Engineering Expo

[Fehr, Ralph]

Dear X-Labbers,

 

Thank you for taking part in this year’s Engineering Expo.  The X-Labs display was well-received by the attendees, and was (for the most part) successful.

 

Here are some of the plusses:

 

1. I heard considerable interest in X-Labs expressed by many people who saw the display.  It looks like we may be gaining several new high school members, as well as a staff member from the USF Biology department!  The Jamerson Elementary School (South St. Pete) teachers were also very impressed, and will see if X-Labs can be integrated into their K-5 curriculum.  The visibility of the group is definitely UP!  Kudos!!
2. To the best of my knowledge, there were no visits to our display by fire departments, law enforcement agencies, or any other first responders.  This is a considerable improvement over last year!
3. The Pocket Handbooks were a huge success.  This is the kind of outreach that X-Labs is all about.  Fantastic idea to make the books!
4. The quality of the presentations (technical accuracy as well as showmanship / entertainment value) continues to improve.  You guys are getting good!!
5. When the saturable reactor of the 15 kVA Jacob’s Ladder started smoking (this is bad – Florida is a Clean Air state!!), your creativity was most admirable!  So was your resourcefulness.  (I’d be hard-pressed to come up with 5 gallons of peanut oil on the fly!)

 

Of course, we can’t plusses without minuses (you know, that magnetic monopole thing).  Here are some of the “areas for improvement” I saw:

 

1. The biggest X-labs accomplishment of the year (and arguably the biggest accomplishment for the College of Engineering too) was suspiciously absent.  WHERE WAS THE BALLOON STUFF??!!  There was discussion about a tethered balloon outside, playing an X-2 slideshow, etc., but none of that happened.  We did have a mock payload on display, but that was pretty weak.  Come on guys, we gotta play our best cards!!
2. Last year’s biggest hit (the “Baby Star”) was inoperative for the entire Expo, and the most awe-inspiring display (the Tesla Coil) was inoperative for much of the time.  This kind of stuff can happen, but these two incidents are clearly a planning/preparation issue that we need to address (see below).
3. Although participation levels were good, we had a handful of people doing much of the work.  This is normal for any group, BUT WE’RE NOT A NORMAL GROUP!!  We’re all about service, education, and outreach.  We need to improve participation levels and better levelize the workload.  Again, see below.

 

Here are some suggestions going forward:

 

1. Let’s take advantage of the publicity we got at Expo.  We need to follow up and increase our membership.  Ultimately, it would be great to have X-Lads chapters at Middleton HS, Jamerson Elementary, etc.  But for now, building a bigger and stronger organization on the USF campus needs to be a top priority.
2. We need to be more effective “passing the torch” of technical knowledge.  We apparently have no fusion reactor experts left in the group, and the high-voltage expertise is dwindling.  We should start by assigning two members to lead the restoration of the Baby Star and the Tesla Coil.  Each lead member should recruit at least three other members to help, and at least two of those members should be sophomores, freshmen, or younger.  This way, when we’re done we’ll have not only a working demo, but four experts (two of which will be around for a few years) to assure continuity.  Next meeting, let’s assign team leaders for these two projects (and any other projects you identify as needing attention).
3. Leadership must come from ALL levels of the organization.  Our officers are doing a great job, but EVERYBODY must step up on this one.  You are all empowered.  When you see something that needs to be done, do it.  When you see a part or component on a trash heap that looks useful, grab it.  (It looks like we’ve scored some 14.4kV – 120V metering-grade PTs, but some neon sign transformers are on the “needed badly” list.)  When you have an opportunity to spread the word about what we do, spread it.  Dedication and motivation are contagious.  Unfortunately, apathy and complacency are contagious too.  Let’s get each other engaged and show our enthusiasm, and see how many new members come and seek us out as a result.

 

Other comments:

 

The trailer looks awesome – thanks Nick, Coyt, and whoever else helped.  Do you guys do offices too??  (Just kidding)  Well, not really...  There is student interest in getting the PV array back in working order.  As this proceeds, the inverter room of the trailer will have to be straightened up (by the folks working on the PV array) so filing cabinets do not have to be climbed over to get to electrical equipment.  This will require some cooperation, so be aware.

 

We also need to keep tighter reigns on our demos (so parts don’t walk away, as they did with the fusion reactor).  Stealing is no fun when you’re on the other end!  Let’s give this point some thought.

 

X-Lab’s relationship with the IEEE student branch and HKN is good and getting better.  We need to keep building these ties.  I’d like to see X-Labs become the “hands-on wing” of each of these organizations (and other organizations on campus too, like student groups in the Physics Dept. for starters).  It may be a good idea to assign a member to actively pursue these kinds of relationships.

 

Again, congrats on another successful X-Labs event.  Keep up the hard (and very worthwhile) work!

 

Dr. Fehr

 

Ralph Fehr, Ph.D., P.E.

Instructor, Power and Energy Systems

University of South Florida

College of Engineering

Department of Electrical Engineering

4202 E. Fowler Ave. - ENB 118

Tampa, FL  33620

Office (813) 974-1121

Fax (813) 974-5250

fe...@eng.usf.edu