Cosmos Journal
Huangsnths.weebly.com
Day 1, 7/10 Monday
How was your (first?) experience with Linux and the Linux workstations today? We talked about Graphical User Interfaces and Command line interfaces? What do you see as the value of each type of interface?
PERSONAL
It's been over 24 hours... What has been the best and most challenging aspect of living at COSMOS?
My experience with linux today was maybe a little confusing, but it was for the most part fun and somewhat interesting. Overall, I enjoyed meeting the professors, and all seemed very thorough and understanding of what was to come. Some interesting things I learned was that PETA-flop was a way of measuring speed for computers and an iphone 6 sends 3.36 billion instructions per second, yet now is considered outdated. The best aspect was having freedom to do whatever we wanted, but the most challenging aspect was finding certain locations.
Day 2, 7/11 Tuesday
Speak to a COSMOS student from another cluster. Reflect on what you learned from them by asking them questions like:
1. What is the most interesting thing you learned?
2. Teach me a concept that was new to you.
The person I interviewed today was in group 1, and he learned how to find voltage in a DC circuit! A fun concept he taught me was that If a circuit has no resistor, then it’s possible to short circuit the battery.
Day 3, 7/12 Wednesday
“How do you know you understood a lecture?” - Dad-del
Reflect on Dr. Dad-del’s question above.
You know you understand a lecture when you can fully apply it to either the lesson the lecture was directed upon, or when you can apply it to real life. When you realize the lessons or uses a lecture has, that is when understanding is found.
Day 4, 7/13 Thursday
“What at the Academy of science could possibly be connected to a robotics project? What’s something interesting that you saw that inspired you to look further into it?”
An objective that can be turned from a robotics project connected to the Academy of Science is to calculate and gather rainwater from the living roof that the Academy of Science has. California has been in a drought for many years, and gathering water from a 410,000 square foot building would have 2 benefits; First, it could greatly save the amount of water used, especially for a nature facility with an aquarium. Second, this ability to also calculate rainwater would illustrate the importance of saving water, and with capitalism becoming more prominent in today’s society, it could influence this new and younger generation to save water, which would significantly lessen the harsh effects of this drought.
Day 5, 7/14 Friday
ACADEMIC
Describe your comfort level working with the motor commands (Robotics) and working with strings (BioPhysics) before and after today. Are there any concepts already discussed in our courses that you feel you need to ask more questions about before the start of week 2?
PERSONAL
Reflect on how cognitive illusions could challenge (or already has challenged) your learning.
Currently, my comfort level working with motor commands is fine, but I believe that I need to add more challenging ones to my repertoire. However, my comfort level with strings is good, with me forgetting one here and there occasionally. I feel quite immersed in every concept, and am confident to move on. Cognitive illusions challenge your learning, because unless you focus and pay close attention, the illusion will always be illusory.
Monday 7/17
ACADEMIC
What were some new coding concepts in Python (such as dictionaries, tuples, etc) that you learned and how do you think you might use them in your own project?
PERSONAL
Reflect on the story of the stones from Dr. Dad-del. How have you already (or will) applied the message to your own life? Consider how you may have your own story to tell Dr. Dad-del if you ran into him in the hall.
Some new concepts I learned today were tuples and dictionaries, along with importing packages such as numpy or random. I might be able to use some of them for randomizing the code, or storing DNA/RNA in tuples and dictionaries. I interpret the story of the stones from Dr. Daddel as having regret for not doing more, or going farther, and I will apply it by making sure not to regret anything I have done in my life.
Tuesday 7/18
ACADEMIC
While working in the lab today, what was a new concept you learned about coding and/or robots today?
PERSONAL
When you encounter frustrating situations that are beyond your control, how do you deal with it? Do you feel you usually handle it well or do you frequently let it “get to you”?
