#cnc programming for mechanical engineering

[lilkakow]

DDR economy broke-Planned economy, No thanks?

It is often claimed that the GDR economy was dilapidated and bankrupt, and that the planned economy was inefficient. Even though crucial errors were made in economic policy that slowed growth towards the end of the GDR, the GDR was not bankrupt. The economic problems arose from specific political decisions and external circumstances, not from the planned economy itself.What is true is that the GDR economy did not catch up with the FRG economy, but it grew faster throughout its existence. To properly assess this, the different starting conditions of the two states must be taken into account.

Annual GDP growth rates of the GDR and FRG by time period, in %

Initial conditions in the GDR

Productive forces in Germany were distributed to the disadvantage of the GDR. Raw materials that were available in West Germany were lacking (e.g., coal and ore).The GDR paid approximately 98% of the total German reparations. Company owners fled to avoid expropriation and brought assets to West Germany. 70% of industrial capacity was destroyed in the territory of the GDR. Due to denazification, expertise was lacking in state and economic bodies. GDP: 37 billion (in euros)

Initial conditions in West Germany

The population ratio of West Germany to East Germany was 3.71.

The FRG received massive economic support (Marshall Plan) for the Marshall Plan. "Showcase effect" GDP: 262 billion (in euros)

With nationalization and the establishment of a planned economy, the GDR began its catch-up process. The focus on heavy industry and research led to a sixfold increase in national income and a twentyfold increase in foreign trade volume between 1949 and 1973. The GDR was able to compete internationally in many areas and even assumed a leading role in mechanical engineering, for example. According to the World Economic Atlas, it ranked tenth among industrialized nations during this period, between Italy and Canada. From the mid-1970s onward, poor decisions led to a decline in growth. The GDR incurred debts in the West, experienced liquidity crises, and became increasingly unable to compete on the global market. The main cause was the "unity of economic and social policy," which prioritized the production of consumer goods over that of production means in order to better provide for the population in the short term. Social spending, such as for the housing construction program, burdened the investment volume, which prevented the GDR from keeping pace with international production standards. The expected increase in productivity through a better standard of living failed to materialize, and the share of net investment in the manufacturing sector fell from 16.1% to 81% between 1970 and 1985.

An example from mechanical engineering: In the 1960s and early 1970s, the GDR still produced high-quality machine tools and successfully exported them to the West. However, from the mid-1970s onwards, this important export sector collapsed sharply. The reason for this was thefailure to implement microelectronics and introduce CNC controls, as the "unity of economic and social policy" hindered investment in this area. High consumer spending prevented necessary investments in key technologies. The GDR had to purchase CNC controls expensively from abroad, which reduced foreign currency earnings from mechanical engineering by 30-40%.Due to the GDR's declining competitiveness in the international economy, it became increasingly difficult to sell goods for foreign currency in non-socialist economic areas. At the same time, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON), the socialist economic alliance, continued to erode. Since the GDR could not forgo trade with non-socialist countries, its debt to the West and its dependence on imports increased. In the 1980s, the GDR pursued a policy of "export at any price." sometimes even belowproduction costs, in order to obtain foreign currency.

The Comecon could no longer keep pace with the West technologically, as demonstrated by the failure in microelectronics. Mutual aid within the Comecon also declined, for example, when the Soviet Union increased oil prices for the GDR in the 1970s and cut oil deliveries in 1982, even though the GDR was heavily dependent on Soviet oil. Vulnerability to capitalist crises abroad exacerbated the situation. In the 1980s, the GDR focused on exporting petroleum derivatives, profiting from the difference between favorable Soviet oil prices and high world market prices. When oil prices fell sharply at the end of 1985, foreign exchange earnings dropped by half.

Despite these challenges, the GDR succeeded in significantly raising the standard of living. Income grew steadily, and prices remained relatively stable. Average monthly income in GDR marks

In 1989, there were approximately 167 refrigerators and 130 televisions per 100 East German households. 57% of households owned a car,although public transportation in East Germany was significantly better developedand virtually free. The housing problem was also largely solved by 1989. Thanks to the comprehensive housing construction program, East Germany even managed to provide slightly more housing relative to its population than West Germany.

