Allison White's Blog

July 30th 2008

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We have how long left?

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It really is hard to believe how far we've come since the start of the summer, but also how soon our time in Iowa is coming to an end. Nothing's really left for the robot team other than making our paper into something we can submit with a reasonable chance of being accepted. Honestly, I fully expect the tweaking to continue well after all us interns leave, Alex or the grad students will be putting it into LaTeX at the very least, but I think we'll have a pretty good paper by the time we leave. I've lost count of how many drafts we've gone through, but I think the most drastic changes have been addressed. Of course, I am saying this while every draft we've sent out has come back with margins completely filled with comments. Either way though, precision testing is done, so this is our first draft without a blatantly obvious missing section. There's something to be said for that at least.

NizarKhalife - 31 Jul 2008 - 00:31

Yeah, by far yours has to be the best paper! You did pay for it, however, with bits of your soul every time Matt Miller destroyed your paper margins.

By the way: Matt Miller... alliterative name. Super hero, maybe? Get back to me on that, Robot Team.

JennaLanger - 30 Jul 2008 - 16:54

I bet it would be funny to compare the first draft with the final. it will probably a completely different topic!

ThomasNiedzielski - 30 Jul 2008 - 16:47

I wish I knew how to use LaTeX. My math presentations would have been much easier to make with that instead of Microsoft Office's Equation Editor. I really think you guys are going to have the best paper. It helps that you have actual data to work with and conclusions to draw.

SamanthaLevine - 30 Jul 2008 - 16:33

You guys are working your butts off!!! Its way awesome that your grad students are giving you all of this input.

July 23rd 2008

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Week and a Half to Go

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Last night I coded most of the information from all of our experiments into Excel, so it'll be easier to work with now than it was when it was in a gigantic stack of paper. Also we got the rough draft, minus any results or conclusions, submitted to Stephen Gilbert, Catherine and Jivko. So the to-do list is shrinking, but we still have a ton left. Nothing all that fun to report on, so that is all

JennaLanger - 29 Jul 2008 - 20:37

Hello, I was searching for grad schools and found a "music informatics" masters program at Indiana U - thought you might want to take a look

http://xavier.informatics.indiana.edu/gradsites/music/Masters/

NizarKhalife - 23 Jul 2008 - 18:56

Excel is so fun though!

ThomasNiedzielski - 23 Jul 2008 - 16:31

I'm actually pretty interested in seeing the results of your tests. I've taken some stats courses, so I can appreciate what you discover.

July 22nd 2008

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Huzzah!!

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ROBOT TESTING IS DONE!!!!!!!!111!!!!one!!!1

So, that's awesome. Also, I just got to see the tornado simulator, and there's a concert tonight. Should be a pretty amazing day.

July 21st 2008

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We Should have Known Better...

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Never, ever, EVER get overconfident. After Saturday's participants we were congratulating ourselves about how well the experiments were going, and thinking that we'd be done by about this time today. Then we ran our first session on Sunday, and the hand didn't exactly die, but it's been slipping in and out of a coma. We've gotten some good paper writing done since then, but we won't be able to finish gathering our results til we find someone to pass judgment on what happened to the hand.

NizarKhalife - 21 Jul 2008 - 22:19

The only good kind of robots are dead robots. It's even better when dinosaurs kill them.

TravisChristian - 21 Jul 2008 - 15:15

dead robots are not good...

SamanthaLevine - 21 Jul 2008 - 14:22

Oh no!! I hope that your grad student/ fac adviser can give you some helpful feedback. Good luck with the paper!

July 18th 2008

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More of the Same

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Still running participants. We're still a little shy of having all 30 sessions that we need actually scheduled, but I think we'll be done on schedule without any outrageous violations of IRB approved methods to get participants. *knock on wood They're going pretty well, for the most part. have to go get a participant...

NizarKhalife - 20 Jul 2008 - 22:00

It is. We have. Be sure to turn back all your clocks.

