Final Blog Post!

So here is the video.

I've chosen to use Elaboration with the original idea. I don't think a product like this has been released/is in active development as of yet.

Blog #6 - Listening

Alright, so today - Friday that is, was Diwali - the Indian festival of lights.  So very obviously I skyped with one of my friends from back home.

One of the first things that struck me about the conversation, it wasn't as free flowing as our conversations used to be - this was especially when the both of us were trying to multi-task during the conversation, there were more than a few awkward moments, when we experienced awkward pauses or gaps in the conversation. In moments like these, I found asking questions very useful, often prompting the person to launch into a new narrative. I also found paraphrasing and comparing to be very useful tools particularly to translate the different perspectives and experiences we had. Mirroring, building and agreeing were useful, but more as implicit tools than something I used explicitly.

Even though the conversation took place over skype, thanks to the video calling facility, there wasn't as huge a disconnect in non verbal communication as would be expected. It was quite easy to tell for example when either one of us wasn't exactly paying 100% attention - the person would be distracted, often issuing monosyllabic responses instead of actually answering the questions asked. It was also very simple to tell when the person was very interested in what the other was saying, as was characterised by their leaning slightly towards the screen of their computers.

Overall, I think the conversation went well, it was nice to catch up with my friend - we had a few false starts in the conversation, but on the whole it was quite cohesive - if anything I believe I could devote more of my time to paying very close attention to what my friend was saying, rather than trying to multi-task. Also, I learned that skype video chat needs a very strong internet connection on both ends - something difficult to find back in India.

The Bass Pedal : Blog #5

Introducing : The Bass Drum Pedal aka Single Pedal aka Kick Drum Pedal.

(image credit : drummerworld.com)

In particular, this pedal is the Ludwig-Musser Speed King, also dubbed the Squeak King because of the odd squeaking noise the right spring makes when you play it even moderately fast.

Though almost every type of music uses some variant of the bass pedal, its most popular incarnation is used mostly in blues, rock and jazz. Bass pedals have been around for a while - in fact William Ludwig invented them back in 1909.

They're usually placed right next to a bass drum (for rather obvious reasons). And works rather simply, the drummer depresses the pedal, which moves a mechanism that forces the head of the pedal to strike the drum.
There are a lot of variations you can have, the most common however, is either a single pedal on a drum, two pedals on a single drum or two pedals on two drums.

I'd also like to introduce this man

(Image credit : Dina Regine )
John Bonham, in-arguably the greatest rock drummer of all time.
Why do I bring this up you ask? Because this man pioneered a technique using the drum pedal called the "Heel-Toe" method. Before he came into the picture, every time drummers wanted to play rolls on the bass, or play complicated rhythms, they were forced to use more than a single pedal - simply because the pedal needs time to return to it's equilibrium position before it can be struck a second time.

How the Heel Toe works is rather simple actually - instead of striking the pedal with your toes, you strike it with your heel, so that the pedal is completely depressed. Then you "catch" it on the rebound and strike it with your toes, so the pedal doesn't go all the way back to it's mean position between hits. It's a difficult skill to master but once you do, it opens you to a huge number of possible rolls that you can pull off.

To be honest, there's not a lot of improvement that can be made to this - I suppose you could switch the spring to one made out of slightly newer alloys so that the squeaking stops, which would make the sound slightly cleaner - though some would say that the squeak is one of the best things about the pedal, it's a slight imperfection that makes the music slightly more human.

If you want to look at the Heel Toe in action check this video: roughly around 1:16, he switches to a foot camera where you can see him use the technique.

Also I'd recommend you check out these videos - Good Times Bad Times the song where he first used the technique and Moby Dick where he really shows some of the excellent sounds you can create using the technique. As a plus point, they're both really amazing songs.

From Thomas and Back

First off, I'd like to apologize to my group members and Ms Watkins for missing the deadline.

The first part of our Engineering 198 Lab had me in a group trying to design a steam powered car. Simply put, the car failed to work. This was primarily because the flames from the fuel container melted the solder keeping the nozzle attached to the boiler.

Without fully considering the implications we as a group decided to paint the car. The paint ignited and the flames grew large enough to melt the solder, a heat shield could have prevented this from happening. [Claim]. Since there was water in the boiler at the time, temperature inside the boiler (and hence the boiler itself) could not have reached temperatures above 100 degrees Celsius [Grounds] because of the principal of latent heat of vaporization [Warrant]. This is proved since the solder never melted in any of the multiple tests that were run prior to demo day (before painting the car) [Backing].Though the possibility exists that the prior tests weakened the integrity of the solder, and that the solder melting was coincidental with the painting of the car [Rebuttal]. This is however, improbable. If a heat shield were installed to prevent the flames from directly touching the soldering joint, the solder should have remained solid, the nozzle should not have shifted from its optimum position and the char should have run perfectly well.[Qualifier]

email to a TA

Following is the email sent to my Chemistry TA. No reply, since it's sort of last minute.