Housing supply level, 1989 East Germany West Germany

Apartments per 100 households

Housing per 100 households

Basic foodstuffs, housing, transportation, sports, culture, and art were heavily subsidized in the GDR, so that no one suffered serious material hardship. The scarcity arose primarily from a money supply surplus resulting from flawed distribution policies. There was higher demand than production capacity, as with cars, which were highly sought after despite good public transportation, leading to long waiting times.The GDR was innovative and produced durable products. Its approximately 130,000 patents included groundbreaking developments such as the first multi-spectral camera for space travel and refrigeration technology, which is still used worldwide today.... Thanks to binding technical standards (TGL),products like refrigerators had to last at least twelve years, Another example is the almost unbreakable "Superfest" glasses. After the end of the GDR, however, their production was discontinued, because what doesn't break, isn't bought again. This shows that environmentally friendly production can only be achieved in socialism, where not profit, but the satisfaction of societal needs takes precedence.

Although the GDR made progress, significantly raised its standard of living, and its GDP growth was on average higher than in West Germany, it could not reach the consumption standards of the Federal Republic. In 1989, the GDR's GDP per capita was 44% lower than that of West Germany. To make up for the deficit from the 1940s, the GDR would have had to grow by 6.2% annually, instead of the actual 3.9%.The neglect of productive investments from the 1970s onward, as well as the close integration with the capitalist world market, led to economic setbacks. Building socialism in direct competition with the West presented an additional difficulty, with economic and scientific cooperation within the Comecon being neglected.Despite economic challenges, such as the liquidity crisis of 1982, the GDR did not go bankrupt. By 1985 the crisis had been neutralized, and the GDR's debt ratio in 1989 was only about three-fifths that of the FRG. The economic problems were real, but not life-threatening and not attributable to the planned economy itself.

If you want to learn more:

Risen from the Ruins: The Economic History of Socialism in the German Democratic Republic

‘Risen from the Ruins’, the first edition of the new series ‘Studies on the DDR’, follows the foundation of the German Democratic Republic (

[usafphantom2]

F-35C accident at the USS Carl Vinson also damaged an EA-18G Growler on board

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 04/19/22 - 11:57 AM in Military

The EA-18G Growler of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 136 undergoing repairs in FRCSW Building 94. (Photo: U.S. Navy)

The EA-18G Growler of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 136 undergoing repairs in FRCSW Building 94. (Photo: U.S. Navy)

In the accident with an F-35C fighter on the flight deck of aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson during operations in the South China Sea, an EA-18G Growler aircraft that was on deck at the time of the accident was also damaged.

The accident occurred on January 14, but the U.S. Navy has now revealed the damage. The renovation facilities of the Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRCSW) introduced Growler for repairs on February 15.

A version of the F/A-18F Super Hornet, the Growler is an electronic air warfare platform and is one of several aircraft normally assigned to U.S. Navy aircraft carriers.

The USS Carl Vinson returned from its eight-month deployment in the Pacific and Asia Pacific to San Diego on February 14, while the F-35C was recovered from the South China Sea in early March.

When the F-35C Lightning II aircraft hit the flight deck of the aircraft carrier, slid and caught fire, the wreckage of the accident damaged Growler's rear fuselage under the vertical stabilizer.

Specifically, the outer layer S9 between the Y631 and Y645 (silk structure) trainers was drilled, according to Ehren Terbeek, manager of the F/A-18 Legacy and E/F program.

“The repair plan is to remove the vertical tail to remove layers S9 and S10. We will replace the S9 cover and hope to save the S10 cover after evaluating it with a non-destructive inspection (NDI)," Terbeek said. "We will need to do the NDI of the Y631 to check that there are no cracks, replace the outer layers and place the vertical tail again. If we don't have to replace the previous Y631 or S10, it should be around 4,500 hours of work or about nine months."

Terbeek said that the command will manufacture the old Y645 using its Flexible Manufacturing Cell (FMC) in Building 472. It will be the first Growler piece to be made at FMC.

The manufacturing cell is the first of its kind in the Department of Defense and consists of six computer-controlled five-axis machines (CNC) and a pallet system manufactured by DMG-Mori and Fastems, respectively. The FMC's pre-programmed and fastening parts were initially designed to support the F/A-18 Hornet fighter and the landing gear of the E-2/C-2.

CNC machines are capable of milling, turning and grinding inside a machine and can be used in parts and components made of aluminum, steel and titanium.

The Growler mold is made of aluminum and, once the material is received, the manufacture of the component should take about three weeks, Terbeek said. Manufacturing costs total approximately US$ 208,000.

