James Lao

MIT - Day 3

I didn’t get a chance to finish my post on day 3 on that day since we were up pretty late doing stuff. So here it is now.

Today was the first day of the showcase where all the teams showed off their inventions they’ve been working on for the past eight months. All of the teams’ inventions were pretty cool and some of them were incredible like the solar surveyor that uses a camera to take pictures of its surroundings and processes the image to identify obstructions in addition to locating the direction of the sun. There was also an invention for quardapelgics to turn on lights and other appliances by shining a laser attached to the user’s head at a sensor. Here’s our invention, the Smart Watering-Irrigation System, or SWIS. It’s a automatic plant watering device that waters plants based on the moisture content of the soil.

After the showcase we all split to do tours of some of the labs around MIT. I toured MITERS which is basically a shop where they build stuff out of old junk they find lying around; the Institution for Soldier Nanotechnology where they research new technology to make soldiers’ lives easier on the battlefield; and a glass blowing shop located in the basement of the main building. MITERS was mildly interesting since we got to see one of first 3D printers ever created and a device that could transmit electricity over the air to power a light bulb. However, the soldier nanotechnology lab and glass blowing shop were a bit bland.

Presentations also began today with all the groups dealing with health, safety, and the environment. My favorite out of all presentations is definitly the solar energy potential surveyor. Their presentation was very well done and was humorous at times. Plus their invention was super cool.

It was pretty cool seeing what all the other InvenTeams from around the country have been doing all year. It’s definitely going to be an interesting week.

Posted on June 22, 2007 / 8:16pm in Life