August-December update: Coding maglev motors + co-op & uni
Results & insights from my 1st co-op @Airboss, 2nd year engineering, building maglev motors, and making new friends in/out of university
I’m Julia! I’m a 2nd year Nanotech Eng student at UWaterloo. I’ve been building electromagnets (turn off-able magnets) and playing around with HV (high-voltage) circuits for the past year. Here’s a little update…
It’s been a while. My last update was in August 😲 before starting my 2nd year of university and now I’m done the 1st term!
Stuff in this update
Built ~10 versions of electromagnets to make a better maglev motor & learned to control them with Arduino & Raspberry Pi⚡
Finished my 1st 4-month co-op in August 🔎
Finding new things I enjoy: Trying a new skill/old one I haven’t kept up with. That is sewing, video making, writing, circuitry, dance…
Finished 1st term of 2nd year engineering and controlling the stress by rejecting & embracing sadness/stress with excitement ✨
Firefighting Maglev Motors 🔥
In August-September, I got lots of big & scary electrical sparks from the maglev motors I was building (aka metal blocks that use magnetic fields & LOTS of electricity to levitate & propel things forward). So, I learned how to use Arduino to control those electromagnets. How much current to give them, for how long, and how big to wind the many feet of wire.
The goal was to build efficient (fully electromagnet) maglev motors (so no permanent magnets, which are harder to mine) to offer a more sustainable 2nd option or be better enough to replace existing maglev linear motors —on trains, machines, etc.
Got pretty close, but didn’t feel like I was learning much anymore so, now this maglev motors project is officially done.
Finishing up lab co-op @AirBoss
In August I finished up my 4-month co-op at AirBoss rubber R&D lab. Here are some learnings:
Old industries (especially in manufacturing) rely on old resources which can sometimes make it slower for innovation/resistance to change within the companies: There was much more importance placed on resources like physical knowledge (books), old rubber tools, physical labour. Something I’d never seen before in newer areas like the nanotech labs I worked in.
Resistance to change is enforced at every level: The old workers who learned with old methods, the old but still mostly working processes that don’t create urgency for change/improvement, the workers' experience on legacy software/systems, and the economic expense of change. Plus, external pressure of society emphasizing innovation and rapid growth creates more tension.
The main way for big, fast company growth is the acquisition of companies: Integration of different companies/people is a tough thing to do especially for old, manufacturing-based companies —so far I’ve seen the causes being physical constraints of supply chain, manufacture processes, and human labour.
Here’s the last of the rubber flowers I’d made on the rubber extruder:
Thank you all Joy, Quintin, Rachael, Hugo and Byron for teaching me so much about polymer processing/testing and keeping it fun with jokes and pranks!
Trying new skills to find more of what I enjoy
Next up I’m going to learn firmware to code a little robot (more at the end) and get back to painting (re-learning oils, acrylics, and watercolours).
Rejecting & embracing sadness with excitement ✨
This past term was a hard one. There were lots of reasons to be sad, scared, and stressed in finding a co-op job in a jobless market where no one knows what studying “nanotech engineering” is, keeping up with engineering courses, making sure my circuit parts arrive on time for a demo… Being in such a stressful and high-achieve-demanding environment I found myself becoming numb to feeling sad and stressed.
But there is no good reason to stay sad/stressed.
We are here on this earth for vacation, to experience anything and everything, and prolonged sadness is unnecessary. In the busyness of life sadness, fear, stress are natural but temporary, and must be embraced as such.
I recently spoke to an old guy and he said this:
“At 85 years old, why would you be sad? Just happiness! I'm already living on borrowed time here.”
I found it beautiful. Every day is extra time, extra time to enjoy life further.
A question I’ve been thinking about 💭
What are the costs of digitalization in aging/old industries? 🏭
I started thinking about this recently when reflecting on my co-op term. We often hear about the costs of not innovating as a company or industry now; it's deadness. If a company isn't continuously innovating as it scales, they’re out. A new more innovative company will come and give consumers a better thing. So, there’s lots of push for companies to be innovating to stay relevant, but is there a cost of too much innovation specifically in old industries (mining, manufacturing, ag, etc.)?
These are some ideas I’m looking forward to learning about for the rest of 2024! ☀️
Into the future: Rest of December into 2025
Some things I’ll be up to before 2024 ends 😲😧:
Freedom from engineering school!!!
US visas - I’m doing co-op in the US for next term January-May!
Building a self-balancing robot to be my biking partner 🤖 + learning how to code the entire thing myself. Here is a peak…
See you in 2025 with more robots and no more school! 👋
Also the shirt you made is gorgeous!!
YAY JULIA!! so happy for you :) ur amazing 🫶