Week seven: July 22, 2016
Lucas Gutembergue da Costa
This was the seventh and last week of the SEED internship program. We finished the design and tests of our projects and gave the final presentation on our progress.
Team Toco spent Monday and Tuesday doing the final tests of our device. First we made the signal vs displacement curves of our device for two different diameters and two different lengths of fiber optic cable. We got very consistent result, which were our goal with the test. Then we had a test to determine what is the minimum displacement our device is able to capture. To do so our client borrowed us a translation stage (picture is below) with two micrometers attached, therefore we are able to impose small displacements to the device and accurately measure it.
Fig 1 – Translation stage
Then we made a test stand to attach our device to the translation stage using wood boards and the laser cutter. It looks like this:
Fig 2 – Test stand with the device and the translation stage
We performed the resolution test and concluded that, in controlled conditions such as our test stand, the minimal displacement the Optoco is able to capture is 0.25 mm. That was a great result for us and we are very happy with it.
On Wednesday we had our final presentation. Every team presented on its results and accomplishments, all teams, including my team, did a great job with the design and the presentation.
Fig 3 – Team Toco on the presentation day
Fig 4 – SEED interns
After the presentation and in the last two days, we finished up the documentation of the project, gathered up all the relevant information, files and documents and sent them to our client. We also gathered the prototypes we have and delivered it to our client. Lastly we cleaned up our table, the tool tables and the OEDK in general.
Then we were done. And that was the end… but before ending this post I think this internship deserves a few words.
I would like to thank Rice 360 for sponsoring this amazing program, Dr. Veronica Leautaud, the program directors Dr. Maria Oden and Dr. Rebecca Richards-Kortum for the support and feedback, all of the OEDK Staff, Matthew Wettergreen for being our tutor during the summer, our amazing TAs: Helen Little and Mikaela Juzswik (a.k.a. Melen) for the incredible support, my client for the Optoco project: Dr. Jennifer Carns, Dr. Suneet Chauhan, all the fellow interns, the Houston Zoo and everyone involved in the program.
It was a great experience, I learned a lot during this summer, grew both professionally and personally and made connections with amazing people. I’m sure these lessons are going to have a great impact in my life.
Thanks everyone for being in this journey with me.
That’s all folks, farewell!