Week 4, Summer 2023

Endeavors in Engineering

Jun 14, 2023

Weeks are going by faster than I can process them. And before I know it, it will be the end of summer and the beginning of classes.

As I sit down to write this newsletter, I am reminded of this fact and it tickles a nerve. I look through my long list of goals for the summer and I still have a long way to go. However, it strikes me that I am already a third of the way through the summer break!

The fact that this time is not going to come again makes everything that I do all the more exciting yet tense. Some things will take more time while some things will be relatively faster. However, they are all towards a singular purpose: self-actualization.

As I continue to go down this list, I try to be receptive to my environment, not losing sight of new opportunities knocking on my door. Uncertainty and changes can be disruptive, however, I see them as being essential. Thus, with every week, the list grows longer.

While working on a project this week, I realized that I did not know much about javascript and wanted to get better at it. In looking for the right resources for it, I came across a treasure chest of resources.

As someone studying Mechanical Engineering, when I say that I am spending my days learning how to code, I am often met with very confused looks. I have realized that people often associate skills with majors, even though you do not need to be “majoring” in a subject to be wanting to learn it.

I am a big proponent of self-guided learning and thankfully, there is no shortage of knowledge available (if you look for it, that is). Books, videos, online lectures, and practice problems are so easily accessible to those with the willingness and drive to learn something. And for free too!

Studying at a university with a well-reputed CS department, I find it truly remarkable that most of the course content is available to ANYONE (not just students of this university) for free. Kudos to all the professors who have lowered the barrier to gaining quality education and knowledge.

These are some of the courses that interested me1:

And these are only some of the UIUC courses. Imagine other universities and the courses that they offer!! In the age of the internet, one doesn't need to look too far to be able to learn what they want.

You may wonder, “What is he coding?”.

Well, you will have to wait a little to find that out.

Until then, let’s get to the weekly updates for a week where I reconciled with old passions and jumpstarted my adventures with engineering.

Music

Some other projects took precedence this week so I wasn’t able to spend much time making music. However, I did start learning a new song on the piano— Succession Theme by Nicolas Britell— which I am hoping to finish by the end of next week.

So, stay tuned for that.

To make up for having such a short Music section this week, I will end it with a beautiful piece of music:

Reading

“When ordinary human beings err, it is sad, but when leaders do, it haunts us for generations.”

If you were counting on me getting some new books this week, you would be right. After I finished reading Creatitvity Inc. this week, I had to get myself something.

“What did I think of Cretaivity Inc.?”, you ask.

Well, it was an absolutely brilliant book. It elegantly lays out what it takes to run a successful business while keeping your core values intact. It narrates a story of experimentation, growth, resilience, and humility. I have not read any other book that goes into such great detail about all the stages of building and running a company. I have come to appreciate it because of how universal its lessons are.

It is a story as true as time, and Ed Catmull, the author, does a fantastic job of sharing the growth of Pixar and the formula behind its magical storytelling.

(More detailed thoughts and summary coming soon)

I went back in time this week, back to the period of a recently independent India when it was envisioning and paving its path for the future. I grew close to Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, and understood his ideas of Socialist Democracy and his vision for India, while I empathized with industrialists like G.D. Birla and Kasturbhai Lalbhai who ushered in the start of the industrial revolution in India. The concept of free markets did not exist until 1991. Colonialism and exploitation had left a bad taste in the mouth of Indian policymakers, who ended up adopting an inward-looking import-substituting path, rather than an outward-looking, export-promoting route.

India’s case was quite unique since it became democratic first and capitalist second. It entered the Global market in 1991, after 44 years of gaining independence. Despite good intentions, why did the socialist democracy model fail? How did it set the country on the wrong footing? Why did it strangle the very businesses that could have spearheaded the industrial revolution in India? Why was it not able to deliver on many of its big goals like eliminating poverty or eliminating everyone’s standard of living? These are some of the questions that I learned the answer to this week.

However, I refrain from drawing conclusions before I have a better understanding of the full picture.

Learning Spanish

“Bienvenido a la semana 4!” (Welcome to Week 4!)

Learning Spanish has almost become second nature now, equivalent to brushing teeth or making a meal. I guess that is a good thing. I don’t have to force myself to do it.

Compared to last week, I have gotten better at understanding spoken Spanish. I tried having a conversation this week with a friend and realized that it is much harder to form sentences than to understand them.

Reading and listening are becoming stronger fortes, however, sentence formation is still lacking.

I’ll be honest, I have not gone above and beyond in my efforts to further my proficiency in the language. I have been sticking to learning it only through the app. However, I wish that I could control the speed at which I progress through it. Even though I am putting so much time into the app, I don’t think I am advancing at the rate that I would like to. There is a lot of regurgitation of exercises that is slowing me down.

I prefer being thrown deep into the belly of the beast and confronting the hardest things first. It makes learning the simpler things much easier and faster.

I believe the problem is that I am not finding the app challenging enough. It is too easygoing for me. Maybe Duolingo should consider adding a “Hardness” setting.

I hit my 30-day mark yesterday!! Big milestone, but still a long way to go!

Engineering

This week was big for Engineering—we conquered the skies!

On Friday, Juan David and I were thinking, “What is something we can do by the end of the day?”. I told him, “Let’s make a Drone.”

By 8 pm, we had a flying drone.

Ever since watching Top Gun: Maverick, we were starstruck by all flying things. It is such a marvel of engineering! We wanted to recreate the awe and inspiration that we had felt while watching the movie. Ever since we have been wanting to make a drone.

We had most of the parts assembled, but we were missing the heart of the drone: its controller and receiver. Without them, the drone was simply a piece of carbon fiber with propellers. So we called a friend in town who we thought could help.

To our good fortune, he had a spare receiver and controller! He was extremely gracious in giving it to us to complete the drone. After soldering it on, we configured the controls on a Flight Configurator, strapped the battery on, and tightened our propellor nuts.

It was time to take to the skies!

Seeing it lift off the ground was the most surreal feeling ever. It was the point of convergence of magic and creation.

Controlling a drone was much harder than it looked. After 30 min of cautious flying, we had already crashed the drone, damaging one of its motors. However, our spirits were undeterred.

Now that we had the drone flying, we had a newfound confidence that we could do it again. With some slight repairs, we knew that the drone would be up and flying in no time!

To reduce the blow of the mistakes, we decided to get our own flight simulator going. And boy oh boy, little did we know that we were in for a treat.

By 2 am, I had it working!2

We have been practicing the controls on it and are getting progressively better at it. Once we have the repairs done, we will be taking to the skies AGAIN!!3

Photo of the Week

If Week 3 was about exploring my artistic obsessions, this week was about working on my technical ones. There are a lot of things coming up for next week and I am hoping to finish a couple of projects that have been in the works for some time now (yes, I have been a little sneaky). So stay tuned.

Time to get back to work.

Until next time, amigo
Aaryaman

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