Thankfully, after that class was a break for lunch, which came from the local REWE before sitting around and just chatting with the rest of the students before our next class. The next class happened to be physiology lab where we had a chance to get together with our design groups and hash out various design ideas before our teacher would wander over to see how far along we were in both our ideas and the 5 slide presentation that we'll have to do next Wednesday. I'm actually pretty proud of my group as we came up with a fairly good idea (no, I'm not telling) and had most of the outline for our slides done. When our teacher came over to see our ideas, he clarified some of the parameters of our project and told us where we still needed to focus our efforts on, but he seemed largely happy with our idea.
I should take a moment to really put this project into perspective. We were given a task from Otto Bock to create a better trans-tibial (below the knee) prosthetic. As of right now, they only have one model for this type of prosthetic compared to their bigger focus on trans-femoral (above the knee) prosthesis. They don't have the idea in their back pocket and seeing how close to the mark we get, this is an actual problem that they are asking us to solve. If we come up with a good idea, Otto Bock could take our idea and tweak it before making it and selling it to their clients. That means that this is not only a lesson into design or physiology, like our teachers were originally thinking, but a glimpse into actual work that we will do as engineers in the work force. And if we do well, we can say that one of the leading prosthetic company's in the world used our class project as a starting point for one of their prosthetic limbs. How cool is that!? I'm very excited and know that we'll do the best that we can for this company.
Anyway, after our small meetings with our professor, the entire atmosphere slowly relaxed as first one, then three, then more and more people wrapped up their group discussions. I was able to help out a friend fix her Karneval costume by sewing on some buttons to her costume. When I saw the outfit, I just had to let out a laugh. It was a sort of dress with an opening from the waist up that would be closed from buttons that traveled all the way up to her collar. The only problems were the buttons. They were fine on the skirt portion, and the top two buttons, but the large majority on the the torso were missing. luckily she had an extra button and I snagged the topmost button that wouldn't be used anyway and sewed those onto the correct positions and fixed the costume. I even got to teach my friend the basics on sewing on a button. Just after I started threading the needle to fix the costume, Kelsey came up and asked if I could fix her jacket as it was ripping at the seam of her arm. I really like to sew, so of course I said yes. Once everything was fixed and returned to their proper owners, we just stuck around and talked for a while. Oh! And we marveled over the giant gummy bear we were making. The other day, someone put a gummy bear at the bottom of a water filled glass and throughout the day, we saw the bear grow before our eyes as it absorbed more and more water. I wonder how big it'll eventually get and if it will conform to the sides of the glass once it reaches that far.
Yes, that is the gummy bear in a glass of water
Tomorrow is the start of Karneval with Women's Karneval Day. Basically it means that the women rule the day and are allowed to kiss anyone they want on the cheek or cut off any tie they see on a guy (it's a symbolic thing). Also, fun fact: the first ever Karneval was held in Koeln in 1823. That means I'm basically where Karneval started while the so called "Crazy Days" are happening. Pretty cool huh? Anyway, look forward to lots of pictures of the costumes I'll see and the parade we'll see.
Till then, Tschuss!
Erin Z
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