Viggo Bergström Journal: 2025-2026

12/16/25: I spoke with megan about a week ago about how when I finish the physical part of my project I might try to make a digital version because that is way easier to show to people. I was looking around an I found a sight that is basically my project but in a digital format so the digital piece might be out the window. However, the sight was really useful and had a lot of information that will be really helpful for making sure I visualize the correct distribution for each species.

12/16/25: this new prototype made me realize that using a large piece of plexi or acrylic is not worth it. It is just extra work to paint it to make it black so no light shines through it. If i use wood it would be way easier. it takes less effort to drill every hole and cut out every canyon so I am just going to use sheets of wood. Plus I don’t have to paint anything to block out light.

12/16/25: Poster session went really well. I would say much better than other years. The new mini model that I made, made more sense than previous prototypes that I have showed at other poster sessions. The people who came to my table seemed to get a better understanding from this model than any other one I have ever made.

11/18/25: I haven’t made the best progress on my pitch for my project i have been focusing on getting work done for poster session. a while back i found some websites that digitally show a topic that is similar to what I am trying to create they. this website uses a map of CA and uses colored lines to show specific salmon run range during a specific time period. since these digital representations are similar to what I want to do with my project it will use them as inspiration

https://databasin.org/datasets/3da812cb6d044d54ba10dbc290c95df7/

https://databasin.org/maps/new/#datasets=3da812cb6d044d54ba10dbc290c95df7

11/11/25: the mini model is still in progress it is going fairly well I should have it done by poster session. I am using a piece of clear acrylic and I don’t know wether I should spray paint part of it or just keep it clear because it gets the point across. I’m leaning towards painting it to make it more like the final piece.

11/7/25: I spoke with megan today, the plastic sheet has been ordered and it should arrive soon. also today megan gave me the idea of creating a mini model of what my project will look like now that I have changed the design. one thing I am struggling with however is choosing wether I want the color filters to all be on separate slides like draws or rather just pieces that I can slide in and out and remove. if I go with the second option the final piece takes up less space. it is also less time consuming to make.

11/5/25: I gave Megan the measurements for the supplies I need. She said she knew where we could order them from so I hope that they are on the way. Megan is out today so I could not ask her if they are ordered. I will connect with her tomorrow. Also unrelated to my project I am in the process of reorganizing my entire WISRD journal. It is going really well.

11/1/25: Megan and I spoke before dark matter day that once it was over we would push for my project to be finished as soon as possible. I think it will potentially be finished before fall poster session.

10/26/25: Dark matter day matter day went really well. our booth setup was basically the same as it has been every year we had the large tesla coil behind the blast shield and we had the smaller tesla coils, the van der graf generator, and the plasma ball their for people to interact with. this year we didn’t focus on the music piece of the tesla coil we focused more on how the coils reacted with different noble gasses. Megan bought sealed glass ampules that had all the different noble gasses in them. When they reacted with the coils there flashed different colors. My favorite reacted was Nitrogen.

10/17/25: not much is going to change from my booth from last year ill probably have the same setup. Megan ordered these cool LEDs that have different gasses in them so when the turn on from the tesla coil they will be different colors. I think my sheet with info for dark matter day is outdated so I am going to work on a new one today.

10/14/25: last week was college visit week so we had no class, But I did find this really cool map website that kind of does a digital version of what my 3d model is trying to create. these are many different displays of different salmon species and their running patterns in California. I think this website could be really useful for the creation of the final visual aid. it could give me some good inspiration on how i want all the colors to function in the piece.

10/2/25: I am still doing the tesla coil booth for dark matter day and megan orders some new tesla coils we also had some old ones that were left over form last years dark matter day but the new ones seem way more fun.

9/26/25: I need to make my material list for this final piece my main concern is the plexi but i also think there is enough wood in WISRD for me to build my frame w/ out needing to buy anymore wood.

9/26/25: have been dealing with concussion so thats why I haven’t been able to update in a minute it has also been really difficult for me to get any work done because of my injury. conceptually me plan should work but i don’t know if it ill work in practice. I have taken some measurements so I know the size that the plexi under sheet needs to be. however i still need to figure out how to find a sheet thats the right dimensions b/c if it is too large it won’t fit in the laser cutter to make it smaller. if we have enough acrylic left i want to try and figure out how to put a bunch of those sheets together to make a clear sheet large enough for the model.

8/25/25: I spoke with Zac and he brought up the idea of using back lighting for my project. I gave it some thought and realized that this would be so much easier that trying to wire hundreds of different small lights. Megan also suggested that I could try different types of colored resin to represent what all the lights were supposed to be. I don’t know how good that would be however b/c there is the chance of the resin expanding and causing cracks in the print filament.

8/20/25: first day of senior year WISRD i think its finally the year I finish my project.