A new concept I learned in the lab today was learning more python, especially tuples and dictionaries. I’m more used to Java, but python has a lot of neat functions that I didn’t know of beforehand. When I encounter frustrating situations that are beyond my control, I usually think about why it’s frustrating in the first place, think if I can do anything to better the situations, and if not possible ignore it. I handle it well, as I’m not prone to anger/having a short temper.
Wednesday 7/19
Explain how negative numbers, complex numbers, and floating point numbers are represented with ones and zeros (if you know). If you do not know, develop your own system to represent these numbers.
PERSONAL
What news tips did you pick up today to help you study and prepare for tests?
Ones and zeros can represent anything in binary, and any number, even negative and complex numbers can be represented specially, such as negative numbers represented with a one on the left side. Some new tips I’ve learned to help study and prepare for tests are making sure to prep a study guide and use mnemonics when what I’m learning is useless.
Thursday 7/20
ACADEMIC
1. How do computers represent floating point numbers like pi? Why is this important to keep in mind?
2. When should you use a list and when should you use a numpy array?
PERSONAL
Do you compare yourself to others in your classes? If you do, do you feel you are closer to viewing it as healthy motivation or more crippling stress?
Computers Represent floating point numbers like pi as a very close estimate to the true amount. This is important to keep in mind because some functions might not be perfect due to this. You should use a list when you want to have multiple elements in it, such as integers or letters, but use an array when it’s a fixed length and 1 element. I don’t compare myself to others in class, as I know everyone is pretty smart, and while there is always someone smarter than you, it’s good motivation to try and keep up with everyone and not fall behind.
Monday 7/24
ACADEMIC
How have prime and/or perfect numbers been applied in novel situations? Do you think there are perfect numbers that are odd?
(OPTIONAL) Prove why 2n(2n+1 - 1) will always generate a perfect number when (2n+1 - 1) is prime.
PERSONAL
What are your thoughts about writing journals? Do you think it is an effective way to learn?
Prime and perfect numbers have been applied in many novel situations, such as prime numbers
2n(2n+1 - 1) will always generate a perfect number unless (2n+1 - 1) is not prime. The reasoning for this is that if the number isn’t prime, extraneous values that are also multiples of a number are added, which will make adding up all the numbers higher than the target number. My thoughts on writing journals is that it helps us remember what we did for the previous day, and while we may not enjoy writing them here and there, it benefits us for the long term.
Tuesday 7/25
How might someone utilize or adapt something you saw at the Exploratorium for a robotics design project? Did something you saw specifically help shape your project?
Someone might utilize this machine called icy bodies, which helped
Something interesting I saw at the exploratorium that I thought could be adapted into a robot was the exhibit called icy comets. It was created to represent comets in space, as when the comets near the sun begin to give off gas, gradually sinking.The dry ice in water illustrates ever hanging and slowly dying until it’s just fading clouds. I think that this could help model other phenomena of the unexplored, such as a robot that tracks any object that enters Earth’s stratosphere to help see if any patterns are visible, or any locations that have a higher probability to have an otherworldly object land.
Wednesday 7/26
ACADEMIC
Why do you think Dr. Daddel took the main part of class time to talk about Alexander the Great?
PERSONAL
What did you learn from failing today?
I think Dr. Daddel took the time to talk about Alexander the Great because while he had much success in battle, not losing even a single one, right after he died chaos ensued. I think this represents Dr. Daddels main idea of failure, and that without failure our successes won’t have the longevity it needs to help us in life. I learned that failing gives us a better understanding of what we learned, and what to do and what not to do for future references.
Thursday 7/27
What are some important applications where diffusion and random walk play an important role in science?
I think some important applications where diffusion and random walk play are atoms moving around and gambling, as diffusion explains how atoms move and gambling illustrates why the house usually wins, as the more money you have the better chance for winning.
Friday 7/28
ACADEMIC
While designing robots and programming in Biophysics, what technical challenges did you learn from? If things have been going smoothly, what is something technically challenging that you want to attempt next week?
PERSONAL
How do you feel you have dealt with time constraints and frustration this week? (If you feel you need to, please remember to reach out to others for support!)
