Summertime in Houghton

On a trip with visitors (cousin Alex and his girlfriend Kaylin) to see the local sights.

I've spent the last seven weeks in Houghton taking classes and working for Michigan Tech's Summer Youth Programs. It's been a fairly busy time, with several groups of visitors coming to enjoy the summer weather here. It was nice to have visitors on some of the weekends since Ashby has been in Ann Arbor for the summer. For classes, I took a total of 6 credits which is close to a full-time load when it's condensed into seven weeks. I took 'Mechanical Vibrations' and 'Statistics for Engineers', both of which will likely prove useful in the future.

My job with the Summer Youth Program fit in very well with taking classes. I was responsible for chaperoning the students to and from Houghton on the weekends. Several times this meant driving a Michigan Tech van to a nearby town and picking up or dropping off a handful of students. Most often it meant riding a charter bus through the night two nights in a row on the weekend running down to Lower Michigan to trade the students who had finished their programs for ones on their way up to Houghton. A few times I was able to meet up with friends and family during the bus layover. Thrown into the mix were a few around town van trips for field trips as well. It was quite an enjoyable job and it kept me from excessive boredom on the weekends as a side benefit!

Now I'm in the process of preparing for final exams at the end of this week, after which I head home to Erie for about a week before coming back up. It should be a fun week, with a family reunion and canoeing trip in the works. I know it will go my much too quickly, but when Ashby and I return to Houghton, we plan to make a trip to Wisconsin and Minnesota to a 'mystery destination' that I'm sure we will both enjoy along with some state parks on the way. That will make the trip back more fun. Then it's back to school in the fall. I'm excited to be the leader of the powertrain ("engine") sub-team for the Supermileage team this year. I have some new ideas, and the whole team seems fired up to make more improvements after our impressive performance this summer.

Supermileage

Last week was the annual Supermileage competition hosted by SAE and Eaton in Marshall, MI.  I joined Michigan Tech's Supermileage Systems Enterprise (SSE) last fall, and have been working on our vehicle for most of the school year.  I decided to join the powertrain sub-team, and cut my teeth by helping to design a new rear end frame for our car.  I also designed and built an engine mount that is both adjustable and makes it (relatively) fast and easy to remove and replace the engine, along with a device for properly tensioning the drive chain.  As a final project before summer break I reconfigured the fuel system to take up less space and fit the new layout better.  The fuel system also incorporated quick-disconnects to facilitate simple and fast engine removal, a major goal of the design this year.

Needless to say I was quite anxious to see this vehicle in action.  During the year we almost never have the whole vehicle in one piece because we are making so many modifications.  Competition was the first time I saw the whole thing working the way it was intended to.  This was my first time being at a supermileage competition, and I got the swing of things fairly quickly.  The team's first goal is to pass the technical inspection.  We had to make some changes to our electrical system, because the officials were concerned about the safety of a few of our more advanced features.  Luckily we could function without those systems working and quickly made it through that stage of technical inspection.  We then had to pass some basic handling tests.  That's when our starter broke.

Our team in line for technical inspection.

Without a starter our car was dead on the road, and we brought it back to our pit area and dug into the problem.  It turned out that our starter bracket had cracked and broken at a weld.  Unfortunately we didn't have a welder we could bring with us.  Luckily our neighbors from South Dakota owed us a favor for borrowing our generator earlier, and they had a welder.  It took a while for them to get used to welding on our aluminum bracket but they got it fixed before the end of the day.  In our rush to try the newly welded bracket we plugged some wires into the wrong ports and got a surprise when our engine flooded with fuel in quite a spectacular manner!  Luckily we discovered our careless mistake fairly quickly and got the car running a few minutes before we had to leave for the day.

Working on our car in our pit area.

The next morning we arrived early and got ready to finish the handling tests.  As it turned out, our car ended up being one of the best handling vehicles in the competition.  In every test the judges reaction was something like "Wow, I've never seen anyone do that so fast!"  Once we cleared all the tests, we were able to get out on the test track and compete for mileage.  We had predicted a performance of 55o mpg based on our 456 the year before and the improvements we made.  On the first run an access panel flew open and stayed that way for most of the run, so we were flabbergasted when our result of 950 mpg was posted.  Our vehicle managed to complete three more runs without incident (which is quite rare for the competition).  We continued to tweak our settings and achieved ever improving mileages of 960, 1063 and a final 1140.  That last performance was enough to put us in 2nd place overall, which was a very pleasant surprise for this being only our second year competing.  I guess we're on the right track!  I, along with the other new members on the team, am now very excited to get back to work and make more improvements before we come back to Marshall next year.  Hopefully we will outperform our wildest hopes again!

