Yet Another Busy weekend

Here is a synopsis of my weekend:

• We went to go see Batman: The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger's performance of the Joker was highly entertaining. His off-the-wall maniacal character very much controlled the course of the story, which was thoroughly thrilling. This movie very much lived up to its own hype
  
• I got to play basketball for the first time in a while. It was nice to get out there again
  
• I got to take a walk over to the sea cliffs to watch the sunset. I found out that La Jolla Shores, the beach that I had taken a 10 minute bus-ride to get to is not the closest beach to campus, but instead this beach by the cliffs is. It is a short walking distance from Eleanor Roosevelt College where I'm staying, and is very beautiful.
  
• Went to a skate-boarding exhibition at Muir college, which included a free baseball cap, dvd, magazine, and stickers. I also got to try out some of the longboards there. Longboards are a recent craze; they are a sturdier, more stable type of skateboard with thicker wheels meant for cruising and less acrobatics.
• After the skating I got to go to the "UTC Mall", my first experience at an outdoor Westfield mall. It was similar to Santana Row in San Jose, but not quite as upscale and without the multi-story buildings
• Today (Monday) our boundaries were expanded so that we can now explore the majority of the campus on our free time. A large portion of the COSMO-ers took the opportunity to eat lunch at the the Price Center, the hub of the UCSD campus. I meanwhile went back to our normally designated cafeteria to get a free lunch in order to save my money
• I'm looking forward to going to the San Diego Zoo this weekend. Though I went there at least 6 years ago, I expect that many new exhibits have since been brought into the park.

In Scientific curriculum news:

• In our lectures we are moving closer yet to true nano-photonics. We've already covered ray optics, lenses, waves and their properties, fiber optics, polarization and irradiance, etc. Each of these are essential to understanding nano-photonics. Today we learned about the anatomy of the eye and about how certain photodiode devices can detect light and alter electrical current
• My group project is progressing along slowly but surely. We are struggling to put together our computer program in order to rotate our diffractive grating and have our photodector take light intensity readings in unison. We spent some time today calibrating our set up using a laser that we leveled ourselves using irises, or disklike devices that shrink to a pinhole like how an iris of an eye would contract around the pupil of an eye. We must use a 4F (four focal lengths) method of focusing the light, so we worked on this today too.
  

4

Friday dance- I think that I enjoyed the music, but I was not inclined to dancing that much for some reason.
Saturday- A wonderful weekend of golden silence...sort of... I was able to see my parents for an interval of two hours. I received way more junk food from my mom than I will ever eat here. But with Tiffany and Chantal and most people gone, it can get very lonely. :( However, I enjoy the short lines in the cafeteria, and the emptiness of the laundry room. To kill some free time, I worked on friendship bracelets. It can be quite addicting. Anyways, I went near the beach Saturday night to see a *stunning sunset. It was freezing, but worth it to see the sun go down and then become obscured by clouds.
Sunday morning- Batman rocked, was very intense, and exciting. But I find it funny how batman as a superhero lacks a supernatural talent. And now...I am ready to settle down to a nice, quiet Sunday afternoon...

Cosmos So far...

This weekend has been amazing.  On Saturday we went shopping in the Westfield area for about 3 hours.  Although the shopping wasn't as good as the shopping in San Francisco, I had a lot of fun hanging out with all of my friends and trying on crazy clothing.  After shopping, I made two friendship bracelets and then I watched Batman begins with about 20 other people. We decided to watch this movie to prepare us for sunday's movie Batman: The Dark Knight.  The next day we went in vans and got to the movie theater at about 9:00 am.  We watched the movie and it was AMAZING.  I can't wait for future activities at COSMOS! :)

Happy Birthday

Hey COSMOS,

I turned 16 today, I was born on July 18th, 2008. Supposedly I can get a license now, although I just got a permit a few day before COSMOS and have driven a total of 0 hours.

Thank you everyone for making my birthday golden.

This is the first birthday I've spent away from my family, but also the first birthday I've spent with so many people - friends from my cluster, friends from my suite, RA's, more COSMOS students, mentors, professors, TAs, everyone.

Started off with a surprise singing of happy birthday after breakfast after Paul offered me a piece of gum to distract me. Sarah made for me a card and collected the signatures of everyone in our cluster and more.

The card had a paper cube on it, supposedly a "4x4" for my 16th birthday. x] Inside were the signatures and messages from various COSMOS buddies embedded in colorful stars, swirls, and borders.

At lecture we spent way too much time on one math problem, but it was still fun watching Jon try to measure the width of a dancing laser dot on the back wall. Walking back from Lecture, Paul lent me his speakers and we played and sang songs on the way back - notably songs from High School Musical and Cascada. At lab, Peter gave me a Happy Birthday Pencil. My group worked on our group project, only to be hindered by difficulties in software. Hopefully these issues can be resolved before the end of family visitation.

Matt, our RA, came into our suite with a cake.

