Trip Report: London

Posted on by mrsoltys
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="262"] Court and I in front of tower Bridge[/caption] Home to O(10,000,000) people, London is a city with a rich history and is an important city today for trends, fashion and arts.  So we decided that it was worth a stop here for a week to see the sites.  Truthfully: I don't like cities. Large crowds make...Read More

Tool of the Week: Stack Exchange

Posted on by mrsoltys
Over the past few months I've gotten a handful of requests on this blog to help write a custom piece of code. There are a couple reasons I don't do this: Ain't Nobody Got Time For Dat! One of the most valuable parts of my 10.5 years of higher education was learning how to learn. If I just gave you answers,...Read More

Reading/Writing to CSV in Matlab

Posted on by mrsoltys
When doing data analysis, many times your input will come in a .csv file, and you'll also want output in a .csv file.  Unfortunately, matlab's built-in csvread/csvwrite functions are exceptionally frustrating to use for anything than pure numeric input/output.  Luckily, writing your own code to read /csv files (especially with some knowledge of your desired input/output) is pretty easy. Reading...Read More

$100 Quadcopter: The Sensor! MPU6050 6-axis IMU

Posted on by mrsoltys
[caption id="attachment_1515" align="alignleft" width="300"] My MPU6050 connected to my redboard[/caption] I bought this $30 triple axis accelerometer from sparkfun... The first thing we have to do is get it working! Wire it up. The MPU6050 uses a method of communication called IC2. I'm not an expert on this, but this is what you'll need to connect to an arduino uno  to...Read More

Project (In Progress): The $100 Quadcopter

Posted on by mrsoltys
I've always wanted to build a quadcopter, and I've got some free time so over the next couple months I'm going to try to build one from scratch.  Sure, there are a lot of tutorials out there on how to build them, but many come with pre-packaged controls and are basically just buying the right parts and assembling them. [caption...Read More

Reflections on Grad School: Tools and Tricks I wish I knew all along

Posted on by mrsoltys
I've done it! I've gotten my Ph.D.!  Here's a few things I wish I had done from the very beginning. Enjoy Yourself. You're going to take 4-8 years investing in yourself. This is time you've set aside to educate yourself about a subject you're hopefully passionate about.  Along the way, you'll learn a tonne about a multitude of subjects! Besides...Read More

Smartphone App: Google Hangouts

Posted on by mrsoltys
I've loved my mobile phone since switched to android from iPhone; however, there's been one basic thing that's been missing: A good text messaging app. [caption id="attachment_1435" align="alignright" width="168"] Hangouts has a clean chat like interface for messaging with multiple people.[/caption] Sure, I've tried a few in the play store: handcent sms and go sms to name a couple, but...Read More

My Thesis Defense and other updates

Posted on by mrsoltys
Sorry the blog has been on the back-burner for a couple months. My thesis defense will be open to the public: Wednesday, November 13th at 2pm.  It will be held in the benson earth sciences building conference room (Benson 380) near Folsom and Colorado. Saturday a cup of coffee got spilled on my laptop. I was thankful for dropbox, but everything...Read More