If designers should know how their product may be engineered, they should also know how it may be productized.
Archive
Things worth keeping, but not showcasing
How we can unite the balkanized NYC civic hacking community
When I moved to NYC four months ago, I already sorely missed my civic hacking community I left behind in Austin. I only knew a few folks here, and there was a lot to get acquainted with. I did know at least one thing might be familiar: the local civic tech hack night. But I couldn’t find it.
Projects and management
We need to overhaul our project management. To get there, and to work in the open, let’s start by clearly defining the problem, the fundamental challenges, and our circumstances. At Open Austin, our projects are for public good and made in the open. Compared to many open source projects that are often for developers, by […]
Mozilla’s Open Leadership Training can work for Open Austin projects
When I joined the Open Austin leadership team, one of my first goals was to identify specific problems in our project management that might impact members’ ability or motivation to contribute. Early on we defined that problem to be that most project ideas are never completed. However, recently we took a good look at what we […]
Capturing, Interpreting, and Visualizing User Interaction
User interaction in computing can be captured via many devices, most of them operating on a spatial metaphor (see appendix). In our collection of visual data analytics (VDA) literature this semester, interaction is most often captured in terms of cursor positions and clicks and text entry chains and buffers. This interaction is then often captured […]
Interests
Here’s some things I’m deeply interested in but don’t go into detail describing elsewhere on my site: High-level The most general way I can describe what I like to do is thus: I like learning how things work together and communicating that with others. For the most part, I’m more interested in the high-level, […]
What makes analysis complex?
There are myriad ways to formalize, visualize, and query a dataset, but how well have these helped people make sense of it?
Defining play for artificial intelligence
If humans and animals are both able to play and be considered creative, then could we apply both concepts to artificial intelligence, as well? They are both largely circumstantial so that one would know it when they see it (Henricks, 2008) more easily than logically derive it (Graham, 2010). By better framing them in a […]
Organizational analysis of Open Data Aarhus
Urban planning over the last century has evolved from the idealism of a classical political utopia, to modern planning of “new towns,” to postmodern decentralization. Since the industrial revolution, urban centers have grown into sprawling metropolises as waves of people relocate from the countryside. As they grow and change, innumerable factors contribute to their growing […]
Why I'm going to grad school
As a sort of organizational nut who grew up playing many hours of Sim City and other simulation games, I naively wondered how I can so easily create an efficient virtual metropolis in Sim City, yet how real cities like Detroit can utterly fail. Did Detroit not have the kind of real-time information and analysis […]
Further analysis of VacantFinder
VacantFinder is a result of my continuing work with the Friends of English Avenue organization. The City of Atlanta has allowed me to further investigate public data, specifically to solving issues of property abandonment. My previous project included a static map of properties reported in the Grove Park neighborhood and a public SMS service for […]
Legitimizing Open Sources of Education
Recently, an Atlanta law firm sought an in-house courier to ferry documents between buildings, offered $10 an hour for the gig, and required the applicant to have a four-year degree from a university (Rampell). Regardless of the job’s technical requirements, the flood of applications had to be pared down to a single candidate eventually, and […]
Food and Segyehwa in South Korean Cinema
For LMC 3256-F Spring 2013 – Qi Wang Introduction South Korea of the mid-1990s was in nothing short of a political revolution, with its former President Kim Young Sam targeting corruption and formulating Korea’s long-term globalization policy of segyehwa. This policy to unify Korean interests and pivot itself to the world economic stage included an […]
Work for English Avenue this semester
English Avenue is a neighborhood on the edge of downtown Atlanta, historic for its and past residents as well as its recent social decline. As a food desert and civically neglected neighborhood, its residents have faced declining resources and prosperity. Since 2008, the Friends of English Avenue organization and others have contributed to reinvigorating the […]
Visual Style of Humanization in Battlestar Galactica
LMC 3252-F Spring 2013 – J. P. Telotte Battlestar Galactica’s 2003-2009 re-imagining of its original incarnation challenges what is means to be human, or a person, and what evil lurks in the hearts of humans and machines. This distinction between human and machine is the first challenge that the show presents to its audience, as […]
On Edward Yang's mu-vies
A gravestone is meant to answer the question, “Who is buried here?” Yasujiro Ozu requested his answer to be “mu.” This absence of an answer and denial of the question forces the audience to reconsider what is being asked by the subject and how the object of a scene is modified. Ozu perhaps influenced Edward […]
Analysis of VacantFinder
My work with English Avenue has broadened in the last few weeks since my previous paper, now including collaboration with the City of Atlanta. In late February, I took their concerns and goals to Govathon, a hackathon hosted by the city government to build digital services based on local needs in about 15 hours. At […]
On Ozu and design
Design is a way of organizing complexity or finding clarity in chaos. With his mise-en-scène and editing techniques, Ozu masters the design of filmed space and time, wrangling them from their reality as progenitors of chaos while preserving perfectly familiar characters and their lives as narrative. As an information and visual designer, I can relate […]
English Avenue dataset analysis
English Avenue is a neighborhood on the edge of downtown Atlanta, historic for its and past residents as well as its recent social decline. As a food desert and civically neglected neighborhood, its residents have faced declining resources and prosperity. Since 2008, the Friends of English Avenue organization and others have contributed to reinvigorating the […]
Semester's review on my Food & Civic Media project studio
Through this food and civic media project studio, I have discovered methods of research through design as well as perspectives in food systems from other students’ projects.