MatthewScheinerman - 18 Jul 2008 - 17:16

Today isn't the 10th. Unless we've gone back in time. Which would be cool.

July 17th 2008

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Real life people

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We started running people through our experiment today! Very exciting. We had some difficulties with the first one, but luckily it was only Nizar. He has probably already formed his opinion about how competent we are. I've spent almost all of my time between participants scheduling other participants. In fact, I need to leave to go collect our next participant now. More tomorrow...

NizarKhalife - 17 Jul 2008 - 18:31

It was only me. It was fun too. Oh my gosh, did I just break the non-disclosure agreement?

July 15th 2008

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Everybody loves robots!

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Apparently, many people are prepared to jump at the chance to work with a robot. Alex had been worried that we'd have difficulties getting enough participants. We need at least 30. Luckily, I've gotten about 20 emails to set up appointments already. Thanks to Pam, we've had accountants and geologists asking to sign up in addition to all of the computer science and engineering types you'd expect. Now we just need to make sure we have the time. It's hard to schedule people yet. Not all of the tasks are ready to go, and we still don't have a hand for one of the robots. We also need to try a run or two ourselves so that we have a better idea of how much time it will take. Still, all of the main programs are ready to go, and the biggest part of the setup, the maze, should be done in about half an hour.

SamanthaLevine - 17 Jul 2008 - 14:19

I am so excited for you!!! Y'all looked very professional today. And-I hope your foot gets better soon. I have the Advil whenever you need it.

NizarKhalife - 16 Jul 2008 - 00:17

This is how it starts. Overzealous test subjects and mazes. Behold the fall of man!

BrianRussell - 15 Jul 2008 - 21:41

I still can't believe how many people want to try out these robots.

ThomasNiedzielski - 15 Jul 2008 - 17:19

It's good to hear that you have the test almost completely set up, and even better to hear how many people are coming. Good luck!

JennaLanger - 15 Jul 2008 - 17:01

Don't worry, I'm ready for you to do a trial run with me!

July 14th 2008

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Fits and Starts

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We're still moving in fits and starts with the project. The arm is working pretty well, but no word of the hand yet. Nevertheless, Pam should be forwarding our email asking for participants in a little bit. Hopefully we'll have a working system set up for them sometime this week. I'd tell anybody reading this blog that they should be a participant, and to tell their friends, but that wouldn't be an IRB approved method of finding participants, so I won't. Meanwhile, I'm still plugging away at the paper and thinking about how we can build a maze. So basically, there's no sense of impending doom as of yet, but we'll be working pretty hard right up to the deadline.

NizarKhalife - 14 Jul 2008 - 19:00

Because David Bowie lives in mazes.

MatthewScheinerman - 14 Jul 2008 - 16:49

Um...did I miss something somewhere? Why are you building a maze?

July 10th 2008

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Coming Together

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We still have a ton of stuff to get done in not a very large amount of time, but I've got a good feeling of progress right now. Basically everything that had me really worried at the start of the week has been at least partially resolved. The robot came in today, we have a pretty decent draft of the poster, and we are officially IRB approved. Hooray for us.

An example of my Maya skills :

DavidOluwatimi - 15 Jul 2008 - 09:53

Ok, you got some Maya skills, now show us what you can do with code. I'm kinda eager to see it work.

BrianRussell - 10 Jul 2008 - 23:33

If only our code worked.

NizarKhalife - 10 Jul 2008 - 20:08

I approved of you long before the IRB ever did! You should let me play with the robots now.

EvaTao - 10 Jul 2008 - 18:45

Fabulous!! Now you can go ahead do whatever on your research paper.

CatherinePeloquin - 10 Jul 2008 - 16:07

Good job with pressing through to get IRB approval.

SamanthaLevine - 10 Jul 2008 - 16:02

Yay for approval!!! And the robot!!! And the poster!! You are awesome!

