Caterpillar Visit

On Monday the two teams doing their MQPs with Caterpillar went to Shouzu to visit the plant and meet our sponsors. All four WPI students went on the trip, however only 2 members for SHU from each group were able to join us because the junior students has class. The trip started off by taking the subway at 8 am. Just like any major city 8 here is also rush hour. But believe me when I say this rush hour in Boston is nothing compared to Shanghai. Getting on to the subway was insane, not one more person could have fit on that thing we were packed so tight in there I am sure we broke the weight limit at least 3 times, you literally could not breath let alone meet. After about an hour and a half with a taxi ride and train ride we finally arrived at Caterpillar!!! First we meet our sponsor Brad the engineering supervisor and Danny engineer assigned to the project. Brad went over a small Caterpillar presentation, then the teams did presentations. After our presentation we found out, just how little work we actually had to do. Brad is really just looking for concepts from us with solid reasons as to why we choice them but noting crazy detailed and modeled out. We also learned that our project has really already been completed by Danny and is in the works to make it to production in 6 months, Brad just wants to see if we can come up with something better. After presentations we went to the café for lunch, nothing special I had an Iced Tea (that tasted like air freshener), a bowl of rice and an Orange. Once lunch was over was the exciting part, touring the plant. The tour of the plant was wicked awesome!! We walked through the entire production process starting with fabrication, then going to pain and assembly. Brad walked as down the line where we got to see every step in production occur right to the final built tractor. However the best part was going out in the yard and playing with the tractors. We got to climb around on the model and take photos for our project which was literally so much fun. Danny then brought us up to look at the CAD model of the tractor we will be working with for the rest of the day. After this we took a taxi back to the train station. This was one of the scariest experiences, the taxi driver was literally weaving in and out of traffic fighting through the smallest places. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We went back to campus and went to a dinning hall and by that time it was already 6pm. After dinner Matt, Arm and Myself walked around town looking for a place to get Arm’s phone registered, since every phone in China needs to be registered to a real person or it will shut off within 3 days. We were unsuccessful however so we just went home. At home we tried a dragon fruit, which honestly just tasted like unflavored kiwi. Monday was a pretty eventful day:D Tuesday I spent most of the day sleeping as I was not feeling well, I did do some work on the project and plan our trip for Wednesday. Tomorrow morning the we are going to get up early to take the Subway into this old City to walk around for the day. This city has the best Teahouse in China, that George Bush and the Queen of London have gone too. It also has the best Dim-Son restaurant in all of Shanghai. I will be sure to take photos and post them for everyone. Have a good Tuesday :D