Ends Lecture 4/21/09

These are some notes from class about what should be in my final essay.  I need to make sure it is a reflection of who I am, and I need to show how I can utilize what I learned in class.  I need to make it personal to myself, my major, and my life.  The word limit is 1000 but can add pictures.

For the team final I need to show how we see the future.  It can be humorous or can include anything we talked about in class.  We need to demonstrate what we got out of this class.

Focus on the future: 

The video, "did you know 3.0" was an eye opener to how fast the world is changing, so we have got to get going, and be prepared.  As a country we always think we are the best, but we are being lazy and staying in our comfort zone.  This is causing us to get left behind, we are not at the head of change and innovation anymore.  

There are four groups of people:  1.  Are we going to contribute to make the future we want to happen?  2.  Are we going to just wait and see what future will happen?  3.  When the future arrives, are we going to ask what happened?  4.   “huh, something happened?”  I read the book George Orwell’s 1984 my freshman year of high school and I have always thought their look into the future interesting.  

 I liked what Dr. Vanegas said about the cat.  You can’t sit a cat on a hot stove twice. Cats aren't stupid!    I think the boiling pot syndrome is a classic saying and more people should pay attention to it, including me.  Change temp fast the frog will jump out, if you gradually heat up the water, the frog doesn’t notice.

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.  We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

                                                                        -Albert Einstein

Nothing ever is everything is becoming –John Danvers ;nothing is actually static.

Rather than just seeing people as they appear, one can also focus on who they are becoming.    Ex) susan boyle

I wanted to cry when I first saw this video, My priest sent it to me and I thought it was awesome!  She should be someone people look up to, not someone like Britney Spears.

The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, READ!

 

The job market is changing, it is globalized and America is not the only source of trained workers.  We need to be learning and preparing for our next job because most jobs that we have now will not even exist in 20 years. 

The five pen computer was amazing. I never expected that!

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail -Ralph waldo emerson

Soft Innovations Part 2

My four innovations were an 'always warm hat', a hot wing machine, a personal cart, and the feeder pro.

Soft innovations Part 1

My ideas were a stick shift cover, a airplane gum dispenser, an easy find livestock ear tag, and bicycle alert.  I got all of these ideas at random moments where they just popped into my head, luckily I had just learned in class that when you get an idea write it down, so I did and I actually remembered them for once!

Ends Lecture 4/16/09

Idea challenge presentations:

The Governator:

This helps prevent accidents that are from differences in speed, helps regulate fuel emissions, there will be no more speeding tickets, and no more dangerous highspeed chases.  I like the idea but there are a few flaws I would have like clarified, like how are you going to pass somebody or slow down if there is an accident if you are not in control of your own car.  Could this be seen as a loss of our freedom?

The Feedback Meter:

This is environmentally friendly because it conserves our energy usage, and it will save you money.  I thought this was the best idea yet, it is cost effective, has a large market, a need is met, and would be just plain awesome and convenient to have. 

The Duct tape Key Chain:

This was a good presentation; they were the first group to actually sell their product after class and to throw prototypes out to the audience, which really gets their attendance.  It was neat, but I really don’t use tape that much.

The Hoffice:
This was a good use of space, but I don’t really think this is possible, I guess it would work in large cities or near a large airport where people only stay the night.  What would people store their things during the day would be the major problem. 

Smork (the smart fork)

I think this would be a great product to sell because the biggest issue today is obesity and everybody is looking for a way to help lose weight or stay at a healthy weight.

Interflow Gloves

This is definitely something I would buy I am always cold!

www.Hotspot.com

This is a good idea, but I think it would be better as an application on a phone.  Now that we have iphones taking over it would be better to sell this idea to them. 

Intelligent Blood Bag

Was a really practical idea and would be something that hospitals would invest it, and I believe it could save lives.

Bottle buddy

I like this idea, but I feel that there are so many ideas out there like this that it would not really get noticed and would be hard to sell.

Fish eyes

Cool and fun idea, I thought the video presentation was attractive and humorous and was one of the few to catch the attention of the whole class. 

High Ride

This would be a fun mode of transportation around campus, but I think it would be a bit dangerous and really expensive to install.

Wall tattoos

Was a really good presentation but I didn’t really like the product, and I think it is too similar to the fathead posters.