(My birthday has been pretty cube themed so far. You guys really notice what I like, haha)
The cake looked really nice, Matt spent a lot of time cubifying the once-round cake and mixing colors of frosting.

It tasted excellent. :D Half of our suite is also ordering some more cubes and cube materials off eBay from Paul.

I've never had a dance on my birthday, and it's really a great coincidence to have the first one overlap with it. I had a great time there, and I'd like to thank you all for the last song, it really meant alot to me.

Thank you everyone,

I've never enjoyed a birthday with over 150 people before, and today, I savored every last bit of it.

I love you COSMOS!

William Chen

Shout out to everyone leaving or staying for Family Visitation! Have a great weekend!

College/Career Info. Day and Campus Touring

Today was another great day for motivational speakers to come in and further edify our awareness of the necessary admissions into UCSD and other colleges. At the beginning of the presentation, Trisha (1) warned us about the little mistakes that one could possibly encounter when applying for colleges. Whether it was making sure you completed the a-g requirements or being active as leaders in school, one had to keep in mind that grades weren't the only aspect viewed on one's application. Others suches included taking important roles in sport, being active in community service, doing well on the SAT, etc.

Not long later three grad-students came to talk to us: (2) Eddie Magee, (3) Diana Ruiz, and (4) Chester Yarbrough. They talked of their experience in high school and what aspects of high school brought them to their standing in society today. The speeches were very helpful in the fact that i was able to analyze different point of views of college life from more than just a single person.

As the presentations came to a close, we split into different groups with the RAs to further explore the UCSD campus. My tour group was led by Matt and Mike. For the first time, we were able to get a sense of what the different colleges that were on the campus had to offer although we were only able to visit a couple of them. Despite this, i'm really looking forward to being able to take my own tour of the campus and ponder upon the various magnificent buildings on the campus.















(1) Trisha















(2)Eddie Magee UCSD School of Medicine













(3) Diana Ruiz Research Assistant, The Scripps Research Institute














(4) Chester Yarbrough UCSD, School of Medicine











Muir College restaurant















library

COSMOS....continued

Hey all!! This week has been awesome! Today we had lunch with Dr. Tu, the director of the program, and it was great. Everyone had a chance to voice their problems or concerns with COSMOS. I didnt have anything to complain about. The one thing I spoke up about was just an idea, not really a complaint. The only other thing I should have mentioned is COSMOS needs to do a better job advertising. They say that 300 people applied, but when you think about it, that's still not a lot. I think this program is AMAZING.....but I can see it growing in the future. I can see it becoming a nationwide program, and I want it to get to that level. I think this should be offered all over the country so kids everywhere have a better chance of getting in and so more people can experience math and science in the real world so they will want to pursue it. If they want it to reach this level, COSMOS needs to put itself out there. We have to get America back on board with the STEM majors in college. We are falling behind. COSMOS is an excellent way to do that!

Back to my experience here...The classes are good, I get so tired though because I am sitting in a classroom all morning after not having enough sleep. We went to the Science Center on Tuesday and we saw an IMAX movie. That was really fun; I love the science museum because it has all those hands on experiments. We also had a movie night in a lecture hall, which was an odd experience....Oxymoran...LOL!! Anchorman was funny!! I liked it. We are getting Chipolte's (spelling) tonight!! YEA!!! Okay, I have a lot of homework so I gotta go...that's all folks.....

July 17th

Today was good.  This morning we had the regular class with Dave, which I always enjoy. I like it because its a break from the usual topic and we get a chance to learn things that we can apply in our regular classroom settings (like the statistics that we learned today). Then at lunch we had a lunch meeting with Charles and Becky where we went around  and gave them feedback and just talked. Then we headed over to the College fair, which was interesting. After the college fair, we went in groups of 10 around the campus and got tours, which was also fun. Tonight we have the options of ice-blocking, inner-tube water polo, or henna. We'll see how they go...

Science Center (July 15)

My journey to understand Nano-Photonics led me to the visitation of the Science Center yesterday. Upon arriving at the Science Center, the cluster was greeted by a kind young lady who gave us a brief introduction of the center. (1) Afterwards the cluster pondered into the building, having to adapt to the loud background. The building was packed with tons of kids and parents. It seemed as if it was a daycare center in a way.

The Science Center had so many exhibits to offer. I was surprise to find out that most of the exhibits i have seen already before. Nevertheless, the other exhibits were very interesting such as the two huge red dishes. These two red dishes enabled a person to communicate with another person from across the room by simply talking directly into a ring. (2) Other interesting exhibits included the solar panels, the IMax movie, aging machine, Reaction tester, etc. Overall, the trip to the science center was worthwhile due to the idiosyncratic exhibits it offered. Its hands on and mental exhitbits were a great way to further understand the functionality of how the human mind worked. From the youngsters to the folks, everyone seemed to have enjoyed their visit to the science center... and so did I! =D













(1) intro.













(2) Jon talking..."hello?"

