Microscope, Robotics, Tables, and a Window

So the big day has arrived. Today the robot is finally moving into our hands. Things did not turn out exactly as planned.

 

The day started early, with Dimitry from the Eisenberg Brothers who came in to move the microscope from the molecular lab to its new station in the robotic room.

While Dimitry was moving things, a nice guy from the communication department showed up to talk about connecting the ethernet ports in the new room. I then got a long phone call from a collaborator.

A bit later, Udi Oz from Neotec and his crew showed up. They brought the Peak Robotics arm. As they started working, Danny from the computer system showed up to talk about communications and potential place to put wireless. 

Then Michel the carpenter suddenly came in to ask which doors need safety stops. As he was talking to me the Neotec people realized there is a problem with the new tables for the robot. They were not flat, and the rail for the robot arm was not sitting properly because of that.

We started consultation as to what to do about that when the delivery truck with the robot showed. The huge robot box almost blocked the corridor. 

But since the tables are not flat, we had to move to a side area so traffic will not be jammed.

As we were doing this the aluminum profile person showed up and took the temporary window in the robotic room. Michel came in and tried to see if he can help us with the tables. In the end we decided to wait until the PVPlast team shows up and fix the issues. 

Just to get a sense of the problematic aspect here, we took pictures of a straight piece of wood as one end was touching the table, the other is seen to be far from it.

These events were squeezed into five intense hours. Just to get a sense, here is a time-lapse movie of this part of the day.

This left me a bit of time to talk some issues with Udi, grab a sandwich and go to group meeting. On returning we found out that the new window is installed.

It has integrated shades inside, between two glass panels, and so allows to close or open the window easily.

Windows, doors, and tubes (a mid-passover report)

The last week or so I was on the road and did not get to see the building progress. On the few calls to the lab I heard in the background terrible noise. Turns out we finally got an electricity constructor and his workers were cutting tunnels to pass electricity wires in the walls.

Today I finally managed to get to see what this was all about.

The way the electricity layout is planned, we have a main board next to the door (the alcove that was built earlier on) from which electricity and communication cables will go up above the decorative ceiling, run along wireframe shelves, that will be hanged from these constructions

Then the cables have to reach the main service duct that will run just below window height (both below the windows and along the side walls). To reach that duct, the cables have to be routed through the walls, and the workers excavated wide passageways and prepared tubes, one per cable.

 

I am mystified why they cannot be routed through a normal duct (close to the windows), but I am not an electricity engineer.

The workers has started to seal off the tubes in cement and make them part of the wall.

Oh, and the new windows have been installed, except the ones on both ends that have to be build to fit. And we got a new door frame for the entry doorway (metal instead of wood, yay!).

Pipes, Windows, and Sky

Last week the renovation work slowed down a bit, but now we are starting to pick up the pace. We had a window contractor come in to install a window for demonstration

Eyal, our project manager, approved the window with some additional modifications, and so soon we will have the whole row of windows replaced.

Yesterday our new A/C and installation contractor started working. His worker replaced the temporary pipes with new ones.

Outside the hazy warm days were replaced by clear and windy ones. Walking today from the lab back to my CS office I saw the potential for impressive sky.

(The crane is the building site for the new engineering building that should be finished in about a year and half.)