From left to right: Marcos Pertierra, Adrian Santiago, Mrs. Inés Muñiz, Patrick Cleary, Alexis Rivero.
The United States Department of Energy holds annual high-school-level science competitions all across the United States and her territories. Schools send teams of 4-5 people to compete against other schools in the state or region, and the winning schools are flown up to Washington, D.C. to compete in the national tournament. The question categories include biology, chemistry, physics, math, general science, earth and space, and meteorology.
In Puerto Rico, the team to be Read the rest of this entry »
Categorized in Education-Related Info and Info
(If you haven’t noticed by now, I use black unmarked project boxes to house my projects in. A lot.)
Every year the U.S. Department of Energy sponsors a regional science bowl in Puerto Rico. Nearly every private school on the island participates, with some teams showing more promise than others. What doesn’t change, though, is the fact that Notre Dame’s established science bowl team always seems to win first place year after year. When the date for the regional Science Bowl comes close every year, our coach usually just calls the four most promising science enthusiasts from grades 10-12 to take part the weekend before the actual event. Since none of us have time to practice, many points end up being lost because of buzzer misfires.
Here’s the lowdown: Two teams com Read the rest of this entry »
Categorized in Education-Related Projects and Projects
As part of last year’s Physics Honors course, the class was divided into teams of two to three people to design and build a coaster capable of safely running a golf ball and a matchbox car down its track. It needed to have at least one loop of a minimum height and needed to slow the car (or ball) down enough to safely stop at the end without using a solid wall.
My partner (Alexis) and I to Read the rest of this entry »
Categorized in Education-Related Projects and Projects
Tags: 11th, alexis, coaster, fire, fountain, golf ball, island, patrick, physics, roller, tropical
Here’s another goodie that I finished a while ago.
Every year the seniors buy an expensive iPod-dock-equipped boom box for our school’s senior hangout spot. Either because of abuse, inclement weather (the bohío has no walls), or negligence, it usually ended up getting trashed two-thirds into the year. Once it was our turn to inherit the bohío, I decided to try a different approach to our sound system problem.
The bohío is like an ou Read the rest of this entry »
Categorized in Projects
Tags: amplifier, baldwin school, bohio, hangout, music, seniors, speaker
I’ve finally found it – the poster that defines my spare time!
My friend Alberto and I saw this plastered on the window of a brick-and-mortar hardware shop in New York last time we visited. Seems fitting, doesn’t it?
Categorized in Info
Tags: DIY, fix, manifesto, repair, self
I’ve always had a secret admiration for stores like The Salvation Army and Goodwill. They take in clothes, electronics, furniture, etc. that people donate and sell them, sending a huge chunk of profits to the homeless and the needy.
The thing about these thrift stores that I love is that you can find amazing deals on some pretty retro tech. I got a really old computer for exactly $9.99. Take exhibit A):
Toshiba T6600C – a “portable computer.”
This computer was released in 19 Read the rest of this entry »
Categorized in Info
Tags: computer, dinosaur, hack, old, t6600c, technology, toshiba, windows 98
This box may look familiar; It’s the final version of this earlier post.
Back with the same vibraphone problem: there was no speed control.
This 20+ year-old Musser Century 75 vibe was wired using nothing but analog circuitry; no electronic controllers, integrated circuits, or MOSFETs. They even originally used a mercury switch! (to keep noise down when powering on)
I called up Musser Percussion an Read the rest of this entry »
Categorized in Projects
Tags: government, motor, musser, Puerto Rico, repair, rheostat, symphony, vibe, vibraphone
Yesterday we put our weeks of band practice to great use. All 11 of us played at the packed Interamerican University of Puerto Rico amphitheater, bringing a great show to a close.
We played “Caras Lindas” and Ti Read the rest of this entry »
Categorized in Info
Tags: carlos, dede, dorianne, jazz, jeren, joel, latin, loli, noche puertoriquena, noche puertorriqueña, patrick, randy, st marys school, uziel
Yep, it’s college application season! I finished my violin and electric bass music supplements a while ago, but here they are for anybody interested in listening to them.
These took a while to re Read the rest of this entry »
Categorized in Info
Tags: bass, college, music, supplements, university, violin
I had watched this video a while back, and couldn’t for the life of me remember where it was that I stumbled upon it (no pun intended). For being a dirty guy, Mike Rowe offers some extremely intelligent insight about the job market and the direction our society is taking now versus 50 years ago. I’d highly recommend this video to… well, just about everyone.
Categorized in Info
Tags: america, castrate, dirty, future, goat, jobs, Mike Rowe, TED, ted talk, teeth, work
It’s been a while since July, but I figured I might as well put this up.
For the summer college Engineering Innovation course I took at John Hopkins, our group’s final project was to build a bridge out of nothing but spaghetti and two-part, five-minute epoxy. It needed to span a 50cm gap, have space for a 5cm wide car to drive across, and weigh no less than 250 grams.
The group members were Sophia Zikanova, Scott “Skip” McClinton, and myself.
Our bridge weighed EX Read the rest of this entry »
Categorized in Education-Related Info, Education-Related Projects and Info
Tags: baltimore, bridge, epoxy, jhu, johns hopkins, patrick cleary, scott mcclinton, sophia zikanova, spaghetti
I suppose it’s time for the long-awaited blast furnace:
This is the second blast furnace I’ve made (thus, Mk2) using a microwave chassis. Surprisingly, these gutted microwaves work quite well. I never was able to get a temperature sensor in there, but because some of the ceramic tile blocks it was resting on melted, it shouldn’t be hard to guess.
Not to worry, the fire wa Read the rest of this entry »
Categorized in Projects
Tags: blast furnace, danger =, diesel, fire, fireball, kerosene, pyro