3

Wow, this week has really fun activities. I went to the science museum on Tuesday; interesting displays, got to feel like a kid again. The Imax was a little tiring, because I already had heard some of the information on mummies and so on...I'm happy that the Sciencebuddies presentation suggested some competitions/ activities that I could possibly try during the school year. Today, I wish we had some time to work on group projects, but I guess not. I liked watching tons of videos on how they made fiber optic cables. :> Activities- yay, salsa was really fun. I enjoyed teaching people moves as well as dancing it up to speed.

Second Week in and Things are Nice

Things are tiring, as to be expected. We got new lab groups for the day today and it was really refreshing. It was nice to not run into any initial problems for once, as we were successfully able to direct our laser beam through the fiber optic cable. These cables are thinner than hair, in fact, our TAs said that the fiber ends are sharper than needle points. We finished our unit on lens today and learned about the internal reflection techniques of fiber optics. I learned a little more about how these small glass wires are used to transmit information and how they are made. I'm able to pay closer attention to the more recent lectures, possibly because the majority of the material is now new to me. I appreciate the fact that here at COSMOS the staff takes the time to provide meaningful demonstrations. Today we got to play with a pinhole camera.

I'm also looking forward to this weekend's plans, despite the fact that I am not leaving campus for family visitation. I will instead get to go to new Batman movie, check out the nearby mall, and watch a skateboard exhibition! It's great that so many fun opportunities are provided for us. My RA pointed out the fact that never otherwise will so many fun activities be presented to us on a college campus, because you most always have to go out and find these activities yourself. The breakfast selection could improve, but all things considered, I have very little to complain about.

So...

Overall, this week has been rely amazing.  On Tuesday we went to San Diego Science Museum, and it was extremely fun.  There was this aging machine and I saw what I would look like when I'm 70 years old.  I would look awful if I didn't wear sunscreen!  The museum also had a bunch of optical illusions.  Lara and I had a great time taking photos in the photobooth!

We also watched an Imax on Mummies that was rely interesting.  It discussed the deep process that the Egyptians used to preserve their pharaohs.  In all, it was a really great day and I can't wait for future field trips.

Sigh...

This week did not turn out good so far. Don't get me wrong, there were good things, like movie night, and all the activities that the RA planned.
But that's not what this is about.
1) My friend from this cluster has left without any warning, and I don't know why.
2) The food is slightly getting repetitive. It's still good, but sometimes I don't feel like eating.
3) I have 2 roommates, both were very friendly during the first week, but this week, one of them just started getting really obnoxious. He is not considerate of my space, (sometimes he is unaware that I am even present in the room and treats the room like it is his), sings loudly when I am trying to work, and has an obnoxious behavior. The other one is pretty chill, I don't have a problem with him, because he is supportive when I'm down.
4) Today I got locked out of the room by my roommates in the morning by accident while I was getting ready and I ended up missing breakfast. Only the latter roommate from number 3 on this list came and unlocked the room for me because the "obnoxious" one dismissed it because he thought he wasn't alllowed to even when the RA said it was okay to return to the room. Then he acts like he didn't know what happened when he saw me.

Overall this week hasn't been going well, but it's not the end yet. I hope it gets better :)

Field Trip Day

Yesterday was one of the best days so far because our cluster had our field trip, which was really fun. The science museum had a lot of interesting exhibits and although the movie wasn't as interesting as it could be, the museum overall was a lot of fun. I would have to say some of the best exhibits were the aging machine (where it took a picture of  you and showed a prediction of what you will look like at 70), and the photo booth. The bus ride was also lots of fun, and a lot of us were singing backstreet boys songs. Then after we had a nail painting party and movie night. The movie wasnt that great but it was still fun. Overall, a good day.

Blog II

Hey everyone.
Knot's Berry Farm was insanely awesome and we all had great a time at all the rides. The Xcellerator was particularly good, as it was capable of going from 0 to 82.3 miles per hour in a mere 2 seconds. We also enjoyed the Ghost Rider, and the Silver Bullet, which we went on an abundant number of times. However, when we got back, we were forced to have light's out at 12:15 which was entirely absurd. Most of us weren't even ready for bed by the time the RA called light's out. I relished the opportunity to experience more of "So-cal".
Monday was the typical school day; lecture in the morning with a long lab in the afternoon. The lab was a little confusing because the web-cams kept having problems and we had to find the resolution of an image after it had been magnified by a lens. That night, however, the suite ordered dough nuts from Krispy Kreme and burgers, chicken nuggets, and French fries XD
Finally, we went on our first cluster field trip to Balboa Park. Although it seemed more juvenile than other science museums than the others I have been to, it was still pretty darn sick. However, I fell asleep during the Imax film so yeah.
bye XD