PamShill - 10 Jul 2008 - 14:44

Congrats on the IRB approval. It usually takes much longer than that! Your paperwork must have been in great order. Good job!

July 9th 2008

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Time

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It really is hard to fathom how little time we have left. Basically, we have til next week to get the robot working. Then we'll have to test as many people as we can, as fast as we can. That should take us about a week at the very least. That gives us a little less than a week to get all of our results calculated and included in the paper. We also still need to write the parts of the paper that don't require results. Basically, it's gonna get pretty hectic in the robot team.

DavidOluwatimi - 10 Jul 2008 - 08:47

Time is definitely not your friend rite now cuz we only got less than a month. Its kinda scary, I wont see any of you in a month, well its been fun.

July 8th 2008

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Tech Camp

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My main thought of the day is that I really do enjoy the atmosphere here at tech camp. I just don't get so many quality discussions of xkcd, comic books, and sci-fi anywhere else. It's highly entertaining. I also enjoy stopping work midafternoon for a group mission to find out exactly what the Power Rangers say at morphin time. That was inspired by our grad student no less. But yeah, that's my happy-cheery blog to try and avoid getting cranky from lack of sleep.

NizarKhalife - 08 Jul 2008 - 22:38

The Power Rangers obviously say "Cowabunga" when it's morphin' time. Everyone knows that.

MatthewScheinerman - 08 Jul 2008 - 16:25

You'd probably get more out of the comic book discussions if you participated more. Get on that

SamanthaLevine - 08 Jul 2008 - 14:24

Yeah- tech camp...LOL. And now you know all about the Power Rangers...and xkcd, and superheroes. Wow-we are learning so much!! <3

July 7th 2008

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Oh Deere

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Ok, my title is horribly cheesy, but you know what? That's how I roll. Deal.

The John Deere Factory tour was pretty interesting. I've gone on a factory tour of a Stryker plant where they make surgical tools and replacement hips and knees, so it was interesting comparing the two. Obviously, there were some huge differences between kneecaps and balers, but some stuff was fairly similar. I'm pretty sure that Stryker used a smaller version of what John Deere had to bend steel bars. I was not expecting a gift shop though, that might have been the biggest surprise of the trip.

Also, really not a fan of the IRB right now. That is all.

JennaLanger - 08 Jul 2008 - 09:12

I would like to see the difference between the two plants, and the similarities.

DavidOluwatimi - 07 Jul 2008 - 23:11

i so like your cheesy title, because i like cheesy stuff.lol

NizarKhalife - 07 Jul 2008 - 21:29

No deal.

DesireeVelazquez - 07 Jul 2008 - 16:25

Still don't understand what the IRB does but g'luck! But it was cool that they had a gift shop. I had seen it on the way in, but it looked like a toy storage or something, so I had been confused. "They train their new employees with toys?", was what i thought, since the training area was around there.

ThomasNiedzielski - 07 Jul 2008 - 15:00

I'm surprised that the IRB doesn't have a more streamlined process for when humans are being asked to be the testers and not the test subjects. It seems like usability testing is nearly impossible to get done otherwise.

TravisChristian - 07 Jul 2008 - 14:31

oh, medical. I was thinking... Stryker:

That would be awesome.

SamanthaLevine - 07 Jul 2008 - 14:25

Title: +10 for creativity. I'm assuming that the IRB denied your request for some user tests...that is very sad. I hope that you can get something approved.

July 6th 2008

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Code of Ethics

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• My Ethics

July 2nd 2008

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Ethics Dilemma

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Appropriately enough for the day after our ethics class, we've come across an issue involving the ethical way to run an experiment. I've come up with some interesting tests to do with our robots once they're fully functioning, but they all involve having human participants. This means that our experiment will probably have to be approved by a committee, or at least its chair. None of the robot research I've seen here has required that, so I'm not entirely sure how to go about that. I sent an email to ask about it, hopefully someone gets back to me soon.

