What Next?

The semester is coming to a close. The guinea-pig iFoundry class of '13 will successfully be welcomed into the College of Engineering having learned the 'missing basics'.

Although the class will be finished, the iCommunity will still be very much alive.

EI will continue to hold iBonding events during the Spring semester of 2010, and during winter break, Drew Bell (a fellow EI member) and myself will attend the Silicon Valley Workshop in sunny California. We will be excited to return to Illinois to spread the word of entrepreneurship with the rest of the iTeam and the campus.

In a meeting with Rhiannon Clifton (Technology Entrepreneurship Center faculty, and EI faculty mentor) earlier this week, it became clear a new living learning community will be created on the second floor of the Townsend side of Illinois Street Residence Hall (ISR). It will be an exciting opportunity for all iFoundry members. The theme for the community will be Entrepreneurship - very fitting for the theme of the EI iTeam, and the holistic spirit of iFoundry.

I plan on applying for this iCommunity - and if any iFoundryites are reading this - I hope you do too.

iExpo

The iExpo was a success!

The event was a checkpoint/finale to the semester. Each of the four teams presented to an audience of academics, parents, and employers the progress the students and the program had made.


It took place at the marvelous iHotel in Champaign, Il

The catering was delicious!


Aman and Satvik are looking slick with EI polos.


There I am, enjoying the conference with my team.



Here Islam is presenting our time line. The poster showed our progress as a team from the iLaunch to meeting Cory Levy (18 year old entrepreneur) to a conference at Stanford University a few EI members were fortunate enough to attend. Props to Aman for taking initiative on time line.


The team! Many many thanks to Forest to Matt who volunteered to be (suits on the left) our student mentors this semester.

The polos were a terrific touch. Kevin's green hat says: 'Options on the Dow'

Project 2 - Arduino Spider

For our team's second iFoundry project, we incorporated the Arduino chip set to add interactivity to our design. We developed a spider robot that can walk. However, it only works when it is being interacted with by another person. More specifically, when the light sensor on top of the robot loses light, it moves. This gives the effect of a tiny spider - scrambling for survival.

It's quite cute.



This is a toy for the child, nay, person with a vivid imagination.
It's a fitness toy! Hold one foot over the spider and try to keep up as if flees!
It's to keep your teenage girl from chasing boys. Just make her long for this spider that will never come to her.
It's for the cynic. Life isn't cuddly. Cuddle with this balsa wood and pokey wires instead.
It's eyes will peer into your soul and make you rethink the very way you live your life. =
Most of all, Spidey is your companion. He's there until the end (that is, until his battery dies (so around 40 minutes).

the TEC and Silicon Valley

I received an e-mail from the Technology Entrepreneur Center (TEC) in late September. Sent to all iFoundry students, the TEC was looking for applicants for an Entrepreneurship Workshop in Silicon Valley, California. Over winter break, twenty five Ilinois students will be sent to the San Francisco Bay area for two-weeks to visit with start-ups and leading technology companies.

I applied as soon as I heard about the opportunity, and I am humble to be accepted to participate in this exciting opportunity.

You can read more about the SV Workshop here

The iSkate

I have been motioned as Social Chair for the 'Entrepreneurship and Innovation' (EI) iTeam. My goal is to organize events to create meaningful bonds between all members of the group. An inexpensive way to achieve this goal is hosting get-togethers and the team members.

As a student at the University of Illinois, one receives access to state class recreational facilities like the ARC and tennis courts. To our advantage, Illinois students also have inexpensive access to the Ice Arena. For just $1 (to rent skates), one can skate unbounded on freshly Zamboni paved ice.

One Saturday October 3rd, I invited all EI members to meet for a skate-together.

The turnout was good many EI members could attend. Later, even non-EI members decided to show up!


Here is the Ice Arena-





From Left to Right: Kevin Armstrong, Nathan Murray, Ian Denefe, Kris Heemskerk, and Islam Sharabash

From Left to Right: Dev Harlalka, Kris Heemskerk, Suzie Chung


The iSkate was successful pursuing the mission objectives. EI members enjoyed the event and many have requested an iSkate 2.

December will be a good month to skate.

sTeam: Project 1

The first project this semester was the Steam Car challenge. A simple design: a aluminum can filled with water is heated by a candle-inspired fuel and wick element. Thus, when ignited, evaporated water rushes out of a tiny opening in the aluminum can boiler, spinning a turbine and thus the wheels as well.

Our team, named sTeam, was comprised of five members.

Sam Furtak - Turbine Assembly

Kris Heemskerk - Chief Metal Cutter
Arsh Verma - Assistant Metal Cutter / Secretary

Jenny Roderick - Fuel Tank Assembly / Captain
Nathan Murray (Me) - Boiler Assembly

All five team members and the finished car:


We were successful at making the bugger 'go'. That is, with a little help pushing it after the fuel tank was lit, the steam car could sustain motion.

Our decorations (colored tape on the side and an 'Eat my Steam!' logo on the back) earned us the 'Best Decorated Car' award.

iFoundry

Hello World!

I suppose that's the 'blogger' equivalent of the infamous Hello World code used as a introduction by anyone in every programming language. I like it; execution was clean and simple.

My mental-turned-technological ramblings can begin with my abridged summary of the iFoundry program.

I wear my iFoundry shirt proudly about the U of I every wednesday, clad in a professional shade of grey. Why? Wednesday, only courtesy of iFoundry, is free pizza day for a hundred freshmen Illinois engineering students. We meet at Everitt Lab to embrace a 'global' vision of engineering. Too often, engineering is described as a major category plagued by tunnel-vison: We are taught to think all math and science - all the time. And frankly, this dominating view concerning how engineering should be taught has developed generations of successful problem solvers. However, recent trends in globalization (and cries from industry) have generated an incentive for the iFoundry faculty to collect ideas from outside the conventional engineering curriculum (i.e. philosophy, art, and communication) and apply them to the future generations of Illinois Engineering alum.

Students in iFoundry are exposed to highly educated professors and professionals preaching the word of entrepreneurship, creative design, service to society, and innovative solutions. A common theme of the iFoundry program is a shift in emphasis from thinking with your left brain (i.e. logic, facts, practicality - which are all important ideas) to training to use your right brain as well (i.e. imagination, philosophy, and meaning). Instead of thinking in series, it's all about thinking in parallel: be creative, see the big picture, and most importantly of all - ask good questions!