August Additional Blog Post

     During my mentorship, one of the things I got to do was work with a coding program/language known as LabView. It is a type of visual programming language that can make coding easier for some, especially when there is a lot of statements calling on previously stated things. It is basically code put into a diagram like below:

     What I was asked to do with this language was more or less a repair job on a nearly completed program. One of the engineers there had begun to develop a program that would take in information from these new fiber-optic sensors that had been placed on a building model. The model appeared much like this:

     However, it was all metal and strapped with a line of sensors going down each metal bar. The end goal of the program was to display the information from the sensors into a graph. This graph would move as the structure did. This information would then be used to test the stress of the structure, but mainly was to test how effective they were at measuring the stability of certain structures. I ended up fixing the program and getting it to display the information, with help from the original engineer who had begun to develop it. I came to understand the basics of a program that most of the engineers said they use often and prefer over common coding languages. The application of these sensors was planned for many aircraft, but being first tested on stress of structures. I was exposed to that part for a good while on an experimental aircraft that was being designed to take these sensors to auto adjust a plane for the given wind conditions.