"Of this amount, about $107,000 would be for non-recurring charges for modeling, programming and proofing due to the fact that it is the first time it is being manufactured; plus the material is $23,906," Terbeek said.

In addition to a team leader and three sheet metal mechanics, teammates from the engineering and manufacturing departments of the command will contribute to the repair.

An F-35C is moved on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson.

The assignment of the aircraft after the completion of repairs is currently undetermined.

"I would depend on the Commander of the Electronic Attack Wing Pacific (CVWP) on Whidbey Island and the Aviation Type Commander (TYCOM) to determine if it is still needed in the VAQ-136 or in a different squadron," Terbeek said.

Tags: Military AviationBoeing EA-18G GrowlerLockheed Martin F-35C Lightning IIUSN - United States Navy/U.S. Navy

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in a specialized aviation magazine in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation

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[system76]

Behind the Scenes of System76: Industrial Design

Since moving into a factory space in 2018, System76 has delved deeper and deeper into manufacturing hardware in-house. Three years later, we’ve introduced five Thelio desktops, fine-tuned the hardware, developed our fully configurable Launch keyboard, and optimized our production processes. Helming the design process is Mechanical Engineer John Grano, who wears a number of different hats here. We sat down with John this week to discuss industrial design and the team behind our beautiful open source hardware.

How would you describe industrial design for people unfamiliar with the term?

To me, industrial design is basically the art of making something into a usable product. In industrial design, you have to balance looks and function, and that drives your form. It’s kind of like hardware UX in that it’s really important to have the right feel. If you can make the system connect better with people, they’ll like it more. Adding that softness we do with Thelio, like slightly rounded edges and darker wood, it makes it a little more approachable to have a semi-natural looking system and not something that’s blinking at you with red lights all the time.

System76 itself is a group of hardcore programmers and people that are really into Linux, but I think the idea of trying to democratize Linux is extremely important. If you can create something that doesn’t have that robotic aesthetic, it will provide people with something that feels more familiar and usable. No one really wants to go sit in a car that looks like a square with wheels on it. They want something that makes them feel something, maybe openness or comfort, when they’re in it.

What inspired you to get into mechanical engineering, and how did you end up at System76?

The way my brain works lends itself well to engineering, for better or for worse. There’s a lot of really solid engineers who don’t have much creativity, and then there are a lot of people who have great creative ability, but can’t do math. I kind of fluctuate in the middle; I wouldn’t say I’m the best at math or the most creative person in the entire world, but I have enough of each that the combination pushed me towards mechanical engineering. I like working with my hands, and it’s more of a study of how things work in the real world versus computer science, which is a purely digital and nontangible practice.

During school I worked mainly as a bike mechanic, and that helped me to think about how to build things better. That led me to my first internship at a bike company working in a wind tunnel, which was really fun. Realizing that I could probably never get a job there—or at least one that would pay me enough to live—I started working at an environmental engineering company, where I prototyped scientific sampling systems for R&D that would process materials with all these gasses at really high heat and tried not to die. It was kind of fun making these large-scale systems that were basically just gigantic science experiments, but I didn’t really have the creative outlet I wanted in terms of making something that looks good.

One of the main things that drew me to System76 was being able to have a solid influence on what tools we were able to use and how we were going to push the design. In the past three years, it’s pretty wild to see what we’ve been able to accomplish coming from a completely empty warehouse to being able to crank out parts.

I had also previously, while working at these scientific instrument companies, been working with a local company to design and develop a cargo bicycle, so I had that experience as well in terms of consumer product development with overseas manufacturing. I think that helped get me in the door here.

Let’s talk a bit about your team. Who do you collaborate with on a typical day?

It’s a very small team and everyone does a lot. I pretty much lead the mechanical engineering team slash design team...slash manufacturing team. Being a small company, we are all wearing a bunch of different hats. Aside from doing the initial design work on all of our Thelio desktops and the Launch keyboard, I also program our laser-punch machine and our brake press and run through all of the design for manufacturing hang ups that show up. Those changes tend to be a result of our current tools, and internal capabilities.

Crystal came on last August as our first CNC Machinist. She heads up all of the machining, trains our operators, makes sure our parts are coming out in a nice clean fashion, and has done a lot of work on minimizing machine time and maximizing the parts we can get out. She also provides really great feedback on what's possible and what kind of special fixtures or tools we'll need to make for a specific part. Around the same time we picked up our first Haas 3-axis CNC mill to start working on the Launch project. That led to some other opportunities to make parts for Thelio and improve the feel of some of the parts that we were pumping out.

