What at first doesn't kill you usually succeeds in the second attempt

Today was interesting. It kind of felt like a throw-away day. I didn't do a whole lot in any of my classes, especially physics. No discussion, no lecture, no nothing. But I do have a midterm tomorrow...ah college!
iFoundry class today was another lecture; it was about labeling. I never really thought about it before, but it can make life and business a lot easier. After all, time is money. But what really got me interested is the whole idea that little annoyances should be eliminated. Yesterday, for example, I saw the Designmatters lecture from Michael Johnson, who works at Pixar. His ideas about software touched a bit on the idea that little annoyances need to be addressed, like the impracticality of old-school storyboarding. Personally, I'm kind of a "go with the flow" person, and I'm usually okay with the status quo, no matter how shoddy. Small trials of the day don't bother me too much, but they can add up sometimes. I think the whole idea of making people completely satisfied is amazing! Think about it: products that aren't just adding to the pile of mediocrity, but are redefining what is great!
The AED meeting was today, too. I was kind of proud of myself, because everything ran smoothly logistically. The pizza was on time, we had plates and cups, everyone knew where to go, and we had agendas. Hooray for being organized! Gerry Labedz from Motorola had some really great insights on design in industry, how creativity factors into the design process in larger corporations, and what we as students can expect when we enter the work force. He also expounded on the fact that products should be simply designed and practical to use. It was a really great discussion. I'm glad that Matt J., Matt G., and Sean took video footage of it. After that, Jim gave AED a tour of the lab, which is amazing! Tablet PCs, a 3D printer, a large-scale printer, etc.! I can't wait to learn how to use the amazing technology in that lab; Jim is actually planning on having a guy from Autodesk come and talk with AED on how to use the equipment. That should be exciting.
Well, that's about all for now. Until next time, keep your stick on the ice!

Eng 198 and such

Well, it was a very crisp day yesterday. Cool and bright and windy. It's a real sign that fall has arrived.
Yesterday in the ESPL was kind of interesting. For Eng 198, we are working in groups to build steam powered cars, and the last day we could work on the car was yesterday. So we started off pretty well; all we had to do was paint the wheels and assemble the car. Vince, Pete, and I started on the assembly while Matt and Sean worked on painting. The paint job on the wheels looked flippin' sweet: kind of a red and black deal. The rest of us were able to assemble everything except the front wheel, which was still drying (spray paint is kind of tricky to work with). Everything was running smoothly, until Matt discovered that the soldering of the spoke plate onto the front wheel was coming off. So he soldered it again. Later, when we spun the front wheel around its axle, it teetered like crazy. So Matt and Sean went to work on the front wheel by (I think) widening the hole in the spoke plate so that the hole in both the wheel and the spoke plate lined up. Since we had an extra wheel and extra sheet metal, I went to work cutting out a new spoke plate for the new wheel, just as a backup.
When we tested the fixed front wheel, it worked quite well. As a precaution, we put glue around the tips of the spoke plate, just in case the soldering came off again. We also added a super-sweet fin. After everything on the car was assembled, we spun the turbine to see how fast the car would go. The front wheel moved alarmingly slow. Although it seemed like this would be a problem, the TA who was at the lab assured us that the turbine would move very fast, thereby quickly propelling the front wheel.
We were actually one of the first groups finished with our car, which says a lot. We've hit so many roadblocks in the course of this project: locked cabinets, lost cameras, broken wheels, misplaced holes. I'm glad we were able to address and overcome these challenges.
We plan on working on our report on Sunday, but I'm definitely looking forward to testing how the car runs. It should be exciting!
Last night, I did some of the assigned readings from "Back of the Napkin" and watched Dr. Goldberg's lecture on the things we can learn from the philosophers of Athens. I have to say, even though both were informative, I feel a little out of place when I read them. "Back of the Napkin" tells of numerous experiences with companies that need assistance, while the lecture talked about how to creatively make a new product or new category of product. That's all well and good, but I don't really understand how that applies to what I'm doing. I'm a freshman in college, not a CEO or leader of an R&D team. I don't really have the technical skills to back up new ideas, either. I'm not saying that the ideas and skills that both the lecture and the book address aren't important; far from it, these skills are essential! But it does lead me to wonder, if we're going to teach these skills to college freshmen, is there any way that we could make these skills more pertinent to college freshmen?
That's about all the pithy insights I have for today. Until next time, keep your stick on the ice.