Nail Day

We got to paint our nails today :] It was nice just having some time to relax and bond as a floor. Oh and we got to see an Imax film today: Mummies. It was slightly boring [not to be mean] but it's always great to have a field trip. Walking around the science center rocked ! The aging machine was crazy ! I have no idea if it actually works..but its an experience I suppose. I can't wait till we have movie night. I don't remember what movie we're watching, but I'm sure it'll be great. Overall, I think Cosmos has been alright. There's only three weeks left. I'll definitely make it through, and I'll try to enjoy myself too. I'm also making a personal goal to participate in at least one "athletic" activity during the 8-10pm slot we're alloted. Yes ! I'll be active..for once x] Well, it's probably time to clean up my room a bit..my poor roommate..my side of the room is like a pigsty ;D Rawrr I'll blog again soon.
-Paz y amor <3

COSMOS week 2

Hey everyone!! I am having a blast here. The weekend activities were so much fun. Knott's Berry Farm was a wonderful idea. I made some new friends and it was a good way to keep us busy for almost an entire day. Then one Sunday, we went to the beach. I wish we could do that more often. I mean I live here and all, but the beach was so much fun. Everyone I talked to said they loved it too. After we got back from the beach, we had a jello fight. OMG!! That was the best. It was kinda gross afterwords, but I think that should stay a COSMOS tradition. Then Monday, it was back to class. The hard part was getting up early again. I wish I could sleep in just a little bit longer on the weekdays, considering we have to be in bed at 11:00. Today we are going on a field trip to the science museum and I think we are going to see an IMAX film too. I love those. In lab yesterday, we watched a video on how the IMAX projectors are made and how they work. It actually has a lot to do with what we are studying. Ok, I gotta go to breakfast. TTYL!!

so...

Cosmos has been A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

Going to the theme park was really fun even though I am scared of roller coasters.  I went on the log ride and a swing ride with my friends and had a blast.  I won a couple stuff animals at the booths and then rode on bus #2 on the ride back.  Overall, the theme park was a great experience and I hope to go there again.

The beach was also a great experience.  My fellow so-cal beach friends taught me how to dive into a wave and how to ride the waves.  Afterward, I got a really sunburn but I had fun the whole rest of the day.  The jello fight was CRAZY and my clothes got completely destroyed in the fight.

I'm really looking forward to the rest of the week!

COSMOS Weekend

Hey everyone, I'm really enjoyed all the activities we've gone through so far this weekend.

Started off my weekend Friday making wontons with Mike. Really a refreshing change with what we've done so far through the week. The wontons tasted pretty good, although the skin was dry during wrapping, and tasted a little dry as well.

I'm also really happy that we were able to attend a cube competition Saturday morning during free time. I applied for UCSD COSMOS before I even started cubing, so it was a great opportunity to compete in something conveniently located on the same campus I was staying at. I'm glad we had a sizable COSMOS party attending the competition. The room was full and I was able to see people that I've only heard of in name before, as well as get to know Harry better, another fellow cuber at COSMOS. I have a new PR now, 37.79 seconds, although my average was ruined by a DNF (did not finish) and nervousness.



Knott's Berry Farm was awesome too, especially since my family never goes to or enjoys these types of coasters, so this is my first time I've gone to a theme park with rides of these degrees. My favorite ride by far was GhostRider, the wooden coaster. Wooden coasters have another type of feel to them, they're more dynamic, they feel like they almost breath. The shaky nature of the track was exhilarating as well as the continuous dips and forces.

Hope everyone's having a great time at COSMOS, wishing everyone a great next 3 weeks!

I've made a discovery. Weekends at COSMOS are really, really, really fun.
Apart from the 2-hour wait for the rapids ride (which turned out to be a bit...anticlimactic), Knott's was amazing. Words cannot describe the amazingness of it all. They packed us onto buses with snack boxes, and when we got to the park, they let us free. A meal voucher, a map, six hours of freedom, and an entire park (complete w/ roller coasters and snack stands) to explore with friends- this is, in my opinion, the best combination possible on a summer Saturday. Chantal was never able to convince us to go on the Silver Bullet (the screaming people whizzing, upside down, by our heads somewhat undermined her attempts to persuade us that it "really wasn't so bad").
We did, however, go on other roller coasters. The best, by far, was Ghostrider. We waited until after dinner, when it was dark, to go.
Chantal had told us that the Ghostrider was an "easy" ride, about the same level as the Jaguar. "No drops," she said as we were strapped in the cart, going up. Unfortunately, she was never able to finish her response to my question, as (what d'ya know?) we suddenly dropped. Halfway through screaming at Chantal ("What happened to 'no drops'?!!??"), I heard a high scream of pure terror from behind me. It was Shannon's, and it was hilarious. Chantal and I were still laughing as we piled out of the cart. I myself was laughing so hard that I missed the sight of Chantal falling out of the cart and collapsing on the floor w/ laughter. Sigh.
That ride made my week.
Anyways, we got back, and today, we went to the beach. It was incredibly crowded, but fun anyways. I did my laundry after we got back, thinking the laundry room would be crowded in the morning. (I was right, by the way...) There was a jello fight, then free time. Our RA told us that they would hopefully extend our boundaries sometime this week. Yay!
So. This weekend was fun, and next weekend is Family Day. In between, we have classes, lectures, labs, and probably essays, too. And y'know what? I'm kinda looking forward to it all.
!