Models of learning in formal and non-formal sources of education
Seeking education outside of formal institutions is gaining ground in both formal and non-formal education environments. It is also one of the strongest cases of popularizing and reducing the cost of education as American students face the highest tuition prices yet in higher education;# however, the dearth of informal sources using an experiential learning approach […]
Analysis of design patterns in MediaWiki
About MediaWiki MediaWiki is the PHP framework of top-ten website Wikipedia. When founder Jimmy Wales created Wikipedia as an academic experiment the site was based on UseModWiki, a general-use wiki framework written in Perl, and not quite yet well-known. Once it found popularity via high-profile bloggers and news sites, their system was failing in overdrive, […]
Semantic networks in cognition and computing
Internet infrastructure currently operates in many networking modes; however, to most people, it is the web: a technology stack of files, their unique identifiers, and transfer protocols to serve to user agents. However, now that the web has evolved to include ubiquitous web services, search functions, and other indirect queries or manipulation, the the underlying […]
Distract and learn
I have a problem with this book. The problem may be that it was written by a couple guys who know exactly what they’re talking about; that they have planned just how and when to answer questions they think the reader will ask; and that I’m expected to learn half the material in this class […]
Cog sci examination of free will
In our class discussion of free will and determinism, I was frequently reminded of “god-of-the-gaps” arguments, where gaps in science are explainable by something supernatural.[1] Instead of science and religion, though, what if the concept of free will is the supernatural, the god, in the gaps of causality? Perhaps free will is a purely human […]
Good Design
If “good design is good business” as former IBM President Tom Watson, Jr. said, and if that business is to encourage users to learn how to code, then good design of a medium must be a significant element in learning. Such a business is Codecademy: a reward-based programming education website with a fairly responsive and […]
Analysis of Internet as a Medium for Informal Education
This research analyzes Internet users learning skills and concepts more effectively on their own time, often in order to accomplish a specific task, via online resources often generated by non-educators. This trend is particularly evident in computing areas like digital media and computer science, where real-life skills can be trained actively or passively, even remediated […]
A New World Computer
My goal for my college education is to learn the foundation and current scope of work in improving how humans interact with computers, how friendly they can be with each other, and how to bring the computer from a thing to be learned and trained for to a simple extension of its user. In essence, […]
Building Digital Experiences: AIML vs Inform
of the myriad lessons from this class I have taken is how to best design an experience for a program’s user. Two languages I’ve learned for projects have been more keen on developing my ability to author such an experience: Inform and AIML. Both allow the user to explore stories, and thus making the experience […]
If Words Were Swords
Computationally. ELIZA and its contemporaries are programs that take textual input (natural language) and produce relative, natural language output that only makes sense if it either directly references the user’s previous statement as another statement or poses a question that is at least indirectly related. Removing the textual and language aspect of this model, it […]
Media Platforms Taking Advantage of Internet as Infrastructure
Over the last two decades of extremely rapid, silently revolutionary development of the user-touser networking platform that is collectively referred to as the internet, or “Web 2.0,” productivity and even a nation’s economy is dependent1 on how its users and contributors continue to develop it. Businesses like Behance LLC, for example, who offers three main […]
User Interaction in Digital Art Programs
Tools and productivity artifacts developed in just the last decade for digital art are absolutely new media that still mimic its original counterparts, paper and pen. While an eminent figure like Theodore Nelson may see this as baffling and counter-revolutionary, it is more of a transitional phase in art history. If art is to express […]
