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Triangle C Ranch: 7 am pst/10 am est on Friday, Feb 27Lorri Park: Ranch Manager$1850/mo + Gratuity
Do you make a connection between your program and goals?Do you make a connection between your country and your goals?Do you address how this abroad experience will impact your future?
Do you share how you will be academically successful on your program?Do you give examples of your experiences, skills, and knowledge that you will use to adapt, meet program challenges, and succeed abroad?Do you provide specific knowledge and skills that you plan to develop through your experience abroad?
Do you explain how you plan to represent the U.S. and share your own background and experience as a U.S. citizen?Do you discuss the opportunities you will seek to engage in the culture and build meaningful relationships within your host community?
Does your FOSP increase awareness of the Gilman Scholarship AND study abroad? Is your project feasible?Do you give a detailed plan for your project? Do you include your study abroad experience into your project? Do you have an intended audience? Who will you collaborate with to reach this community?
Weekly Summaries
Jan. 11th-17th
First week of school is always something to look forward to and this one was no exception. All of the classes I’m involved in pertain to my major and align with my specific interests. Some new things that I’m taking on this semester are some technical research projects involving obtaining my thermography certificate and implementing an ozone gas sensor onto a high-altitude drone for an advance flight mission. For this flight mission, the high-altitude drone, arrived and I was able to document it in preparation for future actives. One article that I read last week and it primarily was discussing how impactful this would have on the United States as a whole with DJI being out of the picture. This is mainly due to the fact they are cheaper, more advanced, and more implemented into areas like law enforcement, agriculture, etc. than any other drone manufacturer. To summarize this would greatly diminish the abilities to conduct normal operations within most of these industries if a DJI ban was to proceed. A highlight that ended my week was that I competed in an orienteering race, POCAR, that NO collegiate team has ever finished in the 26 years since its start!!! I competed in it last year and my teams was five points away from finishing but determined this year and with some more preparation we were able to be one of two college teams to EVER finish!! Super proud of my team with the wayfinding techniques, checking bearings, plotting points with a UTM, mental and physical grit, and of course walking 55 miles in sub-zero temperatures! Overall, a really good week and I’m really excited to see how this semester progresses!
Jan. 18th-24th
With the second week of school on wraps, I’m really excited to see what the rest of the semester looks like! Some of the interesting articles that I dove into this week was , which was about the purpose what Black Boxes and what they may look like in the future. Another one that I read was, which was about the millions of dollars that are being spent on counter drone and drone security. This is mainly for the FIFA 2026 event and America’s 250th celebration. The final article that I read this week was and the benefits of utilizing simulators for the intent of becoming proficient in flying a UAS prior to flying the real thing with increased risk. The main point outlined in the article was that this was important being the control for a fixed wing especially isn’t intuitive and will need to be practiced! I’ve also been starting my thermography research and have been trying to determine different methods of which to separate GCP’s from surrounding objects when scanning. I’m excited to continue this research and investigate more options that could be revolutionary. One final from this week was all the cold weather and snow! This sure has been interesting to see the weather charts firsthand and understand more of what the effects were that caused something like this to occur.
Jan. 25th-31st
To be honest it’s kind of nuts that we’re done with our third week of school already! Still really cold but I’m actually really enjoying the opportunities to go sledding on Slayter with friends! Also have had opportunities to sit in on some Glee Club rehearsals with Hunter Hall and let me tell you that man has some pipes!!! I’m also really excited to start ground testing on the Believers soon because I probably spent around 10 hours this week soldering and assembling our groups. Learning a lot of techniques of how to better solder connections and also a lot of ways not to! Very valuable time spent in that regard, but I’m more excited to see what the future holds for me in research and development. An article that I read this week was , which is basically covering a new aspect within the drone industry that is opening up for new development and job opportunities! This is specifically tailored for the Coast Guard but honestly can see it potentially migrating to other fields as well! Another article that I touched on this week was covering new weather drone, , and very interesting for sure! A company like this, in my opinion, is on the right track because this utilization of drones in this way will save money on radiosondes and produce more accurate weather data as well because you can specifically control the assent and descent. Some new software skills that I’ve been learning in ArcGIS Pro is how to Georeferencing and Topology. If someone is going into the Civil industry or a marketing field, these skills will be ‘gold’ for them! I’m really excited to see what is going to happen this upcoming month after seeing how far we’ve come already!
