JeremyBlum.com

So, it’s been awhile since I’ve actively updated  my blog or my youtube videos.  Even my presence on UltimateComputers.net has gone down as of late.  As many of you probably know, I’m currently in my sophomore year at Cornell, studying electrical and computer engineering.  This semester has been a tremendous amount of work, certainly more than I’ve ever had to handle before.  As a result, I’ve had to prioritize my time, and I had to make sure I didn’t start failing my classes just because I was behind on videos and blog updates.

But, there is a light at the end of the tunnel!  I’m in the middle of finals week now, with three done so far (differential equations, electricity and magnetism, and computer instrumentation design), and two more to go (digital logic design and microeconomics).  I plan to do some work on the ultimatecomputers.net site over winter break, including a needed upgrade to the forum software, some new features, etc.  I also plan to start catching up on video’s and bringing TechBits back to life.

The Solar House Control System…

What have I been so busy with!?  Well, in addition to classes, I took on a leadership position in Cornell’s Solar Decathlon Team.  The solar decathlon competition took place during the first two weeks of October, so from the very first weekend that school started (in August) up through October, I basically did nothing but focus on getting our Solar House ready to display to the world.  Before taking the home down to the international Solar Decathlon competition in DC, we first displayed it to the public at the Great NY State Fair.  During the first 8 weeks of classes, I spent every weekend, and some weekdays in either Syracuse, or DC – hence why I had no time to make TechBits episodes…  In addition to working on the home’s automation, electrical, and entertainment systems (see the picture above), I also gave tours, talked to the media, and developed the team website, along with Dan Strongwater (a Junior at Cornell who was on the team as well).

Upon the completion of the competition (see the results here), myself and a few others decided we wanted to continue the momentum from the team, without the restrictions of the competition (ie. only using solar power when geothermal, wind, etc are also clean and renewable).  So, we formed the Cornell University Sustainable Design Team, and we are currently gathering support from all the colleges within Cornell.  We hope to start designing a new structure next summer.

Machine Metabolism…

As if that all wasn’t enough to keep me busy, I also started research at the Cornell Computational Synthesis Lab after the Decathlon ended.  I’m developing a sensor interface for a robot that scales and dismantles structures (see the picture above).  The whole deal is called a “machine metabolism” – the robot is like an enzyme crawling around on a protein and reshaping it.

So that’s what I’ve been up to!  I think next semester is going to be pretty hectic too, but I think I should have a bit more time than I did this semester…  I look forward to getting back into some youtube videos, and UC.net soon!

This past Thursday marked the start of my sophomore classes at Cornell University.  I’ve decided that I’m going to affiliate with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Major, and I’m also hoping to pursue a business minor.  However, classes have not been at the front of mind recently; instead, I’ve been far more focused on Cornell’s Solar Decathlon Team.  As I have mentioned before in my blog, I’m the Engineering Controls Team leader for Cornell’s “Silo House” entry into the bi-annual competition.  While I did not stay up at Cornell for the past summer as some other team member’s did, I did stop by for a while to get some work done on the home’s entertainment systems, and I spent a good amount of time maintaining and developing the back-end of our website.  About a week before the start of classes, I made my way up to the NY state fair grounds in Syracuse for 4 days, where the house will be on display until the competition in October.  So here’s the point of this post: If you live anywhere remotely close to Syracuse, go check out the house at the fair! It’s coming along really well, and if I do say so myself, it looks awesome!  We’re offering tours for as little as $2, and I’ll be giving some of the tours.  You can also check out pictures of the house on our website, and I’m hoping to have a virtual fly-through available soon.

Unlike many of my other builds, I wouldn’t consider this one to be an “ultimate computer“.  The Cornell University Solar Decathlon Engineering Controls Team had something different in mind for this computer.  As I’ve mentioned in some previous posts, Solar Decathlon is a team at Cornell that is building a fully solar-powered house.  In October, we will bring that house down to Washington to compete against 19 other international teams in a competition that judges the houses on design, feasibility, power consumption, and more.  My particular role, along with the rest of the Engineering controls team, will be to get everything in the house connected and working.  I can’t go into too much detail, because it’s top secret (kinda), but a small group of us are focusing on the home entertainment and automation systems.  This home theater PC is just a small part of the final system.

There are few design goals that we had in mind for this system which haven’t applied to previous computers that I’ve built:  It needs to be totally silent, very energy efficient, and 100% reliable.