We just hired Cary, who came from a similar background as me in consumer product development, as well as low-scale scientific machine development. He’s going to help build manufacturing tools for us, and he’s only been here now for two or three weeks. Going forward, Cary will be heading up the Thelio line long-term, and I’ll be moving to some interesting R&D work.

And Zooey?

Zooey doesn’t really do much. She just kind of sits there and waits for people to feed her their lunch. I take her out for walks during the day so she can get away from everyone petting her. She doesn’t like when they do that.

What was the R&D process like for Launch?

Launch is a less complicated product in that we don’t have to deal with things like cooling. Even dropping a PCB into aluminum housing deals with multiple processes, like using the laser and CNC machine. This was a start to looking at those processes to see how much time it takes to produce parts, the costs going into making them, and monitoring the cutting quality. You have to be familiar with the machines and know what you’re looking for when you see a tool going dull.

We first let the software experts do their thing and optimize a layout they wanted for their programming life. Then I was given that template, built a couple of sheet metal chassis that we wired up to test that layout, and made a bunch of little changes to that to get that right secret sauce for our keyboard-centric workflow in Pop!_OS. Once we got a sheet metal product that we were sure was going to be usable, we decided officially that we were going to pursue making a keyboard. That came with a whole new set of manufacturing requirements that we would have to look into.

We spent a ton of time working on pocket profile. When you look at a Launch, you’ll see that it’s not a perfect rectangle. That’s because when you’re using a mill, you have a round tool, so you can go through and get close to a pretty small radius on the corner, but you can never make it exact. If we wanted to get a very small, tight pocket, we’d have to use a very small cutter that takes an extremely long period of time.

We’re taking raw billet, which are these huge 12-foot-long sticks of aluminum that we cut down to get our final product. We went with a rounded rectangle so that we could use our cutter and decrease the overall time to machine that part. There was a lot of work in that and making sure the pockets were all 13.95mm versus 13.9mm versus 14.1mm.

We also did a lot of R&D on how we go about putting the angle bar on. Magnetic assembly seemed to be a good idea. We went from trying to glue magnets in to doing what's called press fitting. The bars come right out of powder coating while they’re nice and warm, when the aluminum is slightly larger than when it cools down. Those magnets aren’t actually adhered to anything in the bars; they’re squeezed in nice and tight from the aluminum cooling and contracting around them. That’s called a press fit, and doing that makes the process faster and less expensive.

It’s similar with the bottoms of Launch; we have steel plates that we press fit into that part as opposed to gluing or screwing, but that we do before powder coating; steel rusts, and we don’t want someone opening up their keyboard in a year and finding a little bit of rust floating underneath their super high-end PCB. So we do that, sand it down, use our media blaster to clean off the surface from the tool paths you see from the mill, and then we powder coat it through and through.

Word on the Denver streets is that Thelio Major is getting a redesign soon. What does that entail?

We’re bringing Thelio Major a lot more in line with Thelio Mega in terms of a different PCI mount for graphics cards, because we know that’s been a pain point for a lot of our users. We want to provide a little bit more robust installation for these graphics cards, which continue to increase in size and weight. The NVIDIA 3000-series cards are almost a pound heavier in some instances, and that’s a lot of weight to be shipping across the country.

We also want to continue to make Thelio Major cooler and quieter when it’s running with these new GPUs. Our new brake press allows us to make radius bends on parts, so we’re starting to run through R&D of a laser-welded external. It’s a wholesale departure from us using custom brackets and 3M VHB tape. That will provide a nicer finished product to our end user, and it’ll allow us to make our product faster with less material and less steps.

What qualities do you look for when adding someone to the team?

Creativity is extremely important. As a small manufacturing company, our priorities can shift on a day or in an afternoon where we don’t have the full line of product anymore. There are all sorts of examples in the past few years of times where you have to react pretty quickly. The motherboard’s been EOL’d, or we have to change our sheet metal design, build a new part, things like that. Making sure that someone can adapt to those changes on a moment’s notice is one of the key parts of the job.

We also want people who get excited about a new challenge and have the desire to keep improving something. I look for people who like to make things and go back in and refine it and not hold it up on this pillar. It’s good to not look at something like it’s perfect.

You have a lot of love for your Audi. What do you love about it over other options?

