It's always nice to find out that your boss's boss's boss has your back.
When I got to work today, I headed straight to HR to start the process of negotiating for a higher salary, only to find out that the director of Equipment Engineering, my boss's boss's boss, had already started the negotiations on my behalf, and they are already putting together a new offer of "over $60k." The previous offer, in case anyone was wondering was $58219.20/year. I expected to be pretty much on my own with negotiating a higher salary for myself, so it was quite a nice surprise to find out that someone with real clout was pulling for me. Hell, it's usually the boss's job (especially the director, since my salary will come out of his employee budget) to get the company's back and try to get you for the lowest possible amount of money, not get the company to shell out more money for you. I had heard some bad things about this guy when it first came out in November that he would be taking over the directorship, but I haven't seen any evidence to back up those rumors, and anyone who will work to get me more money is OK in my book.
I was quite unimpressed with HR for taking almost 3 weeks to put together the initial offer that they claimed would take "a couple of days, no later than the weekend." The good thing is, it doesn't look like I will have to worry much about their inefficiency, and I expect this new offer to be quite acceptable.
I just reviewed my recent journal entries, and I realize that I failed to mention that I have filed my patent disclosure, and am currently waiting for the patent committee to review it and decide if they want to file a patent application.
On thursday of last week, the director mentioned above called me into his office to talk to me about the job, what I like and don't like about it, etc. During the course of the conversation, I happened to mention that I had submitted my patent disclosure, and explained to him what it was about. He liked the idea, saying that it has a lot of potential, and assured me that he has influence with the patent committee and will do what he can to push it through.
I have done everything I can at the moment on the work I took over as a result of my semi-promotion, so I have been given work on other projects. In one of these projects, I am doing some work on the guidance system for a new countermeasure device meant to take down mortar shells. I was also trusted with some updates to the master drawing for a major structural component of our ring-laser gyroscopes. That involved some actual drafting work, because the drawing was originally made in pencil on mylar in the late '80's and has been updated many times since. The thing has been copied, scanned, and updated so much that it is getting frayed around the edges. I don't know why they don't just make a version of it on computer and scrap the original master, but they wanted the original master updated with the latest changes, and I was handed the job of doing so. To be honest, it was quite interesting to work on a drawing outside the computer environment I was used to using, and was nice to find that the drafting class I had to take at TU was worth something beyond simply teaching me to read engineering drawings after all. I even got to dig out the .02 inch mechanical pencil I bought for that class, still in my backpack and untouched since 1998.
I got in touch with the people who are currently on the Battlebot project at Cal State Northridge, and found out that Taz-Bot, the design of which I almost completely overhauled during my stint on the project, should be completed in time for the competition this coming weekend, and should be competing in a tournament in San Francisco. I know it will do much better than it would have in its original design, but it remains to be seen just how well it will do. The electrical system is simpler than in the previous battlebot (which will be going to the same competition) and at least appears to be sturdier. The frame is light enough that the electronics will almost all use heavy-gauge wire and large, secure connectors, with the exception of the radio receiver and the associated connections.
They expect to have it assembled in its entirety tomorrow evening, and then they are going to weigh it. If it comes in underweight by 30 or so pounds as we expect, I have suggested places for cross-bracing to eliminate the worst of the weak points. To help prevent the electronic problems that have been plaguing the older bot, we selected components last semester that all had a factor of safety of at least 2. For example, the speed controller that controls the weapon motors can handle a peak current of 200A, a continuous current of 80A, and controls motors that have a combined stall current of 40A at the 24V we are using to run them. Not only that, but the controller is protected by two 50A fuses, one upstream and one downstream, just in case and is set to "soft-start" the motors to cut down on startup current.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to see either of the robots compete, but I have been assured that I will be called after each round of competition to let me know how the robots fared.
