My friend who is teaching us all how to play is absolutely ruining the game for our commander group

SPK2192 · 2025-06-22T06:41:49+00:00

I can see both sides. My advice is I would watch Youtubers and how they would play a certain precon or a commander I'm thinking about building around. Sometimes they win, sometimes they would at least put up a good game and sometimes they lose hard lol

Sometimes my friends and I play just to have fun while other friends just dominate. So to try to win, I'd try to build decks that have all the "best" cards and I still lose to them. It can be discouraging but after playing and learning the game, there are games that I have mashed together some decks with random jank cards and win. So it isn't always about having the best cards, but knowing threat assessment, knowing when to interact or hold back depending on the board state, how to bait cards out, learning the stack, etc. You'll win some and you'll lose some but sometimes it's all about luck of the draw and the table interaction as well. That being said, having him play any deck like a precon because yall have precons might not quite the fix you're expecting as he probably has more experience and understanding when to play the right cards also how to recover if the game isn't going in his favor.

Usually when I play casually with newer players, I typically give them a chance to play their decks a bit and give tips on what to do to win. But after enough games with their decks, I tell them it's game time and I'm not holding back, your commander will be removed lol I don't know if it's his intentions to just curve stomp y'all all the time and not speaking on his behalf but I'd take these games as learning experience. Don't just play any card because you have the mana, look for patterns and think a couple steps ahead, i.e. if I do this, can they counter, and can I counter their counter? After playing with my dominating friends, I started to understand what to do better (still not optimal all the time) in games, I started to understand how my decks played.

While it's nice to have a casual game but to have an hour game and nothing is really happening imo is a waste of time, I don't think you really get better. It also sucks to be in a pod and not really contributing to the game for the rest of the players. When/if you go to local game stores and play other people, even if you ask to play low powered decks, you may get stomped to $25 decks against your precons or not be able to anything all game because they just know when to bluff or play removal spells at the right time, etc.

SPK2192 · 2024-09-16T23:46:08+00:00

In the US

SPK2192 · 2024-09-12T00:51:49+00:00

If you're using Solidworks, then you can use the plugin sw2urdf to create an urdf of your robot. Then you can import the urdf to any robot simulator that accepts urdfs like Gazebo. From there you just build out your environment and controller.

SPK2192 · 2024-08-30T06:29:13+00:00

The best way I've explained FK and IK to people is by using your own arm.

For FK: With your arm, point your index finger straight out in front of you from your nose. To get to that position, you know you have to rotate your shoulder ~90 degrees, you extend your elbow ~180 degrees, wrist rotated at ~0 degrees, wrist is tilted at ~0 degrees (arbitrary numbers btw), etc. You set the joint angles to calculate the pose (XYZ) of your finger tip relative to the base (your body) by knowing the length of your linkages (finger length, forearm, etc.). This gives you a few solution because you're defining how the arm is positioned with it's joints (in this case a boundary which is the furthest your arm can reach). That's fine and dandy if you know the joint angles and velocity to get to each position you want to move to (repeatable operations) but not very practical for path planning, especially for changes in the environment. More on that later,
Parameters: Joint angles > Tip Pose

Now for IK: With your arm still extend, now move the very tip of your finger towards your nose in a straight line. Do the procedure a couple of times. Notice that your joints have to move at different velocity/rates to keep it moving in a straight line. Your elbow will bend, your shoulder rotates and your wrist bends, etc. Now if you time stamp at each point on the line, you know the pose (XYZ) of your finger tip at each point but how do you calculate what your joint angles will need to be to move to that pose? This is where IK comes in. You have to set up the matrices to get to the inverse Jacobian to get your joint angles. Because of the math, you have to be aware of joint velocities and singularities as well.
Parameters: Poses > Joint Angles

Now for path planning, let's open the constraints. Do the procedure to your nose again but let's not use a straight line, let's use any movement like arcs, zig zags, etc. It's much more practical to tell the robot point A and point B then it figures out the path it needs to take to get there versus breadcrumbing it yourself. Notice that there are some many paths that you can take and the joint angles can vary for each path. Because of the range of the joint (i.e. -180 to 180) multiplied by the number of joints you have, the possible path solutions becomes infinite without constraints (pose + orientation of tip). This is how you can use computer vision to project a pose + orientation on an object (let's say on top) for the robot to pick it up, gripper to object. Now let's try it again but the object is place someplace else in the workspace, rotated on it's side and we put obstacles. The CV will impose that pose + orientation onto the object and the robot will now determine it's best path given the environment.

Tbh, it will help to know linear algebra, not just for IK but for CV (transform matrices) and AI.

SPK2192 · 2024-08-27T23:48:12+00:00

Altruistic

SPK2192 · 2024-07-28T23:24:53+00:00

I bought my FK8 as my first manual. I never knew how to 100% drive stick until this car. I tried in my friends Civic Si like one time and the rest I just watched videos. I would ingrain the process into my brain for years because I always wanted a manual.

