First Day of DME

Hi all! I'm all semi-settled in to MIT now (I may have to switch rooms during Rush, but other than that I'm pretty settled) and loving it! Before I take off today to go build some robots I thought I'd share some of my robot building experiences from yesterday.

As I told you before, I'm doing DME for my FPOP. That means I get to build a robot! After breakfast in McCormick Hall we headed to Paplardo Lab to begin construction. We were briefed on a variety of tools and skills, including arbor presses, belt sanders, drill presses, soldering, crimping, and the band saw. After that we were given a big tub full of parts, an instruction manual, and a yellow toolbox.



Essentially, we were given two minute lessons on tools and then told to "Build." Psh, sounds good to me, get straight down to cutting stuff!

There was quickly carnage, as you can see. One of the first steps was to dissassemble some cordless screwdrivers and take the gearboxes out. Here's what that looked like at my table:



I also got some pictures of some people working really hard. Here's Paul's back as he works to mark the base of his robot . . .



And some more people marking bases . . .



And a quick shot of the lab itself . . .



After slaving away all day in lab we took a tour around Boston, which I happily took some pictures of. It was very cool, especially when I realized that there was a Best Buy, Popeye's Chicken, and a Fire Station all really close!





Of course, walking across the Harvard bridge we saw some Smoots.





That's all for now, I really have to go, but I'll continue to fill you in on what's going on! BYE!

First Day of DME

Hi all! I'm all semi-settled in to MIT now (I may have to switch rooms during Rush, but other than that I'm pretty settled) and loving it! Before I take off today to go build some robots I thought I'd share some of my robot building experiences from yesterday.

As I told you before, I'm doing DME for my FPOP. That means I get to build a robot! After breakfast in McCormick Hall we headed to Paplardo Lab to begin construction. We were briefed on a variety of tools and skills, including arbor presses, belt sanders, drill presses, soldering, crimping, and the band saw. After that we were given a big tub full of parts, an instruction manual, and a yellow toolbox.



Essentially, we were given two minute lessons on tools and then told to "Build." Psh, sounds good to me, get straight down to cutting stuff!

There was quickly carnage, as you can see. One of the first steps was to dissassemble some cordless screwdrivers and take the gearboxes out. Here's what that looked like at my table:



I also got some pictures of some people working really hard. Here's Paul's back as he works to mark the base of his robot . . .



And some more people marking bases . . .



And a quick shot of the lab itself . . .



After slaving away all day in lab we took a tour around Boston, which I happily took some pictures of. It was very cool, especially when I realized that there was a Best Buy, Popeye's Chicken, and a Fire Station all really close!





Of course, walking across the Harvard bridge we saw some Smoots.





That's all for now, I really have to go, but I'll continue to fill you in on what's going on! BYE!

MIT Swag and Freebies

Alright everybody, I know you’re all dying to know what the coolest school in the world gives you on your first day there. Well, I’m prepared to offer you a glimpse into the “Red Folder” that is orientation registration. Ready for this? Ok, here we go!

The first thing you’re handed at registration is a red folder that looks a lot like this:



It has your name, the time and place of your math diagnostic, the date of your swim test (a graduation requirement), the name of your FPOP if you’re doing one (mine is ME) and then your “Number.” My “Number” is 61, meaning, if I understand this correctly, at some point I’m going to be looking for somebody amid a crowd of 1,100 freshmen who will be holding a sign with the number 61 on it. Anywho, what’s inside the folder is much more interesting.

The next thing we come across is the material for whatever FPOP you’re participating in. Here’s what the “Discover Mechanical Engineering” papers look like:



Next are instructions for accessing the Z-Center and all of the MIT Athletics facilities.



Also included is the official welcome letter that, luckily, has a reminder of all the important things to go to. They assume that we’ll forget these things (good assumption) so this paper will probably get read by me a lot.



Included also is a list of 101 things to do at MIT before you graduate. Take some time to peruse this, many of them are pretty interesting!



Like the FPOP material, there’s another item that isn’t necessarily in everybody’s folder, but since we bought one, I got a freshman picture book. It looks like this . . .



Something I just realized recently is that Orientation appears to be a lot like CPW in that there a ton of activities all over campus for several days. They give you a guidebook so you know what’s going on:



Also included was a paper talking about the COOP



A book with important numbers, such as local stores, MIT Police, various bookstores, hours for buildings, all that jazz . . .



