Geek Paradise, day 2.

Second and last day at IM Flash.  We spent most of the day in the computer lab doing statistical stuff.

We did get to build helicopters, little paper ones, that was fun.  First round we were given very little instructions on how to build them, and then we dropped them off a 2-story staircase in the main hall.  they even blocked off the area so that workers wouldn’t interfere with our work.

We timed their falls, did 3 trials and then went back to the computer lab and charted our results on this stats program they use there.  Made pretty graphs and discussed the mean, median, mode, range and standard deviation. 

The second round, we were given a template and specific instructions on how to build the helicopters, dropped them each 3 times and charted their times.  Amazingly (not really) the times for these were a lot closer.  what we didn’t expect, and probably should have, was that the second round helicopters all landed in almost exactly the same place.  The first round ones landed all over the place, one even on the 1 landing of the staircase.

This all led into a discussion about the causes of variation and how they use the stats to refine their production to minimize these variations.

All in all, it was quite interesting and we even had some fun doing it.  And we even got some IM Flash SWAG: shirt, computer bag, pens, keychain flashlight and even a teeny, tiny IM Flash chapstick.

I didn’t get any pictures of the first round of drops because they don’t allow any photography in the facility except for in specific areas.  One of the higher-ups showed up for the second drop, took a couple pictures so I asked him and he said it was ok for me to take them there also.

When you cross Micron with Intel…

What do you get when you cross Micron with Intel?

You get IM Flash Technologies in Lehi, Utah.

You get a building that is over a half mile from one end to the other.  They make those silicone chips that are the main part of the memory on your flash drives and mobile devices.

I got to spend the afternoon there today, and again tomorrow.   They came to this year’s last meeting of the group I work with (MfA = Math for America) at the University of Utah and invited us down to visit and learn about all the ways they use math at their company.

I learned a lot of stuff about how silicone chips are made, and especially about the quality control and the math involved in quality control.   They are looking for defects that are about 1/1,000th the size of a flea.  That disc you see above has over 200 124gig chips, and not all of them will be perfect.  Even on discs that can be shipped to their parent companies (Micron and Intel), they do a quality control map that will tell which ones are perfect, close to perfect, pretty good and completely useless.  The “prefect” ones go into mass storage units, like servers and cloud memory storage.  The “pretty good” ones are the ones they put into that $10 flash drive you bought.  Yeah, that little flash drive you have your life stored on is made from the inferior chips.  That doesn’t mean they are crap, just not up to par with the server ones.

Anyway, we got to go through the quality control area, saw the different processes they use and came close to some really dangerous chemicals they use.  Whee!  We even had to wear safety goggles.

We didn’t get to go into the actual FAB room (that white room where you have to wear the “bunny suits”, with the constant temperature and filtered air, but we did get to go into a viewing room that was a glassed in part of it.  Which meant:

getting on our goggles, latex gloves, little “CSI” booties, a hair net and smock.  By the way, he did tell us that if you have bad allergies, the FAB (fabrication) room is the perfect place to work.

Overall, it was quite interesting.   Tomorrow we get to work on some projects they came up with for these visits.  Total Math-Geek type fun, looking forward to it.

P.S. – the visit started with a great lunch.  A good way to start!

Utah beats BYU

I’m not a big sports fanatic, and frankly I find it annoying that the reputations of the two biggest Universities in Utah generally rely on their ability to get a funny shaped ball over a goal line.

You never see headlines like “U of U Ranks #1 in Math Publications” or “BYU Takes Psychology Title”.  There are no Sociology Booster Clubs or tailgate parties in front of the Theater Department on the nights of big plays.

It’s kind of pathetic the billions and billions of dollars we’ll dump into a bunch of guys chasing a ball around (I’m not talking just Universities or football here), but we bitch and moan about a couple extra bucks to have clean air, decent roads, good education and universal healthcare.

Sorry U of U, but winning a football game does not make you the better institution of higher learning.  And BYU, your loss does not diminish your ability to supply a quality education.

All that said, as someone who has spent many years studying at the University of Utah, I’m still glad they won.

 

Busy, busy weeks.

I haven’t been around the blogs a whole lot lately, sorry about that but it’s not because I’ve forsaken all of you.

I’ve been working on a computer project for my dad and the University of Utah.  It, and my Jeep, have consumed all my usual computer time.  It’s got to be done by the end of next weekend, so you should be seeing me around a lot more after that.

Miss ya.  See ya soon.

Ummm, duh!