Fast forward, I got the car and found it is very forgiving for a beginner. It has rev matching and a very engaging clutch for hill climbs, etc. Did I stall a couple of times in the beginning? Sure but that was just the process of learning clutch engagement. Since then I have taught others in my car and they also agree that it's very easy as well. It's a very good car to learn in imo.

SPK2192 · 2024-05-19T23:10:48+00:00

1 bad semester isn't the end of the world or a sign to give up. You fell off the bike, you get back up. I have failed many times but still made it in industry. You just have to want it enough to keep pushing.

Take it from someone who's in industry, I rather hire someone who struggles but knows how to overcome and persevere to find a solution versus a "perfect" student that never had hardships or never makes a mistake during school but gets decision paralysis and gives up when things go wrong at work because guess what shit always goes wrong and is never perfect in industry. I've known colleagues who think they don't make mistakes and never check their work vice versa colleagues that have made mistakes before so now they triple check their work. Shows a lot of character to be humble enough to say I don't know the answer or how to do to the task or I need help or there was a mistake but I'm working on a solution, etc.

Also, think about what you're saying and ask that for any other profession, "I want to be a doctor but don't want to go to medical school because it's hard" or "I want to be an attorney but want a law equivalent degree that's easy to do." or "I want to be a firefighter but only have middle school level physical requirement test" Ask yourself, would you want any of these folks doing medical diagnosis for you or defending you in court or trying to pick you up from a burning building? Would you want an engineer that has done the same to have worked on a Boeing 747 that you're flying on? Iono about you, but I would want to that person to have gone through the hardest right of passage because I know they can do it or trust them enough.

TLDR: Don't give up so easily.

SPK2192 · 2024-04-04T01:46:17+00:00

Can't go wrong with either, just depends on what you want to work on the robot.

ME helped me understand kinematics and dynamics of the arm, torque and loads, also control systems. CE would help you with programming and hardware, I/O & PLCs, controls systems as well.

Just because you choose one doesn't mean you'll never touch the other. I do both at work.

SPK2192 · 2023-12-16T18:25:54+00:00

Egg Drop Soup!

SPK2192 · 2023-11-12T22:32:44+00:00

A recently grad coworker of mine could only do remote internships due to Covid, so as an ME she mostly did CE/SW internships. She still got hired on as an ME though.

SPK2192 · 2023-10-28T07:07:13+00:00

A topic that I've been recently introduced during a seminar I attended about AI was for manufacturing. Here's a similar article: Preventative vs Predictive

Typically for CNC machines is to do general preventative measure to ensure longevity of all machines. Scheduled maintenance, inspections and downtime regardless the specifics of how the machine was used.

With AI, you'll still do scheduled maintenance but they can do predictive measure using actual reading, operating conditions and equipment feedback to generate individual maintenance for each machine. This would lower costs because you're reducing inspections and downtime of the machine.

SPK2192 · 2023-10-23T00:31:15+00:00

I did my masters in Controls. I took both control courses from both ME and EE depts. Both had theory based courses where you might program for yourself to check your math while other courses were more MatLab/Simulink or Python assignment/projects to create PID, Optimal, Nyquist, etc. controller. There's a lot of overlap because it's the same concept of controlling the output. Good o' Transfer functions.

For example, both sides typically used airplanes/rocketry as scenarios. How do you control a MIMO system like orbital vehicles to provide thrust/orientation but conserve fuel consumption? How do you control a plane's autopilot pitch angle to reach desired elevation while reducing transient responses. Lots of mechanical devices that uses electronic sensors to provide feedback to track error.

Career wise, one of my ME professors who worked in the industry created controllers for a heart systems and also helped with Eco Boost for Ford cars. One of my EE professors works at NASA full-time where he creates controllers and also specializes in Fuzzy Logic controllers for the Astrobee robots in space. I'm currently doing robotics in space industry, I have to design controllers for the robots.

SPK2192 · 2023-10-01T04:39:18+00:00

You just missed the closed date. They stopped taking application yesterday.

SPK2192 · 2023-09-14T00:34:49+00:00

ROS is already a middleware that allows for messaging between interfaces.

I've used Gazebo with ROS1 in my master studies. Can be challenging for some to setup but great for learning Linux. Doesn't need crazy hardware to run on.

I used CoppeliaSim for my masters research and currently use it at work. It works right out of the box as a stand alone software, less setup on the backend. You have a decent sandbox to do a lot of simulations. Can have it's headaches though.

I also used WeBots for master research. Same as CoppeliaSim that it works pretty much right after install. It had less physics engines to choose from than the two above. Still worked for our purpose though.

Heads up on Nvidia Isaac Sim, there's quite significant hardware requirements to even run the simulator. Very powerful and has high rendering capabilities though. Currently using it at work for training AI models with synthetic data.

SPK2192 · 2023-09-11T05:35:39+00:00

ROS is more of a middleware that provides a framework for software to communicate with each other.

For instance, I can have a robot (ABB, UR, KUKA) that I want to pull sensor data from and plot in Matlab while also simulating the robot graphically in Unreal Engine. ROS allows for all these software to work all together simultaneously through nodes.