Honestly, if I was building a battlebot from scratch, Taz-Bot would not be it. I would instead make a lightweight spinner bot with a driving frame controlled tank-style underneath a spinning dome with a flattened bell-shaped cross section and sloped projections protruding all along it such that anything that touched the dome would be hit in a way that the force on the other bot would be directed up and away from my bot. That way, my bot would be forced into the ground, greatly increasing the frictional force and decreasing my bot's movement due to the impact if not eliminating it outright, while maximizing the other bot's motion.
Well, I am going to bed now, so my rambling has come to an end for this post.
I was quite unimpressed with HR for taking almost 3 weeks to put together the initial offer that they claimed would take "a couple of days, no later than the weekend." The good thing is, it doesn't look like I will have to worry much about their inefficiency, and I expect this new offer to be quite acceptable.
I just reviewed my recent journal entries, and I realize that I failed to mention that I have filed my patent disclosure, and am currently waiting for the patent committee to review it and decide if they want to file a patent application.
On thursday of last week, the director mentioned above called me into his office to talk to me about the job, what I like and don't like about it, etc. During the course of the conversation, I happened to mention that I had submitted my patent disclosure, and explained to him what it was about. He liked the idea, saying that it has a lot of potential, and assured me that he has influence with the patent committee and will do what he can to push it through.
I have done everything I can at the moment on the work I took over as a result of my semi-promotion, so I have been given work on other projects. In one of these projects, I am doing some work on the guidance system for a new countermeasure device meant to take down mortar shells. I was also trusted with some updates to the master drawing for a major structural component of our ring-laser gyroscopes. That involved some actual drafting work, because the drawing was originally made in pencil on mylar in the late '80's and has been updated many times since. The thing has been copied, scanned, and updated so much that it is getting frayed around the edges. I don't know why they don't just make a version of it on computer and scrap the original master, but they wanted the original master updated with the latest changes, and I was handed the job of doing so. To be honest, it was quite interesting to work on a drawing outside the computer environment I was used to using, and was nice to find that the drafting class I had to take at TU was worth something beyond simply teaching me to read engineering drawings after all. I even got to dig out the .02 inch mechanical pencil I bought for that class, still in my backpack and untouched since 1998.
I got in touch with the people who are currently on the Battlebot project at Cal State Northridge, and found out that Taz-Bot, the design of which I almost completely overhauled during my stint on the project, should be completed in time for the competition this coming weekend, and should be competing in a tournament in San Francisco. I know it will do much better than it would have in its original design, but it remains to be seen just how well it will do. The electrical system is simpler than in the previous battlebot (which will be going to the same competition) and at least appears to be sturdier. The frame is light enough that the electronics will almost all use heavy-gauge wire and large, secure connectors, with the exception of the radio receiver and the associated connections.
They expect to have it assembled in its entirety tomorrow evening, and then they are going to weigh it. If it comes in underweight by 30 or so pounds as we expect, I have suggested places for cross-bracing to eliminate the worst of the weak points. To help prevent the electronic problems that have been plaguing the older bot, we selected components last semester that all had a factor of safety of at least 2. For example, the speed controller that controls the weapon motors can handle a peak current of 200A, a continuous current of 80A, and controls motors that have a combined stall current of 40A at the 24V we are using to run them. Not only that, but the controller is protected by two 50A fuses, one upstream and one downstream, just in case and is set to "soft-start" the motors to cut down on startup current.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to see either of the robots compete, but I have been assured that I will be called after each round of competition to let me know how the robots fared.
Honestly, if I was building a battlebot from scratch, Taz-Bot would not be it. I would instead make a lightweight spinner bot with a driving frame controlled tank-style underneath a spinning dome with a flattened bell-shaped cross section and sloped projections protruding all along it such that anything that touched the dome would be hit in a way that the force on the other bot would be directed up and away from my bot. That way, my bot would be forced into the ground, greatly increasing the frictional force and decreasing my bot's movement due to the impact if not eliminating it outright, while maximizing the other bot's motion.
Well, I am going to bed now, so my rambling has come to an end for this post.