ROBOTIC STUDENT  YEAR TWO Cont

Spring term 2008

This term has probably been the longest term I have had at university even though date wise, it was the shortest. We have had a lot to do this term, finishing off assignments from last term and of coarse being given new ones when you finish the old ones!

January was all about getting to grips with all you learnt from the term before. Once again the modules were building on the ones you learnt in the first year and looking closely and in more depth in each of the topics. Beginning of last term we were given a website building assignment, where we had to make a website from scratch for a charity organisation. That was literally the specification we were given for the course work. We had to look for a client ourselves, liaise with them and agree on the design, development and launching of the website. We were a group of four and we evenly distributed the tasks. We all had to do a bit of development on the website and communicating with the client. We had about three months to do this. It seemed an easy task at first and we all thought it could be done in about two weeks! But were we wrong. The client kept changing their minds on the look, feel and purpose of the site, weekly deadlines were being missed due to our timetable and the client’s timetable, there was travelling and lectures to balance. We probably made about five different fully functioning websites before the final one was launched. We were learning about web development in lectures as we went on during the term, so we had to try look professional but learn new things each day. Then more assignments from other modules started coming on and before we knew it we were 4 weeks behind schedule!

In the end we did roll out the website and the client was happy. Last report we had was that the site was attracting more than triple the amount of hits they had in a single day, so it was a very effective site.

I must say however the highlight of this term was the building of the mobile robot. Each student doing cybernetics is given a project every year and we had to build a mobile robot that had three wheels and could learn or do clever things. The brief we were given was a datasheet of the programmable PIC we were using and printed circuit board. We then had to put the resistors, capacitors and rest of components on the board, which was the about 2x3 inches. So the components were very small and we had to use the right ones plus a magnifying glass to make sure they were in the correct place.

The time limit was about 6 weeks to build test and program the robot. I added sonar’s and a receiver to my robot. This made it follow objects or avoid them according to how I was going to program it. The programming was done in C and directly programmed to the PIC chip via an RS232 port. All this was determined by us, any help was limited as they expected you to learn and use what you know. We then had to demonstrate the robot at the end of the term.

This is more the cybernetics side; the computer science side of this term was on algorithms and databases. We had to learn about algorithms how they work and why we use them, we also had coursework on this where we had to write special sorting and finding algorithms. It might sound easy but it is far from it. I would say this was one of the hardest modules I have had to do yet. The database coursework was about implementing and rolling out of a working live database. I wrote the database in ORACLE. I would not say it fairly hard but it did have a few challenging tasks but overall it was a fairly good and interesting piece of course work. Probably the one I was most confident in doing.

All these projects require reports. These reports are large well documented reports of what happened when and where. The technical issues, analysis and evaluation. A lot of care has to be taken as the reports are about 40% of the overall grade in the entire assignment. So time management is absolutely crucial. You learn about time management and being behind schedule is one of the worst things ever as these assignments are worth a big chunk of your overall grade. Most pieces of coursework are worth 40% of the module and in this year, and the pass mark is 30%. So by getting 100% in your module you can walk in the exam knowing you have passed already! It sounds good when you see the figures and you think it is feasible, but well and truly you will have the pressure of the multiple assignments, glitches while these assignments are happening. In group assignments there are people that do not pull their weight and conflicts with each other in ideas. Reports that need to be written, practical exercises every Tuesday, which require at least a day or two of background reading just to understand what you are meant to do. Before you know it, it’s the end of term and you have not even started your revision for exams! So it is not that easy at all.

It has been an enjoyable but frustrating term. I would say by last two weeks attendance in lectures was less than forty percent. People were tired, worn out and just needed a break from sleepless nights due to multiple deadlines and tasks.

SUMMERTERM