Yesterday after lunch at 2, our project group met to discuss some final ideas for our research. We narrowed them down to a few, and discussed each. We’re trying to find an idea that’s realistic for us to build in Unity, as well as something that can be tested in the duration of the REU. I liked discussing the ideas, but I am eager to decide on one already, so that we can start making progress on our project. I hope that we can make final decisions by tomorrow.

We kept Stephen too long at our meeting, so the HCI class was slightly delayed. In the class, we listened to a presentation on the history of computing. I was most interested in the latter examples of human interaction, and I kept thinking about it. How do humans exist with technology? There’s so many possibilities for digitizing our modern products, or even creating products that no one has ever thought of before. Technology brings us so many things —convenience one of them,— but it also creates new human behavior and needs that designers have never had to consider before. I’m curious to see how I can eventually contribute to the body of knowledge on HCI. I’m excited to be an industrial designer, and I am confident that’s how I can best contribute to the field.

Next was Craft of Research. As I’ve been reading through many articles, I’ve been slowly deciphering what all of the results and tables mean. This Craft of Research session confirmed some of my prior assumptions, and it helped clear up some other concepts that I hadn’t quite learned yet.

Andrew’s yoga class was great. I like doing yoga on my free time, but I generally use an app, because I couldn’t make the morning classes last semester. I felt pretty comfortable throughout the session, and I was in a much better mood after it ended. After the class, I biked back to my dorm and took it easy for the rest of the day. I was really tired.

Since I went to sleep early last night, I woke up early this morning. I followed my normal routine, but I thought about ways that I could change up my days. I’ve been going to the gym a few days a week, which is a nice change. I’d like to walk around campus, explore the library, and perhaps get in contact with one of the industrial design professors. Jon suggested that we reach out to ISU faculty if we were interested in learning more about the programs at this university. I’ll keep that in mind.

This morning, we had another Solidworks class. I came in early and created a rough model of one of my products from last semester. That was good practice, because during the class, we continued to work on the parts. I think I’m getting better, and I am so happy when even a small piece turns out the way I want it to look. The piece assembly was really awesome, and I’m hoping to practice it again so that I can be better prepared for my industrial design classes.