The first time I left the US, it was through a turnstile.

This was the first Saturday that hasn't been rainy since I can remember, so we made the 1 & 1/2 hour drive to visit Niagara Falls. We walked across Rainbow Bridge into Canada to get a view of the falls. I never imagined you could leave the country through a turnstile, but apparently that's how it works. Some Canadian guy did ask us what we were doing while we were in Canada before we got in though.

The USA...



Canada!
You could already see a view of the falls walking to Canada.

One of the falls...


Tourists in blue ponchos waiting in line to get soaked.


The other







We walked around Canada for a little while since there was a bunch of tourist stuff around. The falls were impressive, you could hear them across the river and feel the mist as your got closer. I am glad I got to see them since I don't plan on returning to upstate NY for awhile.

Xerox Science Consulting Program

My supervisor, Mike (he's the only other guy in the last picture), is involved with Xerox's Science Consulting Program, which goes into a school and does a lesson on some science subject about once a month. I tagged along a couple weeks ago and helped the kids program a robot to transverse a track they constructed. They wrote commands like turn_right and forward_5x. Whenever a group's program worked the whole room of third graders cheered loudly.


Crossing fingers hoping it works


Robot navigating the path


And it succeeds

Fourth of July 2009

I was able to make a trip to Boston for our the 4th of July since most Xerox employees got a four day weekend. I slept on a couch we managed to jam into Jose's room. The trip was definitely worth it since there is always a ton of things going on at school during the holiday. I managed to make it to a couple bbq's, this one being the MITES bbq.


The weather Friday and Saturday was always great, so I could not resist snapping some pictures.

Friday night a couple of us made an attempt to go the Preview Concert that the Boston Pops hold July 3rd. It's kind of a rehearsal of the concert they play on the 4th. I say kind of a rehearsal since I didn't think rehearsals were as packed as this. We showed up 15 minutes late, half expecting to be able to see something, but that didn't pan out so we went and ate in Chinatown instead.


Along with china town I also was able to satisfy my craving for India Quality, the best Indian food I have come across thus far.

I had originally planned to watch the fireworks from a rooftop on the Boston side of the Charles River, but the brick wall to the right obscured the view when the first few shot off before the actual show began.


So we moved to the Harvard Bridge, and the show did not disappoint!

Kayaking

All I did the first three weeks here was sit around the apartment, but now I know more the interns so things are more fun with poker nights, watching 2 month old movies for 50 cents on Mondays, and volleyball games. Most are between rising seniors and graduate students, so I think I might be the youngest.

It was sunny out yesterday so a group of us went out to go kayaking on Bay Creek, which involved paddling through a maze of reeds.




It was like the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland. Highlights include seeing

• a deer
• a family of ducks
• two swans

I was the front seat in a two-person kayak with my office mate Liang, who is originally from China and getting his PhD at UMass Dartmouth this fall. I couldn't bring my camera since it would have gotten wet, but if we go back we'll probably take a canoe instead and bring a lunch so maybe I will snap some then. Jason did manage to snap a picture of me in my yellow life vest with his phone though.

Matt the Intern

Please welcome summer intern Matthew Estrada to the Marking Elements and Integration Laboratory in XRCW. Matt comes to us from MIT after completing his freshman year majoring in Mechanical Engineering. He will be working with Mike Thompson (Marking Science and Technology Area ) on UV curable inkjet technology helping identify and understand the important drivers for curing of images using Xerox UV Gel inks. His office is 147/room 226 E and can be reached at 5-7493. Please stop and say hello!

This is where I live, building 135 apartment 1:





Summer on the east coast grants almost as many thunderstorms and overcast as it does sunny days, but Rochester is not as humid as Boston, so that is nice.

Working at Xerox's Webster Research Center is more interesting since I am a month in and I know more about what is going on. I am working to help develop technology with UV curable ink (curing ink means drying it). It is a good look at what it is like to work in research & development.

Working forty hours a week pretty much takes most of your time during the day. Who would have thought? After waking up at 6am, getting ready, carpooling the 25 min commute, working 8-5, getting back and making dinner, I only have a couple hours of free time.

I apparently didn't do a good job packing, since I only brought one week's worth of underwear, so I just do laundry weekly and it works out. I am also overdressed everyday, I should have brought more jeans, and maybe some polos instead of dress shirts. But I don't feel like going out and buying things so I'm fine with what I have.

One Year Down

Packing is a pain, but it feels good to be officially done with one year of MIT

Springtime

It is here.

Weather

It reached about 50 degrees today, which has been by far the best weather I have seen here in awhile. I was able to walk around outside with just a long-sleeve shirt on and the snow was melting, revealing the first sight of grass I've seen in Killian Court since I flew back in January.

Tie and Jacket

I've had to dawn my professional attire more often than usual this last week since I've been searching for a summer internship. I've interview with Xerox and CDM so far, which was arranged through Second Summer. I decided to attend the MIT European Career Fair as well. By attending, I mean wander around aimlessly in a sea of upperclassmen and graduate students in suits. I talked to Shell and Procter & Gamble. Both just told me to apply online. I don't really want to work in Europe, and wasn't expecting to accomplish anything, I just wanted to get the feel of a career fair. I went to a Google BOLD program info session today, which is an internship in the business side of the company. There were students from Harvard and Tufts there as well, and the job didn't sound too much like what I was looking for since it involved nothing technical. I might still throw an application out anyways.

Second Summer

We ended up finally getting our device for Second Summer to work about an hour before we had to present it at 3pm, and had to stay up until 5am last night. We managed to win the competition though, so we each got a graphing calculator. There were five teams, all of us were freshman. Our product was the Quake-Lock, which would lock your cabinet in the event of earthquake. The weight at the top produces at torque about the hook, which releases a spring-loaded pin, which catches the groove on the door, locking the cabinet. The other items were a signaling device for the back of a bike, a game to teach children what to do with disaster, a survival box for when power goes out and a floating wheelchair.

No Fooooood

I tried to type up a long article about IAP, but that didn't go too well and was kind of boring, so maybe I'll just write about things in chunks.

Spanish House doesn't cook during IAP. As a result, I have to cook for myself. I have had my share of college-quality dinners now, which includes burnt grilled cheese, macaroni & cheese with way too much pepper, and fettuccine alfredo with an occasional clump of undercooked noodles. I've also resorted to eating spagetti when I am lazy, since it is easy to make. I do come out with a good dinner about two or three times a week though. Pork chops and salad comes out well.

Web Page Designing

IAP has found me busier than I had originally anticipated. A large chunk of that is due to Second Summer, a design competition for freshmen that I am doing. I just got a competent website for my team posted, although I still have to fix some things up. It should be fine by Friday. I didn't have Dreamweaver this time around so I had to code everything by hand, which was a bit of a pain.

http://web.mit.edu/mestrada/www/secondsummer/

And since I get free hosting on my mit account, I also uploaded by old website I made senior year for web page design. We had to make a business. While everyone else sold guitars, clothing, and paintball equipment with their mock-businesses, I did this

http://web.mit.edu/mestrada/www/JurrassicMart/

This is what I return to

I had a rare instance of completely free time during Monday afternoon, so I made a trip to Boston Common with Chidi. Two days before this I had been playing tennis in shorts. The snow was a couple days old so it was slush/ice.