I like German cars. We have a family of them. They’re high-performance and not too expensive if you do all the work on it yourself. There’s a huge after-market community that tunes and changes these cars, which is pretty fun. Plus I prefer the metric system. Having a standard system drives me nuts, because what the [REDACTED] are fractions?

My real love, though, is bikes. I love tuning and riding bikes, and I love that more than I like to work on cars. It comes out of tinkering. I work with carbon fiber, I’ve done a lot of repairs on bikes over the years—there’s a certain sense of freedom you get from riding a bike that you can’t get from anything else. Not motorcycles, not cars.

[astro-sweetheart]

Prototype and Engineering Invention Designers

Invention Idea

An idea style is one that is typically done by a musician, designer, or CAD drafting solution. The function behind the concept design is to demonstrate the appearance, capability, and also mention specific facets of the invention to the patent office. I've involved find that the most effective route to go is by using a CAD drafting company or 3D modeling solution. There are two factors to this. Of all CAD developers can add surface structures, lighting, atmospheres, and various other elements to a making that makes the theoretical layout look real. Secondly, if you utilize a CAD preparing solution they can develop your invention completely which will be ready for manufacturing. You can just use the final 3D model created to show the concept design as it will be. That's what you call eliminating 2 layouts with one developer. Saving cash, headache, as well as time for you in the future. Also see https://theavtimes.com/2020/07/01/amazing-ways-inventhelp-can-assist-you-as-an-inventor/

Model & CAD

Inventors at very first and not experienced effectively tend to be uncertain of how to go concerning getting their prototype designed. CAD composing solutions and 3d modeling firms can create idea layouts, or 3D CAD models ready for manufacturing mold and mildews, CNC, mechanical parts, and more.

Invention Designers

Invention designers drop into the very same group as model developers because both usage CAD composing services and 3D modeling companies to produce the styles. It's extremely important to attempt as well as find an invention designer that will attempt to save you money. The most vital facet to look for when selecting an Invention designer or model designer is to find one who will certainly make your prototype as if it were going straight to the maker  for manufacturing. Find out more advice by visit https://azbigmedia.com/business/want-to-be-a-successful-inventor-use-these-ideas-to-help/

CAD Invention Engineering

There is an old saying that claims "necessity is the mommy of invention" and this continues to be real with every new equipment, structure, system, or device that is made as a result of this need. If these questions can be responded to yes, then the Inventor, Designer, or the Owners of a business may decide to go ahead with developing manufacturing as well as advertising plans for the new invention.

The new device, framework, system, gadget, or any other type of invention must exist in the mind of the designer, designer, or inventor before it can become a reality. This initial conception of style is normally placed on CAD software application and communicated to others by the way of the visuals language. Designing with CAD software is one of the most common as well as commonly used composing and style procedure because of the accuracy as well as accuracy these programs carry out.

The Engineer or designer has to have the ability to develop 3D Designs, determine stress and anxieties, evaluate motions, dimension the components, specify the materials as well as production techniques, make the style layouts, and in addition to all that supervise the preparation of illustrations, requirements, as well as dimensions that will certainly manage the information of production assembly and upkeep of the product. The designer must have the ability to record and interact with the concepts in mind to his partners and also other workers in a fast and also prompt fashion.

There are fairly a couple of steps throughout the layout process that need to be carried out before an Invention hits the racks at your neighborhood store. To find out more concerning Inventions and Inventing please browse through eLine Design.com because they have loads of resources on prototypes and exactly how they are created.

The function behind the principle style is to demonstrate the look, capability, and point out certain elements of the invention to the patent office. If you make use of a CAD preparing service they can make your invention entirely which will be ready for production. Invention designers drop right into the very same group as model developers since both use CAD composing services as well as 3D modeling business to create the layouts. There is an old stating that states "need is the mother of invention" and this continues to be real with every new device, structure, system, or tool that is created as a result of this requirement. There are quite a few steps throughout the style process that need to be done before an Invention hits the shelves at your regional shop.

Related article: https://usa.inquirer.net/56347/everything-you-need-to-know-to-be-a-successful-inventor

[addierose444]

How I Got Into Smith: Part II

In part I, I wrote about my high school extracurricular activities. In this post, I focus on the academic side of my application. I’ll be honest that these posts weren’t as well planned as I would have liked and that ideally, this part would have been first. It was initially going to be a single post, but I didn't have enough time to finalize this part before my unofficial deadline of Sunday at 11:59. It worked out in the end as splitting it into two parts created a new blog post out of thin air. Furthermore, it turns out I had a lot more to add to this part. 

