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Educational Expenses

August 11, 2008
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GRADUATE, THEN ON TO OJT (on the job training)
OK, so graduating from college has turned out to be just the start of your real world education. You thought you were done with textbooks, lab fees, and classrooms. Then you discover that to keep your edge in fields like robotics, where the technology is constantly changing, you have traded textbooks for technical manuals and data sheets. You have traded lab fees for piles of wrecked test equipment and burned out components tested to destruction, and time that was spent in class rooms is now time spent at technical conferences and seminars.

Learning, in a constantly changing field, never ends. Well, that can be fun. The Center for Automotive Research (CAR) series of seminars and convention happens about this time every year in Acme, MI. It is at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa just outside Traverse City, MI. August 11-15, 2008. $2,800.00 for the week long program (and you thought your chemistry class lab fees were high). 

The cost of educating people here at AIM in how to design, build, and test driverless vehicles is not cheap either. Most of the cost goes to cover the cost of piles of blown fuses and damaged test equipment. This is all part of the expense of pushing the edges of the envelope to discover new things. The handful of burned out 25 amp fuses here on my desk are to remind me to order more fuses and the new - designer white - fire extinguisher has been installed. 

OJT (on the job training) has also been called "the school of hard knocks". Lessons learned this way are often expensive, but then again they are usually never forgotten either. I now know exactly what air in the brake system feels like and can tell the difference between a little bit of air and a lot of air. Soon I will be learning all there is to know about straight six carbureted 302 gasoline engines. Perhaps after that I will learn all the details of hydramatic transmissions. Yes, there are people out there who already are experts at these things but they have not volunteered yet.  As Crew Chief of the vehicle's pit crew,  it is good for me to learn these things myself. This is a great hands-on education. I can feel new neural paths forming in my brain as I learn all these new things. Everyone should do this sort of thing - I have heard in the medical news that it keeps you young.

SUNSET PARK APPEARANCE OF AGV WENDY DARLING
This evening the truck and I attended the 4th Annual Alternative Transportation Picnic from 5 pm to 9 pm, that was held in Sunset Park here in Traverse City, MI. I got the invitation from Susan Odgers (231) 995-1983 at NMC (Northwestern Michigan College) who is coordinating the event.   AGV WENDY DARLING can burn Ethanol instead of gasoline with a small carburetor adjustment and the AIM AutoPilot is expected to use about 20% less fuel than a human driven vehicle does. With the AIM AutoPilot it will not get lost and wander around searching for its destination as I and most other people in the USA do.  Searching for the destination at the end of what otherwise was a fuel efficient trip uses, by DOT estimates, 20% of the fuel used in the USA.  Who would have thought two years ago that stopping and asking directions or installing a car navigation system would become a patriotic act to reduce our dependance of foreign governments oil.  

The exhibitors at the C.A.R. convention were invited to bring their exotic vehicles and U of M’s Solar Racer, on the outside chance that they would take a break from the convention and attend the picnic.  AGV WENDY DARLING was voted the "most exotic" and the "biggest" vehicle in attendance at the picnic.


GLMA Photo: T/S STATE OF MICHIGAN "going out".

Sunset Park is next door to the Great Lakes Maritime Academy where I went to school from 1984 - 1987 to get my Marine Engineer’s License and Navy Officer's Commission as part of my mid-life career change. The school superintendant, Mr. Tanner, saw the truck drive up and came out to say hi. He was the head of the Deck Officer Program while I was there and has moved up to run the whole school now. The incoming class has just started.  They start in June and live on the training ship, T/S STATE OF MICHIGAN, for their first term. The school has 100% placement for graduates, who get an average starting salary of $10,000 per month. There is no age limit and you can be through the school in three years if you are in the mood to swap your current career for some adventure.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES:

NO-HANDS-MAN - proposed international symbol for self-driving agricultural equipment.


Patriots'-Help Wanted Sign.

GO ROBOTS !

Paul F. Grayson - Chief Engineer
AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC, LLC
Racing to build technology that saves soldier's lives.
390 4-Mile Rd. S.
Traverse City, MI 49686-8411
(231) 946-0187, (231) 883-4463 Cell
pgrayson@aimagic.org
AIM: http://aimagic.org
Robot Club: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/robotcluboftraversecitymi/
CE Magazine: http://www.controleng.com/blog/1180000318.html
pfg:(s);(l);tt

Posted by Paul Grayson on August 11, 2008 | Comments (0)