TEC Charm School

This Saturday I went to a seminar that the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center was offering. It was called "Charm School." Instead of teaching 19th century etiquette and flourishes, TEC Charm School basically taught modern business etiquette and networking, complete with a business lunch session. There were about 9 different presentations, ranging from Men's Business Wardrobe to Desk Manners to Telephone Etiquette. My personal favorite was the Women's Business Wardrobe. The presenter, Michelle Matteson, was informative and entertaining. She mostly talked about how people judge businesswomen unconsciously, and later she explained how to use this judgement to our advantage. It was a great presentation.
Overall, Charm School was pretty fun. For $20, I got to see 9 different presentations, got a good breakfast and great lunch, got to network with other students, and got a t-shirt. The only thing that kind of bothered me was the length of the program: about 8 hours. But such are the ways of learning: nothing comes without a cost.
The TEC website is pretty cool. It has a lot of different competitions going on in the next few months, which can be of interest to iFoundry folks. Here's the url: http://www.tec.illinois.edu/tec/. Be sure to check out the Student Events stuff; they're pretty sweet!
Today's the last day to work on our project for Eng 198. Our group is doing pretty well so far; I think all we have left is to assemble the car. It's pretty exciting to see bits and parts come together to make a cohesive item!
Anyway, that's all I have for now. Until next time, keep your stick on the ice.

"That is one gangsta pineapple"--J, my roommate

AED meeting

Well, today was interesting. In Eng 198, we learned how to write--business-style. In other words, it was business time *cue music from "Flight of the Concords". Seriously though, we learned some sweet stuff, like how to conquer writer's block, and that business people are busy, so they want concise, pithy documents. My favorite part of class would have to have been the freewrite, because all I did was a stream of consciousness, with such useful insights as, "I like cereal" and "I wonder what my roommate's up to."
Also, we had an AED meeting today. At first, I was a bit dismayed because there was only maybe 12 people. But we were able to get some important things ironed out. I think there was actually a bit more group participation than usual, too. This could have been due to the small group size, but I don't really know for sure. Here's some of the stuff that we decided on:
1). Let's focus on the iCheckpoint before going into heavy stuff like a design competition or designing a product.
2). Let's work in Jim's new lab because it's awesome and we can get inspired from it.
3). Let's make a list of topics for Gerry from Motorola so that he'll have something to talk to us about when he visits us next week.
4). Let's mob ECS on Friday.
4). Let's go to iHop on Saturday at 3am.
OK, so maybe the last point wasn't really too important. But I think we are on the right track, as opposed to not being on a track at all.
Afterwards, I ate dinner with some of the other AED guys, and that was fun. I feel that I don't really get to hang out with them too often outside of class, so I was glad I went.
That's all the exciting things that are going on in my life right now. So until next time, keep your stick on the ice.

Last Monday...

Well, last Monday we worked on our projects again. It was pretty interesting. We finished the wheels, and Matt had fun soldering stuff. I'm pretty sure that the fumes that he was inhaling weren't good for him....
Anyway, I finished the wheels and the wicks early because I had help from the other group members last Monday. Funny story about that.... Our project was locked in a supply closet for a session, so we had to work on other stuff, such as the wheels and wicks and so on. It was a bit stressful, but I think it made a good challenge. We still don't know whether we want to paint it or not...but that's for another post. Team Bunny's on the loose!
In other news, the campus is now being taken over by (and I don't know if this is correct) soybean aphids. It also rained today. So a lot of people were wet and buggy. But on the bright side, the evening was pretty nice. Got to see the band practice.
Well, I have sleep to catch up on and an 8 am physics discussion. Fun times.
Until next time, keep your stick on the ice.

1st post

Well, it looks like this is my new blog. I don't really have anything clever or witty to write right now. Maybe something will pop up later. Who knows?