A Day to Relax Before the Competition

Today was visit MIT day for me, but it was rather cold especially when it was breezy. The snow was everywhere, but looked much better in the daylight than the dark the night before.

The architecture around Boston is hundreds of years old, and most, but not all, of the architecture looked something like the nice house below.

The public transportation we took to MIT appeared to be an efficient and well-used Bart system. We made it to MIT in about twenty minutes or less (not including the long walk we took trying to find the visitor center where the tour starts). 

MIT, though some of the buildings are still quite old, had some more modern architecture than that of Boston by and around our hotel. The dome below is actually an eighth of a sphere used as an activities hall. The buildings below that were home to computer science and artificial intelligence research.

But of course, the most exciting sight was of the main building at MIT. This is the picture most people see of MIT first, though perhaps a spring shot of the Dome is most prevalent. The Dome has been toyed with or decorated quite a few times. It's been made to look like the ring from The Lord Of The Rings and R2-D2 from Star Wars. Some of the pranks have included an actual firetruck or police car on top of the Dome. You can check out some of these "hacks" Here.

For some, the Dome pranks are nothing new. Something I think not all people know, however, is that the courtyard in front of the Dome was originally a large depression to allow the Charles River to flow in. Then the city built a highway, blocking off this option. Now it is just a courtyard, but a popular one, nonetheless.

That was about the extent of the MIT tour, in my opinion, other than finding out that MIT is like a mini-city with everything one needs. When I hear back from MIT as to whether I am accepted or not, I will still have a hard decision to make. In any case, we went back to the hotel and under the supervision of our mentor...

... we relaxed in the pool, as we may not have that chance in the next few days.

But seriously, this seems like a lot of relaxing going on in Boston. Aren't we here for a competition? With RoBOtS!?

Yes, we are. Tomorrow, we go to the stadium to practice, which for Team 701, means putting finishing touches on the robot's programming. My task tomorrow will be to compile a pictorial list of different teams that will be used to determine our future alliance. Then Friday we go for the elimination rounds, which determine who is first to choose their alliances on Saturday.

So, expect to see some pictures of various robots sometime tomorrow afternoon (late afternoon; more like evening).