Module 5 update

Module 5 has been by far the hardest module I have ever had to do. We had 5 interesting courses which were Systems and Signals, Circuits and Electronics, Telecommunications, Sensors and Control Systems. We had exams every week and pop quizzes for bonus points which kept me on my toes. Having to hand in reports every week on various assignments had me chewing my nails off by the end of the module but luckily its over now. I really learned a lot this module and am surprised that I actually understand how op-amps work now! You can check out all the skills I picked up here.

3rd November 2016

Module 4 update

I know, I know, if you were paying attention you'd see my first post was my latest post was released on the same day but hey I've been busy. Module 4 was a lot of fun! Programming was by far my favourite subject in the module. You can check descriptions of some of the programs I wrote here. The project was by far the highlight of the module, our team made a virtual reality flying simulator for GOGBOT 2016 and were selected to present our installation at the actual exhibition. You can read about the project here.

3rd November 2016

Module 3 update

This past module flew past so quickly, I'm starting to think this is a trend. Next thing you know I'll be receiving my graduation diploma. This module certainly had its ups and downs, mainly concerning the Designing in Context subject which I didn't find very helpful as a subject. The foam workshops were fun but stressful due to the time constraints however it was a fun practical skill to gain. The 3D modelling was by far my favourite subject and it was a shame that it ended so quickly. I thoroughly enjoyed the classes and was amazed by what I could make after just 3 classes.

30th March 2015

Module 2 update

I know, I know, its been a while. But I have a really good reason. This module has been absolutely hectic! The workload sky rocketed and I found I was spending almost every evening working on something or the other. But the best part of this study was that I didn't consider half of the stuff we had to do as work. Except sketching. God I hated sketching with a passion. Like an absolute passion. I passed sketching and I will try my absolute hardest to draw as badly from now on because that's how much I hate sketching. Moving on, the rest of the module was quite enjoyable. I absolutely loved physical computing and programming as it taught us how to build circuits and set-ups that we could actually interact with. The music instrument end assignment was actually a blessing in disguise because I can apply the skills I learned doing that assignment to future projects involving an arduino, sensors and MIDI output. Speaking of the instrument, we made a MIDI keyboard out of cardboard squares that we wrapped in aluminium foil to make a capacitive sensor. We used the cardboard squares sort of like piano keys, and made a piano-drum-machine hybrid. We also had an extremely sensitive capacitive sensor on the side that we used like a whammy bar on a guitar.

EDF was also quite interesting and we learned a lot of things about how sine waves work and about inductors and capacitors. Smart Environments was fun because we got exposed to a lot of awesome ideas by companies 10 years ago that have become a reality or ideas of today that will be realized sometime in the near future.

All in all this module has been extremely busy and tiring but quite worth it and enjoyed it very much. Except sketching, boy did I hate sketching.

Smart Environment Project Floora

For our second module project, our task was to create a Smart Environment. Without going into too much detail, a smart environment is an autonomous system that has very little user interaction, can respond to new situations and is mostly hidden from view. It has a few other characteristics but I won't bore you with that. What I will bore you with however, is the details of our group's project, codename Floora. Floora comes from ambient floor and the idea behind it is that you can control appliances in your bed room by stepping through the door way and onto weight sensitive switches activated  by the user stepping on them. In our prototype we had three switches, the first of which controlled the room's lighting, the second controlled the heating and the third turned on a sound system.

A big thank you to my project group for all their hard work and dedication!

Web-technology Peer Review

I had the glorious task of reviewing Sevim Aktas' website. It was quite eye opening as I realized there was a lot more I could be doing aesthetically speaking for my website after seeing hers. It was quite a treat for the eyes to see all the little animations in the window tabs. I especially liked her design inspiration page which was a collection of photos arranged in a honeycomb pattern which could be zoomed into when the mouse was hovered over the individual unit. I could see from the layout that she had definitely put in a lot of time and effort into making the website visually pleasing and it she certainly achieved her goal. Her photography page had the navigation menu at the top of the page followed by a slide-show jumbotron with the word Photography across it. Following that she arranged photographs she took in a 3 by 8 rectangle where if one of the photos was clicked, a pop-up menu with a navigable showcase of her photos appeared. Finally came the footer with links to her portfolio, her blog and a contact page. The only thing that bothered my slightly was the fact that the footer did not stick to the bottom of the page. Check out her portfolio here.

Progress on We Create Identity

I am actually really enjoying this module. I am learning how to do things that I would have looked up in my free time. I am so happy I made the switch from Advanced Technology. Lets have a moment of silence for those poor souls who haven't seen the light. In terms of work, I used to think Visual Communication wasn't really a subject, but after studying font types and image positioning, I started seeing it everywhere around me in advertisement on websites and other such places. In fact I can't stop noticing it now. I am thoroughly enjoying Web Technology, and love the freedom we are given in terms of website design. I did a course on HTML and CSS on codeacademy.com but then found out a program called Adobe Muse and used it instead. I am still happy I have the basics of HTML and CSS down. Programming is a lot of fun and although its challenging, I have managed to keep my head above the water. I am quite proud of my little iron man creature which is now part of an array I intelligently named theironlegion. Anyhow I can now program 20 little ironmen to bounce around the screen and ignite their thrusters when the mouse button is clicked. All in all, the module is going quite well.