This weekly journal will detail my experience as a summer research intern at University of New Mexico. I will discuss the research that I work on, the obstacles I encounter, and the achievements I make. I will also talk about what it is like to live in Albuquerque New Mexico during the summer.



Week 5: June 24th- June 28th

The week started out very productive. I have moved on from comparing the distances between the ideal and the actual state. I am now comparing the the ideal and actual states to the base state, which is when the parameters of the function are set to zero. This is important to look at because it shows us if the quadrotor is actually learning and making progress or if it is stuck or if it is regressing. While this is a new aspect of the project I am doing basically the same thing, meaning that I'm working in Matlab creating graphs and scripts that calculate this difference. Becuase I already know how to do this I have been able to calculate and script these differences very quickly.

On a side note: I am super excited this week because some of my friends from school are coming to see me!!! They are driving from Texas on Thursday and we are going to spend the weekend exploring and hanging out before they leave on Sunday. I have missed my friends very much and this summer has been kinda lonely. I don't interact with the research group outside of the offices. If I did not have my friend Peter, from high school, I know I would be extremely lonely and bored in the evenings and over the weekends. It also doesn't help that I live so far from campus and downtown where most things are happening.

I was able to finish calculating the difference between the base state and the ideal and actual states pretty early on in the week. I think Sandra was a little surprised at how quickly I got everything done. I uploaded all the code and graphs that I had generated so that she could begin looking over the data and see where we should go from there. I don't think they know what to do with me here and it's a little frustrating. Like I have said before, I do not know many languages and am still pretty new to some basic commands and everything. This is a problem becuase I don't think Lydia and Sandra know what they can give me to do. The other problems is that I'm efficient and get things done quickly once I get the hang of it. I am currently faced with this dilemma because I finished everything that Sandra had me working on but I don't really have anything to move on to. I wouldn't mind being given a task where I have to learn a new computing language. It might take me a little bit of time but I could learn it. I have a desire to learn other languages. I just don't anyone to consider me incapable. I guess in the mean time, while Sandra is looking over the data, I will work on my website and my midway presentation. I don't really know what that entails but since this is the middle of my 5th week I need to present over what I have been working on. Maybe I'll even begin to work on my final report.

This week needs to hurry up so that my friends can get here.

Leisure Time The weekend with my friends was amazing! They got in late Thursday so I let them sleep in while I went to work on Friday. I took the afternoon off and we went to eat lunch at this incredible burger place called B2B. After that we walked around the Nob Hill area then headed home to rest. Friday evening we went to the Sandia Tram. I was worried that we weren't going to be able to go to the top of the mountain because it was so windy but everything worked out and we got to walk along the crest and order a few drinks at the restaurant up there. I think Jordan, Chase, Lindsay really liked the tram becuase there aren't really any mountains in Texas. Saturday we headed to Santa Rosa to experience the Blue Hole. It was a long drive but it was worth the opportunity to jump in the cool clear water. We didn't get to jump in as many times as we would have liked becuase there were so many scuba divers but it was still a lot of fun. After that we drove to Santa Fe and walked around the Plaza for a few hours, checking out the stores and galleries. When we got back to Albuquerque we went to dinner with my parents who were in town to see my grandma. The evening ended with us going to see Fast and Furious 6, which was pretty ridiculous. On Sunday we went to lunch at Nexus before they had to head out. I am really happy I got to see them but I really miss them and wish the weekend didn't have to come to an end.

The Gang on the Sandias
Riding the Tram
Sandia Tram
Sandia Tram
At the Blue Hole
Fun at the Blue Hole