#2

Yesterday was really fun, but I got really tired afterwards. I'm surprised that I went on roller coaster rides. The last ride, Ghost Rider really scared me and I screamed really loudly, to my friends' amusement.. -_-. That was fun... Sunday morning was laundry day, which happened to be an hour or two of sitting around and reading Walden while my laundry was getting washed. At the beach, I was trying to get my legs to tan, but that didn't work. I just got my feet wet a little. I'm looking forward to all the fun activities planned out this week. :>

This weekend

Whoooo ! Yesterday was really nice. It wasn't super hot and the rides were great. I freakin' lovee the view on Silver Bullet (did u guys go on it?) It was soo pretty ;D Anyways we went to the beach today..sadly I got sunburned again. But it's all good. Ahaha it's not like anyone would notice x] It was great running around the beach, drawing random stuff in the wet sand. Oh I did my laundry today too, wow..it was..a long and tedious task. You have to wait for other people to finish their loads, it's crazy how long you have to wait. Oh well, clean clothes are a must :] Lalala, that's it for now.
-Peace and Lovee <3

Knott's Berry Farm!!!

Yesterday morning was hot. Those who did laundry in the morning would probably agree. Laundry was a hassle, trying to hunt down a washer and a dryer with twenty other people.
Asides from that, afterward was our trip to Knott's Berry Farm. Most of the big rides like Ghostrider weren't as bad as i thought. I would have to say my favorite ride was the Supreme Scream. The view of the whole theme park was gorgious from a high perspective. It was quite a disappointment when Jaguar had to be shut down due to technical problems. Nevertheless, for me, there wouldn't be any hessistation to come back to Knott's Berry Farm.
Today we're going to go to the beach to "chill." I'm super excited to go play in the sun. So see yall there!

End of Week One

Things have really picked up around here! On Thursday, Cluster Five took second in the COSMOS Olympics- way to go team! The olympics really got all of COSMOS to rally behind one another and I think that everyone in general had an awesome time competing in the various events. Other highlights of the week included the beach bonfire on Wednesday evening. We enjoyed s'mores, frisbee, and chilling in the sand.

In more academic news, our group's final project is coming along. We've been looking more into the Matlab programming in order to properly run our monochromator's servo motor. We were also treated to a beautiful optical display from a 1200 grooves per millimeter diffraction grating w

Well here's my first blog.. I've never blogged before, so I'm not exactly sure what to write. I guess I'll just put my experiences of this first week of COSMOS. Sunday was initiation and everyone looked really old compared to me (I'm going to be a freshman next year). We met Professor Guest on Monday morning, and had a long, but interesting lecture which introduced us to photonics and light. In the afternoon, we got into groups and worked on labs with Dr. Nezhad and Mr. Illynkh. However, many of the experiments were confusing to me, having not yet taken trigonometry or physics. I spent much of the time scratching my head and wondering what the heck we were talking about. Nevertheless, I still had a good time. Our TA and my group members made things bearable and even fun. =O
I must have gotten food poisoning on Monday because I was feeling sick on Tuesday, and I felt dizzy for the whole day but I felt better after I *regurgitated*. On Tuesday morning, we had a discovery lecture by a computer programmer and then we had another lab in the afternoon. We learned our assignments for our final projects (Audio Optical Link-Analog). On Thursday and Friday, we didn't have much materials for the lab, so we weren't able to do much.
Today (Saturday) we're going to Knots berry farm, and I'm pretty excited about it, but my foot feels broken from soccer yesterday.

CoSmOs LiFe

How's everyone doing? I'm not sure if it's just me but i think I've finally come to accept the fact that we'll have to be walking from class to class each and everyday of the weekdays for a good four week from now on. It has been quite a dread because schooling back at home is definitely not the same; nothing compared to this.
Since the first day i set foot on the residential campus, everything's been going according to plan. So far nothing has went wrong and all of greatness is still here. As for residential life I'm quite satisfied. My roommates are outgoing and they're affable peers. As for our Residential Advisor, he is understanding and flexible towards what we have to say. Our suite name (THE BAT CAVE) is also very cool too by the way.
Now to the important part of my day. Today, after breakfast my cluster and i went with our teacher Dave to go finish up our 2-3 page paper that was due on that day. I was able to wrap up the report and put the finishing touches on it which was a relief on my part, knowing i wouldn't have to stay up to do it. After devouring my lunch, came the walk to our lab place. Upon our destination, we settled in and presented our group project topics to the rest of the cluster. The presentations went quick and by no time it was time to go to dinner. T.T
I would have to say the highlight of the day was Cosmolympics. It was a fun activity composed of various events such as three legged races, pie eating, water balloon throwing, etc. For the event the clusters came up with their own cheers and costumes to show everyone else in the opening. For my cluster, our cheer was quite short but i would have to say it was effective as well. Our costume revolved around the idea of a military, thug?, gangsta? theme which consisted of a t-shirt decorated by us and camouflauge headbands. At the conclusion of the event, we earned our position in second place. Good Job to each and every else as well. Everyone was a winner today. =) night night

How's the class been so far? Hmmmmm.... how about FREGIN AWESOME!!! Everyday we get to experiment with lasers and make them bounce off prisms, filter them through polarized lenses, set beams on top of each other and all sorts of stuff. The lecture isn't half bad either. The professor sometimes messes up some of his demonstrations because he expected them to work and they didn't, but other than that its okay. Tomorrow we are going to learn about the refractive index and that sounds really interesting. Well I'll post another blog later I'm going to get back to work. 

blog 1

Things have been moving quite quickly. When we were first assigned the research paper, my topic rather specific, and I had a hard time trying to find sufficient information. To write about the background on my topic, I had to spend time understanding some terminology and basic concepts about communications that I had not encountered before. The equipment needed for my group project also involved hardware that was new to me, since it dealt with certain computer and electronic components. I am gradually understanding how all these components contribute to the project, and I am thinking about topics for my individual project.
I don't mind walking around campus as much anymore, even though my legs get sore in the morning.

Sorting Algorithm and Human Intuition

On Tuesday, a speaker came in and spoke to us about parallel programming. She showed us various sorting algorithms and timed the execution of each. I was interested in seeing how the whole process would unfold, haven taken AP Computer Science AB and haven been exposed to bubble sort, and merge sort.

I enjoyed the first sort the most, the one where everyone sorted themselves intuitively. I disagree with Dr. Ferrante reference to this algorithm as "chaos" and "anarchy".

The first sorting algorithm relied on human intuition and intelligence, it’s an advanced form of bubble sort, as the members of the group compare themselves to a group of members, and intuitively float to the side of the line that they feel they believe in. With nearly no idle time, skipping unnecessary steps through intuition, and a very free format, everything flowed nicely with no wasted time. No chaos or anarchy at all, rather the collective work of multiple "cores" (people), all collaborating using human intuition in a way that no core can match.

I love computer science, especially sorting algorithms and their Operating efficiencies, but there are some things that done efficiently through intuition as well, going through multiple layers of thinking and processing. It would be a mistatement to refer to these thought processes as "chaos" and "anarchy".

Dr. Ferrante still has my full respect. I thoroughly enjoyed all the other portions of the presentation. I admire her work in the field of computer science, but computer science shouldn't be compared to the full breadth of human intuition.

Best of luck everyone with your projects and presentations! :) Throughly enjoying COSMOS, and looking forward to more programs!

To My Dearest Cluster 5...

You guys are fantastic, even if you do like to whine a bit. I am having fun getting to know all of you and enjoy seeing your looks go from really confused to not quite confused to (sometimes!) "Hey, I get it!" Most of you are being exposed to topics you have never heard of before, so be patient, but don't be complacent. Don't hesitate to ask for help if you're stuck and keep having fun.

Dave

The COSMOS experience

My first blog! ... ... ...

So. We had a bonfire last night. It was a bit...underwhelming- bordering on disappointing, even. The fire itself was puny, but it still somehow managed to be blisteringly hot. Funny how these things work out, isn't it? I was unable to roast my marshmallow, and had to eat the s'more cold. It tasted remarkably like graham cracker, chocolate, and cold, utterly unmelted marshmallow. Ah well... it's all part of the COSMOS experience, right? Just like the 2-3 page double spaced research paper due yesterday. I've never been a fan of research papers, but- well, I guess even the world has its flaws (which include research papers and shrimp. Ugh. *shudder*).

Anyways. The first day was rough, but it's getting better. Lectures are a bit too long and dull for my taste, but, again, it's part of the COSMOS experience, I suppose. Food isn't bad, activities are nice, free time is awesome, and Knott's will be even better. So it's good, it's all good...

!

cosmos right now

right now i see some changes in cosmos. the assignments have lessened a bit- so less stress was provided. It seemed that the RAs and teachers of COSMOS had caught on to our stress, so they had lessened the work load- THANKS! hopefully it would be like this the rest of the program- we need our fun too! any way its going great- we are working to understand our topics- progress is made so thats good ! 

yo. pt. 2

technically, this should be called the week so far, pt. 2, but whatever...

Anyway, WILLIAM STOP TAKING PICTURES WHILE WE'RE WORKING ON LABS AND PUTTING THEN ON FACEBOOK!

Haha, just kidding. Go ahead.

Meh... final project...

Not much to report. Except our RA was chill two nights ago and let us play Wii. AWESOME!

Bonfire was cool last night, but a bit of a disappointment because I thought bonfires were supposed to be HUGE.

Later Peoples,

GudiMan aka Indian

Cluster 5

Hey how it's going? Well its great and i love my topic/final project. Holography or holograms. It seems really interesting and fun and can't wait. First i have to understand the way the waves travel to record on the photonicplate to record it but if the laser is to long (time wise) or too short it won't work so it is trail and error which can get annoying.  (to SDPFAN351 KHAIL GREENE DOES NOT SUCK THIS YEAR)  The best part of the day for me is the lab because it is hands on and kinda of confusing so i haveto push myself to learn. The lectures and lab are out of sync but PROFESSOR clark say that it will get back on track by friday so that is great and i love and feel beeter learning if the lecture is first and the lab after wards on the same topic for hands on EXPERIENCE and to further understand the topic. Well post back or comments cluster 5!!!

"The 400 block", Its better on top!!!!!

Cluster 5; July 9th

Yesterday was a good day. I've been getting settled in and am finally starting to get used to the schedule (and waking up early). I came here knowing nothing about nanophotonics and, although I still don't understand all the concepts, am excited to learn more because it seems like such an interesting field.  I really like the professor and teacher fellow because they are both understanding and helpful. In general, I enjoy a lot of the activities that go on after dinner as well. It was also nice to get away from the campus yesterday to go the beach.  I hope that our boundaries will be opened up so that we can explore more of the UCSD campus.  So far, the food has been a lot better than I expected, and I enjoy the variety.  I also enjoy going on runs with the running group that leaves in the morning. Overall, I've had a really great time so far, and look forward to learning and exploring more of the nanophotonics field. 

More of COSMOS

Blog #2: We got our final projects!! Yea!! I am really excited for ours because....I just think we are going to have so much fun with it. Basically what we are going to be doing (although I still don't understand the whole concept yet) is figuring out what color wavelengths travel through ocean and which ones are absorbed into the ocean water. We have to do some programming on a computer and it involves a motor, but I'm sure all will present itself in good time. I have made lots of new friends over the past few days. Its great to be among like minded people my age. This is a great program. The only thing I don't LOVE is the homework. But its not for a grade and I understand that this is an academic program so I guess its alright. The food has been good...but I can tell that I will get sick of having the same thing all the time. Hey, as long as there is food in my stomach and I don't go starving, I don't really care. Well that's all folks.....Update you later!

COSMOS so far

so far i think that COSMOS is a great program around the areas of studies and social entertainment. Specifically for my cluster, everything is going well. However, the work load seems to be a bit harsh so far. It also seems that they are really restricting our time to work and turn, we cant seem to get in our assignments in. Other activities such as Rec time seems to really also restrict our schoolwork- which adds on to the stress. Although rec time is a PERFECT TIME to interact with other students, it seems that this period is forced upon us. I recall that it is mandatory that students are required to go outside for rec time and they can go back to their dorms at a designated time- (9:30?) even though that leaves us with 30 minutes to do our work, other students require much more time than that. Even though the RAs and the managers of COSMOS worked really hard to think of the recreational games, some students perfer to finish their work. Regardless, the ideas of REC TIME ARE GREAT. the food is also good as well. :D

the past few days

yay! i finally got my blog on. Anyways, its been fun these last few day, food is good, but i'm worried that eating buffet style everyday will make me fat. However, it is good that we have to walk close to half a mile to get to our class and we walk that huge hill 4 times a day. Sometimes i think that the RA's purposely make us go up 2 huge hills, but i guess its ok because we get more exercise. I noticed that the showers work pretty well, but only if i come in early. Although i know today i'll be getting a cold shower because were all comming back from the bon fire at the same time. So my lectures are pretty boring, but i guess all lectures are. The discovery lectures are cool, and so are the labs. I still think we have a lot of homework though, i mean i have to write a blog, 2-3 page research paper, and a 10 minute presentation all due today or tomorrow and they were assigned yesterday. Just so glad that my teacher fellow pushed back our other essay until next week. This weekend should be fun, knotts berry farm, yay. :) HAGS

-lily

A few notes from Adam

Hey Cluster 5, I've got a few things now that you've all started posting:

• If you are going to use your name to sign your posts, go ahead and just use your first name and last initial. You can change your displayed name by clicking on the Blogger Dashboard up at the top of the page (when you are logged in), then clicking the Edit Profile link. There is an option there to change your display name. Don't worry, we'll still know who you are. :)
  
• This is your blog, so if you want to change the layout or color scheme, let me know and I can help you with it. Decide amongst yourselves what you want it to look like, then go ahead and meet me in my office and we can work on it. Blogger has a number of ready-made templates, and although we can't get too complicated, if you have some html skill you might be able to turn it into something great!
• If any of your classmates/roommates/friends haven't received their invites, please send them my way. Thanks!

Cosmos so far...

So far, Cosmos has been a great experience.  The first day was very overwhelming because I wasn't used to getting up at 6:45 and heading straight into academics for 3 hours straight.  Luckily, I fully adjusted by the second day and I really enjoyed all of my classes.  I learned about my final project which is about mono-cromatics.  I'm excited to start my project and start learning how to use MatLab. 