Feb. 1st-7th
Good news! We are finally starting to get warmer weather! Starting off this week, we read two articles from different drone companies commercially available products. The two companies were ZenaTech and Reactive drones, and the main interesting point that I took away that it’s not necessarily that we are getting better drones as some companies are just trying to catch back up with DJI. From a price standpoint especially this is going to be very interesting in the near future. We also read, or some of us, read a scientific report regarding drone flyability in different environments. These conditions pretain to wind speed, temperature, and humidity. They also threw in that if you are in an arid climate with lots of dust particles this also plays a huge role but it’s very hard to measure dust particles in general so it wasn’t really touched on. Overall, it was a very interesting article and it’s going to be interesting to see what drone manufacturers take from it and implement into their own product lines. Some personal events that I participated in was a Winter Jam concert where Mathew West, Chris Tomlin, and Katy Nicole performed! I also watched the super bowl with friends and enjoyed the time spent with them and excited to see what other opportunities this semester we might have! Finally, I’ve also been really looking into summer internships this summer and have been in contact with Meteomatics in Switzerland. That opportunity fell through but it was really fun almost getting the opportunity to go over there and experiencing a different side of the drone industry. Still on the lookout and might have more opportunities on the radar so I’m pretty excited!
Feb. 8th-14th
This week was honestly really fun with different class activities and equestrian competitions! Some of the articles that we covered this week were based on how technology is being implemented into drones to make a difference within the industry. For example, talks about how drones can measure waves and extrapolate that data into something that can be studied and monitored. To go one step further, talks about different standards for collision avoidance to allow them to complete more advanced flight missions that could be conducted BVLOS. Believers we are getting taped and our build was completely done except for weight and balance that we are going to complete next week. The most enjoyable thing by far this week was definitely competing with my equestrian friends at Taylor College. Both days everyone had really good rides and I ended up winning in my division for Sunday’s event! This was also on a horse that was known for bucking people off so I’m so glad I made it look like we were gliding across the arena.
Feb. 15th-21st
This week was overall a really productive week! To start off we dove into an article that was about a military solution for dropping drones in the air with using microwave rays from the ground. The article, also goes into how they want to find a solution that is lighter and is less expensive that can be set up at moment's notice. My team and I finished the weight and balance, and we were all really impressed that everything that we located in the aircraft was just about where it needed to be for the predetermined Datums. Now this being a productive week you might be wondering what I did that deserves this kind of recognition. Well, I probably spent around 30ish hours strictly on sending out internship interest applications to countless businesses across the world in hopes of landing one prior to summer. I’ve gotten a couple back, but they no longer have positions open. Note though that this isn’t my first week sending applications out, but this was definitely one of my heavier lifting weeks in a while. Have had a couple interviews and now I’m just waiting to hear back.
Feb. 22nd-28th
This week was full of surprises to say the least! Started off with taking videos of me riding horses and ended with me going and supporting my equestrian friends at the Regional Competition. I also had 3 important meetings this week with one concerning the upper atmosphere gas scanning drone and the other two being interviews for summer jobs. The Aurelia Drone consultation was pretty informative and nothing new, but now that we’ve gone to that we can proceed with the design of the apparatus! The interviews went well and I’m excited to hear back from the companies in the different avenues that might be potentials for this summer! Enough about fun extracurricular things, so let’s get back to the articles we read and discussed in class. The first article,
, covered the drones in the Olympics and how they are set up to create a sense of connectivity to the event from the viewers perspective! The second article, , was over the military going for smaller drone platforms that larger due to the cost and ease of training flight pilots. This lowers costs significantly and will more greatly enhance the ability to respond quick to a threat.March 1st-7th
This past week has been filled with events of hanging out with others, to being super productive in schoolwork, and then also preparing for spring break. This week we’ve started creating missions in Ground control and then implementing them into X-plane. We’ve also continued to improve our technical conversation skills when passing over controls and signaling to the GCS operator of our intent. I’m really excited to start mission planning for the believer and begin the processes of flying them because of how much work we’ve put into them. This week I also created a lesson plan covering the ASREC FAA Alt. Waiver that tests the comprehension of it because the Responsible Person, me, is responsible for having some way of justifying to the FAA that the operators operating under the waiver understand everything. The article that we covered this week in class was over a. This man flew over a military installation and was pressed for charges for this action. It’s definitely going to be interesting how the FAA and gov’t pursue stuff like this in the future, with maybe even doubling down on regulations. For example, just like guns are great tools, in the wrong hands they can be abused like drones are right now. One final thing to end the week was that I had a couple more interviews for potential ranches to work at this summer and I accepted an offer! I’m super excited to see what God has in store this summer! One more week until Spring Break, and I’m so excited!
