Wednesday, April 25, 2012

TED Challenge

1) What is the TED organization about?
TED is about providing videos that are infofmative, educational, and sometimes funny.
2) What is the purpose of their website and how does the functionality of their site support that?
Their site is made so all of their videos are in one place, making their purpose, which is to provide educational videos, easier to find then on other sites.
3) As Engineers and Problem Solvers, which topic areas (the choices from the "Show talks related to:" section on the sidebar) are of most interest to us? Justify your answer.
I think that the ingenious one would interest us most because thats basically what we are trying to accomplish.  We are trying to make something that is ingenious.  Also, the informative one because we are always learning.
4) Based on your previous answer, what are 3 talks (videos) on the site that appear like they would be of most interest to you as an Engineer/Problem Solver? Justify your choices.
Three videos that would be of most interest to an engineer/problem solver would be the Thrilling potential of sixthsense technology, a robot that flies like a bird, and are mushrooms the new plastic.
Here are the links to these three videos:
http://www.ted.com/talks/a_robot_that_flies_like_a_bird.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_technology.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/eben_bayer_are_mushrooms_the_new_plastic.html
5) Each student will watch a unique video (clear your choice with me... first come, first served!). Watch the video. Embed the video in your blog post and create a bulletized outline of the key issues presented in the talk.
http://www.ted.com/talks/garth_lenz_images_of_beauty_and_devastation.html
  • Oil although useful destroys environments
  • It's causing serious damage
6) How could you get involved in the field/technology/issue you chose to hear about? What experience/skills/training/education would you need to learn to get involved with this field?
 One could stop using as many oil products to help stop the dependency on it.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Egg Drop

photo.JPG
Thats a picture of our design.  The egg was wrapped in tin foil and the top was also covered in tin foil.  We attached a plastic bag to the top with a string.  Even though our egg didn't crack, we didnt get any of the achievments.


Friday, March 2, 2012

CAD Sketches

I didnt really get them all done.








The Glider Challenge

1.  The activity was the make a plane using the materials and directions given.  I worked with Jack and Justin and some challenges that we faced was the 5 times that the plane broke.

2. 
3. 
4.  We tested it by throwing it, and we had to modify it because it broke several times when we were testing it.
5.  We won the farthest one but nothing else.
6.  We brainstormed, modeled, and prototyped. 

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Moneyball Reflection

1) What was the “Moneyball”approach that Billy Beane and Peter Brandt applied to the Oakland Athletics 2002 season? Was it an “art” or a “science”? What single statistic did they boil their value consideration down to? (In class research/discussion)
Billy Beane and Peter Brand's approach to the 2002 season was to asssemble a team that would win games and championships on a small budget.  It was a science, and the one stat that they valued the most was OBP.
2) What is the equation used to calculate OBP? (In class research/discussion)
The equation for OBP is (Hits + Walks + Hit by Pitch) / (At Bats + Walks + Hit by Pitch + Sacrifice Flies).
3) What is design? (In class research/discussion)
Design is a plan designed to improve something.
4) Describe 3 situations where movie characters (intentionally or not) applied a step from the PLTW 12 Step Design Process. Explain both the (a) situation as well as (b) how the step is relevant:
1 -When Billy and his scouts were discussing which players they liked and didnt like, brainstorm step.2 - They identified their constraints when Billy talked to his owner about their budget.3 - Billy refined his design when he traded Jeremy Giambi and Carlos Pena away.
5) What is “Leadership”? List the three aspects of leadership that we come up with in class. (In class research/discussion)

1 - The ability to lead
2 - When your peers respect you
3 - Making smart decisions


6) Describe 3 circumstances from the story where a character exercised effective leadership:
1 - Billy went against the scouts judgement and signed players like Giambi, Justice, and Bradford.

2 -  Fired the head scout who was very opposed to Billy's methods.

3 - Traded for Rincon when they needed a left handed reliever



7) According to the movie, what was the A’s record at the start of their winning streak? 68: 51

8) What does this ratio simplify to (roughly)? 1.33: 1

9) How long was the A’s record setting winning streak? 20games won.

10) Given the A’s win/loss ratio at the start of the streak (listed two questions above), what are the odds of winning 20 games in a row? Run the numbers. (In class research/discussion)
They had .000013chance to win 20 games in a row.

11) Based on your calculation, do you think the A’s got lucky or was there something to the Moneyball approach?
You cant predict 20 game winning streaks, no matter how good your statistics are.

12) Did Billy Beane strictly apply the “science” of Moneyball to his management approach? Was there an “art” to his efforts as well? Describe a circumstance where he broke from the Moneyball approach to make a positive change for the team.
There wasnt really an art to his methods, and one instance where he broke away from the moneyball method was when he traded away jeremy giambi and traded for ricardo rincon.



Bonus Question (look into this if you’ve finished ahead of the class):
Money Ball was originally a book. What author wrote the book? What other books has this author written? Is there a theme to his writing?
The author of moneyball is Micheal Lewis.  He has written some other books like The Blind Side.