WYSE: Mechanical Enginnering Day 1
Today I arrived at UIUC, got adjusted into my dorm room, and prepared for the afternoon orientation, activity, and dinner.
The dorms are a very differnet experience from the dorms I went to at the 4-H UIUC ECE Camp. Those dorms were brand new and clean, but these dorms are rustic, antiquated. I can tell this experience will be very different (and useful!).
Everything in these dorms are smaller, more cozy. My Roommate, Jackson, is a really smart guy, from the Chicago Suburbs. He’s very interested in Civil Enginnering, but that camp (made avaliable here) was for girls only, so he joined Mechanical Engineering, another interest of his. Our dorm rooms are connected by bathrooms, so I’ve also made good friends with Josh Johnson, from Kentucky, and Matteo (Matt), from Illinois.
In the afternoon, we went through orentation, and then attended an afternoon introductury activity. We met our professor Joe Muskin and our camp counselors.
We did some Icebreakers, and a Design Challenge of trying to send two balloons down a zip line, having the first one safely land and a second one behind it pop on the way down.
I worked with Jackson in a team, and we created a one-way lever system, having the first ballon push the structure over to reveal spikes for the second ballon to run into.
And… It was a success! Although the spikes were not what popped the second ballon, but the supports that kept the structure up that were knocked over.
Also, each night before we sleep we meet with everyone, then with our night counselor. Firstly, at each night meeting with everyone, people get the opportunity to shout out anything going on with somebody else that they know. So, perfect opportunity for Jackson/Matt/Josh to shout out my birthday tomorrow, maybe?
Our night councelor’s name is Travis.
He is very real with us as a college student, letting us ask questions about the experience in college. A few things he pointed out were the imoprtance of time management and that “all sleepless nights are self inflicted”. Also, apparently UIUC is a big party school, not just for frat kids, but almost any student led organization (club) will throw parties, which is nice for socializing.
Anyways! We are working on an overall project of building a 3D Printer every day each morning, and we have several engineering activites each afternoon. I will be revisiting the UIUC cleanroom tomorrow afternoon! There are also apparently nighttime activities, not sure how those will work. Also, Counselors said we will have to wait on eating Lunch out at different places until later; I mentioned Seoul Taco off of Green Street, and Travis said he’d heard of it, went there as a freshman, and agreed with me that it’s good. At least the dorm food is still as good as we expected!
WYSE Posts:
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6
