October Newsletter

What have I been doing?

Hey Guys!

For those of you who are reading this for the first time, my name is Aaron Newman, and I am an aspiring robotics engineer. Here, I will be sharing all of the exciting details about my life in the past month. Aside from my active pursuit of robotics and learning at my accelerator program called TKS, I love to think deeply. You can expect to see excerpts of philosophy and reflection throughout these routine posts. I hope not simply to reflect in the abstract but to actively apply my philosophy throughout my life, so that these posts can be intentional and meaningful.

Thank you for joining me on this journey. Enjoy!

What I’ve Been Building

Since the beginning of September, I have officially enrolled in a 10-month global youth accelerator program called TKS (The Knowledge Society). This essentially means that I am going to be building a lot of cool projects and getting invaluable feedback throughout the months ahead.

For those of you who don’t know, TKS (The Knowledge Society) is a global youth accelerator program that aims to replicate the culture of Silicon Valley. Here, I am constantly interacting with amazing directors and peers, leveling up as a builder. At TKS, there is a culture of high performance. Quick iteration is a staple of Silicon Valley; therefore, it is also a key feature of the work at TKS. In this program, students build project portfolios that replicate the work they will eventually be doing in the industry. Students explore emerging technologies and then implement them in their own projects. I am doing my TKS “focus” in robotics. For my first project, I will be building a motion platform that utilizes two custom capstan actuators within a 5-bar linkage system. The key here is the capstan actuators. If you want to learn more, check out this article that I wrote.

In this iterative process, I will be designing many mechanical components using CAD before 3D printing and assembling them. I have already made significant progress in designing my own custom actuators (as you can see below).

A Image of the latest Capstan actuator iteration

In this design, I use steel rods and epoxy to reinforce both shafts. The entire assembly has a 15:1 reduction ratio, zero backlash, and high torque, utilizing a NEMA-23 stepper motor with closed-loop feedback from an in-built magnetic encoder. By 3D printing the majority of components, the cost of this actuator is dramatically lower compared to current precision actuators, making it perfect for hobby and low-cost industrial applications.

TKS Events

Another key aspect of TKS is its events. Throughout the year, TKS students participate in hackathons and “Challenges.” Challenges provide unique opportunities to engage with real companies and present recommendations to executives. In the past, TKS has collaborated with industry leaders such as Amazon, Apple, SpaceX, and Google, among others.

Hackathons are similar to Challenges in that they are time-constrained and require participants to make a pitch. However, during hackathons, students develop data-driven solution pitches to very important problems. After creating their pitches, teams present to a panel of judges.

These events not only allow students to apply their skills in real-world scenarios but also help them build connections with top companies and industry professionals. By participating in both challenges and hackathons, students can foster their problem-solving abilities. These experiences help prepare students for future careers in technology and entrepreneurship.

TKS Hackathon highlights

For this hackathon, I was able to quickly assemble a team. After this, we spent a couple of days deciding on a good idea.

We considered building out a prototype connection protocol for a decentralized internet and making a water monitoring service to alert people of poor water quality with a mobile app. We also thought about a project to bring the power of the internet to millions living in remote communities through an essential kit.

Finally, we decided on a solution that is specific, impactful, and yet to be implemented at scale.

This is a project built to solve a problem that costs 60,000 lives every year:

Natural Disasters

As we researched the consequences of poor disaster recovery solutions, we found that current efforts can be dramatically improved with the implementation of a simple technology: drone swarms. One in two victims can be saved by medical intervention in the critical hours following a disaster. If only we had an effective, cost-effective way to search a large area quickly. If we could do this, teams could quickly identify the people in need and then help them. This is the problem that Rescue Swarm aims to solve.

Here Is the Rundown:

This swarm protocol consists of three distinct drone models, as well as some ground infrastructure.

The Scout

This drone is lightweight, minimal, and energy-efficient. Dozens are deployed at once, where they can all scan the ground with standard cameras and thermal imaging.

The Transmitter Drone

The transmitter constantly reads data from the scouts before relaying it to the cloud via a Starlink Roam terminal.

