Project Plan

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Roles
All will be present during the experiment and will help with the song.  However, Sean and Peter will play a larger role in interpreting the data into results and Kristen will play a larger role in interpreting the results into song.


Science/Technology Involved
We will be doing a spectrophotometric analysis on a variety of alcoholic beverages.  This analysis will show us the variable wavelength absorbances of the compounds in each solution.  It will display which wavelengths are more efficiently absorbed by the drink.

Activity plan
Within the next week we will meet in the lab and use the spectrophotometer to run our experiment.  Within the week after that we will meet together at least twice to go over results and translate them into song, and also to rehearse the song.

Expected Outcome/Data
We expect the color to have an effect on the data, as well as specific compounds found in the drinks.

Project Plan

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Roles:

Jordan will research the issues relating to black holes that arise in “The Impossible Planet.” Tory will look into the concept of parallel worlds and the idea of jumping between them. We will work together on the validity of laser weapons as legitimate technology.

Science/ Technology Involved:

–       “The Impossible Planet”

  • General information on black holes
  • General relativity and distorted space-time
  • Event horizon
  • Scientific validity of the “impossible planet” described

–       Parallel worlds

  • Quantum theory
    • Many worlds interpretation
  • Any scientific basis for jumping between realities

–       Laser weapons

  • Power of lasers (using color as a jumping-off point)
  • Scientific validity of their use in the show

Activity plan:

We plan to work individually on a daily basis and meet every other day. Our project is research-based, so we will gather sources from the library and from Scopus. Books we have already consulted include Black Holes and Warped Spacetime (Kaufmann), An Introduction to Relativistic Gravitation (Hakim), Science and Ultimate Reality (Barrow, Davies, and Harper), and Science and Technology of Directed-Energy Weapons (American Physical Society).

Expected Outcome:

At this point in our research, we are unable to accurately predict the results of our venture. We hypothesize that the concepts we are studying have some basis in real science, but have been greatly exaggerated for television. However, we will be pleasantly surprised (until the Daleks show up, obviously) if our hypothesis turns out to be incorrect.

Project Plan

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Roles:

Emily: Measure energy output of Droid Incredible, netbook, iPhone, and PC notebook both while browsing the internet with each device and while charging the battery

Rhonda: Measure energy output of Macbook, iPad, and Blackberry while browsing the internet with each device and while charging the battery

Note: All energy outputs are measured with the WattsUp Pro device

Science/technology:

–          Wattsup Pro

–          The electronics that we are testing

–          Excel for data entry

Data:

–          Data will be collected through the Wattsup Pro and will then be entered into Excel to be analyzed

–          An evening meeting will be scheduled to collect data for the various electronics and entered in Excel

Outcomes:

–          Apple products will use less energy overall then its rivals

–          The Blackberry would use less energy than the iPhone and Droid because it does not have a large touch screen which uses up more energy

–          The long-term savings in electricity costs may eventually make the Macbook more price competitive with a PC notebook which has a cheaper initial cost but perhaps a higher cost from greater electricity use

Project plan

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Project Plan

Below are our proposed plans for this project!

Roles:

Preston Miller – Media gatherer
Ashlei Hardenburg – Film editor
Kamran Jehle – Film design
Meeting:
Once weekly Wednesdays 2pm-3pm @ Library, more meetings if necessary.
Equipment:
Video editing software, internet
Technology used:
Internet, computer programs
Outcomes:
Humorous?

Project Plan

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  • Roles:
  1. Rebecca Valencia:  Technology Background Researcher/Record-Data Keeper
  2. Tamila Shalumova: Experimenter/Instrument Wielder
  3. Zach Ward: Historical/ Economic Researcher
  • Our group plans on investigating exactly how a jump drive uses electricity in its ability to store information quickly, conveniently, and safely in a static state form (meaning that there are no moving parts which make up the body of the jump drive itself). The modern flash drive is derivative of past forms of memory saving technologies, including floppy drives and zip disks. However, the science that goes into a jump drive has been miniaturized and maximized. We will be investigating how electricity and semiconductor technology have evolved in such a way that we can now carry 4 GB or more of memory in our pockets.
  • We plan on utilizing the Watts Up Pro electricity measuring device to perform a series of experiments where we 1) figure out the computer’s baseline electricity usage level 2) measure the electricity output whilst the jump is uploading and downloading information. We will then subtract the difference in order to discover how much electricity the jump drive itself must use in order to carry these tasks. We will also examine how price of jump drive and level of memory have had an inverse relationship over the years. Using this information, we may be able to predict the price of jump drives in the next 5 years. We will meet each Thursday night as needed around dinner time so that we may perform our initial tasks of researching the technology behind jump drives, collecting and analyzing data, and finally, completing the price chart.
  • We expect that the prices of USB drives have gone down as the size of the memory capacity has gone up over the years. We do not expect the USB drive to consume a great deal of power, considering that most external drives do not use a source other than the computer unless they are larger than 500 GB.