Some technical challenges I had were trying to use every variable appropriately, as there was 10+ variables that all had important meaning attached to them. I eventually figured it out, but one wrong variable destroys how the program is meant to work. I feel that time constraints and frustration will always be a part of life, and adaptation is needed to succeed.
Monday 7/31
Reflect on the projects you have chosen to do for the two courses during COSMOS. What do you hope to learn from these projects? What type of plan do you think it would take to complete both this week?
The 2 projects I have chosen to do were Random Walks on a circular DNA and a Fun Bot that creates paper based games. I hope to learn more about how the primer is found and what the most efficient way there is to it, and also get better at understanding how gears and motors work together. I think as long as we stay focused on class both of these projects are doable to finish.
Tuesday 8/1
Make a plan on how you will finish everything you need to complete for your Cluster 5 projects.
After you are done, reflect on how joining through this process made you feel.
My plan is to finish coding by today and finish the report by tomorrow, and complete building the robot by tomorrow and finish the code, hopefully by thursday.
Wednesday 8/2
Today Dr. Dad-del asked each of you to measure your success in COSMOS by your growth (instead of comparing yourself to others). Is this philosophy something you already live by or is it something difficult for you to adopt? In what ways do you think you could further improve your perspective on this topic?
This philosophy is something that I already live by, yet know that comparison to other people is quite common. As long as we improve everytime we practice something or learn something, growth happens, and we should be proud of even the slightest inch of growth. I can further improve my perspective by also encouraging others to do the same, as we also want to help the people around us grow.
Thursday 8/3
Dr. Dad-del considers all of you successes and wants you to recognize all that you have learned this short four weeks. Reflect on why he is correct in his assessment of each of you.
I believe that everyone here has had success and no one slacked off, even during the dullest moments. For instance, everyone made a robot that was capable of at least 1 cool trick, and that was a key success that we could show off to the rest of the class. We all have high expectations of ourselves, but we must recognize our successes, even if it isn’t determined by a letter or numerical grade.
Day 1, 7/10 Monday
How was your (first?) experience with Linux and the Linux workstations today? We talked about Graphical User Interfaces and Command line interfaces? What do you see as the value of each type of interface?
PERSONAL
It's been over 24 hours... What has been the best and most challenging aspect of living at COSMOS?
My experience with linux today was maybe a little confusing, but it was for the most part fun and somewhat interesting. Overall, I enjoyed meeting the professors, and all seemed very thorough and understanding of what was to come. Some interesting things I learned was that PETA-flop was a way of measuring speed for computers and an iphone 6 sends 3.36 billion instructions per second, yet now is considered outdated. The best aspect was having freedom to do whatever we wanted, but the most challenging aspect was finding certain locations.
Day 2, 7/11 Tuesday
Speak to a COSMOS student from another cluster. Reflect on what you learned from them by asking them questions like:
1. What is the most interesting thing you learned?
2. Teach me a concept that was new to you.
The person I interviewed today was in group 1, and he learned how to find voltage in a DC circuit! A fun concept he taught me was that If a circuit has no resistor, then it’s possible to short circuit the battery.
Day 3, 7/12 Wednesday
“How do you know you understood a lecture?” - Dad-del
Reflect on Dr. Dad-del’s question above.
You know you understand a lecture when you can fully apply it to either the lesson the lecture was directed upon, or when you can apply it to real life. When you realize the lessons or uses a lecture has, that is when understanding is found.
Day 4, 7/13 Thursday
“What at the Academy of science could possibly be connected to a robotics project? What’s something interesting that you saw that inspired you to look further into it?”
An objective that can be turned from a robotics project connected to the Academy of Science is to calculate and gather rainwater from the living roof that the Academy of Science has. California has been in a drought for many years, and gathering water from a 410,000 square foot building would have 2 benefits; First, it could greatly save the amount of water used, especially for a nature facility with an aquarium. Second, this ability to also calculate rainwater would illustrate the importance of saving water, and with capitalism becoming more prominent in today’s society, it could influence this new and younger generation to save water, which would significantly lessen the harsh effects of this drought.