March 8th-14th
This week was very interesting, especially beginning with daylight saving time! I don’t know why but this always seems to kill me and sometimes my week with trying to re-coordinate everything around springing forward one hour. Nothing outside the usual though happened this week, which was kind of nice. I had horse chores, academic meeting for next semesters classes, and also had a couple of meals this week with friends. Within this class we are getting the believers more around for actually flying them. As of now though we are working hard in the simulator to enhance and refine our skills to be as apt to fly as possible! One of the articles that we read this week was over the and although it was nothing new it was definitely a nice reminder to keep in mind when entering into this industry. Another fun thing that happened this week was that I submitted my approved waiver to the class as an article to read. I was also a TA, or guest speaker, over the waiver to teach from it and also to break the news that they will be required to achieve at least 100% to be able to utilize the waiver in the field. This waiver is just one example of what I believe this program is capable of striving towards within the curriculum and I’m excited to see where I can help it go with one more year!
March 22nd-28th
Getting back into the groove this week, to say the least, was almost impossible. My spring break was a lot of fun because I was able to hunker down in Wisconsin whilst a blizzard was passing through with my friends. We got about 2ft of fresh powder and this was perfect for skiing and snowboarding! Last year we went as a group to the same place, and I skied but this year I was determined to learn a new skill of snowboarding. So, I did what anyone with technology would do and that was to watch as many snowboarding tutorials as possible! After we got to the slopes it was a slow start for sure but by the second day, I was conquering the hardest slopes the resort had to offer... Black diamonds. By the end of the trip, I was working on carving and I’m truly so excited to continue learning this skill! I honestly really enjoyed the trip, but now I can’t wait to get back into the groove of school and stay focused on finishing strong. Enough about me, some of the articles that we covered this week were over &. Both of these articles offer an insight into the technological advancement in the past few years and gives a glimpse into what the future may hold! I’m super excited again to start flying the Believers because this week was also the first week, we went out and observed our first functional flight test/operation!
March 29th-April 4th
This week was a little slower than normal, but I was still able to have a lot of fun none the less. I started off the week with an article that was released by Virginia Tech that covered their drone program and what new things they are trying to implement into the next gen of UAVs. I’ve also started to get more involved in 3D modeling for the ozone gas sensor. It’s going really well but I will need more dimensions to finish them and send everything off to Bechtel. Started finalizing some of the thermal target test methods and will hopefully begin testing next week. Joined an Ultimate frisbee team with my Christian community group on campus and we won our first game this week. Looking forward to the next couple of weeks as we get further into a new month. Also, a highlight from this week is that I went on a date with this cute girl…. stay tuned….
April 5th-11th
Lots of new ground was broken this week with finishing class research projects to finally conducting some thermal scans over at PWA. The research project in AT 203 went really well and I was happy to be placed in a group that also was motivated to finish the work. We were also required to make a presentation and present on it in a couple of weeks of which I’m pretty excited for! This week was also our first week going out into the field and flying the Believers. The instructors flew DAB010 in the field to give an overall process of what to expect when ours were going to be taken out into the field themselves. Other than the usual schoolwork I did have a lot of fun with friends this week! I played this game called hostage where 2 teams each have a driver, a navigator, and 2 hostages. Each team swaps their hostages with the opposing team and has 10 minutes to drop them off anywhere on campus with a car. No GPS, no searching, only texting allowed for use of giving clues to your team. Every 5 minutes you can give a clue and can’t be proper nouns and can at most be 3 words! Also, remember the cute girl that I was talking about earlier? Well, I was able to take her to a dance formal and spend more time with her in that way! So much fun and I’m really excited to see how God continues to grow us in our stage of dating, especially as the semester continues to progress!