 

Ends Lecture 4/14/09

We finished the lecture on knowledge production.  What I thought was interesting was that universities are still in a medieval setting, which I never actually noticed.  The other point was that higher education institutions focus on giving credentials rather than educating their students.  

I don't really see this soo much in major universities and professional schools, but I do see it in our lower grades.  All the schools want is the teachers to teach to this TAKS test which is a minimum requirement exam.  How are kids going to pass a minimum requirement if they are never taught anything but the minimum?  I would love to take a class and not even mention TAKS to them the whole year and just push them and let them learn the subject, then see how they do.  I bet a hundred dollars they will do better because the test will seem easy compared to what they have been doing. 

 Dr. Vanegas also showed us academicearth.com.  I had never heard of this before and I was in shock all this information was just sitting there on the internet!  

Ends Lecture 4/9/09

More Idea challenge Presentations!

Ends lecture 4/7/09

Rodney Hill came, and that of course means a really fun lecture.  He spoke to us about old culture paradigm, basically where women are today and the battle of the genders.  He showed usa few videos that were hilarious.  I recommend looking them up on YouTube if you have not seen them:  Why men don't ask directions, newspaper, budlight history, how men screw up romance, blonde, Instructional Video 1.  He went through a history of women's rights and one realize's how far women have come.  I thought it surprising that universities are having trouble with reverse gender discrimination.  This is due to the fact that more women qualify, so to have equal gender ratios universities have to accept males with lower scores.  I see this with veterinary school here at Texas A&M which is now 70% female.  Also I see it in my classes, my chemistry professor noticed that most of the highest grades on tests were girls.  Dr. Hill also told us a shocking statistic that 80% of new businesses are managed by women.

Ends lecture 4/2/09

This was the first week of Idea Challenge Presentations, and this is when we presented our LeviPack idea.  

There was a maroon balloon that consisted of a personal hot air balloon that was incorporated into a backpack for transportation around campus.  This was a neat idea but what really made it impressive was the awesome, and funny, video.  They had a digital creation of their product flying a guy around and even demonstrated how it worked using a digital model, it was awesome!

Another good idea and presentation was unHarmony.com which was a service to help you break up with someone.  I thought this was really original and a great example of taking advantage of an area where service has never been provided before, a totally new and open market.  Anyway what was really neat was how they presented it just like eHarmony, the guy who presented even sounded authentic.

There was Aggie wheels for Africa which was a not-for-profit service that rented bikes on campus and then sent the gently used bikes to the needy in Africa.  I thought this was the most practical and applicable idea, and was my favorite for the day.

There was a waterproofing phone business which was also neat.

Collapsible rain boots that looked nice and fit easily into a bag or purse were a sweet innovation  that would definitely be nice to have with the college station weather.

There was the Tan-can-kan that was a really good idea and their presentation was creative and hilarious. The only fault was who is going to fund the money that you get when you recycle?   There were boots that charged your electronic device when you walked which was cool.

There were more presentations but the ones mentioned were my favorites.

Ends Lecture 3/31/09

The group check during lecture was eye opening, only a few groups had everybody there and mine was definitely not one of them.  But whoever was not there missed a good guest speaker, so oh well.

Guy Deidrich was our guest speaker and he is the Vice Chancellor at Texas A&M.  He spoke to us about inertia and what we were going to do with our lives when we graduated from college.  What I thought was interesting is he recommended that the best time to start up a business is right out of college, unlike the usual advice which is continue with school or find a steady job and do that later.  His argument was that when you are in your 20's you have no dependents, you have energy, and you can deal with the stress more effectively. 

He told us how he got to where he was today, and I thought it was an awesome story that complimented his advice.  He was about to graduate and had gone to interview with some companies, but he wasn't satisfied.  Then he met a guy named Roger and they talked about starting a business together, and eventually actually followed that path.  They bought a building in Plano, but had no idea what their business was going to be yet.  They saw there was a lot of large companies coming to Plano and decided they could provide a service as a management consulting firm.  It turns out their first job was to lay off the people at Frito-Lay.  He told us how horrible it was firing people who needed their jobs and had been working there for 10 plus years.  After that experience they decided to change their business plan.  So they adapted and learned how to write software.  I thought this was an important part of their future as a business, because if they hadn't changed the face of their business to become part of the software revolution they probably would have been left behind.  I thought this was a good real life example of how we should never be static, but always pushing ourselves.  So he and his friend Roger began making software programs to help large companies become more efficient.  His business grew in three years to 150 people and he sold his company.  His next move was an online business called GSE market where he sold airport junk to get it out of the airport's hair.  Then eventually came to work at Texas A&M.  

