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.
Category: Education
A process of learning or teaching knowledge.
The Silicon Valley of China.
A glimpse into the hardware giant that is the city of Shenzhen and how it came to be.
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
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.
Scale of Space
A couple of years ago I came across a Bill Nye video Continue reading
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
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
Elon Musk
One day I want to work for this guy. He is pretty much this generations Thomas Jefferson.
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!
MICHAEL MONGIN 