Research and Working EQ

1.  What is your working EQ?
What is the most important factor in winning a FIRST tech challenge?

2.  What is a possible answer to your working EQ? Please write the answer in thesis format.  

• One of the most important factors in winning a FIRST tech Challenge is communication with all members and willingness to cooperate and listen.

3.  What is the most important source you have used that has helped you come up with an answer to your working EQ? 
My most important source that i've used have been my mentor as well as my meetings with my team. The second most important source would have to be the resource site of the competition. They have pushed me to believe that team work is the highest priority in this game.
4.  Who is your mentor, or where are you volunteering, and how does what you are doing relate to your working EQ?

My mentor is Joseph Uken who is with the Cal Poly Engineering and Robotics Club. He is also running the robotics club with iPoly and i'm in the club which makes it pertinent to my EQ. My EQ revolves around our group based robotics project and it involves many aspects of engineering and mechanical work.

Independent Component 1 Approval

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

For my 30 hours of independent component, i will attend meetings and group sessions of the robotics club and I will also be working on my own on the robot. I will meet with mentors at least once a week to discuss problems, ideas, and other topics related to the robot and the robotics club. This will provide me with the learning experience as well as the in depth analysis of my senior project. The meetings usually will consist of the entire mechanical group meeting with the mentor of the mechanical department as we discuss changes and ideas for the robot with the mentor guiding us and giving feedback on our ideas as well as teaching us what will, and what won't work. The group sessions will usually be the mechanical department, and I tinkering with the robot and formulating new ideas as well as creating the actual robot. 

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

I will bring photos, as well as physical documentation of the work we did each evening as well as keeping my own personal log of notes for the day. The photos will be of the mechanical department and i meeting and brainstorming as well as working. The log will be of changes we made and troubleshooting we did while working on the robot and my own notes will be on anything and everything i deem important enough for me to write down.

3.  And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

My topic is robotics and the way i'll be able to explore my topic more in depth is by working hands on with robots. I will be working with experts from cal poly in the fields of mechanical engineering as well as software design so i will be in contact with a lot of people who know what they're doing. This will enable me to learn from them as well as work on my senior project when i work on the robot. 

Meeting with the Robotics Club

As part of the Inland Empire Robotics club which im pursuing as my mentorship, we periodically have meetings where we discuss the direction of the robot and we also do many other things related to the robotics club and whatnot.

At our last meeting, we sat together to discuss design ideas and jotted them down on a board and discussed the pros and cons of each one. We also discussed programming guidelines and chose roles within the team according to our strengths. Then we also took care of basic housecleaning duties such as setting up the next meeting and figuring out what the team should be doing next. We also had a visitor from another team like ours but the difference was that they were more experienced and they brought a robot to show us what kind of things we'll be doing. I took photos of our design idea board and of the robot.

This is a picture of the robot the more experienced team brought along to show us. It is a robot specifically for display only and they use it to help promote robotics

This is a picture of the design idea board. We came up with many ideas and just drew them on the board before compiling a list of what would be best.

This is the list of the best ideas that we came up with and it includes small drawings to help remind us of what the name meant. This board is necessary for helping decide a final design.

Second Interview Questions

Content: 
The purpose of the second interview is justify your mentor as an expert in the field.  Thus, you will be asking at least 5 questions about their background and/or the background of the organization or company where they work.

1.  Who is your mentor and where do they work?

My mentors are Taylor Halsey and Joey Uken. They are currently senior students in the Cal-Poly Engineering department.

2.  What five questions will ask them about their background?

1. What is your major and why did you choose it?

2. What kind of work in robotics have you done other than FIRST?

3. What classes did you take and how important were they for working in this field and participating in this competition?

4. What kind of degree do you hope to achieve and how do you think you're going to get there?

5. What kinds of classes are typical of engineering students and which ones are necessary when you're working in robotics?

Blog 5: Project Reflection and Working EQ

So far, you have: completed your summer mentorship, started doing some research, maybe completed the interview and hopefully found a mentor.