NizarKhalife - 03 Jul 2008 - 09:50

Don't make the robots angry!

SamanthaLevine - 02 Jul 2008 - 13:56

AHHHH!!! See below comment! But I hope you can get approval for testing. Then we may let you see the awesome-ness that is the "More Magic Table"

TravisChristian - 02 Jul 2008 - 13:42

Oh no... ROBOT WAR

PamShill - 02 Jul 2008 - 13:37

Our university has an Institutional Review Board, which approves research with human subjects. http://www.compliance.iastate.edu/ Their next meeting is July 16. If you have questions or need help with this, please let me know.

June 30th 2008

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Yay for me

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Today I figured out how to fix a minor bug that had the guys stumped. A small triumph perhaps, but I'll take what I can get. It made me happy at least. We've made some good progress, but we seem to be pushing the limits of what we can do with only one arm. What that means for me today is that I'll have plenty of time to do the ethics reading.

JasmineJones - 30 Jun 2008 - 23:18

ethics reading woohoo! nothing like a good ol' hefty stack of fine print to finish off the day

SamanthaLevine - 30 Jun 2008 - 14:28

Yay! Women 1. Men 0. (But I still love you boys-especially Travis and Matt)

DesireeVelazquez - 30 Jun 2008 - 14:16

Good for you! ....... (rolls around the floor and realizes that there is work to be done) See ya!

June 27th 2008

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I spoke too soon

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Apparently all I had to do was complain in my blog to get things moving. Almost as soon as I saved my entry yesterday, Matt came over and told us we could start working on the robot. We spent all of yesterday afternoon and most of this morning programming it. Nothing we've done yet works perfectly, but I really feel like we've made some real progress. I'm also waiting for the 3D model Alex said he'd send us. I'd like to get it into openGL and play around with it for a bit to see what I can set up.

June 26th 2008

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Ho Hum

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I feel like the robot team is sort of drifting at this point. We were limited enough when only one robot was out of commission, but now both are. I've had a lot of luck finding background articles, but I think I've reached the point where general search is getting less and less useful. I need to know specifically what I'm looking for. I think that means it's time to go through all the articles carefully, before I was just getting enough of a feel for them to judge if they'd be useful or not.

NizarKhalife - 27 Jun 2008 - 00:13

I could probably fix the robot with pliers and $10,000. Interested?

JennaLanger - 26 Jun 2008 - 15:50

Maybe one of the articles will give you a brilliant idea of something to test!

June 25th 2008

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So that's what TIAA CREF is

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Just a couple of years ago, I remember seeing a commercial for TIAA CREF and having absolutely no idea what it was. I've learned a lot since then, but after this one hour long talk on financial planning that we had for PWSE I feel like my understanding has really gone up. All of the information was really useful. Everyone knows that they need to start saving early for retirement, but the packet she gave us had some charts and graphs that really made it all hit home. I will definetly be meeting with her after we get paid so that I can set up someplace to put all that money.

NizarKhalife - 25 Jun 2008 - 22:40

So... what is it?

SamanthaLevine - 25 Jun 2008 - 13:55

Sounds like I missed out Good thing we are all going to the next one!

June 24th 2008

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Non-Programming Day

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I'll start with a clarification of my last post. Sorry I didn't work those points into the actual conversation, but I got sidetracked into considering the mechanics of some people's ideas. The ideas I was biting my tongue about were more along the lines of where in the brain a chip or electrode would have to go. The points I put in my blog were things I came up with afterwards.

In other news, I've been doing a lot of searching on Google scholar to find some resources for our robot project, and the best possibilities are on our team blog. I've been mostly concentrating on ones which might give me a good idea of how we'll evaluate the robot once it's programmed. I've found some tasks that have already been studied both with a human operating a robot and with just a human. It'd be good if our task allowed us to compare our results with both of those.