My academics were definitely a strong aspect of my college applications. For some additional context, I applied to Smith regular decision and was admitted with a presidential scholarship. To learn more about merit aid at Smith, click here. Smith was my first choice throughout the application process and I actually submitted my application before the early decision deadline. To read more about why I chose Smith or more accurately why it became my first choice, click here. For additional context, I attended a public high school in Vermont with a graduating class size of 106 with 65% of the class attending two and four-year colleges. If this post is interesting to you, you may also enjoy reading about my academic journey to engineering and computer science. 

I’ve always loved school and education has been a top priority. Between middle and high school, I took six and a half years worth of high school science classes. In addition to the advanced track of our regular curriculum, I took a marine biology class that included a research trip to Bermuda and three APs (chemistry, biology, and physics C mechanics). You can read more about my AP experience here. Of the three main sciences, physics is my favorite. As a class though, I think AP biology was the best. I won departmental awards my first and last years. I was really proud of the first science award as it was a special award created just for me (as opposed to for a specific class year). The crazy thing about taking all these science classes is that I have taken very few science classes here at Smith. Thinking about this irony is part of why I thought to write this post in the first place. Technically I have only taken two science classes (PHY 118 and PHY 210) during my time at Smith. (And to be honest, PHY 210 hardly counts as it's really just an applied math class that’s offered by the physics department). You can check out all of my Smith courses here. The reality is that I fulfilled the introductory chemistry and physics requirements of my engineering major with AP credits.

In addition to lots of science classes, I doubled up on math classes in ninth and eleventh grades. Granted I didn’t take math my senior year and retook calculus at Smith. I think there were some clear flaws in my math education as many of the courses were too easy and had too much overlap year to year. At the same time, we didn’t cover enough trigonometry and had other gaps in our precalculus course. I did learn a lot in my AP statistics class and was surprised by how much I enjoyed the content. It makes total sense in retrospect as I now see math as an interesting and useful tool. Back in elementary and middle school, math was my favorite subject and I loved it in isolation of other subjects and real-life applications. In ninth grade, I got a math award, but unlike the other departmental awards, a lot of people got them. 

My favorite class of high school was AP computer science A. In that course, I learned Java and the basics of object-oriented programing. In ninth grade, I’d been introduced to computer science through a semester-long Python course. In my senior year, I took an online website development course from my state university. I learned HTML, CSS, and some PHP. I also took a semester-long engineering course. It didn’t have math or science prerequisites, lectures, or structured assignments. What it did provide was a fun self-directed opportunity to learn how to use our new CNC machine and work with (mostly fix) the 3D printers.  

Four years of English were required to graduate, so I took our required ninth and tenth-grade courses followed by an advanced expository writing course and an advanced literature course called world authors. I’ve always loved reading, but English classes and literary analysis aren’t really my thing. To read some of my reflections on writing, click here. I managed to win an English award my sophomore year which was cool as I’d never really seen English as a strong subject of mine. Granted, I didn’t like my sophomore English class as it only had seven other students who clearly didn’t want to be there and didn’t do assignments well or on time. I also took French all through high school and won awards my first and last years. I was generally more engaged with school than my peers, but French is where my peers’ lack of engagement had the most negative effect on my learning. I’m not trying to brag about any of my academic awards, but I do genuinely believe I did stand out on my own merit. When it came to French, it was more just that there wasn’t much competition. 

Social science classes were the ones I generally avoided. Knowing that I only needed three years of social science to graduate and having already doubled up on math and science, I skipped the ninth-grade social science class. As a sophomore, I took the advanced version of our sophomore social science class called democratic roots. As a junior, I took AP U.S. history as U.S. history was required to graduate. The other AP courses were of actual interest to me and this was the only one I took for the AP designation. It was one of my least favorite courses, but I defend my decision to take it as the regular version was sort of a joke at my school. Furthermore, the APUSH teacher was also the advisor for the school publication and was able to write what I presume to be a strong letter of recommendation. As a senior, I took a semester of AP art history and another semester of art history through my local community college. The AP course was entirely online through UC Scout. I didn’t finish the AP course as the community college version was free due to my state’s dual enrollment program. The community college course was also fully online and was much more limited in scope.  

