Samomatic

I am officially finished all my undergraduate requirements and have moved back home! Similar to many of my friends, it still feels like we had just had just finished another school term but will see each other again in a few months.

No more exams in the sweaty, stuffy PAC, the makeshift exam hall converted from the school gym.

Below I will talk about some of the items that have accompanied me throughout the undergraduate degree.
[Left] My faithful backpack of 10 years. Many years ago my mom had made a promise she would keep mending it till the end of my university degree. Everytime I come home there would be some work to be done on the backpack…..
[Right] My 10-speed bike with its curvy fenders for daily commuting. It is from the 60′s, dark maroon, and have rust on the pedals. I never had to worry about people stealing it.

My 4 years old Toshiba Tecra M2 that is full of battle scars but still going strong.
1) Loose connections in the screen that causes a random colored vertical bar
2) Broken hinge that can lead to the screen slapping onto keyboard or tabletop. Can increase the severeness of item #1.
3) Missing “[” key. Though functional, it can be a great pain when programming. Jamming on the key can cause item #1,2 to occur.

Of course I have to give credit to the super basic, 2-week battery life cellphone and ridiculously large keychains that I have been lugging around.

So for my last elective, I chose to try Art and Technology, a mixture of engineering and fine arts. The teams consist of both fine arts and engineering students that worked to create kinetic sculptures, interactive or expressive art piece. For the last project my group decided to create a visual display that corresponds with the heartbeat of the participant. The blue and red colors each correspond to a sensor input and when both the inputs are active the piece generate another motion.

Technical Detail: Taken with the K20D burst mode and then compiled into a flash movie.

For 3 days we worked together in the machine shop during the day and at night worked on the assembly, prototyping, electrical, and programming. This was by far the most last-minute project I have ever done. Much thanks for the Robotics Team for letting us use their space and tools.

[Left] Homemade heartbeat monitors; [Right] The swash-plate mechanism with the LEDs mounted.

6AM: Testing servo assembly with the Audrino microprocessor. The servo would inject so much noise into the system and trigger all the heartbeat monitors.

10AM and we started to assemble the final pieces, the center shaft is in place. [Right] Brandon is taping the commutators for the LEDs.

11AM Installing the fins to the shell. Due to the swash plate design, everything had to be assembled in a very specific order.

We got the piece installed in the Student Life Center and it looked beautiful when we powered it on. Here Brandon is demonstrating to another classmate the idea behind the project. Half way through the show the gearbox blew out so the next day we were back in the machine shop putting in a belt driven system in there…

Similar to previous UW Jazz Band events, each time they bring up new jokes, a lot of energy and great music.
I thought the workload would drop off as classes finish and start into the final examination period, but I have been struggling to hand in projects and labs.

This time I tried out with a more up close approach and chose to use a 100mm. I also forgot my flash at home so that made it a little more challenging as well. But I think the K20D really came through with the lower high-ISO noise (yes I upgraded!).




The UW Accent Choir also joined in the performance, I particularly liked the Acappella in the end.




Some of founding members like Sunny Ng [right image] are also graduating.

This is probably the last gig I will be shooting for them and I hope they continue to grow and keep up the great performances. Previous post related: [Dec,08 Charity Gig] [April,08 Charity Gig]