I will have to say that his lecture was one of my favorites.  I always forget the resources this university has and all the great people that work here and are always available.

Ends Lecture 3/26/09

Unfortunately I had flu during this lecture, and trust me would have rather been going to class then sick in bed.  I would like to add that the flu is horrible, I swear it is the worst combination of every random common sickness you can get thrown into one.

Ends Lecture 3/24/09

An interesting point Dr. Vanegas mentioned was that equilibrium is a precursor to death.  I had never really contemplated that, but now that I think about it, it’s the truth.  This should be everybody’s motto because nobody should be in a daze; it is no fun and cannot be good.  I liked the example of when you are driving and you just get into this daze and a few minutes later you have no recollection of that period in time.  So, if you just spend your life in equilibrium, staying the way you are, what will you have to look back on later in life?  The lecture made me realize how important it is to keep pushing myself.  On the same note if a persons work environment isn’t constantly changing and they are threatened, or pushed out of their comfort zone then they will adapt and get into action.

            Another topic discussed in lecture I thought was interesting was his comment on how no living system follows a linear path.  The challenge is learning how disturb the system, and keep going. 

            The five blind men and an elephant was a great story too I thought it was hilarious. 

            The millennium development goals and the engineering grand challenge were interesting websites.  It is nice to see that challenges to improve our world are out there and people are participating.

Dr. Vanegas also discussed servant leadership.  I think everybody should understand because it is a part of interacting with people in our everyday lives.  A leader should have empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, and forsight.  

Team PBP and challenge

This was an insightful assignment.  It was the first project I got to work with my group members on and luckily we get along and work well together.  I wasn't sure that this random selection of group members would work out, but now after this project I think it was a nice change from the norm and having a diverse group helped us complete various parts of the project.  For example, some of us were better at drawing, some better at the writing part, etc.  I myself did not realize that I could be that creative, I just perceived myself as an average person who wasn't that creative.  When I came up with using morse code to create a pattern out of the letters on the team challenge it was an eye opener.  I realized if I tried I could be creative, and that I shouldn't doubt myself.

Ends Lecture 2/5

Richard Scruggs was our guest speaker on thinking entrepreneurly.  He was a really interesting person, it was neat to actually meet someone who was successful and to see that you don't have to be a crazy genius to be an entrepreneur.  He was a good speaker and I really liked what he had to say, especially at the end of his lecture when he said we are not all entrepreneurs because I believe that to be true, I could probably do it if I tried, but I would rather not.  His life story was really interesting, all the companies he was involved with, then his story of how everything went south after 9-11, but he moved on and is starting again.  

Ends Lecture 2/3

We spoke about creative thinking and how you use your mind.  We looked at a bunch of optical illusions and they were so cool.  It is weird how you can know that the lines are the same length, but when you look at it you get a different answer.  The best was trying to figure out if the people were ascending or descending the stairs in the castle picture.  The one with the picture that could be the beautiful woman or the witch was really entertaining, I always wonder how the artist came up with that.

Ends Lecture 1/29

We talked about social entrepreneurship today.  Social entrepreneurs are pioneers in finding solutions for huge problems in developing countries, and they are the people who are the ones revolutionizing their field, not just some guy selling stuff off the internet I guess but the person who thought of Ebay.  Dr. Vanegas defined an entrepreneur as a visionary who achieves large scale sustainable social change from an invention, or a different approach.  I think this is a tall order and anybody who can do this is pretty awesome.  My favorite example of social entrepreneurship was the heifer program.  I love cows and people in the U.S never fully realize how important they are in third world countries.  They can provide more than collections of a 10 cents a day can and it is the gift that keeps giving.  Also it does away with just giving away welfare which I think tends to be corruptive.

ends Lecture 1/27

We had a guest speaker today, Darrell Kuhn, speaking about patents.  I thought it was interesting that so many people invented the weirdest stuff.  Like the invention of putting a tube down the toilet to get the air during a fire, seriously.  It was a shock finding out how expensive it was to get a patent, I would think it would discourage some of those weird ideas, but it doesn't seem to have worked.  

