It's finally the weekend! It’s a beautiful day.
Breakfast was late at 9.30am instead of the usual 7am, so we could sleep in and wake up later.
And it's play time - at least - at the studio.
Pappalardo Lab was closed for the weekend and only Studio 7 was open from 10am to 5pm today as they wanted us to get some rest.
Hei Kern:
"Today, competition participants, or me at least, felt the importance of the Pappalardo lab in the building of our robot. Because only Studio 7 was open, there was very little that we can actually do on the robot. We just did planning for Monday and mostly solid modelling on the computer. It felt almost like we were handicapped. But it is cool to realize how important the Pappalardo lab is to us in fabricating our parts."
Kelly:
"Since only Studio 7 was open today, so we spent most of the day discussing about our strategy and the design of our robots. We have several new ideas which I hope we will have enough time to execute."
Yong Cheng:
"Paparlardo Lab will not be open till Monday comes. So we couldn’t really complete most of the machining work today except to disassemble and assemble some parts and to make some tweaks in between. This break is actually good because the time allows us to rethink our strategies and designs. Besides that, we have more time for ourselves to have fun in Boston!"
Edward:
"I miss the Pappalardo Lab."
Ian:
"A descriptive picture that unfolded in the Studio:
Teams that blazed through robot-building were discovering problems with their design and strategies. Others who were lucky enough to hit the nail on their first try, showed off their most complex creations on the contest table. To be precise, what was once thought to be difficult on the previous day, like putting the police car on the dome was proven to be in fact a manageable task (as displayed by one of the teams). Of course, in view of their superb effort, everyone watched on and cheered.
Strategies had to be thought through again, to be re-invented; such sensitive information contributed in no small part to blatant sharing between teams - but, paradoxically, the contest is meant to be collaborative effort too. Computers being used for 3D modelling were becoming a rarity as teams started using all their manpower to build their painstakingly designed robots. Longer queues formed to use the few machines available at the Studio. The helpers were overwhelmed by numerous requests from teams; it is quite often that someone would interrupt your discussion with a helper. Though not so obvious, amidst the intensity, one could observe that, no doubt, everyone was having a great time."
Tat Leong:
"As of now, we have 3 more working days left to the robot completion date and we still do not have a single robot done yet. This got me really stressed up. The leader (Laura) is quite lost (trying to put things across as subtly as possible) and she just planned a timeline that is impossible and is equivalent to not planning anything. In the end, I had to take over and make a more feasible plan for the group. It feels kinda weird how a guy who has not made a robot before tells the rest with more experience what to do. The worst part is none of us are good at the practical work so even if our ideas are good, we spend a very long time trying to materialise the idea.
This experience made me reflect on how desirable diversity is if there is no effective communication. There may be an increase in varied perspectives but the effectiveness of bringing ideas across to the others may be dampened by the ability to express our ideas in a medium that everyone can understand. For example, Laura is quite impatient so sometimes she just gets really pissed when Maeda cannot explain himself to her and then he’ll just give up. I guess besides diversity, you need team players as well."
Jin Kai:
"Some teams are really far ahead in terms of making their robot(s). For my team, we took a 'lego' approach, so all we have are assorted parts required to assemble our robots. The pressure's on, we have 3+ days left to build and test our robots and tempers are running high. Crossing my fingers and hoping we'll get through this in one piece!"
Guan Xun:
"Today was a more relaxing and less intensive day as compared to the previous days in IDC Robocon. The machine shop was closed for the day so we couldn't get much building done. Instead, what my team mainly did was to discuss design ideas and come up with tangible measurements for the designs. I feel that without prior design and planning, the process of building something will take a lot more time. Last time, I might have approached building a part of a robot by just first starting out with a piece of material and working from there. But that requires just too much change, improvement and modification before you can make it work like how you want it to. Essentially, design first, don't waste your time! I guess all that sounds like common sense, but it really is a different experience when you go through it."
LUNCH BREAK
Edward:
"We got a break from the boring (..but tasty) sandwich lunch."
Guan Xun:
"For lunch, as there wasn't the regular bagged lunches, my group and a few other guys from France and China headed down to a nearby Chinese restaurant. I was glad the place was empty because the amount of noise that we made! It was pretty cool because the Chinese ordered for us at the restaurant, and there was a lot of exchange between the people of different countries.
Besides the French and Chinese, there was also an American (American Korean) and a Japanese. Oh and me, the Singaporean! So what we winded up doing was exchanging currencies (well really it was the Chinese who wanted to collect notes from different countries) for fun. Something fresh at this restaurant was that after the meal, fortune cookies were served, complete with the lucky numbers and all, so that was pretty fun."
Ian:
"During lunch time, we visited the MIT Coop (derived from Co-Op) in the Stratton Student Center. The amazing MIT coop sells MIT merchandise that caters to students, would-be students and people who would like to be MIT students but can't (Like most of us). Of all of the merchandise the Coop sells, MIT shirts and sweaters are the best, as you will see, if you are nerdy enough to understand them."
