Entry #7 Frustrations

Dates: 7/6/11 - 7/7/11
Activities: RTMS, Lit Review, HDS Survey, Drawing Packets
Technical Information: WinRTMS4 Software, MS Excel, MS Word
Reflection: These past few days I've continued to work on the HDS literature review and survey. For the survey, I've been getting responses from people across the United States, and it's pretty neat being the person of correspondence. However, I haven't been getting as many immediate responses as I had hoped. Daniel told me that sometimes a single email, especially in a large government agency like the department of transportation, can be forwarded multiple times before it gets into the hands of the right person who is willing to answer.

I've also been helping Daniel help prep for the HEC (Highway Engineering Concepts) course that ITRE teaches in the fall. Because this is an engineering course, students have several activities that involve drawing in roads. I was tasked with preparing drawing packets for the students. A drawing packet includes drawing tools such as an engineering-grade ruler and protractor. It was interesting to learn how engineers used to design roads before the software for highway design was developed.

Along with the HDS project and HEC prep, I've also been trying to figure out a new software, WinRTMS4, that goes with a new scanning unit ITRE bought. The scanning unit, called an RTMS, is installed on the side of a highway and uses radio waves to detect vehicles. My supervisor, Chris, wants me to try and figure out how to program this software to detect gaps between cars. So far, I haven't made much progress.

The only major frustration I've had at work is dealing with footnotes with MS Word and working with the "linking" feature. However, the more I played around with it, the easier it became. Other than that, everything has been great! I've learned more than I ever thought I would, and it's been nice to be completely immersed in a professional environment.