Needing a single credit hour in order to graduate with my class, I was directed to COSI as a way of obtianing said credit hour. I have been on the COSI mailing list since my freshman year, but had only attended a couple of meetings over the last three years. Perhaps as an underclassman I was intimidated by the knowledge gap between myself and the other lab members, and took that as a reason to not continue my attendance. In the few weeks I have been attending meetings regularly, I wish that I would have stayed with COSI in my freshman year. Knowing though that hindsight is always 20/20, I plan to make the best of one semester of membership by absorbing as much information as possible, and making some sort of contribution to the lab.
Since the time I have to work with COSI is limited, I would be unable to make much of a contribution by taking on administrative duties over a machine or another lab resource. Rather, I have decided to use some of my more unique (among CS enthusiasts, at least) skills to help the lab.
Having worked construction on and off for several years, I have a decent grasp on carpentry. When a discussion came up during a lab meeting about the need for new bookshelves to replace the existing ones, I decided that one way in which I could contribute was to design and build new shelving for the COSI library. Although not related directly to any COSI-esque activities, it would be a lasting way in which I could use previously gained skills to better the lab as a whole. I have since made this my main priority in assisting with the lab.
As of this writing, I have taken measurements of both the existing bookshelves and a selection of books in order to estimate the amount of shelf space that is going to be needed. I took a selection of 20 books from the shelf and measured their dimensions in order to get an estimate of the size of the average book. By using this data in conjunction with the size of the existing shelves, I estimate that COSI has around 230 books that are going to need to be shelved, with an average thickness of 1.2225 inches. The data I collected is summarized in the table below.
| Min. | Max. | Avg. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Width | <1 in. | 3 in. | 1.2225 in. |
| Height | ~8 in. | 11.5 in. | |
| Depth | ~6 in. | 8 in. |
As of now, I intend to draw up plans for the shelves using a CAD program, likely one of an open-source variety to keep with the ideals of COSI. Once completed, I will use that design to come up with a list of the materials that will be needed, then draw up a cost analysis for said materials. At this point, I will bring up the plans at a meeting in order to gauge support and hopefully appropriate funds for it. Once this is done, it is simply a matter of setting aside time to do the actual building, finish work, and reshelving of the books.