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