So I'm all ready for the final semester of my Master's degree.  I've got my backpack and I head up to the U for class yesterday.  I get there and park in the usual place, and start to feel a little uneasy because the parking lot is kind of empty.  Not completely, but just a lot less than I'm used to.  My uneasyness is releived when another student from my cohort pulls in and we walk to class together.  It's almost 5:00, when class is supposed to start, and the two of us are getting a little concerned, so the other student calls her friend and leaves a massage questioning whether or not class starts this week.  Standing there, wonderning how long we're going to wait, and a third student shows up, so we relax, assured that certainly 3 of us can't be wrong.  Yeah, right.  A couple of minutes later the friend calls back, just to inform us that we were a week early.

.

Well, I put the blame squarely on my friend and fellow student, because if she wasn't going to be gone next week (the first week of school), I wouldn't have been expecting to be going up to school alone the first day.   I would have e-mailed her confirming our meeting at Trax, and she would have, in a nice sarcastic way, let me know that maybe I should have checked the schedule because I was a week off.

.

Just kidding, my friend.  But I do have to admit that this would not have been the first time I've relied on her to keep me on schedule.  If I paid her a buck for everytime she reminded me of when something was due over the last 2 years, she'd be able to afford that trip to Paris.

Week One down, about 70 more to go.

Week one of the teacher-student-Chevron trilogy is over. It's been a pretty good week, despite being incredibly tiring. For about 70 more weeks, until June of 2009, on Mondays through Thursdays, I'll be getting up to go teach around 6 am and not getting home until 9 pm. Friday's I only teach and Sat & Sun are being kept relatively clear for studying.

Teaching : I had a really good week. We've got a bunch of 9th graders that I taught 2 years ago when I was at the middle school, and it's kind of nice seeing them again. Whenever you change schools, you have to get known again by the staff and student body, and last year I was an unknown. This year, not only do I know the kids that were here last year, but because they came from my old middle school, a bunch of the new kids already know me. My math classes are looking good - Algebra I I'm coteaching with the special ed teacher, who is almost as crazy as I am. The UBSCT class has about 15 kids in it and they are all motivated to pass the test. Psychology is a blast. Last class I had them in groups of 3, gave each group a topic to learn (the different theories were our topics), had them talk about it in their group and then had them go around the room, talking to other students, finding out about the rest of the topice from them. It was cool. They stayed on take almost the whole time, mostly chatting about what they were supposed to. My Web Page class is not as dynamic as it was last year, but they are all interested in learning about it, and were even kind of excited when I told them the big project for the class was going to be a web page for a group in the school that I would actually put on the school's site.

Studenting : One of the classes is Foundations of Instructional Design, the other is Foundations of Learning - both of which are more project based, and not your basic lecture-test type classes. I have both classes with Gibb and her student teacher from last year, Leilani. Both professors have let us make our own teams, so we're working together on the projects, and if the rest are going to be like the first one, they're going to be a blast. We had to develop a design for instruction on changing a tire (and he specifically ruled out "get on the cell phone and call Triple-A") I don't know if you can tell how much fun we were having from the pictures (see post below), but we sure did take a lot of them.

Chevroning : Same-old, same-old. Love the people I work with, love the manager who is so willing to adapt to my school(s) schedule. And the extra $$$ ain't bad either.

And let the games begin......

It's been kind of surrealistic the last couple of days, classes up at the "U" started for me this Wednesday. I'm a college student again. That means classes, where I'm not the leader, assignments, that I have to do-not correct, mid-terms, finals and grades. It also means that I get to ride Trax & the busses for free. Cool. Got my student ID today, and all I had to do was ask for the UTA pass and they gave it to me. No, not because I'm just the darn nicest guy on the planet - they give it to any U student. There's a Trax station near school (on 33rd) and one right by the Ed building, so it'll be pretty convienent. Nikita4773, who is in the program with me, works just down the street so we can make the ride together. Fun stuff, but I'm gonna be a little busy the next 9 months - school, where I teach, starts Monday. So, Monday and Tuesday it will be : teach all day, Chevron from 4 to 9 that night. Wed & Thu : teach all day, college 5 to 8 that night. Fridays only teach and Sat & Sun are for catching up on sleep and doing homework, cleaning house and laundry. Social life? Nah, but at least now I have an excuse........

It's Official

I got my "Official Letter of Acceptance" from the University of Utah today. I am now officially a U of U student, specifically in the Masters of Education program, starting this fall. And the even better news is that Gibb was also admitted, so we're going to be going through the program together. It's been a long time since I was a student, I"m looking forward to all night study sessions, midterms & finals and the best thing of all - student loans! Yeah. The program is designed for teachers who will still be teaching, I'll have two classes a week in the evenings, and it's project based, so I won't have a whole lot of tests. I'm still hoping on getting the scholarship I applied for, so even the money part might not be an issue. But no matter what, I'm planning on having some fun with it, and it'll help me with my STS position with the district.