Week 12
1. Photo of the week: What impressed you to take it, select and write about this photo?
This week's F1 race was held in Las Vegas over three days—Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I was fortunate enough to receive an F1 Fan Experience ticket through an acquaintance, which allowed me to enjoy various experiences. The photo above shows the actual championship-winning F1 car from Red Bull in 2023 on display. Seeing a real F1 car up close is something that's hard to come by in Korea, so when I first saw it, I honestly couldn't believe my eyes. Once I realized it was indeed a real car, I observed it very closely. Since F1 cars are a culmination of the world's best automotive engineering, including aerodynamics and structural mechanics, analyzing the structure of the car made the experience all the more enjoyable.
2. New person (outside of DASL) that you met? How did you or the person initiate the encounter, what made the encounter challenging or easy, and how did it help you?
Last week, I had the opportunity to meet a Taiwanese female friend through badminton. Although I haven't known her for long, a couple of days after playing badminton, I hung out in my room with my Japanese roommate, a Korean friend, and the Taiwanese friend I got to know through badminton. The four of us enjoyed some beers together and had various conversations. Through this, I was able to learn a few new things about Taiwanese culture.
3. What institutional or American/Vegas cultural insight did you learn this week?
The United States attracts a large number of international students, so I’ve been able to make friends from various nationalities. As a result, I’ve not only been exposed to American culture but also had the chance to directly learn about the cultures of friends from other countries. This week in particular, I gained insights into Taiwanese and Japanese dating cultures. Through conversations, I was able to compare these with Korean culture, exploring the differences and understanding the values that are important to them.
4. What did you learn about yourself?
I only have three weeks left in my life in the United States. As I reflected on what I’ve done during this time, I found myself reading through my past DASL intern activity logs. However, the content felt somewhat vague, and I couldn’t strongly relate to the experiences I had written about. So, even though there’s not much time left, I’ve decided to write my activity logs in more detail moving forward. That way, if future interns ever read my entries, they might find them more helpful and informative.
5. What is the status of your technical projects and what skills did you learn?
The pipe fabrication and assembly for implementing the CDPR have been fully completed. This week, I focused on using a Raspberry Pi to operate motors that adjust the pipe height remotely. As a result, I successfully controlled two motors individually with a single joystick without encountering buffering or other issues. However, there is still one Raspberry Pi that cannot establish SSH communication due to an internet connectivity problem. By resolving this issue tomorrow, I plan to set up a remote network system via SSH and achieve the goal of adjusting the heights of three pipes with a single joystick.