Day 5, 7/14 Friday
ACADEMIC
Describe your comfort level working with the motor commands (Robotics) and working with strings (BioPhysics) before and after today. Are there any concepts already discussed in our courses that you feel you need to ask more questions about before the start of week 2?
PERSONAL
Reflect on how cognitive illusions could challenge (or already has challenged) your learning.
Currently, my comfort level working with motor commands is fine, but I believe that I need to add more challenging ones to my repertoire. However, my comfort level with strings is good, with me forgetting one here and there occasionally. I feel quite immersed in every concept, and am confident to move on. Cognitive illusions challenge your learning, because unless you focus and pay close attention, the illusion will always be illusory.
Monday 7/17
ACADEMIC
What were some new coding concepts in Python (such as dictionaries, tuples, etc) that you learned and how do you think you might use them in your own project?
PERSONAL
Reflect on the story of the stones from Dr. Dad-del. How have you already (or will) applied the message to your own life? Consider how you may have your own story to tell Dr. Dad-del if you ran into him in the hall.
Some new concepts I learned today were tuples and dictionaries, along with importing packages such as numpy or random. I might be able to use some of them for randomizing the code, or storing DNA/RNA in tuples and dictionaries. I interpret the story of the stones from Dr. Daddel as having regret for not doing more, or going farther, and I will apply it by making sure not to regret anything I have done in my life.
Tuesday 7/18
ACADEMIC
While working in the lab today, what was a new concept you learned about coding and/or robots today?
PERSONAL
When you encounter frustrating situations that are beyond your control, how do you deal with it? Do you feel you usually handle it well or do you frequently let it “get to you”?
A new concept I learned in the lab today was learning more python, especially tuples and dictionaries. I’m more used to Java, but python has a lot of neat functions that I didn’t know of beforehand. When I encounter frustrating situations that are beyond my control, I usually think about why it’s frustrating in the first place, think if I can do anything to better the situations, and if not possible ignore it. I handle it well, as I’m not prone to anger/having a short temper.
Wednesday 7/19
Explain how negative numbers, complex numbers, and floating point numbers are represented with ones and zeros (if you know). If you do not know, develop your own system to represent these numbers.
PERSONAL
What news tips did you pick up today to help you study and prepare for tests?
Ones and zeros can represent anything in binary, and any number, even negative and complex numbers can be represented specially, such as negative numbers represented with a one on the left side. Some new tips I’ve learned to help study and prepare for tests are making sure to prep a study guide and use mnemonics when what I’m learning is useless.
Thursday 7/20
ACADEMIC
1. How do computers represent floating point numbers like pi? Why is this important to keep in mind?
2. When should you use a list and when should you use a numpy array?
PERSONAL
Do you compare yourself to others in your classes? If you do, do you feel you are closer to viewing it as healthy motivation or more crippling stress?
Computers Represent floating point numbers like pi as a very close estimate to the true amount. This is important to keep in mind because some functions might not be perfect due to this. You should use a list when you want to have multiple elements in it, such as integers or letters, but use an array when it’s a fixed length and 1 element. I don’t compare myself to others in class, as I know everyone is pretty smart, and while there is always someone smarter than you, it’s good motivation to try and keep up with everyone and not fall behind.
Monday 7/24
ACADEMIC
How have prime and/or perfect numbers been applied in novel situations? Do you think there are perfect numbers that are odd?
(OPTIONAL) Prove why 2n(2n+1 - 1) will always generate a perfect number when (2n+1 - 1) is prime.
PERSONAL
What are your thoughts about writing journals? Do you think it is an effective way to learn?
