Hello!

This issue of the MS status report is primarily directed to new volunteers -- the 25 or so UCSD students who have, within the past couple of weeks, expressed a strong interest in getting involved in hands-on Microship development. I am also sending this to the normal status-report mailing list (faculty, industry, friends, and established assistants) for context and update purposes...

Here's what's happening with team development: I've now met over half of you, enough to know that there is a good mix of talent and intelligence out there. Some are beginners but eager to learn; others have spent time in industry or the military and already have a good feel for how things work. Some are working in technical jobs now; some are up to their necks in coursework and want to start on this next quarter; others are looking for something to do.

It's becoming clear that I have an interesting management task ahead, and putting together the "triumvirate" is going to be a critical part. Just as a reminder, I'm looking for three sharp people, well along the engineering learning curve, preferably with some industry experience. In the ideal world, this team would include one each from ECE, ME, and CS... but more important than that distinction is a good mix of verbal, design, and management skills. Hopefully we can secure independent study credit support from faculty for management, since a good percentage of graduating engineers are heading directly for management roles in industry. If you think you can manage other people, AND you have a wide range of interests covering a fair percentage of the Microship Project Catalog, please contact me ASAP.

Second, in addition to the project-specific teams, I want to create a "labor pool" of less-experienced people who wish to be involved but aren't ready to take on system responsibility. I rather like the thought of different design groups drawing on a resource of beginners, calling them in to help with wiring, testing, asset relocation, board fabrication, abrasives engineering, coatings application, and other tasks that are relatively well-defined but close enough to the project to be interesting. Those in the pool would become familiar with a number of subsystems, moving into more aggressive roles as their education progresses.

Finally, I want to use these reports to begin calling for immediate help with specific things. A number of you have offered to assist in any way, even if not with the "glory" projects like control system design. I will periodically include a list of current needs in these reports, welcoming any volunteers who want to help out. Here's the first such list:

--> Seaweed Canyon shop organization. This Saturday 10/23 at 10:00, I want to take a small workgroup to the shop at Seaweed Canyon (part of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, next to the aquarium). The purpose is to set up shop: it's currently a repository of my unused goods and furniture, scattered loosely about. Since this is where the hull will be fabricated, we need to get things organized and set up in anticipation of building the boat. While the labor requirement is rather minimal, having 2-3 people with me will help get it done in 2-3 hours! We'll arrange furniture, deal with boxes of stuff, and plan workbenches and supply storage facilities. A lot of us will spend a lot of time here once the fun starts -- now's the chance to make it comfortable and efficient.

--> Status report archives. Does someone want to take on the monthly job of printing archives of these reports? It never seems to get done here with my slow little printer and overloaded TO-DO list. I have them all on my Mac, and can email them to you or hand you a disk. The idea is to have ftp-able files by month, as well as a binder going back to the beginning (I've printed July...) to help bring newcomers up to speed.

--> FTP site maintenance. (Alec?) Again, files are on the Mac -- I'd like to find someone to take care of that publicly-accessible archive in ucsd.edu. At the moment, we need to update the READ.ME files, install some new material, and make some of the file names a bit more logical. People access this from all over the world, and it should be easy to use and current.

--> Extract 40 or 50 position fixes from my Motorola Traxar handheld GPS and put them in a file. I need to ship that unit back to the company.

--> Acquire a scale and help me put together the table of weights (Excel spreadsheets) as an input to the hull-design process.

--> Install DuraPoint mouse driver in a DOS machine on campus and test the unit for sensitivity and comfort (letting me play with it, of course). This will move immediately to a Macintosh-interface project when and if we decide it's the right pointing device for the console. (The bookstore said we can use one of their machines if necessary...)

--> Re-organize my CD library, moving liner notes into the vinyl viewpaks that will be used to carry both music and CDROM disks on the boat. Find a case that will work well and fit into the equipment rack.

--> Pack up some equipment (an H-P laptop, a Tadpole SPARC laptop, the GPS mentioned above, and some cassettes) and ship as specified.

--> Spend about 3-4 hours with me organizing and filing (mostly manufacturer's literature, magazines, and floppy disks).

--> Lab clean-up. If you've seen my lab in EBU-1, you know it needs it. It's time to make this place into a working lab -- for this, I want someone who has worked as a technician to spend a few hours with me, evening or weekend. I *hate* living out of boxes!

--> Install the lab security system with auto-dialer.

--> Get the Linear Recumbent rear wheel trued, assemble the bike, and take it for a test ride (jeez, did somebody call this WORK?).

There. Our first list of CDTs (Clearly Defined Tasks). I look forward to working with you!

Cheers and thanks, Steve