Dear xxx

I was having some trouble with Question 12 on the previous years paper that Dr Yerkes had posted on the course website.

I'm not exactly sure, how to set this up, do we simply mix and match every possible product that could be formed, see which are soluble or not and hence predict the products, or do we line them up sequentially and see which products would form?

The question is as follows -



A student dissolves 2.00 g each of CaCl2, NaOH, (NH4)2SO4 and AgNO3.
How many different precipitates will form?
Thanks
Karmanya Aggarwal

Networking and Initiative

To be honest, I'm cheating with this one - we're supposed to be talking about Networking and Initiative, so I doubled it up with talking to my iTeams iCOA - Mark Niemeyer from Caterpillar.

Below is the email I sent him and his reply - it's not the best of cold calls, but I figured I had a little bit of leeway since they're already iCOAs (and actually know what DC3M is)

Dear Mr Niemeyer


My name is Karmanya Aggarwal, I'm from the "Digital, Computers, Computations, Communication and Media" iTeam from the iEFX program at the University of Illinois.


My iTeam and I had some rather interesting ideas for micro-projects we could complete over the semester. I was hoping that we could sit down and discuss some of the ideas so as to get your input as an experienced engineer as to how feasible some of them are.


My phone number is XXX-XXX-XXXX, could you please call me whenever you get the time, or tell me when a convenient time to call would be.


Thanks
Karmanya Aggarwal
DC3M
xxxxxx@illinois.edu

His reply was -

Karmanya,


I will at Engineering Expo on Monday and Tuesday next week recruiting, I won't be available those days due to the activities we have planned.  I am available between x:00 am & x:00 pm on xxxx and after x:00 pm on xxxxxx next week.  I am planning on coming to the picnic on Thursday,.  I am out of the office on day on Friday.  I will have time the following week.


Let me know if any of those times work for you.  We can meet either on campus or at our office in the research park.

Mark Niemeyer
Engineering Supervisor
Champaign Simulation Center
Phone:  xxx-xxx-xxxx
Internal Tie Line:  xxxx-xxxx
Decatur Phone:  xxx-xxx-xxxx
Internal Tie Line:  xxxx-xxxx

As to how I got his contact details in the first place - I displayed (as my iSA says) cunning. I asked.

So, Networking and initiative, check.

Assignment #1 : The Missing Basics

Professor Goldberg, in the video found here talks about what he calls “The Missing Basics”. Things that the average engineer coming out of a technical institution just doesn’t know. As an Indian who flew half across the world in the pursuit of a decent engineering education, I’m struck by how relevant his points are even for an engineering student from India. A typical IITian (a student graduating from one of the seven Indian Institutes of Technology – the premier engineering colleges in India) will have brilliant math skills. Given a question and nothing else more than a piece of paper and a pencil and he’ll probably be able to give you the answer you were looking for instantly. Put him in the real world however and ask him to innovate and come up with creative solutions, and he’s lost more often than not. To be fair, it’s not exactly his fault : from an extremely young age, Indian students are taught not to ask questions. To follow blindly the orders/advice of your parents, your seniors and your teachers. His job is to lock himself away in a box to ‘study’ – memorize the text till you can reproduce it word by word in the examinations. Get the marks, get into an IIT, graduate and get a job to support his family. No understanding required. He is under immense pressure to conform; in India – you are your marks. A 90% is brilliant, a 60 worthless (even if he can play the guitar like Hendrix or paint like Raphael). He doesn’t know how to ask questions, model, decompose or visualize and cringes when he’s asked to communicate more than a few words at a time. This is exactly what ,propels thousands of indians to the far corners of the globe, to pursue more complete educations – ones where you can ask questions, think differently and have your own unique brand of creativity rewarded. So in this regard, I believe Professor Goldberg is spot on. Since we live in a world where the average engineer spends less than 30% of his time using the math, physics and chemistry he learns in college (and taking into consideration the scores of Indian engineers who use engineering as a foundation degree before completing and MBA and jumping into the foray of stock brokers and civil servants, their engineering degree gathering dust on some wall of his office) we need engineers who are both innovative and expressive. Though it hardly counts as a mini-action plan, I plan to become one.

By the end of the semester, I plan to be develop my communication skills, both oral and written. The former by taking the initiative to participate in different public speaking roles and the latter simply by writing as many assignments as I’m able. Additionally I plan on becoming a more extroverted person – simply by interacting with as many different types of people as I’m able: from jocks to DDR nerds. Not very detailed perhaps. But (hopefully) effective.

Place Holder

Welcome to the blog of Karmanya Aggarwal. This shall (eventually) be the blog I post all my ENG 198 assignments on, which (I think) is pretty damn cool.

Hopefully I should have the first assignment done tonight.