Finally, we had a psych professor for our lunch lecture today! It was a little odd. I got the sense that he was really tailoring the presentation to a group of engineers. (2 or 3 times he said "Well, you guys are all engineers..." in a way that really made it seem like he was applying some stereotypes.) Anyway, it was also a change to see an experiment that used EEGs. Most textbook examples and presentations that I've seen are heavily based on PET scans or fMRIs. The temporal resolution suffers a bit, but you gain so much in spatial resolution. Using an EEG, you're not going to get much more information than that a general area is doing something. I think he could have wound up with more interesting results if he'd had access to an fMRI.

June 20th 2008

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Biting my Tongue

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As the cognitive scientist of the group, I really enjoyed the paper on brains controlling cursors. Unfortunately, I had to bite my tongue at points. There were some points where I really wanted to turn the conversation to some aspect more directly related to neuroscience. However, (correct me if I'm wrong) I guessed that most people would prefer if I didn't launch into a discussion of the differences between the premotor and motor cortex, or the role of both the limbic system and the amygdala in memory retrieval, or something else along those lines. Anyway, some relevant developments that anyone should find interesting...

• This isn't the only medical procedure that involves implanting electrodes in the brain. Patients with Parkinson's that have progressed beyond the point where medication can help them can greatly benefit from having electrodes in the right places. I think this is also a possibility for treating epilepsy.

• Scientists have used implants to create remote controlled mice.

• There's been significant progress in reading people's minds already. A computer algorithm can look at PET scans and tell what a person is thinking of. As of now, it only has a vocabulary of about 70 concrete nouns. But it's remarkably accurate, especially considering it works well even for people that it wasn't specifically trained on.

ThomasNiedzielski - 20 Jun 2008 - 17:14

I remember hearing something on a forensics show about the reliability of mind readers as lie detectors. It seems like they prefer to look for a recognition brainwave in relation to events or phrases mentioned instead of reading the mind directly. I can't remember which one it was, though.

DavidOluwatimi - 20 Jun 2008 - 16:53

the controlling of the mice sound scary to me personally because next it will be humans

BrianRussell - 20 Jun 2008 - 16:47

These are very interesting developments, the PET scan research especially sounds interesting.

MatthewScheinerman - 20 Jun 2008 - 13:40

I think all of your points would been a great part of our discussion and everyone should read this blog entry. Stand up and take charge!

SamanthaLevine - 20 Jun 2008 - 13:38

That is most awesome. I wouldn't have understood it-but that brings a new perspective to the "playing field."

June 18th 2008

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Not quite

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Some sort of "not quite" phrase seems to apply to everything today. We're not quite done with our ski game. I'm not quite sure of the remaining things to add to our presentation powerpoint. PWSE today made me not quite confident that I'm ready to graduate. And the bug I mentioned yesterday turned out to be not quite so small. (but at least Vijay was just as stuck as I was.) That being said, I'm quite pleased to be able to use the word "quite" so often. It's one of those words that's quite fun to say and which doesn't get used quite as often as I would like.

June 17th 2008

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oops

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Ok, I might have skipped a couple days of blogging. Basically, I've been working on openGL, with breaks to ride my bike and fly in a biplane (very cool, btw). It was really nice not to have a new graphic programming assignment today. I was able to finish the last one, and get some more work done on our ski game. I have the commands to move the skiier from side to side almost done. There's still a slight bug. I'd like to have the skiier automatically face forward after you stop making him move to the side with the left or right arrow. Right now he stays tilted until you press the up or down button. I've also started work on making the powerpoint for the presentation for this friday. That's not to say that we've settled on a project yet, but nothing so trivial could possibly stop me.

SamanthaLevine - 18 Jun 2008 - 08:04

loving the determination! Good luck with finishing up!

CodyGlover - 17 Jun 2008 - 13:57

After flying in the jumbo jets, those little planes are a very different expereince aren't they.

