Graduated

It seems that I haven’t yet posted about my final semester as an undergraduate, so here we go.

Nuclear Reactor Physics, King, A: This class double counted for my undergrad and graduate degrees. Most of the kids in the 5-Year Nuclear Master’s program were in this class and Radiation. The class was graded solely on six (or maybe five) assessments: An exam on Nuclear Reactions and Interactions, a public service announcement on Reactor Core and Operation Basics (I want to get a copy of the movie my group made), a Reactor Kinetics computer model (Micah and I wrote one sick Mathmatica notebook), a take home test on Neutron Diffusion, and an exam on Feedback Effects. Overall, this was a great class. A few too many of the classes were spent in groups trying to solve problems before he had shown us a similar example. The take home test is the only thing I ended up getting an “intermediate” (B) on… it was quite tricky. But overall, I hope the rest of Grad school is similar to this class; lectures and exams.

Radiation Detection and Measurement, Greife, B: The first half of the semester was lecture covering basic principles of radiations detection, error analysis, and other nuclear concepts. In the second half, teams of two made measurements of radioactive sources and analyzed the spectrum given off. From the spectrum the contents, abundances, and relative geometries could be determined and included in a fairly lengthy write-up. Being new to grad school, I wanted to get the lab write-ups done and out of my hair. However, my lap partner Nate decided not to respond to my emails and in-class reminders until the last week of class. So that weekend we wrote all three write-ups… and by ‘we’, I mostly am referring to myself. For one of the labs I spent a few hours in front of Mathcad and by the end I felt that I deserved a metal.

Senior Design, Hecht, B: Continuing from last semester Helen, Caitlin, Jasmin, Paul, and I designed a Locking Ring to lift a rail wheel for Kiewit. We did a good job overall, ending with a 3D printed prototype of a well tested (in SolidWorks Simulation) design. The bolt and shackle were off the shelf components. At the last minute we did have to remove a few of the complex curves from the design to lower the cost of manufacturing. There was also an essay for the class with a pretty-bogus prompt, which I felt I wrote a quality paper for.

Linear Algebra, Bridgman, A: For some reason I’ve always wanted to know linear algebra and I’m really glad I took this class. Just like probability, I really took to the material and aced the exams. Looking back on my undergraduate career, I’m very glad for every math class I took: Calc 2, Calc 3, Diff Eq, Prob Stat, AEM, Probability, and Linear. For extra credit I played some setgame.com. I have a few more free electives to fill in grad school and high-end math looks like a very intimidating option. I might be held back by my lack of programming skill but who knows; perhaps partial differential equations are for me.

Intro to Robotics, Steele, A: Albert and I built and programmed some pretty cool robots. The robots consisted of a Handy Board, sitting atop a Lego creation, programmed in visual C. Most of the labs introduced a new sensor and a new way to solve the physical maze Dr. Steele had setup. Our first robot bumped into the walls blindly, if it hit a wall it would turn right, if it quickly hit another it would turn around (thus making a left turn at the wall) then drive forward. By the end our robot had IR sensors in front and off to one side, it would follow one wall of the maze until it made it to the end then optimize the path it took, such that it would not fall into any dead ends. Overall, I would recommend this class, although the grading was a bit nit-picky at times.

Well… That‘s that. On May 14th 2010 I graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Colorado School of Mines. The ceremony went well and I enjoyed spending the weekend with Sam and the fam. Pretty soon after I was on my way to California for an awesome time. Pictures are on Facebook and a few write-ups of what we did early on can be found on Sam’s blog: spiffysam.wordpress.com/

Peace -- Mike