I was in the jazz band from eighth through tenth grade. I played the electric bass, an instrument I picked up because they needed a bass player. Jazz isn’t my kind of music, so I never really got into it. To check out some of my favorite songs and musical history, click the respective links. I “quit” the jazz band as it conflicted with AP chemistry. The bass is an integral part of the rhythm section, but rhythm doesn’t come naturally to me and is challenging even with deliberate practice. I was used to being in all of the advanced courses but was in the intermediate jazz band with eighth and ninth graders. Additional required electives included health, financial literacy, and three semesters of physical education. The only class I did over the summer was an independent study for physical education credit. The running I did for the self-directed course probably helped earn me a spot on the varsity field hockey team. I also took a weight lifting class which I absolutely hated. 

I wasn’t planning on sharing my actual stats, as there is so much more to college admissions than raw scores or even academics. What really matters is (in terms of academics) is the rigor of your courses in the context of the high school you attend. However, if you’ve read this far, I don’t really mind sharing my actual grades and scores. I earned straight As throughout high school and had a GPA of 4.26 (unweighted on a 4.33 scale). My school didn’t officially do class rank, but I am almost positive I had the highest grade point average. I do know that at the end of my junior year I had attained the “highest level of academic achievement” which I presume takes into account courses and grades. A lot of schools have gone test-optional due to the pandemic, but it’s worth noting that Smith was already test-optional. I don’t know exactly how merit scholarships work, but I am guessing that a strong SAT/ACT score would be necessary to earn one. My SAT score was 1500 (780 math and 720 verbal). I did study a lot over the summer before senior year and improved by almost 150 points from my PSAT. I also submitted SAT subject test scores of 790 for chemistry and 770 for math level II. 

[kincirangin]

How is actually work with people from BPPT in conducting research project

Hello, its me, bayu.

This is a series of my career experiences in the past two years. In this article I will share my experience of working with people from BPPT in conducting research projects.

In fact, the company where I work has a partnership with MEPPO BPPT since 2016. MEPPO BPPT as a research organization and my company as their partners from the industry. We aim to develop industrial CNC machines for educational purposes. CNC machine is one type of machine that has been used massively in factories or other industries, especially for production purposes such as for making molds. My company is a local company that specializes in manufacturing these machines.

BT MEPPO or MEPPO BPPT is part of a BPPT government organization that specializes in machinery. In 2019, our research proposal with MEPPO BPPT was granted funding from KEMENRISTEKDIKTI in the industrial technology development program (PPTI). Therefore I have the opportunity to work together and know how it really is working with people from BPPT. I really learned many things, good and bad experiences. Honestly I'm really disappointed. But, I don't want to be subjective because this is my first time working with people from BPPT as their partners.

Actually, the program duration is one year but technically it starts in August 2019 and ends in December 2019. I was given the responsibility to handle the electrical system together with other electrical engineers from MEPPO BPPT.

In its implementation, I feel that our engineer from my company and other engineers from MEPPO BPPT have very poor coordination. My company takes this project seriously and really wants to make a good product but people from BPPT seem to only want to complete this project regardless of the results, to be honest most of the technical work is done by engineers from my company. Sometimes I also feel that they underestimate our work, even my boss told me that. The truth is that all of the design and implementation concepts in the field are led by people from my company and maybe because of that they doubt and then underestimate it. I think this is ironic. For my company, this program is very important to go to the next prototyping stage but for people from BPPT I think it's only for credit. Sorry to say that.

Not everyone from BPPT is annoying, I appreciate some of them. There is one person that I really respect. He is a senior engineer who has a mechanical engineering background and has a good vision. He had a dream to build his own industrial cnc machine, so from a young age he learned many things freely. The most important thing according to him is knowing how (best practices) besides knowledge. For example, he explained, Mr. Habibie could theoretically tell people how to make airplanes, but to show people how to actually implement it he had to give a real example, that is what is meant by knowing how (best pratices). A best pratices is like accumulation experience that different from one person to another, so it was more difficult to pass down to next generation. And one thing, because of the high costs in the development process he thought it would be good if development process of industrial technology could be done on the government side and the government must provide full support. It would be difficult if given the task to private companies that are only supported by investors, especially from local companies.

In the end it was subjective from my perspective..haha, But there are still many things to be learned for sure. As my boss said, it will be bloodly hell difficult.

Depok, 2 Mei 2020