June 12th 2008

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User Experience Research

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We had a really interesting luncheon lecture today. I thought the audio version of Mario was pretty cool, but I was also interested in the user experience research work that he described doing at Google. Especially since it seems like you can come at that from a background in psychology. I think it's definitely something I should look into more.

In other news, I have a version of my lamp that I'm pretty happy with.

• lamppic.jpg:
  

I had thought about adding other things to my "desktop," but I still have a lot of graphic programming to get done, and I'm not sure how much time we'll be spending working with the robot today. Maybe I'll have some more time to work on it before it has to be ready for the C6.

EvaTao - 17 Jun 2008 - 04:05

Nice work!! Did not forget to blog 6/13 & 6/16.

NizarKhalife - 14 Jun 2008 - 20:25

The metallic effects and lighting look really good. Although I need to shield my eyes a bit from all the bright colors.

Still looks sweet, though! Great job!

CodyGlover - 13 Jun 2008 - 13:16

You did a good job with the lamp. Hopefully with the code we got today we can model to objects for the ski game in maya and then import them.

JennaLanger - 12 Jun 2008 - 20:42

Wow, that lamp is sweet! I'm really interested in the UE research too, we should make sure we stay intouch after this summer!

DavidOluwatimi - 12 Jun 2008 - 17:49

That is really cool, i have been trying to figure out how to create a curve without distorting the figure and without changing the vertices

June 11th 2008

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Trial and Error

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I have been making good progress at Maya, or so I think, anyway. The physical shape of my lamp is looking pretty good, and I've moved on to experimenting with the lighting and surfaces. It's pretty difficult to know how to make it look right when you don't know what the values you're manipulating actually mean. Even worse, unlike when you play with the different buttons to make it change shape, you can't actually see what you've done until you render the image. That makes the whole process go a lot slower. I'll probably spend my Maya time tomorrow just going through all of the lighting and material settings so I can figure out what works for my lamp. My end goal is to have light shining from the lamp, but I'd be content if I could just get it to look like a good turned off lamp.

PaulClay - 12 Jun 2008 - 13:07

Your lamp already looks beautiful, my computer neighbor friend!

June 10th 2008

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Oh Maya

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So, in one week I've gone from being part of a minority that isn't quite clear with what was going on to a majority that doesn't really know what's going on. The shift came with the end of the programming class and the start of the modeling one. The grad students they had teaching us basically threw us right into designing something, with basically no demonstration of how to do it. Normally, I'm fine with that type of teaching style, but with Maya it was way too much. There are way too many menus, with way too many unknown terms on them for things to be intuitive, especially once you consider how many commands need the keyboard too. The whole thing was certainly an example of why a usable interface is so important. After spending the whole morning playing with it, I know how to do some things, but I'm sure I have a loooong way to go. I look forward to getting the hang of Maya, because it looks like it should be fun to use once you know how, but I feel like there must be a better way to learn.

EvaTao - 11 Jun 2008 - 04:57

I agree. Do not hesitate to bug the instructorsss a lot to find out all the detail info about your problems. Make sure you can operate the Maya well before REU program ends. Everyone now are pretty much on the same pace. Share your questions and tips with others might help as well. Remember how you learn this so you can teach others with a better way Why don't you show us what you have done on Maya so far.

ThomasNiedzielski - 10 Jun 2008 - 19:23

Yeah, I found myself thinking yesterday that Maya was an HCI nightmare. As I get better, I like what it lets me do, but it irritates me that bugs that appeared to me in the first two days of using the program haven't been corrected in version 8.5. A lot of people must work on it, but junk like that makes me feel like minimal effort was involved.

June 9th 2008

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Bombs Away

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I'm really happy with the way our Battleship project turned out. We started off with an awesome idea, which helped of course, but we made it even better. The colors and sounds take the text based game to the next level. In short, I feel like we did a lot better on this project relative to the other teams than we did on the HCI video. I guess it really shows where we put most of our effort last week.

