Our school was recently lucky enough to witness the construction of a sand mandala. What I didn’t realize is that the tools that the monks use to place the sand makes a really interesting scratching noise. They used one tube with a small channel in it that had ridges on the top. This was scratched with another tube, which lets a small stream of sand flow. The organizers ran a short question and answer session to answer the reasoning and representation of the mandala, and then preceded to perform a ceremony and wipe away the sand into a jar, which was then transported to a nearby lake. They were working on this particular mandala for about a week, from nine to five.

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I’ve been helping out the Seniors on their entry for the 2008 Solar Splash Boat entry…

In this photo we are gluing the foam to the wooden plug we made of the boat hull. After the foam sets and dries, fiberglass will be laid on the outside hull and the inside. The motors will mount on the rear transom, which is strengthened with a special honeycomb layer.

More updates to follow.

Pictures from the 2007 SAE Baja Competition in Rochester, NY. Click for more!

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What an exhausting weekend. The 2007 Baja SAE Rochester Institute of Technology Competition was much fun.

I’ll have more details on our team’s performance mid-week or so, once my sunburn goes away.

Here’s a sneak peak at 100+ cars starting the four hour endurance race. Click for the large photo.

What a great time.