Acts 9. On the road to Damascus Saul was Converted. Ananias met up with Saul and from that time on Saul Preached Christ. The Jews decided to kill Saul, but he escaped at night by being lowered out the window, hidden in a basket. Saul then went to Jerusalem. The believers were at first suspicious of him, but Barnabas told what had happened to Saul, and the Church Prospers. Later Saul healed the paralytic Aeneas and in Joppa a woman named Tabitha (or Dorcas) died. The believers immediately called for Peter, and he uttered the words “Tabitha cumi” and she rose up again.
1 Samuel 18. Saul began to resent David, and no wonder, women started chanting “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” Saul’s daughter Michal fell in love with David, and Saul let them marry after a rather unusual dowry, but he became more and more suspicious and afraid of David.
In 1 Samuel 19 the feud is on, and Saul Persecuted David, trying to kill him over and over again.
Acts 8, Saul persecutes the Church, it was so severe that the believers scattered all over the nations. Thanks to that, the Gospel reaches Samaria where they meet Simon the Sorcerer, even he comes to believe, but he still thinks the Holy Spirit can be purchased with money! Finally Philip meets the Ethiopian eunuch. Thanks to God’s word in the scroll of Isaiah, he too came to believe and is baptized.
1 Samuel 16, Saul anoints David as King after rejecting all of David’s older brothers and David enters into Saul’s service, still being the titular King. Whenever Saul’s spirit troubles him David plays for him and that soothes Saul.
1 Samuel 17 tells the story of David and Goliath. Just read it, it is great reading.
Thursday, two days before finals was the PSU Engineering Capstone showcase. Even though I have been a lecturer there for the last seven years I didn’t realize it is by far the largest Capstone showcase of this type in the world, and it is growing year by year. This year there were 126 Senior Design course teams from the traditional engineering disciplines, but also the Nuclear, Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering teams participated, as well as the freshmen Engineering Design class, nearly 200 entries, in all around 1000 participants.
The set-up began at 10:30 a. m. in the Bryce Jordan main Arena, with 126 senior Capstone projects displaying their results. The other projects were displayed in the Southern Annex training area.
The success of the showcase is in part because of a large number of corporate sponsors, some who sponsor multiple projects. Some of these projects are at the very cutting edge of science and provide a real challenge for the students.
My role as an instructor is quite simple: To convert the engineering students from students to world class engineers in 16 short weeks. The engineering students are organized in teams of 4 or 5 persons. All of my teams this year consisted of engineers from at least 2 engineering majors, so the teams must get to know each other, work together as a functioning team, do the research, build a series of prototypes or a final product as a team, with deadlines to meet. This is quite different from cramming for an exam.
The projects are quite different: This spring I had the opportunity to coach 5 teams:
The first team tried to make sensor enabled athletic shoes, they took a shoe, put in a sensor that measured g-forces and temperature, added a transmitter to send the results to a computer for analysis. They also learned to 3D print a new sole for the shoe with the proper cavities for the sensors and battery. The challenge is to choose the best material for sole design. This project had three biomedical engineers and two computer engineers.
The next team made a contraption for taking muscle measurement during exercise. When exercise starts , blood flow increases and the muscles expand. As they dehydrate they slowly contracts again. The team made a band to fit around the thigh muscle of the one exercising with two time-of-flight sensors to measure the expansion and contraction of the muscle, sending the results to a computer for data collection, analysis and evaluation.
This was so successful that they won third prize for best project!
They also won fist prize for best 3 min video of their project!
The third team, investigating wearable exercises in Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 is a nickname for the fourth industrial revolution where robots take over and the people are taking on a more supervisory role overseeing robots and not doing the work themselves. There are few safety regulations developed to deal with this new complexity. One of the concerns is the stress it induces on the operators. A little stress is good, too much can be catastrophic. This became my emotional favorite, since at the same time my heart decided to be more and more blocked, ending up getting a stent put in the so-called widow-maker heart artery and I found myself hooked up with a portable BioPac for one day much like their research version. In addition, during the showcase one student passed out from stress and excitement! Anyhow, here is the team:
The fourth team was charged with making a Wireless Valve Position Indicator for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC). They were highly successful in their assigned task and functioned well as a team together. Here they are, all smiles, with their sponsor:
They won first prize for best poster!
Things do not always turn out as planned, and so was the case with team five.
