We were back to project time today... and we didn't even have that many late sleepers (it probably helped that the Dayton trip got back about 9:30 instead of midnight like most other Big Trips)! The industry field trips also started today as the Computer Science/Python project groups went with Dr. Anderson to Beckman Coulter in Indianapolis. The students got to tour the Beckman facility and see the various products the company creates. The trip is also a highlight because the tour guides always make ice cream with liquid nitrogen with the students who go.

UPDATE: Pictures are posted from today in the photos link up top.

 

Pictures from Saturday coming tomorrow (I need to request more webspace from our IT department).

Pictures from Saturday are posted in Session 2 Photos up top!

Dayton, Ohio, and specifically the Dayton Air Show, was the destination of the first Big Trip of Catapult Session 2.  In addition to the air show itself, we also took the students to the National Museum of the United States Air Force before the show and either Chipotle or Skyline Chili for dinner (both specialties not available in Terre Haute).

Work on Saturday. Hard to believe, I know. But, we try to squeeze as much project time in as possible over the students' 2.5 weeks here so that their engineering projects can be as awesome as possible. In addition, the students had a session with Dr. Chambers, one of our mechanical engineering professors, with a lot of sweet mechanical engineering demonstrations.

After lunch came Wacky Olympics, which lived up to their name (details of the activities after the break). We lucked out again and ended up with a wedding going on in White Chapel at the same time as the games; whether or not we were the backdrop of their photos remains to be seen (we have our doubts).

 

This morning, students had a slight change from standard project time to take in some faculty presentations on effective technical communications. These presentations are in line with Rose-Hulman's focus on the humanities (in fact, Humanities and Social Sciences is our largest department on campus), which holds that even the best engineers still need to be able to communicate their ideas, not just create them.

After more project time in the afternoon came dinner and then free time, which the monkeys used for various purposes. Some napped, some watched movies in counselors' rooms, some played soccer or went down to work out at the SRC, and yet others took advantage of the game room to play some pool and foosball.

You can now watch an archived copy of the opening session! Click read more below, then click the video link or scroll to the bottom of the page.

Photos are posted for yesterday! We didn't end up with any photos from today because IMs were cancelled.

It rained today! Unfortunately, we had to cancel intramural sports because of the rain. Alisa declared a nap time for those interested; those who didn't choose to nap had a little bit of extra free time.

We still had some late risers and name tag-less individuals show up at morning meeting, but the offenders are getting fewer by the day.

Group project work continued today much as it has every day.

After IMs free time, we had our traditional Tasty Treat Thursday kickoff with a trip to Baskin Robbins for 31 flavors of goodness! The rain worked to our advantage - there wasn't a single other person in the Baskin Robbins except us, which is helpful when you take 35 people somewhere.

The monkeys didn't even have to leave the building for Midnight Madness today, because we had Counselor Movie Night. Movies shown are at the bottom of this post. In addition to counselor movies, we also took a full 34 students to the midnight premiere of Inception. We didn't get back until about 3 in the morning, but it was worth it!

Success was acheived early for one Catapult group today; their hovercraft was able to glide about 30 feet down the hallway with the touch of a remote control! The next step for them is automation, so rest assured, no one's done yet. The rest of the project groups continued to receive requested supplies and kept working on their projects. The pizza-box name tags are out in force; hopefully, those monkeys that had to wear them will never forget their nametag again!

 

As of this point in time:

Team	Score
Mighty Putty	360
Kaboom	145
Awesome Augers	90
SlapChop	270
Snuggies	175
ShamWOW	195

The start of session 2 somewhat swept me off my feet, website wise. But, we're back on a fairly normal schedule at this point. Photos are posted; click the Session 2 Photos link up top to see them.