UVic Year End Trip – Roy

What Happened

For the year end fusion trip, we spent six days in the University of Victoria, and did an assortment of activities, including visits to labs, hands on activities, and some free time that we got to spend with our friends. It was a very interesting trip, and this will go through some of the highlights of the trip.

HIGHLIGHT 1: Aerodynamics Lab

During the trip, we paid a visit to the aerodynamics lab at UVic, where we got to see the methods that are employed to test the performance of an object in fluids. In the lab, there was a water tunnel that is used to test the performance of parts in aqueous environments such as rivers. We also got to see wake imaging methods that use lasers to visualize the wake of the object tested in the water tunnel. This was really informational and gave me some guidance for what I want to add onto my personal project, as the professors words that emphasized on the importance of real life testing made me want to do some more testing regarding ram air and the degree by which it increases the pressure of the intake gas if the intake is situated at the low section of the Venturi tunnel in real life. For context, ram air is a phenomenon where increased flow speed increase the pressure of a gas in a tube and decreases the pressure if the opposite happens. In my case, my intake is situated at the lower half of the Venturi tunnel, where flow speed is increased, providing a possible way to increase engine intake gas while also decreasing drag, with the feature of decreased drag being one that is discovered from my CFD tests done previously. This visit also reminds me of the importance of taking CFD test results with a pinch of salt, as CFD tests could be potentially inaccurate, and a wind tunnel test is needed to validate my results completely.

HIGHLIGHT 2: Tim’s Boat

We also did some hands on activities, including one where we got to make functioning boats with DC motors and heat formed ABS to test in the ocean. Despite the fact that I was unable to produce a finishing result, I still had a lot of fun in the testing site, where the boats are tied to a rope and is let go into the ocean. The winner is the one whose boat reached the end of the string. After one of my classmates, Tim, won the competition, he decided to take it a step further – he tied together three pieces of rope and let his boat go into the ocean. The result was that the tape fell off and the boat went extremely far away and one of our guides, Sam, had to go get it by swimming. This was a memorable part of the trip, and was a special moment where i felt that our relationship with the guides also grew closer with this encounter.

HIGHLIGHT 3: Benji’s Trivia

On the last night, we had the chance to participate in Benji’s trivia, which was really interesting and fun to experience. Our team was composed of Joe, one of our mentors called Cindy, and me. We had a lot of fun during the trivia and laughed a lot. The most memorable part of the trivia was a section called Inky Dinky, where we have to find two two syllable words, with both syllables rhyming with the two syllables in the other word; the words had to be guessed based on a description that includes clues to what the two words are. In the end, we had most of the trivia questions and placed decently high.

CONCLUSION AND TAKEAWAY

In conclusion, there were a lot of interesting activities when we were there and we got to take a glimpse at what the life of a college student looks like. I think this gave all of the fusion students this year a look into the future and a glimpse of what will be our lives in two years time. The views were also great and inspired awe in me when I looked at them, reminding me that I am lucky to have the option to come to Vancouver BC and have the chance to admire these natural beauties. The takeaways are not only the informational sessions that we had talking about optimization, angles of attack in planes and more, but was also that there are a lot of opportunities in life and that people thrive in all sorts of subjects and pursuits, and that there is no standard answer to the question of what should be done in life. The multitude of student led clubs and the projects that were on display at the science fair inspired me the reach the aforementioned statement, as it shows me how there are many opportunities to seize and many more to find, and made me excited for my future in university and beyond.