Ends Lecture 1/22

Dr. Vanegas explained to us what intuition flow was and how important it is to thinking creatively.  I had never heard of "flow" before but I had always wondered what they called it when you are just in that sort of zone of thinking.  I found it interesting that finding flow is unique to every person, and they way some people find flow was really weird. 

Soft innovations

I am excited I thought this would be the most difficult assignment but it is actually turning out to be my favorite.  I started thinking about little innovations when Dr. Vanegas reminded us in class to start working on them.  So far I have 9 and I am so excited I think I might actually try to make one of them, what I mean is not just design it in theory.  

So far I have gotten the ideas for my innovations eating at chili's, driving, and biking to class.  

Assignment No. I-3

I have to find a solution to a problem related to campus life/ or university attendance.  I first list problems and peeves that I and my friends have related to campus life.  I came up with the buses being slow, long walk getting from the bus to some buildings, not many places on campus to air up your bike tire if you get a flat, if you just want to hang out on campus for a while it is hard to find seats, laptop batteries run out in class, the room between seats in lecture halls it not sufficient, some classes are ridiculously large, bikers and pedestrians crash, attention span in class, hard carrying books to class if you have a lot, not enough on campus housing.  Then I took these problems and asked my friends which ones bugged them the most and crossed out the problems that weren't very common.  Then I brainstormed ideas for each problem and narrowed them down by picking my favorite ideas.  I had three top ideas which I elaborated on and considered using.  One was to designate certain sidewalks for pedestrians and some for bikes, then have the sidewalks for bikes split it to two way traffic for safety purposes.  I also liked the idea of splitting a professor's class into smaller rooms broadcasting the lecture via video to smaller classrooms with a T.A overseeing the class.  This would help with attendance and create a more friendly smaller class size.  The idea I ended up using was to place lockers all over campus and rent them to students.

Ends lecture 3/5

I am always worried that I am not doing my projects right, but today Dr. Vanegas cleared the air a bit.  Basically if I read the objective of the assignment and try to reach it with my project I should be fine.  I of course have to comply with the rules, like saving the project under the right name, and make sure that I do all the parts required.  

The actual lecture was a continuation from the tuesday class about managing the creative process.  We looked at a bunch of different ways to help come up with ideas and solutions.  You can do activity analysis where you list everything you do.  Later go through that list and find ways to prioritize what you did, and if there was anything you could do make those tasks easier.  There is also anthropometric analysis, weird name huh, which is using human population measurement data to check the coverage and suitability of the design solution for the target group.  This will help you find a group that represents who will be utilizing your product.  Character profiles is observing real people and picking a small subset of the population to focus on and help, basically specializing your service.  You use stereotypes in a positive way here to help you find a group such as planning parties for the extremely rich or something along those lines.  It is also useful to do long range forecasts where you imagine possible scenarios and try to figure out ways you could provide a service or solve the problem.  I tend to do this frequently, where I imagine various scenarios and think about what I will do if one of them actually happens.  The other method I liked was the five whys where you ask a person why five times and you will find the truth out really quick.  

Trying out the idea or product is important to see if it is worth it or not.  You can use the methods of role-playing, scenario testing, or scale modeling.

Ends lecture 3/3

We are finally going to get our grades!!! I'm excited because I want to find out if I need to change anything when I do my projects.  Anyway, in class we learned about managing the creative process.  The main thing I took away from this lecture was it is imperative to learn, look, ask, and try to be successful with an idea.

I am having difficulty with the I-3 assignment, not with the actual assignment, but as to what my report should look like.  I am not sure if what I have been doing in previous projects is right or not so hopefully when I get my grades back I will have a better idea.

Ends lecture 2/26

Dr. V reminded us about the 12 soft innovations assignment so I am going to start thinking of ideas for it.  I need to stop waiting till the last week its putting way too much pressure.  The lecture was about what innovation is and what we use it for.  He also mentioned numerous ways that innovations can be shot down so we can make sure to avoid them.