For those reasons, we decided to go with a solid state hard drive (media content will be stored elsewhere on the network), A motherboard with high energy efficiency and a built-in Nvidia 9300 GPU, and an 80+ certified 430W PSU.

The video is embedded below.  Check it out, and also stop by the Cornell Solar Decathlon Website…maybe give us a donation if you would like to support our cause. ;)

PS: If you like the music, stop by the project page at UltimateComputers.net to download it for free!  You can also find the parts list there.

So tonight will be last night for quite a while that I’ll get to sleep in my comfy bed, as I’ll be heading back up to Cornell University for the Spring Semester tomorrow (actually, I guess it’s today since I’m writing this late at night). As far as courses go, my lineup is as follows:
-Multivariable Calculus for engineers
-Physics I (Mechanics)
-MATLAB applications in Robotics
-Environmental Perspective Writing Seminar
-Solar Decathlon Independent Study
-Probably some kind of gym class
-Self-paced Transition to Object-Oriented Programming course

In other news I have a super secret surprise project that I’ve been working on over break. I had hoped I’d finish it during my time at home, but alas I have not, so I’m bringing it up to school with me. It’s nothing too exciting, basically just a fun little mechatronics project. You’ll have to check back or subscribe to the RSS if you ever want to see what it is!

So, I just got through my first set of exams here at Cornell…  To give you an idea of the tests, the average score on my first calc test was a 36%.  Granted, they aren’t usually that bad; it seems they over estimated how long they made it…  Anyways, I did okay on that one (as in, near the average score).  I haven’t gotten my chemistry test back yet, but based on the responses I’ve heard from my friends in who are in the class with me, the average won’t be much better.  I hear these tests were a fluke; last year’s first calc test had an average score in the 80’s I believe…But still, it’s a little unnerving.

On the “not school work” front, I’ve decided on a concentration for the Solar Decathlon Team.  I’m going to a design a complete home automation system.  It should be really cool when complete.  Myself and a few others are planning to end up with a user-friendly interface for doing everything from controlling the music and lights, to monitoring the house’s power consumption.  Conveniently, I worked with an electrical engineer this summer, and did some work similar to what will be required to get this home automation thing running.

Hmmm….what else…I had a really good peanut butter milkshake (I promise it’s good) last night at midnight, fell asleep around 2AM, and was awoken at around 6:30 by my roomate coming back from an all night session in the library.  He had to basically design a new language for his english class.  So yeah, that sums up the college experience I think: study, work all night, eat at random hours, procastinate, socialize when not doing the doing the above, repeat.

I figured I’d provide an update on my activities for the 3 people who may actually be interested :)

So I’ve been at Cornell Engineering for about a month now, and everything is going pretty well.  I’m taking calculus, chemistry, intro to mechanical engineering, and a writing seminar course.  I’ve joined the Cornell Solar Decathlon Team, which should be a really great experience.  I’ve been very interested in alternative energy sources for a few years now, and I felt like this would be a fun way to get my feet wet.  You can check out the team webpage here.  The purpose of the team is to build a fully operational, envirnmentally friendly, solar powered house.  Members include engineers, architects, business majors, and pretty much everybody else.  I’ve joined the Control Engineering subteam which will focus on home automation and power management techniques.

I’m in an undergrad research program here, and will certainly be starting research by second semester.  I haven’t decided for certain what the topic will be yet, but it is likely that it will involve research in intelligent robotic systems.

Hmm…so I suppose that’s it so far :)

It has begun!  I’ve been at college for about a week now, so I figured I’d just give a brief tour of my room.  I’ve put together a photosynth 3D Tour, or you can just check out the pics.  Both are below.

PhotoSynth:

Photos:

view slideshow

 

On August 22nd I’ll be heading up to Ithaca, NY to start my college education at Cornell University’s Engineering college.  So what do you think the one thing that stressed be out about college was?  The workload?  The pressure?  The upperclassmen?  Nope.  My one worry was this: How will I survive without a powerful computer!?  The problem is that I won’t, which I why a recently built a new desktop to take with me up to college…in addition to by Dell D630 Laptop.  If you are anything like my parents, you’re probably thinking, “Why do you need such a massive powerful computer!?”  It’s who I am, people.  I’ve got a need for processor speed.  So without further adeiu, I introduce you to my newest speed machine: