I joined the aero design team at U.D. in the fall of 2017 and helped design the first version of a solar powered electric airplane for long endurance applications. Our design included a camera for surveillance applications and a data logger with an intelligent flight control system for pattern holds and other pilot hands off or autonomous functions. Our spring 2018 semester was spent building and modifying the plane until its maiden flight. Unfortunately the landing of the maiden flight damaged the wing more significantly than we realized and the wing failed under typical loading during the competition flight. Load testing before each flight and spare wings will have to be used in the future to prevent this type of error from reoccurring. Below are some images and videos of the plane and its flights.
Kids and Drones
I dont know why I love this video so much but its just so damn cool.
Lights and Sounds
Drummer for Son Lux
Solar Scale
I’ve always been frustrated by attempts to show the accurate distance and size of the planets in our solar system… this video puts that to rest.
The Silicon Valley of China.
A glimpse into the hardware giant that is the city of Shenzhen and how it came to be.
Marspiration
I really hope that I get to help us get to mars one day. This little short is a really inspiring story of a young person with a dream.
Quadcopter (will update as I go)
Recently I have become interested in flight/aerodynamics and while my schooling is oriented in mechanical design, it doesn’t really delve into this realm of knowledge or design of aerodynamics, unless I Continue reading
Bogg Video and Experience
My friend Josh and I worked on a video project last year for a non profit called Bogg. They distribute meals to neighborhoods Continue reading
Snarky Puppy is King
The piano solo… Incredible.
Inspiring Music and Production
The way they use the buildings acoustics in this video to alter how much her voice reverberates in and out is amazing.
Joven y Libre
I went to Mexico to shoot some videos for my friend Chris. These are some of the photos I took while shooting the videos. Continue reading
Visual Storytelling
An amazing story being told with film.
Mexico
A week ago I was on top of a mountain in Monterrey hanging out with kids at a camp and I was having the time of my life. I had traveled to Mexico to shoot a documentary about the Back2Back location there and to help tell the story of the people involved with it. I am still unsure exactly what happened to me there. I have come back a different human and I’m not sure how I feel about it but one thing I know for sure, I will never forget the people in Monterrey. I have yet to put to words what goes on in my mind when I think about this trip which is weird because I almost can’t stop thinking about it. I know that soon I will be able to gather these thoughts and I will tell the best story I can about these people and the family that they have in Monterrey.
Competition Is Not About Secrets
On June 12th of this year, Elon Musk released a statement from Tesla Motors explaining that they will not pursue lawsuits against anyone, who in good faith, want to use any of their patents. This company is flipping the Continue reading
Creativity Outlets
Lately I have been having a hard time expressing my creativity in a trackable way. I have not mixed audio consistently for about 3 months so my attention has been focused mainly on photography and videography. I have sort of hijacked my Instagram account and turned it into a feed for some of my favorite photos. I really dig Instagram for this use. I realize its probably a little annoying for my friends since Instagram is widely used as a social media platform centered on photography. However, the artistic community on Instagram and the company itself are very different. Take a look at the Instagram Blog, its not a collection of posts about selfies or pictures of cats. Its a collection of posts by a company thats focused on art.
Now I am not ignoring the fact that the platform of Instagram is mainly used for social media. However, I have chosen to do something different with my account. Learning the balance between trying to be a professional photographer and shoving it in my friends and followers faces and the opposite of that in being a photography enthusiast and being able to share some of my photos with my friends has been an interesting thing to figure out. You just cant bleed the feed. Thats what Tumblr’s for. So basically, if you want to see some occasional photos of the places I’m at and the things I’m doing, check out my Instagram, If you want to see all of my photos, check out my Tumblr.
I cant promise that all of my stuff will be amazing or even good but I want people to see them and to give me some feedback. I want to be a better artist and think about art with a larger perspective and in a larger spectrum. That cannot happen if I am not creating things and putting them out there for honest feedback.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malala Yousafzay
50 years ago today, Martin Luther King Jr. received the nobel peace prize. This was his speech. 4 days ago Malala Yousafzay received the same award. These are not violent people. These are world changing people.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” – MLK
Come Closer
Science and Art
This is a really interesting perspective on art and science. For me, it has opened up a new spectrum of thought on the two fields.
You Can Learn Anything
Khan Academy is maybe one of the greatest tools I have for learning as a college student in todays world. I had a math teacher who told us about it my freshman year of college and ever since I have used it to learn about algebra, trig, calculus, physics, chemistry, biology, logic, history, art, computer programming, and the list could go on. The best part about this idea for education is that its built for any age group. A third grader could get on there and learn about anything they wanted. Salman Khan has really pushed the envelope for free education and this idea that you can learn anything is really inspiring as a student and as a person who struggles to keep myself focused on one area of study or interest.
A Good Explanation of Audio/Sound in 20 Mintues
This is probably the best explanation of audio I’ve found to date. Every now and then someone asks me to explain what audio is and how it works, probably not frequent enough to justify posting this, but from here on out I’m just going to point people here when they ask me.
Gregg Stock – Strymon
Interview: Strymon Co-Founder Gregg Stock
Gregg Stock is the Senior Analog Engineer and Co-Founder of a company that makes digital effects units for guitar and general music use. This interview, done by Daft Paragon, is a pretty cool insight into some of how he approaches the discussion of analog vs. digital audio processing in the music world and obviously in the design world. These types of people are incredibly motivating to me because as a musician and electronics tinkerer, I some times get caught up in these paradoxes that revolve around what “should be” and I end up losing sight of what “can be” with my projects. The truth is, if Gregg Stock thinks that digital will soon be harder and harder to distinguish from analog, then ignoring coding and DSP processing projects is probably a bad call.
Telling Stories With Motion
This video came at a time when I was starting to make videos, ironically, and it helped me grasp a larger idea than just “get nice camera, get nice scene, shoot nice scene, have nice footage for cool video”. I always felt like making videos or movies had a deeper motive than just aesthetic value but was never really able to comprehend what it was. I had started conversations with some of my friends who have been making films for sometime and the key ingredient was always “the story”. It came full circle after I saw this short video of some pretty successful film makers and it really gave me a tangible grasp on telling stories with movies.
SouthBrook Easter 2014 Video and Storytelling
SouthBrook has always done a few special things for their easter services and since I’ve been a part of the team I’ve had the opportunity to be there the week before these services for all of the fun, non Continue reading
SouthBrook Video System Evolution
When I started working at SouthBrook almost 2 years ago the video system was extremely different than it is now. I also knew nothing about IMAG (Image MAGnification… AKA shooting live video and putting it on screens on or next to your stage) or live video at all really. I was originally just there to run sound and do other various tasks for the production team. Continue reading
Scale of Space
A couple of years ago I came across a Bill Nye video Continue reading
Desk out of Plywood
I don’t build things often but when my friend said she needed a desk for her new apartment I jumped at the opportunity to use my dads work shop and my limited but eager skill set to make a solid piece of furniture for her new place.
Amazing Project. Inspiring Photos.
Inspiring
Some of the things brought about by our advances toward space research and exploration using science and technology to the best abilities we know how… Continue reading
Super Bowl at SouthBrook
I grabbed my buddy Josh’s camera at our Super Bowl Sunday service and snagged some pictures. Watch the video here.
CNC Machines Part 1
One of my previous jobs was to program and run files on a pair of CNC machines. These machines were pretty cool, they would take a little bit of time to setup but they were amazing tools to get to use. I was part of a program at my college that produces guitar kits. These kits consist of all the materials to build a guitar, including the pre-cut body neck and hardware. You can check it out at guitarbuilding.org. My job was to design procedures and software to produce the body’s and necks of our existing and new guitar styles. At first we only had a small CNC machine made by the company ShopBot. Continue reading
TV Stand
I built a stand for my TV. For cheap. (Bad Pics)
So a couple of months ago when I moved into my new apartment I bought a huge TV for really cheap. Its a 60″ and it literally weighs 90 pounds. It didn’t come with a stand… Most TV stands that are designed to accommodate such a mass are pretty expensive, especially the ones that look good enough to be worth buying. I opted to build my own based off of an idea I had to make my own mount for the TV as well. What I came up with was a credenza of plywood and galvanized piping that does a pretty good job of holding my TV in place. Continue reading
Elon Musk
One day I want to work for this guy. He is pretty much this generations Thomas Jefferson.
The Bat Kid – A Bigger Hero Than He Knows
The Bat Kid – A Bigger Hero Than He Knows
Im not really sure if the world is getting any “better” or any “worse” per say but today people did this for a little kid. I’m not sure if this website or my blog will still exist in 10 or 20 years but if it does I want to be sure to remember today for the hope its given me in people. #batkid
Steam
My Other Job
I made it so that our big CNC router at work could bolt mount pieces of wood for production. Check it!
Update
Its been a while since I’ve given this thread a good update and I am hoping to write on here more frequently. I still try to play too many instruments and spend way too much on gear and I still mix sound and record stuff. I work for a church now. SouthBrook. It’s pretty sweet. Come learn about Jesus with us on a Saturday evening or Sunday, we have a pretty good time doing it. I mix sound and do some video/graphics work at the church and its pretty fun stuff. Stuff I’d like to write about on here for feedback and stuffs. If you read any of my posts it’d be pretty killer if you’d comment on them, it’ll make me feel less like someone who thinks its cool to write blogs to no one and more like someone who’s actually helping someone out / being helped out. Things I hope to write about soon; effects, guitars, Jesus, random projects, pedal boards. Probably not in any real order there, just stuff I want to talk about. Alright peace.
This is our audio an lighting production booth at SouthBrook. I spend a lot of time here.
House keeping
I’m gonna clean this up a little more and make it more useful for you peeps. Instead of trying to come up with creative stuff to write about that I think will be cool for people to read online I’m just going to make this blog about my projects and stuff I’m doing. Enjoy!
-Michael M.
MICHAEL MONGIN 
