Alexandra J. Forsythe
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College Honors Event

7/30/2016

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I am thrilled that I was accepted into Purdue's Summer Honors event! I moved into the IPFW (Purdue Fort Wayne) dorms last Sunday and found that I had my own private room, so the camp started off very well! 

We had 14 brilliant professors teaching us a wide range of subjects from Contract Law to History to Geology. On Monday, the first official day of camp, we studied French and Arabic cultures and languages before lunch, then went on a scavenger hunt for buildings and places on campus to help us learn our way around. Once we had all finished the scavenger hunt, we learned what our group project for the week would be and were placed into groups. The project was World War I Propaganda and there were 4 groups: Recruitment, Women in Propaganda, Peace, and Villainizing. I was in the villainizing group.

The next day began with "Uses of the Past," a workshop demonstrating the uses of history in our lives today. Then came the geology field trip to a nearby quarry, where we tried to identify different rock layers and their respective ages. Managing a quarry is far more complicated than any of us thought. Proper management of a quarry requires being familiar with, and abiding by, several binders full of rules and requirements. While there, we also learned about the incredible number of uses for the quarry's rocks and about the fossils we could find. We were allowed to search for fossils and take home anything that wasn't extremely rare, such as an entire skeleton. No one found any fossils rare enough that they were not allowed to keep it, but I found a Stromatoporoid sponge, which the Professor said was the best specimen he had ever seen of that kind! It's quite large (9" x 5"; about 10 pounds) and in excellent condition with a well-defined front and side view. Then we took a tour of the Geology labs and were able to see an electron microscope!

Wednesday was another awesome field trip: biology! We went to Crooked Lake and split into two groups: one would start with entomology and the other would start with ecology, then we would switch. I was in the first group and I successfully collected and identified (and later released) 22 species of insects and invertebrates - the most of any individual or group! Then we swapped classes with the second group to find a suitable tree to core and subsequently age. There were several microscopes available and we could look closely either at the cores to age the trees, or to take a good look at a dragonfly nymph and determine the species.

After lunch we had an interactive contract law class, in which we learned (1) how to make valid contracts and identify them, (2) whether a commercial advertisement is a contract, and (3) whether an agreement to go on a date is a contract and therefore legally binding. We were given a list of questions to answer, and I was happy to learn I provided the most legally accurate definitions.


On Thursday we learned about all of the groups and activities available at IPFW. We were also given some souvenirs from the Student Government representatives. Then we had a class about feminism and what it meant to us. The class also covered several current issues regarding people's rights including, but not limited to, women's rights. After lunch we began theater class, where we learned about the history of political theater and created plays based on our own experiences.

Friday we got to tour one of IPFW's incredible computer labs. There we learned about the capabilities of virtual reality, including Oculus Rift, and we were allowed to work with a few of the virtual reality programs set up by computer science students at IPFW. We also learned about all of the coding that went into the programs and the complexity of all of the equipment we were using. I wish we would have had the opportunity to do some coding, but I was the only student who had programming experience and an interest in engineering.

Then we went to a separate classroom for a political science class in which we discussed whether the United States had too much democracy, and the question led to a few spirited debates on the matter. After lunch we discussed a book which we had been given at the start of the week: All Quiet on the Western Front. Most of the other students were surprised by the reality of war. That night we presented our projects on World War I propaganda to our parents and families and had a scrumptious celebratory dinner.


I had a fantastic time, I learned an amazing amount of material, and I earned college credit toward a Purdue Honors Diploma! Many thanks to Ann Livschiz, head of the Honors Department, for arranging this incredible event!
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4-H Computer Science Project

7/22/2016

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One of the many extracurricular activities in which I am engaged is 4-H, a wonderful program run by Purdue in an effort to build interest in various fields. This year, I once again enrolled in the Computer Science project, and I had a blast!

I used my R2 as the basis of my project, which meant I had to write a book filled with all of my research, the steps I took when designing and building him, even the datasheets for all of the components on my PBCs! With all that information, the finished book was quite thick, so I also prepared a shortened version in the very front in case the judge did not have much time to spend reading the entire book.
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The judge was interested in the various projects and asked every competitor a lot of relevant questions. When it was my turn, I booted up R2. R2 performed perfectly! I was able to share with the judge all of the important information pertaining to building an astromech. Once I had finished and he had asked his questions, he said he was speechless! He gave me a special merit with the possibility of Grand Champion! I will know tomorrow what I received on my project. 

Update: I received Grand Champion! It is going to the state competition!

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Setting Up and Programming an Arduino

7/18/2016

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I have been asked how to set up and program an Arduino, and I am going to go through the setup and programming in a few easy steps.

The first step is to install the Arduino IDE, which can be found on Arduino's website. This is where you will write code for the Arduino and upload it to the board. It is, without doubt, one of the most vital components for running an Arduino, second only to the board itself.

Once the IDE is downloaded, the board type must be selected under the "Tools" menu. Simply go to "Board," select whichever board is to be programmed, and move on to plugging the board into your computer. After the board is plugged in and an LED or two has lit up on the board, go to the "Tools" tab again and go to "Port." Select the port that is not "COM 1" or "Serial Ports." If none appear, try "COM 1" and begin uploading the desired code. If it pops up an orange bar at the bottom of the screen which reads "Problem uploading to board," unplug the Arduino and plug it back in while watching the "Port" portion of the "Tools" menu until a different COM port shows up, then select the new COM port. 