Our car being rolled out to the track to begin a 9.6 mile run.

Settling In

Ashby and I at the Copper Harbor lighthouse, the 

northernmost point in our weekend road trip.

I've been in Houghton or about two weeks now, and am beginning to settle into the routines of going to class and living off campus.  I've found that living off campus has been the right decision for me.  It's been much quieter and I have my own room that's only slightly smaller than the one I shared last year!  The cost is much less here as well, which more than offsets the necessity of commuting to campus (about 3 miles).

Classes have gone fairly well so far, with none that I'm too worried about.  I've also decided to join the Automotive Systems Enterprise team, which is a student group which competes to design and build the most fuel-efficient vehicle.  This will be a great way for me to gain experience while having fun.  I look forward to working on this project in the coming years.

Ashby and I took advantage of the time before classes started to take a trip up the Keweenaw peninsula.  We also made it to a few of the events put on for freshman orientation week.  This weekend we went to K (Keweenaw) Day, held at McLain State Park by the university.  We are trying to enjoy outdoor activities as much as possible before the weather turns cold.  It's nice to go to school in an area where there are so many opportunities for outdoor activities.

Back to School

Yesterday morning, I saw my girlfriend, Ashby, off on her way back to school at Michigan Tech.  As I drove home from her house, I realized that this was the first time since we've known each other that we've made the 600 mile trek to Houghton separately.  I love driving (I get it from my dad.) and have always driven on the way home and back when we are on break.  This time, however, Ashby had to be up north two weeks earlier than I do, because of her job training.  Her parents are driving her up this time.  The upside to the situation is that I will be able to take my car instead of driving the truck to move both of us.  The way gas prices are looking that will be quite a relief.  

I find that I'm much more excited about going back to school this year.  Having experienced one year of college has made a huge difference for my anxiety level.  Even so, I've started the 'to take' pile in the spare bedroom.  I plan to leave a week early to settle in and spend some time with Ashby before classes start.  That gives me a little more than a week to get everything ready.  I'm looking forward to being back.

Spring Fling

Michigan Tech's annual Spring Fling was today. The main festivity is mud volleyball known as "Ooze Ball." Unfortunately, I was only able to enjoy the events for a short time, as the festivities were drawing to a close by the time my classes ended for the day.

Ooze Ball

The snowmobile club was feeling a little down on their luck.

A friendly reminder to all the Ooze Ball players.

UP Weather

This morning, it was quite a surprise to look out the window and see a blizzard.  Some snow is not that surprising even this time of the year in Houghton.  It regularly dips below freezing at night.  A blizzard, however, is something entirely different.  And it came just as we began to see grass on campus again, as if to say "Fooled you!"  Oh well, it is da UP.  Maybe we'll be able to wear shorts outside before we go home for the summer in a few weeks.

Winter Carnival Begins

Winter Carnival is finally upon us.  Tonight is the overnight statue construction frenzy.  Unfortunately, I have a bit of a cold, so I decided it would be a good idea to stay indoors and not get run over by a front-end-loader.  Hopefully I will be over the cold enough to go outside and enjoy the carnival tomorrow once the festivities get going in earnest.  I'll make sure to get planty of pictures and I'll post the best.  Below are some pictures I took of some of the long term statues as of a few days ago.  They have already come a long way since then.

Last night I went to watch Ashby and her hall compete in Ice Bowling.  She was one of the bowling balls.  They did well, taking 3rd overall.  There are pictures of that below as well.  She's playing broomball tomorrow morning as well.  This weekend we'll be going to see Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood of Who's Line is it Anyway fame.  We should have lots of fun over the next few days.

One of the statues that was furthest along.

A wall of snow waiting to be sculpted

One of the statues involves a car frozen in a block of ice.

Ashby's team getting ready to launch her at the pins.

Success!

