The UVM/GIV Engineering

With the celebration of our nation's independence held a night early, we had a whole day to work on our projects. Many of the teams have reached prototype stages and several successful trials and tests were completed. With a lecture in the morning and the rest of the day scheduled for projects the campers literally did nothing but work on their projects, eat and occasionally sleep. Of course there was downtime, but many used their spare hours to further their projects.

As the day was quite straightforward, there really isn't a lot to talk about. One thing I can say is that some of the projects have become very impressive. Between testing the energy potential of local grass variants and constructing some very impressive airframes this group has showed great dedication to their projects.

And of course, everyone is once again, exhausted.

July 3rd began in a hurry. Today was tour day, and students had a lot of places to go. With destinations such as IBM, Hazlett, Qimonda, Shelburne Farms, McNeil Generation Plant, General Dynamics and NRG it was certain the campers would have a busy day ahead of them. Because we have 4 different topics in our program the appropriate groups went on their appropriate tours.

After touring all morning the groups returned to their projects with renewed vigor and new ideas. This was the day the the projects and the groups that they belong to really came together. Project time all afternoon, project time at night, how long am I going to be working on this project they started asking.

One more series of lectures and the whole camp assembled to trek down into downtown Burlington to see the state's largest fireworks display. Marching down Pearl street with their councilor groups, the students proceeded to Battery Park, in which an excellent view of the display was found.

Of course, what goes down must come up. Well, in this case it worked like that. Marching up the hill back to the dorm amid thousands of other spectators was a bit hectic and bit of a work out, but what could be a better way to kill some excess energy before bed. Any extra, excess energy was destroyed before bedtime in the lounge were the whole camp was treated to Dunkin Donuts and some free time.

Every year GIV takes a trip to the Sandbar Park beach to construct sand arches and allow the group to bond. This year 28 teams of unfamiliar faces came together to dig, engineer, hack and even sculpt their sand arches into the optimal entry into the competition.

As the first morning for most of the students the 8:45 bus time was a little rough. Carried in a small convoy of buses, the students arrived at the beach in force, a horde that would easily overwhelm a small beach such as Sandbar. Fortunately, the weather was chilly enough that we were the beach's only inhabitants. Unfortunately, the weather was chilly.

Right after reviewing the arch competition rules, the students proceeded to find their groups. After meeting with their groups and discussing plans and schemes, the groups gathered to see a lecture on “garbology,” an analysis of what we throw away in our modern lives. Following this, Tom imparted his last bits of advice to the sand arch engineers.

Sand arches are best constructed out of a very fine muck that is found under the water about 100 feet away from the shoreline. Luckily, the sandbar allows you to walk much further than this without ever becoming submerged. Unfortunately for the councilors who would be shoveling buckets of muck for their students, the water happened to be cold like the rest of the weather. The process of building up these massive sand arches was bottlenecked by the hypothermic staff members shoveling muck, so the whole competition took the better part of the day. With stops for lunch and a few breaks throughout, the furious race for high, wider and thinner continued on until all of the arches had collapsed, been measured and beautifully decorated.

The completion of the arches brought the campers to another GIV staple; the condiment duels. Campers called each other out and chose condiments to slather their opponents with. Classics such as ketchup, chocolate syrup and whipped cream were hurled, smacked and generally applied to the duelists and those around them. Luckily the weather had started to turn around and the warmth let people wash themselves off in the lake, something that is absolutely necessary after being drenched in mayonnaise.

Returning home the students enjoyed some downtime, and dinner, before heading over to Campus Center Theater to see John Cohn, an engineer at IBM and a master of the electrical arts. Students watched a progression through voltage levels which involved excellent demonstrations such as a Jacob's Ladder, potato gun, Van de Graaf Generator and even a Tesla Coil.

This was a full day that was lots of fun yet was thoroughly exhausting.

Usually the first thing that happens at camp is a bittersweet goodbye amid an atmosphere that can only be described as rushed and confused. Parents let their children go forth into the world, if only for a week of a technically based summer camp. Perhaps this wasn't the first thing to happen, but happen it did.

Check in officially began at 9 AM with a full stack of student binders which at some point in the afternoon finally disappeared completely. After students had proceeded through the key receiving and binder gathering process the task of lugging over packed suitcases and stuffed duffel bags up staircases (or not if of the female variety) began. Not quite like moving into college but closes enough for an accurate taste, parents, teary-eyed, asked their children if they could do anything for them. Can I make your bed? Organize your drawers? No mom, go away.

Moved in and full from eating lunch, the campers arrived at Campus Center Theater awaiting an introduction to the program. After David Gibson delivered his Global Challenge message, Domenico Grasso, the Dean of the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences spoke to the students about what defines engineering and how engineers operate. The Dean stressed the importance of depth of knowledge in all fields of knowledge as an engineer's most importance aspect. Following the Dean's welcome speech Professor Mike Rosen condensed his Engineering Design course into approximately 45 minutes so that our fledgling engineers would be up to speed come project time.

Following a short brake, Tom Tailer took the stage and delivered his now legendary “lecture” on mass and weight, during which he detailed the birth of modern science and nearly died. Demonstrations of the concepts of mass and weight involved bowling balls, springs, hammers, a pair of twins in a foam based conflict and an endless flow of brave volunteers showed both the fun and very real aspects of the exploration of our world's principles.

As if watching Tom do things to his body in the name of science wasn't entertaining enough, the hungry campers filled outside to a barbecue on the green behind the Fleming Museum. During said barbecue they were introduced to the air cannon that the aeronautical projects would involve, except instead of firing something intelligent large quantities of candy were discharged into the sky. Students were able to enjoy the collection process of the sugary ammunition.

After a little down time the students were introduced to their various projects. The Wind, Biomass Conversion, Aeronautics and Robotics group all went their separate ways to learn more about their topics and in many cases form groups and start brainstorming. The day was coming to a close and everybody was weary, which is probably both a really good and really bad thing for the first official day of GIV camp.

Usually the first thing that happens at camp is a bittersweet goodbye amid an atmosphere that can only be described as rushed and confused. Parents let their children go forth into the world, if only for a week of a technically based summer camp. This year, however, that was not the beginning.

The factor changing the beginning of Governor's Institute of Vermont for Engineering (hereafter referred to as GIV or camp) this year was the presence of a multitude of Global Challenge students, students who came to the camp because of their dedication to solving global problems in a seemingly ridiculous manor, globally. They happened to be in town meeting their teammates from across the globe (and those in Vermont) and the project creator David Gibson. Needless to say we invited them into our dorm a day early seeing as country's on the other side are difficult to spend a night in. During the transition between the Global Challenge celebration and UVM GIV the Global Challenge students went on a tour of the ECHO center and held an open discussion about their global energy solutions with Tom Tailer in a beautiful new outdoor amphitheater overlooking the green mountains. With brisk breezes and dark yet inviting clouds the group received its first taste of “chilly” Vermont weather. And there was much complaining.

After moving in and relaxing everyone watched Pirates of the Caribbean, because everyone knows that pirates are directly related to engineering, especially that of the climate change discussed that evening.