It has been a fun couple of days getting acclimated to the Switzerland program. Everyone seems to be making new friends, and having a blast playing with Legos. Our Swiss friends have even been kind enough to take us to some of the local hang outs and show us around.
It has been a fun couple of days getting acclimated to the Switzerland program. Everyone seems to be making new friends, and having a blast playing with Legos. Our Swiss friends have even been kind enough to take us to some of the local hang outs and show us around.
You are probably wondering what our normal weekday is like. Well, allow me to break it down for you. First thing in the morning we enjoy a breakfast at our hotel, before heading to "class." I say "class" because it is not your typical fifty minute lecture or three hour lab at the University of Minnesota. The majority of our class time is spent working in groups or four or five people. Throughout the day Dejan will give short lectures on some of the things we need to know about our project. Such as, Yesterday Dejan went over the navigation system we will be using, and today he went over the use of a state machine. Dejan will lecture for a little bit before and after lunch. For lunch, we eat in the school cafeteria called Mensa, witch is on the floor above our class room. After lunch it is back to working in our groups. And by working I mean programming and playing with Lego's. Armin has been coming to our class to talk to us for a little bit before we end for the day and head off to dinner. Dinner this week and been a delicious variety of grilled meats and bratwursts.
This week has been more of an introduction to the project. Allowing us to play with the Lego NXT system and get familiar with all of its capabilities. Next week will be more focused on the design and programming aspects of the project. Before we get into the more complex aspects of our project though, we will be taking a weekend trip to Munich Germany. Armin was able to arrange a tour of the BMW manufacturing plant in Munich, and has also promised us a very traditional German dinner.
