The eleventh hour

Only two days remain of Shad Valley.  I can't believe this month has gone by so quickly; summer is almost half over, and soon I'll have to say goodbye to all these incredible people that I have had the amazing opportunity to live with this July.  It'll be a long time before I ever see these people again... everyone is from all over, be it British Columbia or Ontario or Manitoba or Newfoundland.  Here's a graphical representation I did up for monthbook:

So much has happened in such a short period of time; it's hard to put it all to words.  Not to mention the fact that our schedule is always jam-packed full of amazing things -- the only reason I have a moment to type now is because my workshop instructor wasn't feeling well and she dismissed our session early.  In any case, there is so much to talk about!

Our synchrotron experiment changed a bit since my last post.  We ended up deciding to apply lubricants to bike chains, then soak them in nitric acid for a period of a few days to simulate the long term effects of acid rain.  Then we removed the chain pieces from our sample bottles using chopsticks (something that requires a surprising amount of finesse), and placed the chains in mineral oil.  We then prepared samples out of the remaining acid which contained corroded metal to discern which lubricant better protected the chain from the corrosion.  It was a lot of fun, and working with the synchrotron was extraordinary.  More than ever I want to be a researcher; I have never felt more at home than working in that synchrotron lab.

Attaching a sample to the apparatus

In which I prepare the aforementioned samples

The hour-long rec times we have every day have also been a blast.  From kickboxing to zumba to quidditch, I've got to try out so many incredible things that I would never have conceived of otherwise.

Kickboxing!

And then there's our overall project.  My group decided to create heating insoles to keep feet warm during the winter.  Not only are they heated, but they are powered by piezoelectricity, thereby never having to be plugged in or have batteries changed; they merely siphon off waste energy as you walk.  As I wrote for our product's facebook page:

 

Our company is named Lioness (an anagram for insoles -- we're pretty clever), and all and all our project was a lot of fun.  We had some rough patches and disagreements, and we were right down to the wire finishing our business plan and presentation, but everything worked out in the end, to some extent.

The inSol logo, designed by me

Yesterday marked our final product pitches in front of all our fellow Shads, the program staff, and a panel of six judges.  As I mentioned, we hadn't finished preparing our presentation until an hour before, but we managed to not completely embarrass ourselves.  Still, by the time we sat down we were just glad that it was over and we had done it.  We were the second group to present, and after us came four more.  After everyone had presented, our program director announced awards.  There were three -- best prototype, best presentation, and most marketable idea.  We instantly knew we hadn't won any, but we were okay with that.  We'd had fun and tried our best, and we had actually finished!  Then we won best presentation.  I don't think I've ever felt so ecstatic in my life -- none of us had expected it at all.  The judges said they were extremely impressed with how we spoke and answered questions.  I couldn't even remember a word we'd said by that point, I was so overwhelmed.  It was a great way to end of our project experience, that's for sure.

My amazing teammates of Lioness Corporation (and me!)

But Shad is not over yet!  The other groups should be getting back from workshops about now, and there are still a few more days left of amazing experiences to be had.  I wouldn't want to miss a minute of it.