Reflection on iFoundry

So now that we are about half way through the year I would like to take some time to think about what iFoundry has done and where I think that it should go. So far what it has done for me, besides the obvious educational benefits, is provide a good group of interested, active freshman that enjoy the same ideas activities as I do. It is nice because it really makes the class more enjoyable when you actually know many of the people and can converse on a level higher than "hi, i'm a freshman in NucE". Also it was nice because it allowed us to get a group that would actually stick together because it had the class component. This, I am hoping, will allow the project, what ever it may be, that we do in ESS to actually be something we can follow through on and finish instead of it getting started and then flopping. This is a time of change since our choices have opened up greatly, and while it can be restricting, it does provide an example of what it is like to regularly attend and work with a group in college that is a bit more formal.

As for the future I am hoping that we are not going to be tied to it for the second semester. It was great, but it also limited the other groups that we could join. I am coming from a different perspective than others though. I wanted to join EWB but found the the goal of my group ESS paralleled it so much that I stuck with ESS. Maybe it would be a good idea if the different teams got morphed or integrated into actually RSO's kind of providing a nice shoe in for more timid freshmen.

Well I need to go look up recycling for ESS so I will catch you later.

(btw this is all free writing since I am pressed for time, wanted it to be a bit more raw, and since I had a fun time free writing in class so sorry for the grammatical mistakes. ;)

The Age of Stupid

So two days ago I went with ESS and another group to see the premier of The Age of Stupid. It really was a powerful movie with an intriguing lay out. In addition, the fact that it was live added to the effect because you were seeing it at the same time as thousands of people around the world. My favorite part of the movie were the speakers that they talked to live. This did not give a chance for editing, just raw footage. The interview with Ed Miliband was very hilarious and scary at the same time. Ed Miliband is the British Secretary of State for Energy and Climate change, and for the most part the answers he gave were all politician answers with no real substance. Fortunately the producer did not give him any slack and eventually backed him into a corner asking him why he only wanted to give the country and 50% chance, even though he said he wanted to give them the maximum chance. She also forced him to admit that the politicians were partly at fault. It was nice to see him squirm on live TV, however I fear that the audience fell on ears that already thought this.

Moving on to another concern of mine was the audience. At our theater, right next to a college where there should be hundreds of rowdy college kids waiting for a chance to protest something, it was barely filled an 8th of the way. The only people besides the pro-environment students that came with us were a handful of elder citizens. While it was nice to see them interested, it was not the key audience that I would have hoped for. Fortunately this was only one theater, but it was pitiful. To really reach America the information needs to be brought to the uninformed. The only people going to these movies are the ones that are already convinced. If clips could some how be injected into the super bowl or even American Idol, it would have a much more tangible effect then a bunch of environmental nuts crowding into a dark theater nodding a cheering about the reaffirmation of their beliefs.

Well it was fun blowing off a bit of steam, but now I've got to go study the Ramayana a bit more.

Test

Just seeing how this is working. I have never had a blog, vlog, or twitter so am not used to talking about things to the general public. I do watch daily vlogs on youtube and have a general idea. I guess that the one thing on my mind is that I wish that ifoundry could cover some of the stuff that is engineering 100 like printing and labs and stuff like that. A hand out would be nice since we are spending a lot of time in class doing fun things.

I'll move onto the steam car. I was very pleased to hear that we were going to get to build something like that since I took the class research and design. Doing a project like this is great because you learn several skill sets. On the physical side you get to do material work and building what is in your head. This allows you to be more hands on in future projects, maybe for making scale models working or non working. You also get to find out that what you had originally planned, probably won't work the first time, and if it does it will probably break the next time, Forcing you to go back and find creative ways to fix the problems and really be intuitive. Finally you have to work with people and really make sure that everything fits together and everyone knows what is going on. You really have to coordinate and converse to get this.

Well, that's all for now. This test has kind of gone a bit longer than expected.