Class of 2008
Major: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Project Center: Silicon Valley, California
Major Qualifying Project: An automated system to allow researchers in Silicon Valley, California to operate remotely an optical telescope located in Alaska.
Tom Niemczycki
January 20, 2008
At the start of week 3, I feel right at home here on the West Coast. I’ve had a chance to get familiar with my surroundings, I’ve been able to see some of the famous landmarks in the area, and I am getting into a smooth rhythm of working on the project and relaxing. Over the past week my team further refined the design of our project and started making some real progress. Outside of work, I have been exploring California, planning adventures for the upcoming weeks, and I even had the chance to network with some interesting WPI alums.
Earlier this week, the WPI students out here in Silicon Valley were invited to a special presentation for alumni that live and work in the area. The event was an opportunity for WPI graduates to interact with some current students and hear a special presentation from Dr. Berkey, the President of the University. Dr. Berkey highlighted some of the notable achievements at WPI over the past year and laid out a vision of where WPI is headed in the near future.
I found the discussion to be pretty interesting as a student who is involved and likes to be aware of campus news, but there were a couple things in particular that struck me that evening. The first is that I was very impressed with the amount of effort that WPI puts into staying connected with its alumni. I never really gave that much thought to alumni relations until I realized that I will graduate in less than four months. I like to think that after all this time I can remain involved in the WPI community once my four years are up. The second part of the evening that I found striking was meeting the CEO of SRI International, who happens to be a WPI alumnus. I’ve never met the CEO of a multi-million dollar company before, and it was incredible to be able to just talk and share WPI experiences for a little bit.
Over the past week my project team has further refined our ideas, though we’ve come to a turning point and need to make a few key decisions in developing our design. The main problem that we’re facing is that some of the software that we wanted to incorporate into our project is not compatible with the telescope camera. We have to choose whether we prefer to write a device driver to control the camera and interface it with the software we have, or simply write our own web-based controller to directly interface with the camera. The decision is further complicated by the difficulty of obtaining good documentation on some of the hardware components of the telescope system from manufacturers.
Despite the obstacles, we’re taking it one day at a time. The MQP, after all, is an open-ended project, and there is no written solution for the problem we have been given. Plus, there are some factors that are beyond our control, such as remote access to the on-site computers. But, we’re also careful not to waste time and make sure that we’re getting as much done as possible. Hopefully we will see some more progress this week.
Completing the project aside, I am also here to discover a new part of the world. I described my first adventure in San Francisco last week, and this past weekend a group of students went out to explore the California countryside. And what better way to do that than a bus tour through Sonoma valley - California’s wine country. We traveled across the Golden Gate Bridge to the north side of the Bay, and visited several small wineries, stopping along the way to check out the countryside and grab lunch in the town of Sonoma. The day trip was a great way to see a different side of California and get to know some students from the other project teams.
Until next week,
-Tom
