User:Zdb3

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Revision as of 22:16, 29 August 2012 by Zdb3 (talk | contribs)
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About Me

My name is Zach Bears. I'm currently a freshman at Duke in the EGR103 class. I really enjoy programming so I'm looking forward to the rest of this course.

Name Pronunciation

I prefer to go by Zach (rhymes with tack). Also, my last name is actually pronounced Bears like the animal. I get that question quite a bit.

Interesting Article about efficient Solar Power harnessing

I found this article about using solar energy to produce an energy carrier like hydrogen to be really interesting. I felt it was a change from the common means of harnessing solar power.

 

Radiative heat transfer analysis of a directly irradiated cavity-type solar thermochemical reactor by Monte-Carlo ray tracing, H.I. Villafan-Vidales et al., Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, updated 29 August 2012, accessed 29 August 2012 (Grand Challenge)

 

Favorite MATLAB Demo

My favorite demonstrations of the MATLAB demos are the Inverses of Matrices and the Game of Life demonstration.

Inverses Of Matrices

I thought that the color map in the Inverses of Matrices was a really interesting way to visualize matrices. It showed me that MATLAB could actually be used to apply filters to images if the images were given in the form of a RGB matrix. I also really liked the way it was used to visualize the fact that multiplying a matrix by its inverse yields the identity matrix.

The Game of Life

I liked the Game of Life problem because it showed the animation that can be done using MATLAB. I have also always liked the Game of Life problem, so that probably added some bias to my choosing a favorite. It also showed me the massive number of calculations that MATLAB could do in a very short amount of time and the way that MATLAB can be used to solve theoretical problems.

Basic Interests

  • Robotics
  • Programming (Java, HTML, PHP, CSS, etc.)
  • Running, Crew, and Wrestling
  • Sleep

 

Current Projects

I just ordered an arduino and a ton of motors and am going to tinker with it for the next few weeks to make a robotic arm that will mimic the motion of my arm. If anyone has advice for using the Arduino, feel free to give it!