PaulClay - 10 Jun 2008 - 00:45

The sounds really did add that finishing touch!

SamanthaLevine - 09 Jun 2008 - 14:53

Your project was quite awesome...that is all.

June 6th 2008

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Friday

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Thinking about all we've done so far, it's hard to believe that it's only been 5 days from the start of the HCI and programming classes. We've covered a ton of information in both class and lectures. Fortunately, it's been worth the effort. Most of the reading has been interesting, and I feel like I have a pretty solid foundation for C++ now. I haven't had to attempt anything all that complex, but I think I managed to contribute my fair share to the Battleship program. Now as long as I can do the same for the robot I should be ok.

EvaTao - 07 Jun 2008 - 01:30

Could you post your HCI video on the team blog?

SamanthaLevine - 06 Jun 2008 - 14:55

Time has flew by with programming! I'm thinking that your team will have a super cool Battleship project-I hope I win!!

BrianRussell - 06 Jun 2008 - 13:32

I think our team has done a good job of splitting up the workload so far.

June 5th 2008

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More Battleship

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I really do enjoy finding ways to spruce up the interface. I played around with different color combinations, so I ought to be able to edit the grids pretty easily once I add my part to the main program. I've also created two new pieces of ASCII art that will show up after you win or lose. I just need to add colors to those. I think I'll also make them into functions, just to keep the main part of the code cleaner.

JennaLanger - 05 Jun 2008 - 23:32

Is the loser boat sinking like the Titanic???? I think your program is going to be fun to look at AND play!

PaulClay - 05 Jun 2008 - 18:27

I saw that colorful boat! I was impressed.

June 4th 2008

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Programming

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So it's Day 3 of our programming class. I haven't spent much time yet on the battleship program today. Part of that is because I had some problems with the individual assignment, but that all got resolved. We also got to go over, or figure out on our own, some of the basic commands that we can give the robot. Hopefully that will help us to finally settle on a project idea. Anyway, I figured out how to add colors to my part, and I should be able to apply it to the other parts once Brian and Cody have the game basically functioning.

SamanthaLevine - 05 Jun 2008 - 08:57

Colors? That is so cool! You are a programming master!

June 3rd 2008

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June 3rd

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I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made so far on my part of the Battleship program. I made the welcome screen which will display every time the program starts up. It's not that complicated of a design, but considering I had nothing to work with but ASCII characters I really like my drawing of a battleship. I've been looking online, and there definitely is a way to add colors to the console by changing either the letters or the background, but I haven't been able to find a good description of how yet. I do want to continue looking though. Besides making my own pet project of the welcome screen better, I think it could really improve usability of the game. For example, I think the plan right now is to have hits be shown by a different character than misses in the display, but it would probably be easier to read if they could be in a different color as well.

EvaTao - 04 Jun 2008 - 04:54

Hey Allison, could you vote the activities you will attend when you get a chance?

DavidOluwatimi - 03 Jun 2008 - 23:45

Good luck on your part because I have never used colors in C++ so it will be interesting to see how that works.

TravisChristian - 03 Jun 2008 - 19:22

Will the ships be placed automatically or manually?

JennaLanger - 03 Jun 2008 - 15:46

Ya, color would definitely be a plus. It would be easier to tell the difference between hits and misses when you just glance at it. If color doesn't work, I hope you can find 2 characters that are really different!

ThomasNiedzielski - 03 Jun 2008 - 14:13

It's strange that you haven't found the solution just by googling it. I've never worked with graphics either, though. There must be some classes along the lines of Colored Text or Video that you could use. Hopefully, you won't have to work at a low level to make the colors.

