The Chronicle, No. 669, January 2016

4 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

TheWarden’s Project

Building a Mini Segway Koji Shukawa tells us about his Warden’s Project: “I began thinking about Raspberry Pi in the Easter holidays after Dr Antoniazzi told us that he would be starting a Raspberry Pi Club. Raspberry Pi is a low cost computer designed to enable people to learn about and explore computer programming. When I began to think about my Warden’s Project, using Raspberry Pi seemed the obvious thing to do. Initially, I wanted to build a drone, but I had already built a small car using Raspberry Pi, and I was interested in the challenge of trying to make two wheels rather than four self-balancing. Mr Barstow helped me use the 3D printer so I could build the body of my mini Segway, and I added the computer, the wheels, the various electronics and the sensors. I created a programme to control the balance, and also an app so I could operate it with my mobile phone. When it’s on, the Segway balances, although it wobbles a bit. I would like to keep working on it at Teddies Pi Club to make it more stable and add other features, like a camera to shoot videos while the Segway is moving around. I worked on the project with Dr Antoniazzi for a few hours a day for several weeks to get the programming and electronic connections right, and I was very pleased with the results.” If you would like to see Koji’s impressive project in action, look at the Pi Club’s Twitter feed, @TeddiesPiClub .

Cooking up a Project By Reha Soni

What were the biggest challenges? Getting the quantity and correct measures for the ingredients of the recipes was the biggest challenge as my grandma does everything by estimation which only comes from experience. So trying to get the correct measures down meant that we had to first pen down the recipes and then make each one of them from scratch to test for correct quantities of ingredients, which was hard work due to the project deadline. What did you learn? I learned how to be creative when cooking and how just a dash of herbs and spices here and there can change the flavours drastically. It was also a steep learning curve for me in terms of trying to put a book together which I assumed would be nice and simple. However, it was harder than I had anticipated as everything had to be perfect and in the right order. Proof-reading was the most time consuming part of the entire project as I didn’t fully appreciate the finer details that had to be kept in mind when writing up which meant I had to go though about four draft versions before we got to the final version. How can people buy it and how much does it cost? I am asking for donations and something around £10 would be wonderful, but people can give whatever they think is appropriate. Proceeds will go to a charity called Contact Elderly who match frail, elderly people who live alone with volunteers who take them to tea one Sunday every month. You can buy a copy by emailing my HM, Mrs Gowen: gowenp@stedwardsoxford.org . What’s your favourite recipe? My favourite recipe is a simple lentil recipe, called Tadka Dal (Sunday Dal). As you can guess from the name, we have this every Sunday!

Tell us about yourWarden’s Project. We had to pick a subject we were passionate about and I decided to create a cookbook. I was struggling to find a topic that would interest me and was thinking of ideas around food as I quite enjoy cooking and love trying out different types of cuisines. I have a very strong opinion that Indian food tastes the best when cooked at home, so I decided to share my grandma’s simple and easy recipes by cookbook inspired by what we cook at home on a daily basis. Some of the recipes that are included are not dishes you will find on an Indian restaurant menu, which makes the book quite unique. Is there a theme? The theme is traditional Indian Punjabi food cooked on a daily basis in a Punjabi household. The focus is on my grandmother’s cooking which hasn’t come from the pages of a particular recipe book. The recipes have been passed on from one generation to the other just by observation and verbal instructions or helping out in the kitchen. creating a cookbook. How many recipes? There are in total 29 recipes in the