Maxwell's equations shirt:
http://museum.mit.edu/nom150/entries/1308
Maths shirt:
http://alumweb.mit.edu/upload/OR/MIT_T-Shirt_21397.jpg
Caltech shirt:
Funny math shirt:
SOCCER TIME
After 5pm, everyone was chased out of the Studio by the helpers. You see. It was difficult to stop us from building our robots. But we needed a well-deserved breather. And what better is there to forge international friendship than to play soccer?
We went for a simple subway dinner at the Student centre. At "six-and-a-half", we made our way to the lush green field for soccer with the rest of the Robocon participants from different countries.
We broke up into 4 teams made of different nationalities to play against one another. Some people from MIT and beyond joined in to play with us too. There were about 30 to 40 people in total. Darkness fell at 8.30pm and we retreated back to Baker House.
GX:
"There were Brazilians, South Koreans, Japanese and Americans there so there was definitely some skill on display. It was fun but tiring, and exercising in this weather is great at first, but as I'm not used to the humidity (or the lack of), my mouth and throat quickly got dry. But it's still cooler and more enjoyable to play outdoors here. I heard that it gets nasty in the winter here in Boston though."
Edward:
"We finally got to play soccer with guys from Korean, Brazil, Japan, China, Morocco, USA, and Singapore. It was a great mix of styles but we linked up just fine! I am glad to declare that soccer is indeed the world's local language. Really appreciate the effort from Lucas and Dan in organising the game (: Highlight of the day was Kelly and Kelsey though, they were impressive!
After everyone left, 7 of us from Singapore stayed back to carry on the game with this friendly Nigerian dude. I-dont-know-whats-his-name is an undergrad studying in DC and is here for a summer research programme at MIT. It’s nice to be able to just chat and play with anyone you meet, people here are really open and friendly. (:"
Hei Kern:
"We had a bout of soccer matches!! Although I am not particularly good at playing soccer, I love playing sports so we had a whale of a time. There was once we had such a clear goal, but we did not score. It was because I kicked the ball in the wrong direction. Oh My God I was embarrassed. But all in all, it was a great experience!!"
Kelly:
"The Brazilians and Moroccans were very skillful, while the smaller-sized Asians were extremely quick on their feet. It was fun playing with them and seeing a different side of the usually serious people. "
Yong Cheng:
"The first impression I had was the type of grass they had there on the soccer field. It was very different from Singapore’s (cow grass), and much more comfortable to play on. What I realized with some of the others was that Singapore’s weather and climate actually can restrict some outgoing activities. You don’t really see people relaxing under the tree in Singapore but you can see it quite often over here. You can even see people sleeping on the grass here in the afternoon! It is just too hot to stay under the hot sun in Singapore, compared to the light and frequent breezes you can get in Boston during summer...
The IDC Robocon participants engaging in a game of soccer.
See if you can spot Prof Dan Frey!
It was altogether a fun game and we just played our hearts out. We even played with some passersby who were just sitting around the area. It really felt great playing sports even though we were in a competition (IDC Robocon). Although everyone was in different teams, all of us were very friendly to each other."
The friendly Nigerian who played soccer with us
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Kelvin:
"Today, most of them joined the others to play soccer. However, JinKai and I went to town to look for some Asian food. We were quite sick of the western food and sandwiches... The meal costs US$14 each, it sounds expensive when compared to Singapore but I find it reasonable here. Just nice when we came back to Baker House, we met Shao and others outside the doorway."
Kelly:
"It was rather late after soccer, so while the rest of the guys from Singapore went out for a drink I decided to stay in my room and catch up with some of my friends back home."
SUPPER TIME
At 10pm, Shao Hui brought us to a nearby MIT Bar named the Miracle of Science where the food menu is in the form of a periodic table.
Guess what, the menu is a periodic table. How nerdy!
Tat Leong:
It’s pretty nice that MIT projects a very distinct culture (geeky cool), even their T-shirts in their co-op are printed with equations and stuff. In contrast, Singapore universities don’t have such a thing at all. So it may be good to have something like that for SUTD.
Ian:
"A sample of the food available:"
Cheeseburger
Beef Skewers
Kelvin:
"However only those who are above 21 get to drink. Underage drinking seems like a very serious offense over here. I only ordered tea."
Yong Cheng:
"Some of us (including myself) who are over 21 are eligible to drink alcohol so we ordered a pitcher to share amongst the few of us. The US is really strict about underage drinking and they can only drink at the age of 21. If someone eligible to drink alcohol offers a minor a drink, that person will get arrested but not the minor. So you can see how the US treats underage drinking in the country."
Our exciting first day of the weekend ended as such!
TOMORROW
Tomorrow will be a holiday for us...!!!!!
And of course the studios will not be open because it is a Sunday. We have decided to go to Wrentham Premium Outlet for shopping! We have these discount vouchers that we can use over there after signing up with their website. Looks like we are going to have a blast tomorrow (: