End of the first week

We got to hear more about each project, and though I do share the same overwhelming feeling as my peers, I am sure we’ll all do well, and I’m also quite excited to get started. My group and I then met our faculty and grad student mentors. We gained further insight behind the project and how it came to be, and we also got to learn more about each other at a sandwich shop; the food was really good there!

On Friday, we got to explore the different projects happening at VRAC. I’ve heard about virtual reality before, but I’ve never seen what it is or experienced it in person. Everything seemed so real! Also, when we did the campus tour the other day, it was my first time learning about and seeing a 3D printer, and on Friday, I got to be inside one and see how it works through vr! That was kind of crazy. 

My favorite activities on Friday was doing the team building exercises. Curtis, Kristi, and I had to address the problem of our customer Nadya which was her exhaustion after a day of classes. We decided to focus on the physical toll she has from carrying her heavy tote bag of textbooks, notebooks, and other materials. I was randomly given the role of a squire, so I basically had to do everything I was told. I liked my role because well I already do whatever I’m told, but I was also able to provide lots of ideas and guidance on what it is we would want to create and how to do it that I ended up doing what I had mostly imagined. Kristi and Curtis did an amazing job at designing, enhancing, and putting together the ideas we all shared, and in the end, we were able to produce a model of the Tote Bag Roller which would let Nadya roll her tote bag and even herself around without needing to carry anything. I attached a picture of it below (I think it’s pretty neat).

We then worked with our grad student mentors. I enjoyed getting to hear more about them and the project that my mind was already filling up with a bunch of ideas to explore. I do find it interesting how I share a similar experience with the subjects of our research project. As we created the scenery depicting our vision of our research process in the next 9 weeks, the sense of uncertainty came to arise again, but I agree with Curtis: as long as we can hone in on a specific goal/problem and maintain focus on that one thing, we’ll be fine.