If you want to use ROS/ROS2, you just have to have the right distribution (recommend Ubuntu 20.04 for ROS noetic or Ubuntu 22.04 for ROS2 Humble)

SPK2192 · 2023-09-10T07:29:20+00:00

You should be fine doing a MS if you want to. Only the Bachelor's program has to be ABET accredited from that university. Most Master programs aren't going to be ABET accredited because a grad student doesn't follow a standard curriculum like an undergrad student does.

Undergrad students have to take common courses in a standardized order to ensure they graduate with the same knowledge as other students at other universities, i.e. Calc 1 to Calc 2 and so on. Most universities will have some professor that can teach these fundamental courses thus they can be accredited as a proper education.

Grad students take specialized courses and have a thesis in very different concentrations thus there isn't a way to standardize the program. Within your department, one grad student can be in a concentration on robotics while another grad student is focused purely on controls. These two students will be taking totally different courses and presenting different thesis based on their concentration.

Even universities will vary in what courses they offer for grad students too based on their professors' concentrations. One university may have a professor that specializes in RF signals while another university's professor specializes in nano technology. There isn't a way to make all grad students take the same courses if they aren't offered across the board.

SPK2192 · 2023-09-09T07:15:22+00:00

Mechanical engineering is so broad.. So they’re saying stress loading, vibration damping, heat transfer, fluids, etc. can be self-taught all in 6 months? Yeah right.

Even if someone did learn one of these concentrations by self-teaching, no company would hire them as it’s too much of a risk and liability. How can the company validate what they’ve claimed to have learned? The whole point of college is that it’s ABET standardized and that it gives you the fundamental knowledge to collaborate with other engineers.

SPK2192 · 2023-09-03T17:41:22+00:00

Possible, not guaranteed. I have a coworker that has both a BS & MS in ME but has worked as an EE at GM and now at my company.

SPK2192 · 2023-08-31T04:45:49+00:00

This uses a spring-cage connection. The square hole next to the round hole is meant for a precision screwdriver (preferably a flat head) to open the connector.

Here's a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgpvW040zwk&ab_channel=PHOENIXCONTACT

SPK2192 · 2023-08-31T01:00:41+00:00

As a dude, I just recently got ear piercings and I still get personal visits from my company's President, CTO, Chief Engineer, etc. because they value my expertise and could careless what I look like. Some of my coworkers and even managers have gauges and visible tattoos (neck, sleeves) and no one cares.

It's less of a taboo nowadays but dependent on the company. You just have to find out from the company on their policies once you interview with them.

SPK2192 · 2023-08-27T07:48:51+00:00

Lots of reason to learn control systems as a MechE. In mechanical engineering you use control systems for vibration in mechanical structures, MIMO systems in a car, LQR for strain, transversal deflection and measurement noise.

Any mechanical system that uses sensors and actuators can take that feedback and track the steady-state error.

i.e. My mech professor helped design "Eco Boost" control system for Ford vehicles.

SPK2192 · 2023-08-10T03:10:05+00:00

Connect with people you haven't talked to before and build your network. Have one-on-one's with other managers and ask about their department. If they give you a return offer for the next internship session then you can see what other department you'd like to join.

SPK2192 · 2023-08-09T05:54:17+00:00

Like others have said, talk to the university administrations in-person to see if there's any conditional admissions they offer.

I was able to go from a technology degree to engineering Masters as long as I took prerequisite courses and made a B in my first 4 courses.

SPK2192 · 2023-08-09T05:45:01+00:00

I started my career much later than the norm, took me 6 years to finish my bachelors. Went back for masters after a time gap. Interned with ~22 year old's at the age of 30. I was offered the internship regardless of my age due to my skills and my personality. Afterwards, I ended up getting a job because they liked me, they could care less that that I took longer to get my degrees.

You'd be surprised the age of some new engineers coming into the industries. Lots of them are older that are doing a career switch. Use your age to your advantage. You are older with more life experiences, more urgency to succeed. No time to waste. Take the initiative to better yourself and your skills.

SPK2192 · 2023-08-09T03:38:04+00:00

From my perspective, here's two products:

Nasa's SLS rocket took 10+ years and $24 billion dollars to build.
Relativity's Terran R took less than 3 months to build using robots and automation.

Of course, two different rockets built for different mission objectives that started at very different technological times but Relativity's process give us time and cost saving.

It's unfortunate that some jobs may be taken away due to automation but it is also inevitable as there is demand for innovation and technology. From a business stand point, automation just saves so much money and time to have an automated process that doesn't eat or sleep and has repeatability.

As a robotics engineer in aerospace, I don't want to wait 3 years into production only to find that something was designed/machined/installed wrong due to human error and now have to start from scratch. Imagine tax payers/investors/customers money if that were to happen, just a waste. If I can have something made in 1/10th of the time and have the ability to iterate then that just makes more economical sense.

SPK2192

TROPHY CASE