 Innovation is basically the commercial or industrial application of something new.  This seems so broad to me, it basically can be anything as long as you are applying something new.  This helps with my innovation project because I can innovate something that is of interest to me, which is easier then having a specific subject to work around.  

There are 10 innovation killers, I related to most of them and I am glad Dr. Vanegas gave us a solution to each one so we can try and do something about the problem when we face it.  The innovation killer I see the most is a job environment that doesn't support innovation.  The problem here is that people don't mention ideas that pop in their head because of fear.  The fear either comes from the co-workers or their superiors not supporting their ideas.  To deal with this fear has to be removed from the environment and ideas, no matter what they are, should be applauded.  The other killer which I myself experienced is not allocating resources to the process.  To deal with this looseness has to be built into the system to encourage people to explore new possibilities.  When I was in high school we always had to do a science fair project.  Most of the time the teacher just gave you the due date and the 3-fold poster board and then forgot about it.  The projects that came out of these classrooms were never novel or very interesting.  Then one year a teacher came and showed us how to brainstorm and helped us find project ideas that we would never have done on our own.  He did not shoot down ideas but just asked us to elaborate on them and try something new.  Then he didn't just leave us to do everything on our own, he helped us find materials and encouraged us to try something out of the ordinary and we knew if we had trouble he would help us.  Everybody had an amazing project.  This is an example that having a fear free and loose system can really make a difference. 

Ends lecture 2/24

Dr. Rodney Hill was our guest lecturer and he talked about personal space.  This was definitely on of the best lectures in this course, but I am not sure it can beat the humor & creativity one.  Anyway, he basically pointed out the weird social habits we have in society like how close we will allow strangers and friends to get to us without us getting uncomfortable and moving.  After class I was curious and on the elevator I stood close to the only other person there and they moved over and when they even looked and the floor counter thing just like Dr. Hill said it was hilarious.  

Ends lecture 2/19

The pictures of the trash art was amazing.  I would have never guessed that that pile of trash was projecting such a perfect shadow of a person.  Also the guy who painted images on the sidewalks that looked so real I would have stopped in the road thinking it was an actual object.  It made me realize that creativity is not just coming up with something new, but something that will surprise people like how those two artists surprised me.

I also never thought to distinguish entrepreneur and small business before this lecture.  Dr. Venegas did a good job of explaining it and I guess it can be summed up in three words Small vs. Big ideas, small vs. large profit, and low vs. high risk.  

Ends lecture 2/17

This was by far my favorite lecture in this class, I loved having a class I could laugh in.  I had never thought of connecting humor and creativity, but after this lecture it is hard to imagine why I did not think of that before.  My favorite video clips were the sponsor an executive, state employees, and the Tequila ad.  They were all hilarious of course but I liked how they took something that is serious and turned it upside down and it made their statement unforgettable and unique.  I really like the joke; Atheism is a non-prophet organization it is funny, ironic, and truthfull all at the same time.

Ends lecture 2/12

Blake Godkin came back again to finish his lecture and we got to get together and practice his techniques in groups again, Yaaa!  What I took away from this class was to first use what he called "divergent guidelines" and just throw ideas out with speed and without thinking about them in depth.  Then to use "convergent thinking", slow down and take the time to understand and evaluate ideas.  This is where I can trash the ideas that are not novel and examine what's left.  Then I can play with those ideas combining them, using them in different settings, etc.  It was fun using a real problem about transportation around campus.  It is funny what weird stuff we came up with when we weren't "judging" ideas.  By the way, today is my birthday 2/12 all the way!!!

Ends Lecture 2/10/09

We had a guest lecture given by Blake Godkin.  He was a engaging speaker and I really liked how he made the class interact with each other.  Getting into groups to practice how to work together and use a step by step process formulate ideas was fun.  I really liked his comment on not judging an idea, or solution right away.  I never realized that I did that and trying not to judge an idea right away was challenging.  He also told us to strive for quantity, and I tend to get to an idea I like then just stop brainstorming.  His idea to keep going and generate and many ideas as possible did help me open my mind to more options that were more unique and novel than anything I had previously come up with.  I will definitely take what he told us and use it in my future projects, especially on our next individual assignment where we enter in the Aggie Innovention contest.