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/SanDisk_Cruzer_Micro.png

Welcome!

This is the Student Project Group for Henry Sigall. This is the section of the LTT website where you should place all of your posts that relate to your group project. Once you have read the “How To Post” page and have decided upon a physics project, you should follow along with the assignments listed in the Course Syllabus to know what should be posted here, and when. Remember that any comments on others’ work should not appear in this category, but should be made as comments underneath their respective posts. As soon as you finalize your project plans, keep up with the assignment due dates on Moodle, and have fun posting. Good luck!

Project Plan

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We will be dividing our piece into three sections. They will explain the system behind adaptive optics system achieving fine resolution with the help of laser guide stars. The first section, which Zach Williams will write, will take place before the system has guidance. The second section, which Andrew Spencer will write, will detail the mechanism by which the system reacts to the laser guide star. The third and final section, which Andrew Shapransky will write, will explain the results of the guidance that the laser provides. Of course, all sections will have out love metaphor laced in.

Pulsed dye lasers, optics, and astronomy will be highlighted in our piece.

Pens, pencils, and paper will be the primary means of constructing our verses and once some ideas have been hammered out, we will share them using the Internet.  We will explore the possibility of including visual aids during the performance such as photographs and movies of the system in action, Mathematica visualizations and other supporting graphics.

We will meet on Wednesdays at 8 PM in the library, bringing our best lines, imagery and metaphors to the table. We expect our poem to be informative and possibly emotionally moving.

The Science of Mind-reading, part II

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Group 13: Project Plan

Our project, as described previously, is to investigate the science of “mind-reading.”

We will perform a review of primary literature as found through the library’s many databases to understand where this technology is today and where it may go in the future. Most of this research will be done independently; we will meet weekly (the day will vary week to week based on our individual schedules) to compile the information we find. Relevant data and results from recent fMRI studies will be presented in our poster.

Each of us will focus on a specific topic:

  • Maddy: How fMRI (the primary tech used for “mind-reading”) works
  • Adam: Current research being done
  • Jackie: Applications of “mind-reading” technology

We expect to find that although no one can currently “read” a person’s thoughts, memories, or dreams, researchers are working on this — right now, you need to obtain template images of a person’s brain during different activities for later comparisons and predictions about what the person is thinking. Reading “abstract” thoughts isn’t yet possible.

Energy Consumption Project Plan

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The goal of our project is to determine a reasonable estimate for the personal energy consumption of a Vassar student. In order to achieve this goal, both members of our group will use the Watts Up Pro to measure the energy uses of the various appliances, technology and light sources in our dorm rooms. We will then calculate the average energy consumption per day. Using this value we will calculate the approximate energy consumption over the course of an academic year and determine how much this costs.

To carry out this project, we plan to test all electronic devices in our rooms and record how long they are in use over a span of three days. For each day of the study we will also re-test each device using the Watts Up Pro. If the values do not change between the first two days of testing, we will assume they remain constant. After we have calculated our average energy use per day, we will multiply by the number of days in the academic year to determine our total consumption. We will then contact the college to find the cost of energy per kWh on campus and use this to calculate the total cost of our energy use. It will be interesting to determine what percentage of Vassar’s room and board fees are used to cover energy expenses. We predict that this value will be quite small.

A possible extension of this project might include obtaining the same data from other individual dorm rooms, as time allows. This would give a more accurate measure of an average student’s energy use.

Slipping into Powered Armor

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After discussing our goals for our project, we established that the central three aspects of our research will be media, technology, and current research.  All of us will contribute to these three aspects, but each of us will oversee one of them.

Gary will oversee media portrayals, where we will consider questions like:

What various forms of powered armor have been introduced so far in movies and video games?

What proposed or current technology do they run on?

How feasible are they?

How practical are they in the real world?

Nick will oversee necessary technology, where we will all have to collaborate to answer many questions like:

What power sources, materials, and UI’s (user interfaces) are or might become available to us?

How efficient are the power sources?

How long do they last / how often must they recharge?

How heavy are they?

What are the primary deciding factors for the materials in different environments – Weight?  Cost?  Durability and resistance to wear?

What UI’s are best for various applications?  If the driving mechanism is perception and amplification of the user’s motions, how can we control responsiveness?

Sean will oversee current research and development, which will provide hints as to:

What types of exoskeletons have we built so far?  What technologies have we employed in them?

What priorities seem to govern our progress with exoskeletons – military, medical, construction, or something else?