But the most amazing thing so far was definately the Cosmos Olympics.  We all wore "army style" headbands and decorated white t-shirts with camo and big 5's.  Our finishing touch to our outfits was black war paint.  We looked amazing.  All of us worked really hard to have great sportsmanship and be successful in the competition.  By the end of the competition we were all exhausted, but we ended up getting 2nd place!!!

I look forward to getting to know the rest of my cluster and I can't wait to go to Nutberry Farms on Saturday! :)

First Impressions

I'm now settled into my dorm room here on campus. Things are different living with a roommate and sleeping on a bunk-bed. The schedule here is jam-packed and we have many lectures to attend: ones about our cluster topic (mine is about lasers, light, and optics) discovery lectures done by guest speakers on subjects pertaining to science and technology, or lectures about scientific communications and writing. We were assigned the primary project that each lab group will be focusing on today. I will be designing a "monochromator" with three other students, a device that analyzes a liquid by projecting light through it and then splitting the light into different colors in order to tell which colors have been absorbed by the liquid. We have to write a report and make a presentation on it soon.

Luckily there are also many fun events planned for us here too. There will be a COSMOS "olympics", and i will participate in the water balloon toss. Today i got to play soccer and tomorrow there will be a bonfire. On Saturday we will go to Knotts Berry Farm and on Sunday we will visit the beach. So as you can see, I've been very busy, but things have been fun.

Research Project

So we've been assigned an official project to work on. We're each supposed to write a research paper about a certain topic. My topic was solar cells. My topic really isn't that hard..but doing all the research in a matter of hours is just crazy. I've never had to write a 2-3 pg paper in such a short amount of time. But I don't mind. I would rather do a paper than give a presentation anytime. I'm just definitely not much of an oral presentation kind of person. Unfortunately..we have to do some of these within the next month. I'm NOT excited for that. But I'm determined to try my best. Oh well. Back to the good stuff, I think the meals have been good. We had churros today ! That's all I need to say. I think my day really starts after dinner (around 5 ish) After dinner, we have some free time to just do whatever. Then the activities are set up and we just do that for about two hours. I think it's nice to have some time to get away from the class assignments and just hang out outside. I just wish we didn't have to do so many projects or presentations =/
-Peace and lovee :]

New 2 Photonics

Yeah BIG 5! The week started off in mystery, with most of us not knowing what nanophotonics really is, and to be honest it is still some what of a mystery to me. We have been learning and studying about light, so far we already had a laser lab and a really planned out Intro To Light lecture. Our professors are really helpful most of the time and the people in our cluster are really great. We have so many different kind of people in our cluster and we work well together. I've gotten to know a few people more closely than others, but will try to get to know all of them more.

Cluster 5 rules!!!

=Ray=

The Week So Far, Pt 1

Well, it's been a great time so far at COSMOS. The food's great, roommates are awesome, and our RA is pretty chill. The icebreaker games were pretty cool too.
Yesterday, we had our lecture from the professor. The concepts that he taught were pretty interesting, but I think he had a little trouble captivating everyone's attention. Of course, it's understandable, as he admitted he was a little nervous around high school students. After lunch, we went to the lab, where we got to work with LASERS!!!!! (laughs) Yeah, working with lasers were amazing. We did all sorts of experiments with them, although it took us forever to align them.
We just got final projects assigned. Digital modulation, basically sending info through lasers!

COSMOS....

I have to start out by saying that I love this online blogging concept. It is great not only for the staff here on campus, but my family can check it out and it is another way to keep in touch with them. The first two days have been amazing! I feel like I have lived here forever. I have hardly thought about home at all. My cluster is awesome. Who knew there was so much to learn just about light!?!? I took it for granted, but my view have been changed. It will no longer just be a flip of a switch for me! My professor seems passionate about what he is doing. I understand that he is a little nervous about teaching high school students (teens scare most people), but he is doing a great job so far. The other people in the classroom and lab are great too. They are all really helpful and we need that because none of us know anything about nano-photonics. The RAs put on some really fun activities. I had a great time with the ice-breaker games; I laughed so hard!
I will update when I get a chance. We are kept busy here, but only in the best sense...:)

Welcome to the Cluster 5 blog!

Hello students, parents, and guests, and welcome to the official blog for UCSD COSMOS Cluster 5: A Journey to Nano-Photonics. The intent for this site is for the students to use it as an online journal to keep the world up to date with everything they are learning and doing here at COSMOS. Parents, check back often to see what your students are saying! Each student in the cluster will post to this specific blog; if you would like to check out the other clusters, we have links to them on the right side of the page.

Students, you aren't expected to post every single day, but we'd like you to try to post at least twice a week. The posts themselves don't have to be too long and detailed, but you should try to write at least a paragraph. You can also post pictures if you'd like to. Please keep in mind that these blogs will be monitored by staff and you are expected to uphold the COSMOS standards as outlined in your student handbook.

If you need any help posting, Blogger's help site is here or you can come ask Adam in the COSMOS Office.

Have fun!