Snowday

Wednesday was a historical day for the MTU community.  We had a snowday.  That is a very rare occurrence here in the Keweenaw.  However, the university couldn't ignore the -44 degree wind chill.  Unfortunately I had already caught up on my homework, and it was decided that snowmobiling might be a rather bad idea.  So, the day was spent just hanging around the dorm.  Ashby came over and we watched a movie, played a few games of pool and sat in the cafe for a while.  Not a bad way to spend an unexpected day off. Below are some pictures I took from the window in my room looking toward campus.  The bottom picture is what the first picture looks like on a nice day.

Lumijuoksu

Today was the first annual Lumijuoksu, held in Hancock by the MTU Track & Field team.  Lumijuoksu means "snow run" in Finnish.  Of course, I can't pass up any opportunity for an open 5K run, even in the middle of January.  The run lived up to its name, with snow falling steadily for most of the morning.  Temperatures were in the -3 to 4 degree range, depending on who you ask, and wind chill was as cold as -26 degrees F.  The run was through downtown Hancock and the route passed snowbanks that were taller than I am.  I don't think I stepped on any pavement for the whole race.  Well, it was a snow run.  I made sure to bundle up in many layers and to leave no skin exposed.  As it turns out, I wore the right amount, only mildly overheating near the finish.  After getting my coat and snowpants back on, Ashby and I made our way to the awards ceremony.  It turned out that I won the 14-19 age group.  All in all a very fun and rewarding run.  It was definitely like nothing I have done before.

Snow

It's been two weeks now since I came back to Tech after break.  In that time I haven't driven anywhere, until today.  I believe it has snowed every day since break.  When I got to my car today, there was about a foot of snow on and around it.  Luckily, after about 45 minutes, we got the car out onto the road and from there it was smooth sailing.

Science Olympiad Flashback

Yesterday in General Engineering, we held the final trial for a project many weeks in the making. The project was to drop an egg attached to an elastic cord and to have it come as close to the ground as possible without making a mess. The project was fairly involved, with groups making computer models to predict the outcome of various egg weights, jump heights, and cord lengths.  To make this model, we of course had to test the cord to be used in order to find out what its characteristics are and how it will respond when under tension.  After all this was done, we were given the set drop height from a second floor balcony and we were then to determine the correct length of cord to use.  We only got one chance.  Our group set a goal of coming within 8cm of the floor.  As it turns out, we erred on the side of caution.  Our egg only came within about 20cm of the floor.  Still, with only one shot, we were very happy with that outcome.

Muck Run / Safe House

Saturday morning was the annual MTU Cross Country fundraiser. They put on the "Muck Run" up at the Tech Trails. As it is close to halloween, many people dress up in costumes to race. They have awards for the best costume and the muddiest runner. I decided that this would be a fun race to do. I didn't wear a costume, though. I also found a group of people who were running and we formed a team. The weather was on the cold side, but once the race started it was alright. I have seen many creative ways of starting a race, but this is the first race I have ran where they lit a firecracker and threw it on the ground in place of the starting pistol. The course was deceptively easy for the first two miles. The third mile, however, consisted of some pretty brutal hills (at least for a person who is used to flat terrain like I am). At the two mile mark, I was on pace for a time in the 18 minute range, but after the last mile I had racked up a time of 20:22. Everyone had relatively slow times because of the challenging course. Our team ended up running well enough to win the team race. Below are some pictures of the run.

Later that day was another annual event called Safe House. This is when the residence halls are converted into haunted houses and the public is allowed to tour. I helped with the setup and operation of my hall's "gamer's nightmare" theme. It's amazing how much difference can be done to the hall in about two hours. I hear Ashby's hall was very well done. I wish I could have gone through it, but I was busy working on my own hall. All in all it was a very busy and very fun day.

Our winning team.

Everyone getting ready to start.

Me coming to the top of the final hill.

Severe Weather

This morning after my first class, there were some occasional claps of thunder. I didn't think anything of it until the power went out across the entire campus for about twenty minutes. Later in the day, a rainstorm hit town and flooded some of the campus. The parking lot across the higway from my window was knee deep with water due to a clogged drain. People were swimming and riding bikes through it, right next to people trying to rescue their cars from the rising water. The highway itself was covered with about an inch and a half of swift moving water. All in all it was a fairly exciting day. Above is a video that a friend of mine took of the storm and had me edit and post for him. Enjoy.

As I am posting this, I see that the rain has started in full force again. Everyone is getting excited and running outside in the dark. I think I'll attempt to stay inside and dry this time.