Now comes my favorite part: writing the code! Most beginning Adruino users start with the following simple program: 

void setup() {  //The setup which allows the rest of the code to function
  
  pinMode(9, OUTPUT);  //Sets which pin is in use and what mode the pin is in

}  //Ends the setup

void loop() { //Loops everything after the bracket

  digitalWrite(led, HIGH);  //Turns on the LED
  
  delay(1000);  //Sets the amount of time the LED is on in milliseconds
  
  digitalWrite(led, LOW);  //Turns off the LED
  
  delay(1000);  //Sets the amount of time the LED is off      
  
}  //Ends the loop


Once the code has been written, hit the arrow or go to "File" and hit "Upload." 

Building the actual circuit is fairly easy with the most common Arduino, the Arduino Uno: turn off the Adruino by unplugging it, find a 220 Ohm resistor, an LED of any color (as long as it can run off of 5V), and connect the long leg on the LED to the resistor and the short leg to ground. Then wire the non-LED leg of the resistor to whichever Digital pin was chosen, which is shown under pinMode (pin 9 in this example). Power up the Arduino and voila! A blinking LED!
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Battle of the Bots

7/11/2016

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On June 20, I got to start my first day at IPFW's Battle of the Bots camp, and I couldn't wait to get started! In the Battle of the Bots camp, students must create robots and program their robots to do certain challenges with the fastest time or with the most accuracy.

We were assigned teams immediately after learning about the robots we would be building and what challenges we faced. The challenges were a drag race, an object-finding race where the team would be randomly assigned one of two colored boxes, and a cooperative challenge for EV3s working with other teams. I began discussing who would have which challenge with my team, and because I have experience coding, it was decided that I would code the VEX robots in RobotC while my teammates shared the coding of the EV3 robot.

I accomplished the drag race program on the second day, overcoming the disadvantage of one motor on the VEX moving more slowly than the other. I then began the second challenge and, after making a partially autonomous mode that would switch to remote control to find the specific box, I decided to create a fully autonomous mode that could be switched to move to either box.

On the day of the challenge, however, the slower motor completely failed and I was unable to participate in the race. Despite the technical limitations, I still had a wonderful time working with my team, learning about robot, their uses, and their programming from the expert speakers: Professor Chen, Mr. Dobbs, and Ms. Bellis.
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Physics Camp at IPFW

7/2/2016

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One of the several IPFW camps I attended this year was their physics camp, and it was one of the best camps I have ever attended! The content was fantastic and the professors were outstanding.

On the first day of camp, we were allowed to choose two projects on which we would work for the remainder of the week. Our choices were to build 1) an interferometer, 2) an ECG, 3) a spectrometer, 4) a photon detector that will count individual photons. All of the projects sounded interesting, but I chose the photon detector as my first choice because it aligned most closely to my intended major (electrical engineering), I have a special affinity toward microcontrollers, and it sounded fascinating. I would have loved to work on all four projects, but I had to pick only one for my second project. The ECG very narrowly beat the other two projects in my level of interest. Also on that first day we began our first group experiments: determining the resistance of certain materials and how changing their shape, thickness, and composition can raise or lower the resistance. At the end of the day, we were given an exam, of sorts: given a glob of play dough, and given a specified diameter and length of the play dough, given a certain voltage (3V), and given no other materials, copy the amount of resistance in the professor's clay such that 14 mA was flowing through the play dough. I am very happy that I was the only student who was able to come up with the correct solution. I created a resistor from a sheet of my lab notebook, placed it inside the core of the play dough, and thereby created the perfect amount of resistance to get the correct number of amps through the play dough.

The second day marked the beginning of our splitting up into project groups. At the start of each day we would work with the professor in charge of one of our selected projects, then after lunch we would switch to the professor in charge of the other project we chose. For me, the morning project was the ECG. Dr. Johnson began by reviewing how to use breadboards, create circuits, and how to measure voltages, resistance, and current. Once all of the other students understood how things worked (I was already familiar with these techniques), we began working with an OpAmp (Operational Amplifier) and discovering what it did and how we could alter our voltage and current by simply changing the resistors out. We then adapted it to measure voltage in a solution, and on the very last day, measure voltage across the human body. Working with OpAmps was fortuitous since I had begun studying them and their uses the week before camp began. I enjoyed getting the chance to work with one. 

The photon detector project began with helping teach the other students how to solder so we could assemble our microcontrollers and LCD screens and begin working with them. Then Dr. Masters started teaching us to program the LCDs to show whatever text we wanted, to count up and down, and to use a pulse-wave modulator to make LEDs change as the counter went up or down. We also learned to make a photon detector using an oscilloscope, a backwards infrared LED, a power supply and a resistor. With the oscilloscope we were able to watch as each photon hit the LED and made a small spike on the oscilloscope. I loved this project! In fact, I am continuing to work on it even though camp is over. I am planning to expand on the readings displayed by the LCD screen taken by the LED.

The third day was continuation of the two projects, in addition to an extra challenge at the end of the day. We were to match the salt content to a variety of power drinks. To do this, we had to determine the conductivity of salt dissolved in water using a multimeter and OpAmp given various resistances. The one that was most conductive (most salty) was the drink that had the highest salt content on the label, and so on down the line. We were divided into two teams for this challenge. The other team only used one resistor in their tests, and they were certain of their results. I wanted to confirm our results so our team used multiple resistors to test each result. Our team won!

The rest of the camp was spent finishing the two projects. 

With such awesome projects and helpful professors, it was impossible to not have a great time at the physics camp! Many thanks to the professors: Dr. Masters, Dr. Grove, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Wang, and Dr. Millspaw!
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