Mitsubishi Tour

Ok...so I'm cheating with 2 posts in 1 day...but so much has happened!  

After returning from Kyoto Sunday night, I was completely exhausted...but my Textile Futures paper was due the next day and still needed major editing and a conclusion!  I worked on it through the night and skipped out on Japanese class Monday morning (which allowed 5 extra hours of writing!).  Nancy and I worked back and forth for the next 24 hours trying to get a professional-level research paper finalized for the June 30th (NC time) deadline....and we did it!  I am very happy with the final paper and glad its written!  Now the fun part will be preparing the presentation for the International Conference in mid-August.  (Although working on this will wait until I return at the end of July).

I did make it to seminar and then our group met to prepare ideas for the final presentation for our Automotive Seminar.  This is going to require a LOT of very quick work over the next 5 days before it is due!

Today was the real excitement!  We went on our last group tour to Mitsubishi.  We started in a conference room with a video on Mitsubishi's current research and the MiEV (their newest electric vehicle).  We then were given a chance to see the car, and poke and prod every detail as any engineer (or designer) would.  I sat down inside and closed the door, then a driver sat down and started the vehicle!  I had no idea we would get to do this!  He drove us down a short road and in a circle.  The car was nearly silent, very smooth, and accelerated with power!

Our group then hopped into a small tour bus to view the test track.  We crossed a bridge where we could see the banked curves and before we realized what was happening...the van was on the test track with other vehicles speeding by!!  If this wasn't strange enough, the driver accel and our van was taking the curves at a 45 degree vertical angle!!  After about 2 laps we thought we were back to reality but then toured the extreme condition testing facilities.  We got to enter a room testing vehicles at temperatures over 50*C.  We then entered the cold chamber at -20*C.  Our final destination was the radiation room.  This room was NOT running at the time, which is probably a good thing because I didn't really want to come back from Japan with a tail!

It was another very exciting day in what has been an incredible program!  A group of us ended the day with a merry-go-round sushi dinner and a full belly!