They were charged with making an expensive piece of machinery, controlled by a Programmable Logic Controller work better. The PLC was from early 2000, Japanese proprietary, and the third-party vendor that had done the original coding was nowhere to be found anymore. The source code was finally delivered, but it took all the 16 weeks to secure a software license. The only contribution possible was making a better way of guiding sheet metal through the machine. However, they did what they could with the hand that was dealt them, and they learned a lot about how to deal with third-party vendors whose priority is to get another contract and not be helpful.
In all, a very successful Senior Design Showcase! As always, we are looking for more corporate sponsors to present challenges for the graduating class of future world-class engineers. This spring there were 88 sponsors, some with multiple projects.
Acts 6. To better serve the needs of widows seven people are chosen, among them Stephen. They will later be called deacons. Stephen speaks boldly about Jesus in the Spirit and is seized and a trial begins.
In 1 Samuel 14 Jonathan Defeats the Philistines. Saul’s makes an oath that no one is allowed to eat until nightfall. Jonathan didn’t know that, so he ate, and Saul wanted to put Jonathan to death, but his men refused the King’s order, so Jonathan’s life was spared.
1 Samuel 15, the chapter where Saul is rejected as King.
Acts 5, Ananaias and Sapphira were lying to the Holy Spirit and fell down dead. This lead to great fear and great power in the Church. An Angel of the LORD came during the night and freed the Apostles that had been jailed the previous day. They go back to the Temple courts and get called in to the Sanhedrin again for the crime of preaching about Jesus, but Gamaliel give them good advice, they listen and after flogging the Apostles they let them go.
In 1 Samuel 11 King Saul rescues Jabesh Gilead. Then the people reaffirms Saul as King.
1 Samuel 12 contains Samuel’s speech at Saul’s coronation.
1 Samuel 13, the real trouble begins, Saul gives an unlawful sacrifice, so God will no longer fight for them, Saul’s kingship will be taken away and God will choose a king after his own heart. The weapons for the army are taken away from the Israelites and the Philistines take control the iron trade.
Acts 4, Peter and John gets arrested and hauled before the Sanhedrin, get told not to speak about Jesus anymore. Their response? “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” They were let go and continued telling about Jesus and his resurrection, and a good time was had by all, sharing all things.
1 Samuel 9, Saul was a tall and handsome man, his father had lost some donkeys, so he sent Saul and his servant to look for them. Not finding them for 3 days they go to the prophet Samuel, God tells Samuel to meet them, and so they meet up, and thus Saul was chosen to be King.
In 1 Samuel 10, Saul is Anointed King and proclaimed King over all Israel.
In Acts 3 Peter heals a crippled man sitting at the Beautiful Gate with these words: “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” Then Peter preaches at Solomon’s Portico.
1 Samuel 5, the Ark of the LORD brings nothing but trouble to the Philistines.
So in 1 Samuel 6 the Ark is returned to Israel together with a guilt offering of five gold tumors and five golden rats.The Ark is brought back as far as toto Kirjath Jearim.
1 Samuel 7. Samuel grew up and became Judge over Israel. He subdued the Philistines at Mizpah, and there he raised his Ebenezer (stone of help). He judged Israel all the days of his life.
1 Samuel 8. Samuel’s sons were not following the Lord, so Israel Demanded a King. Samuel complained to the LORD, but He answered : Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king.”
Acts 2, at the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit arrived, and that day was at least 15 different tongues spoken. Peter stood up and delivered his first sermon, a powerful one with about 3000 new converts. These were good times and the believers were in good fellowship with each other.
1 Samuel 3 tells of Samuel’s first prophecy, a prophesy against Eli and his sons, for Eli failed to restrain them.
1 Samuel 4, the Philistines capture the Ark of God. Soon after Eli died, and Phineas died and his wife gave birth to Ichabod, which means “No Glory” for the glory had departed from Israel.
Acts 1 starts with the disciples watching Jesus’ Ascension, but before he leaves Earth he promises they shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on them. While waiting for the Holy Spirit Matthias is chosen to replace Judas.
1 Samuel 1 start out with the birth of Samuel. Elkanah had two wives, one was fruitful and the other, Hannah, was barren. As always with polygamy there is strife, but Hannah prays and gives her Vow that if she conceives a son she will give him to the LORD. Her wish comes to pass and so Samuel is born and dedicated.
1 Samuel 2 starts out with Hanna’s Prayer, a beautiful piece of poetry. Then comes the story of the wicked Sons of Eli, they took and ate the fat that was supposed to be burned! It tells of Samuel’s childhood ministry and finally a man of God gives a prophecy against Eli’s household, both his wicked sons will die on the same day.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 