Gabriel Halperin
Engineering
Entry #1 September 9th, 2020
Over the summer, I mostly stayed home to prevent the spread of the pandemic. We did travel to New Hampshire, but we took all possible precautions while travelling including: wearing both a mask and face shield at all times, washing our hands often and thoroughly, and wiping down any surfaces we touched.
In engineering this year, I am excited to do some of the biggest projects I've ever done as an engineer and to continue to learn what it means to be an engineer.
Outside of PLTW, I am excited to pursue my own projects as well as enjoy my Senior Year of high school.
Entry #2 September 25th, 2020
So far, we have gotten a lot of experts for our project. There are a lot of sources and studies since electricity generation ahs been a large part of our society for the past 100 years. The problem I expect, however, is directly related to that last point. Countless engineers have been improved electrical generators over the past century, so what are the odds that we find a meaningful way to improve current generators?
Currently, I have not done much writing for my college application process. I am, however, taking a class online to learn how to write good essays.
Entry #3 October 28th, 2020
Lately I've been feeling a lot like this crab. There's a lot of things wrong with the world, but I'm excited for the future especially since I just finished 4 college apps
Entry #4 December 11th, 2020
I've done most of my college apps already, only a few left to go. In fact, I may be receiving news on some of the earlier admissions as soon as December 15th! When I first started, I wish someone told me to just rip off the band-aid and start writing essays. Most of them are only 200-300 words, so you can knock out a rough draft in only half an hour. Editing is the much harder part compared to writing the first draft.
Entry #5 January 29th, 2021
Products that are designed for profit tend to be worse overall than those designed to benefit others. Obviously the two criteria are not diametrically opposed as it is difficult to sell a product that has no use for the owner. However, a product created to help will have as much utility as possible whereas a product made for profit will only have as much utility as is profitable.
Entry #6 March 5th, 2021
My biggest challenge with the project so far has been being unable to meet in person with my group. The group works well, however I feel that if we could meet in person we would be much more organized. Additionally, communication over the internet, even with video call, feels much slower than in person communication. I am most proud of the Fusion file for the Iris Valve because it is fully articulated and animated within the project itself and that's the first time I've done something like that in a CAD program.
I would tell future seniors doing the project to make sure that the scope of the issue they are trying to solve is achievable. Our group has had to scale back our project so many times, and each time it cost us class and work time to play catch up afterwards. At first we were going to make a geothermal generator, then we would just simulate it, then we decided to only focus on the turbine, then we tried to improve the water pressure in the system before finally settling on just creating a working high pressure iris valve.
Entry #7 May 29th, 2021
Next year I will be going off to college at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. It is a small engineering school in Indiana, near Terre Haute. I am excited to go off to college and begin this next phase of my life.
The project I am most proud of in PLTW is either the Birthday Breadboard or the Puzzle Cube. The puzzle cube because it was one of the first big projects that I did on my own and saw from start to completion and the Birthday Breadboard because of all the work that went in to making sure that all of the wires lined up and worked.