"The crows seemed to be calling his name," thought Caw
Volume 4 Number 3: Spring 2005

Dan Tetzlaff
March 16, 2005

Greetings recipients,

I’ve finally started my final quarter at MSOE. That’s assuming, of course, that I do not fail any of my classes! My spring schedule can be viewed at (or printed from) the following page:

http://www.machiningconcepts.com/dan/msoe/classes/

You will notice that I do not have any class on Friday. Do not be deceived; that does not imply any minimal quantity of free time. I am also taking my first evening course this term.

I begin most days with Business Law at 9 am. I decided to take an early class that is located all the way across campus, because I thought it would be a nice walk every spring morning. So far, the first five classes involved two days of sleet, three days of intense wind, and five days of bitter cold. So much for “spring.” In any event, Business Law is pretty cool. We basically fly through all aspects of American Law. However, we do have to read about 40 pages per night, on average, which is highly unnecessary. I also have to go to municipal court, observe for a few hours, and write a paper on the events.

My next real class is Computer Modeling & Simulation, which is being phased out of the curriculum. In fact, I am in the last class that has to take this course. I say this with sadness. We haven’t done too much in the class, and it’s hard to understand my professor. However, the class basically teaches us how to simulate and test computer systems before they are deployed or released.

On Monday and Wednesday I am done with classes by noon. On Tuesday and Thursday, however, I have two more classes. First of all, at 2 pm, I am taking a physics course. I do not need this course or these credits to graduate, but I am one physics course short of receiving my minor, so I elected to take this class. The course content is fiber optics, specifically as it applies to broadband communication. Fiber optics (thin glass wire) is superior to standard copper wire because light does not undergo electromagnetic interference or distortion like electricity does. Also, light travels faster than electricity. The only downside is that fiber optic cable can not have any kinks or sharp turns.

This is definitely my favorite class. Not only is lecture pretty interesting, but lab is awesome. Below are a few photos from the laboratory.

Our first lab involved shining a laser beam through a kilometer of fiber optic cable and performing calculations on our observations. Also, Nortel network has donated $4 million worth of new fiber optics equipment to MSOE, and it should arrive shortly. The equipment that Nortel is giving us is used in broadband communication (e.g., the Internet Backbone) and is similar to the fiber optic cable that was laid under the Atlantic Ocean. The cable’s bandwidth is about 800 Gbps (8000 times faster that standard Ethernet!)

My last class is U.S. History II. I took U.S. History I last term with the same professor, who is one of my favorite professors at MSOE. This term we are discussing events between the civil war to the present. We also have daily readings, and I have to write another paper on another 250 page book. That’s nice, considering my perpetual boredom. Also, the professor just switched us from a nice room with desks to an old lecture hall, meaning we do not have any room for all of our class materials; the desks are not much bigger than a sheet of paper. This is my last class ever at MSOE, and ironically, it is now in the same room where I attended my first class at MSOE (Chemistry I)!

And of course, I have not yet mentioned Senior Design. All of last term was spent designing the project, which leaves this quarter for implementation. In other words, we have to kick it into “high gear” if we want to finish on time. Over the first two weeks of this term, each of our team members has put in 35-40 hours total. In case you forgot, my project is a GPS-Controlled Car. It is a small RC, Nitro-powered car that can drive 45 miles per hour. We are going to add a GPS receiver to the car and control it with a remote computer, telling it to travel to new coordinates. This sounds easy, but it is not.

I am personally working on the “Kill Switch” right now, which we can use to stop the car if it goes haywire or turns into Hal. We have a senior design show on May 20^th (the day before graduation) in which we will try to demonstrate our finished project. Graduation is Saturday, May 21^st. After that, I am probably going to be working at QuadTech, which is a division of Quad/Graphics.

As I mentioned before, even though I do not have class on Friday, I am going to be busy working on Senior Design all day Friday. I will likely work on the GPS car every Monday after class. Wednesday after class is when I am working as an intern at QuadTech, in Sussex. I have not found much time for sleep, and I expect this will not get any better…but I’m finally almost done! As they say, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

If you have any questions, shoot me an e-mail or give me a call!

Your Obedient Servant, DT