First Aid Drone

The large-format first aid drone can quickly deliver life-saving aid to critical survivor locations. This can also be instrumental in delivering necessary goods such as water or gasoline in the aftermath of a severe disaster such as the recent Hurricane Helene.

Cloud Compute Cluster

Images uploaded from the transmitters can be automatically sorted by priority using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and then processed anywhere in the world. These algorithms can automatically detect survivors, damaged buildings, flooded roads, or any visual information that is useful to keep track of.

Mobile Ground Station

This mobile ground station is where the drones will autonomously deploy from and dock to. This will be a van with shelves that extend from the back. These shelves contain integrated inductive charging. Upon return, drones can automatically park on the shelves and start charging.

With this idea, my team and I were able to win in the preliminary competition between the teams in our cohort. Soon we will compete against the winning teams from other cohorts, hopefully to win globally at TKS.

Check out our pitch here.

Lessons

Throughout the hackathon process, I learned a lot about what it takes to successfully manage a team. Even though we started early and had plenty of time, the time we had was not used wisely. We spent a long time thinking about what we should build before getting feedback from our director. This led us down the wrong path, wasting valuable time. Additionally, too much communication occurred in synchronous calls when it would have been equally effective and more convenient for everybody to coordinate often on an asynchronous medium such as Slack.

Aside from the universal struggle to coordinate with a team, the hackathon helped me to see something else more clearly. There are many ways to solve today’s problems with existing technology. It is not a problem of ideas but one of implementation. This doesn’t mean that implementation is intractable; rather, I am suggesting that we lack courageous builders who believe that they can be the ones to solve the most important problems.

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”— Steve Jobs

New Tools!

Along with all of the work I have been doing with TKS, I have a friend who owns a huge metalworking business. He is a true artist, and he does contracts around the U.S. to build custom metal artwork. This stuff is really amazing. Recently, he mentioned that he had a small metal lathe he wasn’t using and generously offered it to me if I cleaned it up. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to machine precise circular components out of metal, which opens up a whole new world of creative potential.

Here are a few examples of his artwork.

I Got a New Piano

It is amazing how serendipitous connections can transform your life. I am incredibly grateful to accept gifts such as a small lathe or a piano. I was able to acquire this beautiful instrument by chance because I was helping a friend move to Texas. They could not take it with them, and amazingly, now it is mine. Soon after I got it, I spent six hours tuning it myself, and now it sounds great.

Lessons from literature

In the past month I have began to read Thus spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche And a book called Ultralearning By Scott H. Young. At a glance, these seem totally unconnected, but for me, I see similar principles throughout them both. In Ultralearning, there is a strong theme of deeply pursuing mastery through dedicated effort and immersion into a topic. If done properly, skills that might otherwise take years to learn can be learned in a matter of months. This is the principle of learning a language by traveling to a new country and not allowing yourself to speak your native language from day one. The principle of ultralearning is not just to learn topics quickly but to take charge of your own life and push yourself to your limits.

Similarly, in Nietzsche’s work, there is a concept of transcending ordinary human experience in order to reach the state of Übermensch or "Superman." This requires a deep commitment to personal growth, overcoming societal norms, and striving to surpass one’s own limitations. Like ultralearning, it emphasizes the individual's active role in shaping their destiny and self.

Although these books are clearly different, I find it useful to apply the philosophy of fulfilling one's potential from Nietzsche to the practical methods outlined in Ultralearning. By doing that, I can get both the Why and the How. In the coming months, I want to deeply pursue content creation using the principles of ultralearning. By doing this, I can both accelerate my learning of how to produce high-quality videos as well as accelerate my learning in robotics, because that will be my primary focus for the videos.

What’s next?

For the next newsletter, you have a lot to look forward to.

First, I will have completed the 5-bar linkage pen plotter, as well as a high-quality video to show it off.

Secondly, I will have created at least one original piano composition to share. Aside from that, I want to do a lot more reflective writing. Incorporating philosophical insights into my everyday actions is quite the task, but with some effort, I can do it.

Thanks for reading, and I will see you in the next one!

---

---