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Cal-Tech

The final activity was having a tour of Cal-Tech. The school seemed so simple because it was basically a minature town. They have houses like harry potter, with specific customs. The encourage social activity along with academics, I think this is because they are extremely smart. Our guide was one of the 11% of applicants to be accepted to Cal-Tech. If the funds would allow it, I would like to study at Cal-Tech because the environment seems relaxed and no one will spite you. Everyone seems nice and kind. After this we went sight seeing. We saw the "stars". By stars, I mean the stars on the Hollywood walk of fame. I actually enjoyed this, I even got a picture of the famous Hollywood sign. This was our last activity. Our trip has finally ended and I would like to do it again. Maybe in the future I will come back.

Warner Bros & Endeavor

Warner Brothers welcomed us, with their gold statues of Donald duck. 3 women, one of which who had a role concerning computing, spoke to us about the company and their roles. One thing that stuck out for me is how interlinked their positions were and how they persevered to get to their positions even though they are females. The company Warner Bros seemed Gender neutral and they don't prevent women from getting the higher roles. One piece of advice they gave was that when people are in board meetings, we should always try to sit at the table. We should never give up our seat if we got that seat. This is so that ideas can be heard and they remember your face.

After having a warner brothers studio tour which has now ruined my tv experience (A massive park on tv is probably as big as my living room. TV adds on so many metres.) we went to see the Endeavour spaceship. This spaceship has travelled to space multiple times and I got to stand underneath a spaceship. I don't think I will ever be able to say that again.

Universal

I found universal to be one of the most interesting and fun days. The use of technology in theme parks and shows astounded me. To start the day, we had a behind the scenes talk of the special effects show. We had individual talks with the stage manager, the lighting technician and the sound technician. They explained how at least 5 main computers to control sound alone. They all follow cues that come from the stage manager, the stage manager will decide whether to skip sections due to technical failures or to end the show. One of the stage managers told us he was always stressed. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the show but in the morning, we saw a run through.

The rest of the day was... eventful. Normally, I don't go on every ride but I did this time. My favourite ride was the Transformers ride. This ride used 3D technology and rollercoasters together - a combination I didin't think was possible. Our group loved it so much, we went on it twice.

Whale watching

Despite the early start, I enjoyed today's events. The main event, other than going to LA was watching whales and dolphins. We actually saw a mother and baby dolphin but their migration path was disrupted by another boat. We saw 2 species of dolphin very close to the boat. According to the captain, we saw the rarest type of dolphin that would be seen in those waters. The day did not even look promising as it was foggy when we set sail. We weren't even sure if we were going to be able to see anything but it cleared and we were very lucky.

Alcatraz

I think today was a more 'touristy' day. I went to prison via a boat. I am not going to lie, we were all petrified of a bird soaring over us due to previous events. I found Alcatraz a very interesting but beautiful place. For a prison. The sunshine made the destroyed building seem majestic. The privileges that the prisoners had, if they complied, were actually better than what some people in the developing parts of the world. The escape stories interested me a lot because I read about it before I came. The audio tour allowed me to act like I lived on 'Pelican Island'. In the future, I would love to visit again.

Microsoft / Netapp

I found this day extremely informative. My new notebook, which I bought at Google the day before, is slowly filling up with key notes I took from Netapp.

Netapp is the leading company for storage. Their main aims, or areas they worked in was sales, delivery and support. One thing that was highlighted to me was that Storage is so relevant throughout the world. We need storage for emails, telecom services and so much more. This is taken for granted by a lot of people, yet companies such as Netapp are still providing services to their customers to make sure that they and their customers can have the best experience.

Netapp prides itself in being able to provide the following:

Hybrid Cloud - components in and out of the data centres combining together to work together.

Flash - implementing speed into the saving and using/accessing data, This creates an immediate response.

