Well hello everyone and welcome back to yet another week of school.
You know, I like this regimen where I write on Sundays, and you at some point have a read of what I am writing (if you are reading this, then obviously you are reading the blog). It’s such a good time to just chill, sit back, put last week in perspective, and set yourself up for next week….well, at least that is how I made it through high school. All is well here on my end, getting ready to start up Week 10 (out of 15 weeks this semester) here at USC. Round two of midterms start this week and finishes next week.
This week, my prospective trip to Vegas, leaving Friday afternoon, is what is gonna pull me through. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been sitting here on Sunday evening, writing a blog, thinking about Thursday afternoon (I haven’t any class on Fridays this semester 😉 ) and how shockingly fast it comes! Be careful for what you wish for!
At any rate, I’m here this week to talk to you a bit about my favorite student organization on campus. For me this is the USC AeroDesign Team (ADT). Great you say, what the heck is that? Well, check it out: http://aerodesign.usc.edu/tiki-index.php
To start off, here’s a picture of both the team, and of the plane we used last year to compete:
(Our plane for the 2010 Compeition, yes that’s right, we built it from scratch).
This year, I am treasurer of the USC AeroDesign team, one of the largest undergraduate design projects of the entire University. It is entirely student run.
The goal of the team is to compete in a Design, Build, Fly (DBF) competition hosted by the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics. The competition is head in April, and alternates in location each year between Tucson and Wichita. This year, it is in Wichita (hence, I am going to get some really good BBQ come April, and I am very happy about this,)
I encourage you to learn more about the competition by going to the website for AIAA.
While you are there, be sure to stop by and check out the rules for this year’s competition:
http://www.aiaadbf.org/2012_files/2012_rules.htm
We’ve got a whole laboratory space, with computers, hardware, machinery and all, for the construction of our aircraft! I would post a few pictures, but I must beware, for other schools (e.g. MIT) are looking to snag our great ideas which we are brewing up. Yes, we beat MIT last year in the DBF competition, and we are intense rivals, so it is out of interest to preserve our respective team’s ideas that I’m not putting any pics up of our extensive lab space.
HOWEVER, IF YOU DO COME TO A MEET USC, and I am there, I will certainly take you to go check out the lab- how is that for an offer?
As the year progresses, and it already has, too fast some might say, then this lab space will gradually evolve in to a 24 hour operation building our final competition RC airplane.
Perhaps some of the best things about USC ADT is the hands on experience you get from the start. This experience and learning from a young age (e.g. Freshman) can compound in to a real asset when it comes time to look for internships. Just having basic experiences with carbon fibre/ wing sparring / fuselage wrapping, which you gain trhough working hard in the ADT lab, will get you really a long way towards an internship with a top aerospace firm (e.g. Boeing), and as you might imagine, internships go a long way towards getting you a full time job.
Our next step in the process is a big one, and it is tomorrow- it’s called our preliminary design review (PDR). It’s where we have dozens of folks from professional industry come on campus to watch a presentation by the captains of USC ADT regarding progress so far on our design concepts. It’s usually a pretty big learning experience, with both many of our strengths and shortcomings being exposed during the meeting. I will try to slip in an update mid-week with how this went. Be on the look out, and wish the team luck! In the mean time be sure to check out our team’s website (aerodesign.usc.edu).
Hope you all have a great week!
On your marks, get set, go!
(our 2010 team plane)
Over and out,
Warren