Using what you have done so far, answer the following 5 questions (be specific and use examples).

The Pentagon:
(1) Positive Statement: What positive thing happen as a result of what you have completed so far?

A positive thing that has happened so far as a result of the senior project is that i have come in contact with a team of highly educated individuals who work toward a common goal of building a robot. I have met many people whom i will personally get to know better by the end of this year. I have also gained access to lots of volunteer opportunities as well as opportunities for scholarships through a program with my interviewee.

(2) EQ Content:  Pick a piece of research or your interview.  How has it helped you improve your understanding of your topic?

My interviewee and the environment that i interviewed her in has really opened my eyes to the world of robotics and team based competition through her organization. It helped me understand robotics more through the process it takes to work in the field and my mentor has also helped me understand what kind of person it requires to work on a project like robotics.

(3) What has worked for you so far in the senior project?

Nothing really worked well until recently when i was contacted about a robotics team that i had signed up for. Emailing has been a really important and integral part of working on the senior project. Keeping contacts and schedules and dates are also very important during the project. The main thing that has really worked in the senior project is talking to Purther maintains the senior project and knows it as his own child. It has been fantastic to be able to ask Purther questions about the project anytime after school. All in all, the project has been fair to me so far and has been very helpful.

(4) What hasn't worked so far?

Things that haven't worked so far include emailing the governmental websites, calling forestry services, and contacting people. Emailing has been very spotty sometimes bringing me gold, and other times leaving me staring at my email list for hours on end into the wee hours of the night. There have also been instances where i've had trouble finding research that works with my non-existent EQ so i found the first couple research checks pointless.

(5) Finding Value:

•  What is a potential question you would like to study this year?  (working EQ)

My working EQ could be something like "What is the most important factor in winning a FIRST Tech Challenge?"

•  What do you plan to do for mentorship?  If you haven't found a mentor yet, then discuss where you are currently looking and who you are talking to to find it.  

I have a mentorship set up with the event coordinator of a major robotics competition and many sub-competitions. I also am part of a robotics team that has many mentors and i am also currently enlisted under many engineering majors at Cal Poly. This should help me set up many different moments to learn.

Final Topic

Good news! I finally decided on my final topic that I follow through with until the rest of the year. My topic is robotics. I went through many different topics before i finally came to rest on this one. The first topic i had was computer repair, after that it was interior design which is completely different. After that didn't pan out, i decided to go into wildlife management and hopefully find somebody who could mentor me. While waiting for people to respond to phone calls and emails, i received a call from someone who said they were part of a robotics team and they asked me if i was still willing to join. I remembered afterward that i had signed up to be contacted to join a robotics team sometime during junior year. I decided that if i was going to invest my time into an extracurricular, i could also use that to my benefit and make it into my senior project. Also, robots are cool so why not make an awesome senior project out of it. So all in all, it took me 4 different attempts to finally find a working senior topic and mentor.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/489098247844023/
{Here is the facebook page for the robotics group}

Blog 4: Interview Preparation

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  Why?

I plan to interview Taylor Halsey, a senior engineering major at Cal Poly Pomona. I recently decided to change my final topic to one that will be most beneficial to me and my senior year. I chose robotics for my topic. I did not choose to interview Taylor but when i asked the robotics team who would be suit being a possible mentor for me, she was recommended. They recommended I interview her because she is a senior on the topic, she is knowledgeable on the topic and she had volunteered to be one of the teams mentors already which made it not much more work for her which I had to take into consideration.

2.  You have to ask 5 questions.  What additional questions do you plan to ask?  Ask open-ended questions.  What are open-ended questions? Click here! If that doesn't help, try this one.  Click here!

1. What sort of work do you prefer doing in this field and why?
2. From your work experience, what sort of qualities seem most necessary in working with robotics?
3. What can i expect through working on a topic like this?
4. What kinda classes did you take to become a part of this program and become a mentor?
5. Describe an average day involving programs like this.
6. What was your most memorable event while working with robots or a team?
7. What aspect of robotics drew you into this field and why?