Programming
In this course I got familiar with the program language Processing. This course consists of colleges, learning the basics of this language. Included was a workshop Arduino. This device is Open-Source electronic prototyping platform allowing to create interactive electronic objects. After finishing these colleges and workshop, we had to do three assignments:
Make:
Those assignments formed the examination.
Final grade: 7
For me this was one of the most useful courses of the first year. It formed the basis for other courses (Smart Technology and Living and Working Tomorrow). Looking at my background knowledge, which is none, I think I did quite well and I’m very pleased with this mark.
Graphic Design
A course from the study Industrial Design. This course is all about what design does to people, why did they designed this in this way. We had to do a weekly design assignment, this assignment you had to present in the following lecture. This course gave me a lot of insight, but also a lot of inspiration. The teacher had such nice examples, he made a lot of them by himself. In the following PDF’s you can check out what I made:
Final grade: 7
Satisfied? Not completely, to be honest I expected more. I spent a lot of time in photoshopping. I think that I didn’t fulfill to bring the message over. Other students roughly copied/pasted, but their message was more clear obviously.
Smart Environments
For a big part a project course. A few sessions at the beginning learned us all about environments in the form of wireless networks, intergraded computers and environment projects of the university. After that we had to design a smart environment by ourselves, therefore we had two workshops. In these workshops we got familiar with Xbee. You can read about these electronics on my PersonPage. After the workshops groups were formed. My group(from now on we) came with the idea of a festival telephone. On festivals normal telephones don’t have any reception, the festiphone does with the help of Xbees. They form a ad-hoc network, data is transferred through other xbees in the neighborhood. We build two prototypes, able to send messages. Each phone has his own name this can be seen as the phone number. For a complete impression, click here.
Final grade: 8
This course was very useful to me, I learned a lot in quite a short time, combining the programming skills with arduino. The Use of hardware was so much fun, it’s more than just only doing stuff on the computer. Happy with the grade? ofcourse!!
Living and Working Tomorrow
The nicest Project course of the first year CreaTe. Assignment: design a product of tomorrow that supports you in daily life. We(the project group) came up with the 4getBag. In short, this bag checks whether everything you want to take with you, if not a signal will tell you. To get a really good idea what this project is about, check out the Report. Unfortunately we had to work with Me-volution. This online program limited our way of learning, hope they skip this next year For me this was the most challenging project of the year. Again, just like Smart Environments, able to combine all my programming skills, hardware knowledge and interests in funny gadgets. This is what I want to do.
Final grade: unknown
A little impression of the prototype
Introduction into Computer Science
Theoretical course about how computers and hardware work. Techno dramas and assignments taught us this subject. For me this wasn’t really interesting. I missed the overall picture. The examination only touched a few parts of what we’ve discussed during the lessons. The report of the final assignment you can find here.
Dynamical Systems
This course is all about physics, how different systems work and work together. Hydraulics, electronics, mechanics are examples of the systems we discussed. We used 20-sim simulation program for the models. Involved in the course as well was a practicum. We had to make and simulate a few circuits. Invertors, capacitors. I know now how it works. This course was difficult, I needed a lot of practice. Part of completing this course was making a the exercises and that was a lot of work. Looking back at this course, I found it actually very interesting. The form of the exam was oral, not my favorite form. A written exam gives you time to think about a question, an oral exam doesn’t. Because of that I think I could have done better, but this mark is ok.
Final mark: 7
Motion and Modeling
The first mathematic course of First Year CreaTe: differentiation , differential equations and a lot of other stuff was discussed during the first lessons. We had to use these mathematics for the productionof screensaver. This was a group assignment. Check the result over here. The screensaver and the written exam together formed the final grade.
Final grade: 8
Seen the fact that I had some difficulties with the differential equations, but still had a 7.5 for my written exam, I think I did it quite well. Doing some math in the way we did in the screensaver is a nice way of learning.
Sketching for CreaTe
This course is an Industrial Design course. The whole course was practical; we learned the basics of sketching. A lot of work, but I’ve learned a lot: Perspective, drawing without lineal, smart drawing methods. It’s too much to put everything online, but here’s a short impression of the work. The examination found place in one afternoon session, we had to sketch 2 drawings
Final mark: 8
Very happy with this result. the mark I expected actually.
System and Signals
A mathematic course. The main topic of this course was processing of (audio)signals. In the first sessions we had some general basic mathematics. After those sessions, the group was split up into the Matlab and advanced math. I have chosen the Matlab group, this because I had some troubles with the mathematics. We had to make a written exam as examination.
Final grade: 6
I’m satisfied with this end result, certainly when I look at the math problems I had in the beginning of this course.
Designing in context
This course came as well from the Industrial Design department. The name of the course already explains what the topic of this course is. Putting your designs in the context. It was a very picturefull course. The first lessons were about ergonomics, the first assignment was to make a handheld game out of blue foam. After those trailsessions, we had to make a control unit. I made a new steering wheel for the brand Citron (famous for its original designs). After finishing the foam model I photographed it and putted it in context, using Photoshop. You can check out the result here. The final assignment was in the form of a complete research. We had to make moodboards, find out what the context is for the device we had to make. We had free choice in how we made the device. I made a complete presentation in powerpoint, the device was made in Gimp2. This is what resulted.
Final grade: 8
I’m completely satisfied with this mark, I putted a lot of afford in this course, so this mark comes as a nice reward.
Interactive Visualization
A project course where we have to make an interactive game for a stakeholder, in my case we have to make something for the NanoLab of the university of Twente. Our idea is to make a labyrinth in which you have to find your way through, getting a code to get out of the labyrinth again. This labyrinth is actually the chip. The player has to open several gates(ports in a chip) to get further.
At the beginning of this course, we had to make a moodspace to get familiar with Unity 3D, a game engine. My first experience can be found here. Writing an essay is part of this course as well. The topic of this essay is "The Not-Knowledge of The Eldery.