Investment Protection - investments made should last into the future. The CIO is the person who controls this

Software-defined storage

One thing that I learnt while I was at NetApp was that they store their data on their on network. They called this Netapp on netapp. We also had talks on the green and environmental side of Netapp. How the data centres are very energy efficient. We took a tour around the data centre in the NetApp building and the amount of servers were immense. The heat emitting from the servers actually overwhelmed me, yet they have to keep the rooms cold so they use methods which actually worked. While I was walking through I felt hold and cold in different areas.

The final part of Netapp was the Women in Technology. Practically the key messages were, career means opportunity, They advised us to continue with maths, learn from others and ask people. We should make and keep good connections to help us in the future. Communication skills should also be improved to help us in the future.Logic is necessary as well.

The second half of the day, we went to Microsoft. We walked in with all the workers applauding us, and we were all very confused. I started with making a game on Project Spark. This is an app on the windows store that uses If and Then statements to control players and characters. To be perfectly honest, I found this difficult to start with, but I feel like if I had more time, I would understand how to make this and also develop it much further than I already have. After making our games, we went on a scavenger hunt for different Microsoft facts. I then created some apps using a website called touchdevelop. I tried to make a flappy bird but I did not have enough time. This is a website, I am sure I will be using in the future.

I enjoyed today a lot. Even with the early start, I feel like I have learnt and retained a lot while also having fun with computing.

Google!!!

The list of inspirational speakers at Google was endless. The females who did not necessarily know what they wanted to do before working at Google, made me very happy and interested me. Some of the females joined the computing world at a much later stage. Others were completely set on other career paths, such as Basketball. The talks mentioned transferable skills from some careers to others and what certain jobs at Google entail. Following this, Michael Rubin spoke to us about his role at Google which surrounded Security. He also explained how security applies to the current world. The last two speakers spoke about Google Doodles. I found this interesting because every other week, I see the doodles but do not take into account the planning some of the doodles take. They told us it would take about 3 months. When they were talking about their doodles, they seemed extremely proud of their work and were giving off a sense of accomplishment. This made the talk a lot more engaging because all the speakers seemed so passionate about what they were doing.

I typed a much longer post but it didn't upload and I don't know where it is/ I can't see it.

Stanford and Intel

Today, the places we visited were Stanford University and Intel. At Stanford we focused on nanotechnology and learnt about the following.

Nanotechnology is the technology of very small things. The clean rooms need to be clean to prevent any of the equipment being contaminated. This is because the human body gives off loads of particles and dust. Bunny suits have to be worn and huge fans circulate and filter the air 8 times per second.

At Stanford, we were told that the nanotechnology they specialised in was top-down engineering of nanotechnology. Top-down engineering of nanotechnology is when objects are etched down to the correct size. However, they do sometimes do bottom-up which is assembling small parts. The environmental and social issues were explained.

After Stanford, which was very interesting after our QnA on university life, we went to Intel. Firstly, we had a session with Lego, to explain how assembly and customer service is important at Intel. We also learnt about the microchip and how they have developed over the years. It fascinated me how the amount of transistors on a chip changed over the years.

Google

Where to begin? Inspirational speakers talking to us about their roles at Google and how they got into computing fascinated me. A woman called jenn played and loved basketball. She used those skills she learnt for success and transferred them to other areas of work. For example, Disney and Google. She strived to work at the best companies or the best teams. There were 3 more speakers, 2 of which, didn't actually want to do computer science or computing. They didn't truly know if they originally wanted to do computing. One of the women said she knew from a young age she liked computing because of her dad. 2 more speakers arrived, an artist and an engineer for the Google doodles. The time it takes to make each doodle suprisee me. I knew they weren't made overnight, however they can take more than 3 months. The 'Where the wild things are' doodle was one of the most intricate and the most complicated one they explained to us. The final speakers was Michael Rubin. He works in security of servers. He illustrated different types of security breeches and how our future is ours. I found this talk extremely interesting and interactive. I think this day was one of the most informative talks on this trip.