June 2nd 2008

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Picking Projects

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We're still not settled on what to do with the robot, but at least we came up with a good idea for the group project for the programming class. Brian, Cody and I will be creating a program that lets the user play battleship. Hopefully, the end product will be able to work as either a two player game, or a game against the computer. Brian and Cody will be starting off with the bulk of the program, leaving me to go crazy with some of the displays. As the week goes on and I get some more experience with coding I'll hopefully be able to help them out too if they need it. But even at this point I think I'm up to figuring out how to make something look good on a console. It should be a fun project in any case, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what we can put together.

EvaTao - 03 Jun 2008 - 00:58

Hey Allison, could you vote the activities you will attend when you get a chance?

JasmineJones - 02 Jun 2008 - 17:26

yea go art people! you should put something on there to really "psych" the players opponents out! :P

May 30th 2008

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Day 2

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First off, thanks to everyone for the encouraging comments about C++. Eric gave me the tutorial site, so I should be ok. The robot team spent most of today seeing what the robot could do, and discussing possible topics. I really like the idea of programming it to play a simple game against either a person or another robot. But even with it narrowed down to that point, there are still a couple different ways we could go. Especially since we would like it to teach itself some part of what it's doing, like how to grasp the object or how to move it or how to recognize it. Hopefully we can get some good brainstorming done in the near future. If the summer could end with me playing some game against a robot arm though, I'd be happy.

EvaTao - 02 Jun 2008 - 02:26

Hey Aliison, could you put the latest blog on the top? That way will be easier for us to view your blog.

TravisChristian - 01 Jun 2008 - 13:10

haha, might not? Is that an encouragement or a threat?

BrianRussell - 30 May 2008 - 23:21

Playing a game against the robot would be great. I'm sure we'll have something more definite by Thursday.

CodyGlover - 30 May 2008 - 16:47

I agree a game with the robot would be extremely cool, it would also allow us to utilize different ways of learning. Don't worry about coding, I can help you if you need it.

SamanthaLevine - 30 May 2008 - 16:36

Allison--This weekend..you, me, and Jenna...awesome C++ party...and some shenanigans!! Also- your project sounds really interesting, I can't wait to see which direction y'all go.

May 29th 2008

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Orientation

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So, I'm not really sure of what to write here. I've never really blogged before, so I guess I'll just spit out some stream of consciousness. I've been in Iowa for about 48 hours now, but it seems like much more time has passed. I was right to suspect that I'd be below average in computer experience, I do get a sense of being a nerd among geeks (of course, I mean both of those terms in the most complimentary ways,) but I think I should be able to hold my own eventually. At the very least, I don't think I'll hurt my team by being on it. I think the blog is supposed to be mainly about our projects, but we haven't started on those yet. The only technical thing we've done besides the tours is the C++ pretest. I think I did about as well as anyone whose only ever learned a bit of Java could have hoped to do on that. Anyway, I guess that's about all I have to say at this point. Sorry if I bored whoever has to comment on this one.

DavidOluwatimi - 30 May 2008 - 13:33

Yea, i was bored. Just playing. Good luck on learning C++. Actually, it is not that hard unless you get into the REALLY complicated stuff. If you get the basics, you will be alright.

JohnMorales - 30 May 2008 - 10:46

C++ haahaha (I can't remember how to build a class on it =(), is ok I been using python so much that I mix language sometimes, I even mix MatLab lol. Just don't worry be happy.

EvaTao - 30 May 2008 - 00:31

You just did your first blog~ So, just talk whatever within research or REU program related issues but more focusing on one or two topics in depth (not everything on the schedule that you did the day).

CatherinePeloquin - 29 May 2008 - 14:02

Don't be too worried about the programming. I am a mechanical engineer; I can calculate stress and strain like nobody's business, but only learned to program when I started working at VRAC. Now, I can hold my own. There is a relatively steep learning curve, but you'll pick up things quickly.

DesireeVelazquez - 29 May 2008 - 13:33

First comment! C++....I realized I don't remember much about it.

July 10th 2008

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Your topic for the day

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