April 12th-18th
This week was full of emotions for sure! To start off the week we went to my date’s church which was an absolute blast and continued to learn more about that part of her life. Then came the Believer flights on the 14th! My group was up first, and it was the maiden flight, and we were all so excited after working on them for almost 2 semesters! Long story short it was like a Swiss cheese model for how problems keep building off each other before something goes wrong and 2 of the flight control parameters for the stabilize mode were flipped. This made the aircraft pitch up while being pitch up, instead of wanting to pitch down while being pitch up. The fixed wing ended up crashing and although it was very tragic, I think that it was a very good teaching moment for the class because it gave everyone, that doesn’t normally participate, an opportunity to understand how real these operations actually are! The next morning me and some of my group members spent about 6 hours repairing the fuselage and other electrical components. Overall, I think it looks really good considering what it went through! Can’t wait to have it actually fly and see all of our hard work being put to use! There was a drone flight that did go well this week, and it was the maiden flight of the Aurelia X6 Max! First open-source drone that I’ve ever flown and it was honestly a huge learning experience due to it handling differently than normal closed source systems! To end the week with some fun I cleaned up the old barn that the western equestrian team was utilizing for the season and attended the banquet, of which I was nominated hardest worker. So excited to see what the rest of the semester holds as it comes to a close.
April 19th-25th
In terms of a fun week this was one for the books for sure! The Christian ministry that I’m part of on campus, Salt Company, has an unofficial IM Ultimate Frisbee team that we started the bracket portion of the semester. We had two games this week and have our final four, and hopefully championship game next week! Really excited and blessed to have this opportunity in playing with all my friends and while also being able to continue staying active with the semester coming to a close. Salt Company also had an Olympic games event that teams competed against others in hopes to win. These challenges encompassed many different challenges that tie back into our core roots of the Christian biblical faith. My team ended up winning which was really awesome to say the least! This week was also our presentation for our AT 203 project, and I think that it went really well! Abner really enjoyed ours mainly because we stayed within the time constraints and my group didn’t read off our slides like they were speaking notes. Also flew our Believer this week and it was a really cool opportunity to be part of this project and seeing it from start to finish! I’m excited to continue learning how to fly and to practice launching and landing the Believer next week. One final thing that I did to end the week was I met this cute girl that I’ve been dating’s parents! We made everything official and so excited to see, and to be part of what God has been store in this amazing adventure! Hooray!!!!!!
April 26th-May 2nd
Wrapping up this class this semester there’s definitely a lot to reflect on! I can honestly say that I’ve learned so much that I was honestly hoping that I would’ve gotten the opportunity to learn in coming to Purdue. From soldering together wires, to constructing airframes, to the programming, and the working as a team to accomplish something like what we did was a really big highlight. In my future profession I really want to be part of an R&D team that designs and develops drones to advance the industry pushing the limits as we know them! This week I also learned a lot from launching the Believer, conducting different maneuvers, to avoiding catastrophic scenarios, to landing it in the field. I’m really excited to step into this next semester of my senior year with the end goal in mind of getting as much out of it as I can from knowledge and experience! The practical was also a lot of fun on Thursday as a final because it gave an opportunity to kind of experience what we may encounter in an interview or real-world job site in preparing an aircraft for flight. This week was also a lot of fun in other ways like watching 2 different Purdue Music Association performances with Heart and Soul and Glee Club. I also toured the new Purdue Western Equestrian Barn for this upcoming school year and I’m also super excited to take part of that front in competitions! The Championship game was also this past Wednesday and although we lost it was still such a blessing of a journey that I wouldn’t have changed anything! I’m excited to get the team back together next semester and to take the dub! Also, the last Salt Company worship night was tonight, and it was a lot of fun catching up with everyone. The message tonight was also quite fitting of taking time to reflect on what was done this past season and digesting it not to take the baggage into the next season but to focus on continual growth and not to remain stagnate. So excited to see, and walk with God, in this next adventure of my life!!!
Summer Job:
Gilman ScholarShip Essays
Essay #1: Motivations: - 500 Word Limit
Essay #2 Knowledge and Skill Development: - 500 Word Limit
Essay #3 Citizen Diplomat: - 500 Word Limit
Essay #4 Project Proposal: - 500 Word Limit
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