Patent Approved

I recently got the patent approved on the work I was doing for Boeing as part of my PhD dissertation research.  It took almost 2 full years from when the patent application was submitted.

It was for programming algorithms that would use artificial intelligence to model the size of the network needed for Connexion by Boeing.  This was a project Boeing had to put internet capability on airplanes.  If you knew how big a network was required, you would know how many transponders you needed on satellites to handle all the data flow.  It used artificial intelligence to adapt to changing conditions.

If you want to read more details, I've attached one of the journal papers I published in the Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence Journal.

Boeing Everett Factory

We took a tour of the Boeing Everett Factory.  It's amazing we've never done that before, after working for Boeing so many years and living in Washington for so long.  It was a 60 mile drive way up past Seattle.

You can the front of the factory here.  It's the largest building in the world in volume.  The footprint covers 1.9 million square feet.  One amazing fact, there is no air conditioning or heating in the building.  It gets enough heat from the machinery in operation and the lighting and the people inside. And if it gets too hot they just open the doors.    We had to take our coats off inside and it was really cold outside this morning.

Here are some of the finished planes parked outside.  Inside the factory we got to see the factory lines for the 767s, the 777s, the jumbo 747s, and the new 787 Dreamliners made out of composites instead of aluminum.

Here's Jacquelyn in front of a Rolls Royce engine at the visitors center.  There's only three engine makers, Rolls Royce, GE, and Pratt & Whitney.

Me by one of the wheels on the landing gear.  They seem so small for such large planes.  Some pick up trucks have bigger wheels.

This is the other side of the engine.  We had a good time together.

Dallen visit

Our grandson Dallen stayed with us for a week.

In the picture above we are dressed up to go to Conference Saturday night at church.  In the picture below some donuts he made with colorful frosting.

We saw a movie, Jack the Giant Slayer, and did a lot of fun stuff.  I'm sure he was bored some of the time, but it was probably a nice break for him and we enjoyed having him around.  He mowed the lawn for us one day and helped around the house picking up.  We played some card games and Talitha came over some.  He built a fire in the backyard.  We watched several redbox movies.  I think he had a good time, I know we did.

Easter fun

We had lots of company up for the Easter break and we did some fun Easter activities on Saturday.  That way we could spend Sunday going to church and thinking about the true meaning of Easter, which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Here we have Andrew, James, and Ashton all set waiting for their turn to hunt Easter Eggs.

Mallory and Penelope were in the youngest group to go look for eggs.

Scarlett has her Easter basket and she's ready to look for eggs too.

 

 



Mallory hunting for Easter Eggs.

James found a good one.

Ashton is in a big hurry to find all he can.

Penelope is looking everywhere.

Andrew has a nice set of Easter eggs he found.

Tucker out collecting eggs.



Evan was in the last group to look for eggs.

 

 

While the kids were taking turns looking for eggs, the grow-ups watched from the deck, Talitha, David, Tianna, and Jim.

 

Tianna's family looking over their Easter eggs after the hunt.

 

 

Malachi's family looking over the Easter eggs they found.

 

Little Leon slept trough the whole things.

We had a fun day.  The kids always like playing around the ponds.  Penelope is helping clean out leaves and stuff.

Tucker and James out by the Lion Fountain.

Evan and Dallen playing pool upstairs.

Mallory has a little friend over.

Penelope, Tucker, and James decorating Easter eggs.

 

Scarlett taking Molly for a walk around the block.

 

People played a lot of card games too.  It was a great day.  Thanks everyone for coming to visit.  And thanks to Jacquelyn for a wonderful Easter dinner.  The ham was delicious and all the baked goods she made were much appreciated, especially the Easter cupcakes and the pineapple upside down cake.