A CD that contains the course catalogue



A coupon for a free shirt from the COOP



which I picked up, and it looks like this:

One of my favorite items is a bookmark/leaflet entitled "Copyright, Subpoenas, and YOU!" that highly discourages filesharing.

Finally, the last (and most definitely the coolest) item in the red folder was my official MIT ID card. I now have access to almost every building (I say almost because there's gotta be some super secret lab somewhere here that I'm not allowed/don't even know about).



Alright, so that was your glimpse into the "Red Folder." Now, branching out a bit, I've discovered something about Orientation that they don't tell you about. I'm convinced, at this point, having only been here for one day, that one could pack no shirts and still have plenty to wear. That's because they're giving out free t-shirts like there's no tomorrow! Here's my collection so far:



I'm picking up another tonight, which will make a total of four free t-shirts, which means one more week I can go without doing laundry! Life is good, lemme tell ya!

That middle shirt is kinda fun because on the back it says "Because there is more to being really, really, ridiculously smart." Everybody should have a shirt like that (all you have to do is pass the swim test!). That's all for now, I'll save talking about my dorm room, my chat with Ben Jones and Matt McGann, and various other activities for another entry, this was just to focus on free stuff. Weeeee, free stuff!

MIT Swag and Freebies

Alright everybody, I know you’re all dying to know what the coolest school in the world gives you on your first day there. Well, I’m prepared to offer you a glimpse into the “Red Folder” that is orientation registration. Ready for this? Ok, here we go!

The first thing you’re handed at registration is a red folder that looks a lot like this:



It has your name, the time and place of your math diagnostic, the date of your swim test (a graduation requirement), the name of your FPOP if you’re doing one (mine is ME) and then your “Number.” My “Number” is 61, meaning, if I understand this correctly, at some point I’m going to be looking for somebody amid a crowd of 1,100 freshmen who will be holding a sign with the number 61 on it. Anywho, what’s inside the folder is much more interesting.

The next thing we come across is the material for whatever FPOP you’re participating in. Here’s what the “Discover Mechanical Engineering” papers look like:



Next are instructions for accessing the Z-Center and all of the MIT Athletics facilities.



Also included is the official welcome letter that, luckily, has a reminder of all the important things to go to. They assume that we’ll forget these things (good assumption) so this paper will probably get read by me a lot.



Included also is a list of 101 things to do at MIT before you graduate. Take some time to peruse this, many of them are pretty interesting!



Like the FPOP material, there’s another item that isn’t necessarily in everybody’s folder, but since we bought one, I got a freshman picture book. It looks like this . . .



Something I just realized recently is that Orientation appears to be a lot like CPW in that there a ton of activities all over campus for several days. They give you a guidebook so you know what’s going on:



Also included was a paper talking about the COOP



A book with important numbers, such as local stores, MIT Police, various bookstores, hours for buildings, all that jazz . . .



A CD that contains the course catalogue



A coupon for a free shirt from the COOP



which I picked up, and it looks like this:

One of my favorite items is a bookmark/leaflet entitled "Copyright, Subpoenas, and YOU!" that highly discourages filesharing.

Finally, the last (and most definitely the coolest) item in the red folder was my official MIT ID card. I now have access to almost every building (I say almost because there's gotta be some super secret lab somewhere here that I'm not allowed/don't even know about).



Alright, so that was your glimpse into the "Red Folder." Now, branching out a bit, I've discovered something about Orientation that they don't tell you about. I'm convinced, at this point, having only been here for one day, that one could pack no shirts and still have plenty to wear. That's because they're giving out free t-shirts like there's no tomorrow! Here's my collection so far:



I'm picking up another tonight, which will make a total of four free t-shirts, which means one more week I can go without doing laundry! Life is good, lemme tell ya!

That middle shirt is kinda fun because on the back it says "Because there is more to being really, really, ridiculously smart." Everybody should have a shirt like that (all you have to do is pass the swim test!). That's all for now, I'll save talking about my dorm room, my chat with Ben Jones and Matt McGann, and various other activities for another entry, this was just to focus on free stuff. Weeeee, free stuff!