Use photos and sketches to call out three changes. (Nerd points if you know where the quote for this Achievement title comes from)

Final Implementation: This section will showcase your final hardware and software solution. Include photos of your hardware and program. Call out atleast three key features of your design that were significant to its performance. Report how your solution performed in the challenge.

Final Implementation - Video!: Embed a video that showcases your solution in action!

Reflection: Adress the four feedback types that we use in our courses (+, -, ?, !). Solicit feedback from someone outside of your team as well.
Some questions to consider in this section: How well did you accomplish your objectives? What would your team do differently with your design solution and why? Do the results fulfill the problem statement? Provide a brief explanation of what you learned, the challenges of working in a design team, and the purpose of the design problem.

Reference: Post a hotlink to material you referenced on the internet. Explain why this information is significant to your project.


Product Achievements:

Marble Sorting (some achievments scored multiple times):
Sort one marble (x1)
Sort two marbles (x1)
Sort three marbles (x1)
Sort four marbles (x1)
Sort four marbles (x2)
Sort five marbles (x1)
Sort five marbles (x2)
Sort five marbles (x3)


Sorting Speed (15 marbels total: 3ea of 5 types):
Process 15 marbles in less than 2:00 minutes.
Process 15 marbles in less than 1:45 minutes.
Process 15 marbles in less than 1:30 minutes.
Process 15 marbles in less than 1:15 minutes.
Process 15 marbles in less than 1:00 minute.
Process 15 marbles in less than 45 seconds.
Process 15 marbles in less than 30 seconds.


Marble Delivery (may use non-fischertechnik materials to create a "hopper" to drop marbles into for "Drop" achievements):
Drop marbles from 6" above machine
Drop marbles from 1' above machine
Drop marbles from 2' above machine
Drop marbles from 6' above machine



Systems (not including motor or piston used to charge your pressure vessel):
Use one piston
Use two pistons
Use pneumatics but less than three pistons
Use at least one motor

Paradigm Shift

The challenge:



A solution:



Choose a video from the Khan Academy that is relevant to your current course load (for instance some students were talking about a Chemistry test so maybe something related to that?).

Provide "sustain" (positive) and "change" feedback regarding your experience with using the video to supplement your learning.

"Sustain" - what works well for you with the video you chose?

"Change" - Is there anything you would change regarding the video or the concept of "flipping the classroom".

In your opinion, could "flipping the classroom" work out? Should education institutions work towards this new paradigm?

Post the video you watched and your feedback to the above questions in a post on your blog. Thanks!

Seven - Eight - Seven

...in San Diego:

Machine Control: Elevator!

STUXNET

Please Turn Off Word Verification...

Word verification makes it really tedious for people (me!) to leave feedback on your blogs. I'm awarding everyone 1 point for a "word verification" test score in Edline. Starting Tuesday, if I have to enter a word verification on a blog comment at any point for the remainder of the semester, I'm removing that "1" and replacing it with a "0".


Explore your blog's control panel, talk with a peer or google how to turn off word verification (there's already a post with instructions on this blog no less!).