Facebook & Gunn high school

A 9 o'clock start lead us to Facebook headquarters. To start with, we arrived at Facebook and it reminded me of a town and not a workplace. To start with, there was no ceiling in the mini town, there was just natural sunlight. There were separate facilities for the workers, they had their own offices and break rooms. One thing that interested me was the arcade room, which started when 2 employees used to play video games against each other. This escalated to the two workers having their own building.

I found the talks extremely inspirational. All the speakers were women, explaining how more females should enter the tech world. The first 3 speakers were engineers. One thing i noticed, is that they all had completely different backgrounds. One was European, another was from Asia and the third was from American descent. They inspired us to follow our passions no mater what is expected of us. The diversity among Facebook workers was prevalent through the speakers because they had different personalities and backgrounds. One thing that was important to me was that when they started working at Facebook, they did not know everything about code. I found this important, because I know I don't know everything about code at the moment, and I am not sure that I will.

One of the workers was an african american woman, trying to introduce diversity in the Facebook workplace. All together, I realised that I don't have to plan my future step by step.

The final activity we did today was go to Gunn high school and visit a Computer Science lesson. He explained a tree that changes at ever level that helps explain symmetry and computing. The program used to make this looked a lot like Scratch but it was made to help cater older students. Command blocks could be made and specified to a program. The program is called Snap! and is made by University of California, Berkeley. The link to the program is http://snap.berkeley.edu/. I am sure that I will be using this in the future.

I think the highlight of this day was our coach being stuck, so we have to wait for the coach to come for over 2 hours, therefore missing our dinner reservations. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

Today we went Palo alto and the tech museum of innovation. At Palo Alto, we had a Ted x talk about an eye surgeon and his work around Kenya and a girl who explains the problems with scientific journalism. Also, a video clip was shown about the secret to happiness. I enjoyed the talks a lot. We then went through the library to a computer lab. We spoke to some of the students. One student said he created an app in 1 and a half weeks. We had a tour of the campus and it was massive compared to townley. Honestly, I felt like I was in an American movie. Then we went to ‘The Tech’ museum. We found this so fun, there was so much interactive activities to do. I think my favourite was the earth quake simulator. Basically, the ground would shake to resemble an earthquake in Taiwan that lasted 30 seconds. There was also a tunnel which went into another room which Virginia and Hafsah enjoyed. I knew from the start that the body mentrics and space would be my favourite parts but making a roller coaster was also fun. I think the highlights of the day were the robotics labs and Tori running up to the seniors only part of their field. The looks they gave us...

Yesterday was very interesting. We woke up and went to the computer history museum where we learnt about the history of computers, games, the internet, maths development involving technology and more. I enjoyed the museum and I learnt about the inspiration behind Zelda along with the first ever memes. We then had a city tour which was actually very fun. The tour guide was funny and he mentioned all the important things in a limited time. On the tour we went to the golden gate bridge. I find it surreal that I have my own picture of the international Orange golden gate bridge, when it is the background of my laptop. Now I can put my own picture there. We went to the mall at the end of the day but that didn't fascinate me much much.

Just hours left now. It hasn't sunken in that in less than 24 hours, I am going to America. So close now!!!

4 days

Well technically its 3 days and 10 hours. Anyway I am really excited. I think I am most looking forward to Google but the Tech museum of Innovation seems intriguing. The Body Metrics section seems interesting because android and apple watches are an interesting invention. I think I can also get a lot of information from the Health Biotech section because I want to go into something like Medicine/Pharmacy which is linked to computing. Anyway I'm really excited.

#tech museum of innovation

13 days till the trip. We know the itinerary now. I think I am most excited to go to Google, however visiting Facebook will be interesting. The high schools will be an interesting experience because I am so used to t.v. shows exaggerating the school life.

Been a while

We are doing another charity event and we are working on colours for the hoodie. The choice is blue or red. Personally, I think red is better but that's only my opinion. I am not completely sure but I think there are around 15/16 weeks left. I may put a timer on this blog. I also think there should be a timer on the main website www.techtownley.weebly.com . I can't really think of any more to say. Mocks are soon so updating this blog will be a lot harder. K bye

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