Day 2 of the robotics competition consisted of finishing the chassis, mounting and connecting the electronics, and assembling the loading and launching mechanisms. First was the chassis, which involved lengthening the chains, attaching them to the sprockets, and then locking them into the gear boxes. Next was the electronics. We needed to find a way to mount the battery, power distribution board, motor controllers, and the main controller. All these must be connected by wires in a specific way and we needed to fit them within a small space on the chassis. The loading mechanism was a chute made of wood and metal, with a motor controlled wheel to send the balls into the shooting mechanism one by one. In the shooting mechanism, the balls are squeezed through by two spinning wheels and shot out up a ramp. Overall, the a long day of work allowed us to progress greatly and put us on track to finish the building phase and begin the programming phase.
Today after lunch, we visited the Mecorot water treatment plant. This plant purifies and desalinates water for use in Eilat. It was very interesting to learn what the plant does. We were told that water is drawn from well systems and from the ocean. On a scale rating the waters cleanliness, the water from the well got a 23 000ppm rating and the water from the ocean got a 60 000ppm. In the plant, they purify the water down to a rating of 1000ppm or less for drinking. They do this by first pumping the water through sand filters and then through a very thick filter to get rid of any harmful particles. It was very interesting to learn how desalination works and seeing it put to use to help Israel with the problem of fresh water.
Today we returned to Ben Gurion University to continue working on our robots, to get as much done as we can with time still tight. Both teams were able to finish their drive trains, and got work done on programming. Also, both teams got to work on preparing their mechanisms for shooting the balls. Both groups went through extensive debate on what the best idea was for shooting, and after all of the debate both teams decided on, and started building their design.
I learned about LabView today, which is the programming software we are using and got to try to connect our robot to the computer so it can move without being connected by a wire and sometimes it worked and sometimes it did not. It was a lot of fun! Today we woke up at 5:45 in the morning to travel to Eilat. We arrived at Eilat at 11:30, we had a lunch and went swimming at a beach then went we to the Ben Gurion University. At the University we began working on our falafel competition robots. The teams completed the design for their robots and began working on the driving component of the robots. At night we went to the Goldwater high school where we played team building games with our Israeli counterparts.
On Shabbat after Shul, we went to the Montefiore windmill and discussed the history of it, and its’ importance. After, we went to the Prime Minister’s house and saw someone protesting outside his house for 111 days. We then went back to the hotel and had lunch, followed by a tish and two D’var Torahs from the Gap Year CHAT students. I then slept for 3 hours during the afternoon until Havdalah. After Havdalah, we went to Ben Yehudah and had dinner there. After we saw Bridge of Spies, which was in a huge movie theatre, with lots of mannequins of famous movie characters. After the movie we we went back to the hotel and I went straight to sleep, because we had to get up at 5:45 to go to Eilat tomorrow.
Today, we had the honour of reuniting with some CHAT alumni who took a gap year this year. They all graduated from CHAT last year and decided to spend the next year in Israel, either at a yeshiva, kibbutz or a mix of yeshiva and university. They joined us for Friday night and joined us in our evening service and tish. We also had rotating one-on-one conversations with all of the gap year students while discussing our opinions on Jewish values and education in general. I was able to learn a lot from these students and was very proud that these upstanding students were graduates of my current school. The next morning, we went to a modern orthodox service for the shabbat shacharit. It was interesting to see a functioning shul at the other end of the world that had so many similarities and differences to my shul. The people around us were mainly from Israel but they were all fascinated by our program and the trip that we are on. Grade 12 student, Jacob Beallor, was asked to bless the congregation as he was a Cohen. He gratefully accepted and preformed the Birkat Cohanim in front of the congregation. We were very thankful to the Rabbi afterward and were appreciative of the way in which we were willingly accepted into their service.
Upon our arrival to the greater Jerusalem area, we had dinner in the suburb of Ramot. It became very obvious that we were not at the Technion anymore. The change from a secular to a very orthodox setting was sudden and expected as we entered the Jewish capital of the world. Every year, it is tough to forget the singing of “Next year in Jerusalem”, whether it is during a seder or other festivities. Now we were there. The tour of the old city was really interesting. The group went to the western wall for prayer and reflection in the morning. We went through the famous water tunnels of the City of David. These tunnels were built as a way to transport water through the walls of the old city during siege and saved Jerusalem from becoming conquered by the Assyrians. Our last stop before Shabbat was Machane Yehudah. Food was flying off the shelves as everyone was preparing for Shabbat. This was a very Israeli experience and I really enjoyed spending time there.
Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem, Ethan Sacoransky On Friday our group toured the Old City of David. Our guide was none other than Mr. Weiss a former shaliach who left TCK last year. We began our tour learning about historical sites from the time of King David and how artifacts found in the area can be connected directly to words in the Tanach.
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AuthorThis blog is written by the grade 10, 11, and 12 students from TCK and TCW who are on the ISRAEL MINI-MESTER EXPERIENCE TRIP focusing on Robotics in Israel. ArchivesCategories |