Prime and perfect numbers have been applied in many novel situations, such as prime numbers
2n(2n+1 - 1) will always generate a perfect number unless (2n+1 - 1) is not prime. The reasoning for this is that if the number isn’t prime, extraneous values that are also multiples of a number are added, which will make adding up all the numbers higher than the target number. My thoughts on writing journals is that it helps us remember what we did for the previous day, and while we may not enjoy writing them here and there, it benefits us for the long term.
Tuesday 7/25
How might someone utilize or adapt something you saw at the Exploratorium for a robotics design project? Did something you saw specifically help shape your project?
Someone might utilize this machine called icy bodies, which helped
Something interesting I saw at the exploratorium that I thought could be adapted into a robot was the exhibit called icy comets. It was created to represent comets in space, as when the comets near the sun begin to give off gas, gradually sinking.The dry ice in water illustrates ever hanging and slowly dying until it’s just fading clouds. I think that this could help model other phenomena of the unexplored, such as a robot that tracks any object that enters Earth’s stratosphere to help see if any patterns are visible, or any locations that have a higher probability to have an otherworldly object land.
Wednesday 7/26
ACADEMIC
Why do you think Dr. Daddel took the main part of class time to talk about Alexander the Great?
PERSONAL
What did you learn from failing today?
I think Dr. Daddel took the time to talk about Alexander the Great because while he had much success in battle, not losing even a single one, right after he died chaos ensued. I think this represents Dr. Daddels main idea of failure, and that without failure our successes won’t have the longevity it needs to help us in life. I learned that failing gives us a better understanding of what we learned, and what to do and what not to do for future references.
Thursday 7/27
What are some important applications where diffusion and random walk play an important role in science?
I think some important applications where diffusion and random walk play are atoms moving around and gambling, as diffusion explains how atoms move and gambling illustrates why the house usually wins, as the more money you have the better chance for winning.
Friday 7/28
ACADEMIC
While designing robots and programming in Biophysics, what technical challenges did you learn from? If things have been going smoothly, what is something technically challenging that you want to attempt next week?
PERSONAL
How do you feel you have dealt with time constraints and frustration this week? (If you feel you need to, please remember to reach out to others for support!)
Some technical challenges I had were trying to use every variable appropriately, as there was 10+ variables that all had important meaning attached to them. I eventually figured it out, but one wrong variable destroys how the program is meant to work. I feel that time constraints and frustration will always be a part of life, and adaptation is needed to succeed.
Monday 7/31
Reflect on the projects you have chosen to do for the two courses during COSMOS. What do you hope to learn from these projects? What type of plan do you think it would take to complete both this week?
The 2 projects I have chosen to do were Random Walks on a circular DNA and a Fun Bot that creates paper based games. I hope to learn more about how the primer is found and what the most efficient way there is to it, and also get better at understanding how gears and motors work together. I think as long as we stay focused on class both of these projects are doable to finish.
Tuesday 8/1
Make a plan on how you will finish everything you need to complete for your Cluster 5 projects.
After you are done, reflect on how joining through this process made you feel.
My plan is to finish coding by today and finish the report by tomorrow, and complete building the robot by tomorrow and finish the code, hopefully by thursday.
Wednesday 8/2
Today Dr. Dad-del asked each of you to measure your success in COSMOS by your growth (instead of comparing yourself to others). Is this philosophy something you already live by or is it something difficult for you to adopt? In what ways do you think you could further improve your perspective on this topic?
This philosophy is something that I already live by, yet know that comparison to other people is quite common. As long as we improve everytime we practice something or learn something, growth happens, and we should be proud of even the slightest inch of growth. I can further improve my perspective by also encouraging others to do the same, as we also want to help the people around us grow.
Thursday 8/3
Dr. Dad-del considers all of you successes and wants you to recognize all that you have learned this short four weeks. Reflect on why he is correct in his assessment of each of you.
I believe that everyone here has had success and no one slacked off, even during the dullest moments. For instance, everyone made a robot that was capable of at least 1 cool trick, and that was a key success that we could show off to the rest of the class. We all have high expectations of ourselves, but we must recognize our successes, even if it isn’t determined by a letter or numerical grade.