Comic Symposium
Springtime Atlanta is heyday for comics, with Momocon just last month, Free Comic Book Day next month. At Tech, local artists and students met at the first Annual Atlanta Comics Symposium to host panels on comics from their nature and creation to the industry’s ambivalent future. Programs from Georgia Tech and University of Florida […]
Digital Spaces in Text-Based Games
First let me say that never before have I felt my personal space so invaded than as I attempt to perform (what would in my usual life be un-commented-on) actions. Perhaps I do just want to jump without friend computer condescendingly suggest hopping around the dungeon, expecting itself to applaud, or promoting me to the […]
Eating Atlanta: Sandwiches around campus
Not every sandwich can be called worthy of anything but a mindless pile of meat, cheese, and bread, but when a wise cook knows what they’re doing it can yield a sandwich that’s worth a few more of your laboratory-slaving dollars. It can yield a sandwich that’s worth being called a “sammich.” So before you […]
Eating Atlanta: Ria's Bluebird
In the quaint neighborhood of Grant Park, a recently gentrified neighborhood where quaint houses are still being restored and graffiti is a legitimate form of business advertisement, restaurants here seem to follow a rustic design and a similar class of food. Ria’s Bluebird, a daily breakfast and lunch place, offers one of the best Southwestern […]
Eating Atlanta: Burgers around Atlanta
Too often, Tech students limit their food options to standard on-campus fare without realizing there are dozens of restaurants on the Tech perimeter. The lunchtime hamburger should be a sufficient reason to jump just off campus to grab some good grub during those solid eight-hour class days. While making your way to labs and classes […]
Eating Atlanta: Spice Market
Midtown’s stretch of Peachtree Street NE is a rich belt of fine restaurants, bars, and original eateries. Situated on the north end of the belt inside the W Hotel, Spice Market offers an intriguing experience and cuisine but doesn’t quite substantiate its price level. Spice Market’s two key points of interest are the “tasting menu” […]
Eating Atlanta: Maddy's BBQ
Nearly every city, metropolis or nowheresville in the Southeast includes some variety of barbecue. Atlanta, with its established wealth of cuisine, hosts a bluesy brand of barbecue. Though barbecue restaurants are spread across the city, the best are usually on the east side of Interstate 85. This week, we found our ribs and blues at […]
Whaley markets new product
If there is any kind of practical inspiration for college students, it is seeing the success of a student with his or her own self-launched career. In this case, it is a recent Tech graduate who won the 2010 InVenture Prize in Spring 2010 and has taken that victory far beyond a competition. The athletic […]
Eating Atlanta: Urban Grind and Octane Coffee
Oh, the humble coffee house. From the corporate hegemony of Starbucks to the lowly carts that dot the city streets, coffee shops come as varied as the roasted bean juice they serve. Their caffeine-deprived patrons flock morning, noon and night to these establishments to drink, converse and thrive amid the buzz of grinders and the […]
Interactivity @GT 2011
My most recent webdev project was the design for the Interactivity @GT 2011 event website. Thanks to Matt Wilczynski for the back end work. Interactivity is a yearly exhibition of projects by graduate students in Georgia Tech’s Human-Computer Interaction and Digital Media programs for the benefit of industry representatives. Organized by the GVU, Interactivity is […]
Eating Atlanta: Panahar
Buford Highway continues to host Atlanta’s finest (even in the recent hothlanta conditions), with Panahar Bangladeshi and Indian Cuisine as one of the best of its kind around. Panahar keeps a low profile as an unassuming, unique experience into the rarely ventured cuisine and culture of Bangladesh. Actually to that note, their prime cuisine, Bangladeshi, […]
Closed loop systems and striving for “net zero” on college campuses
As the Kyoto Protocol was finalized and on its way to be ratified by the U.S., legislators had already decried it as dead on arrival, citing conflicts with existing laws and domestic markets. Even now, communication is breaking down and forecasts are less than favorable in pre-Copenhagen talks. However, zooming in to a single company, […]
Eating Atlanta: Pure Taqueria
(Written primarily by Michael Valente) This week we visited one of three Pure Taqueria locations in Inman Park—one of Atlanta’s most fiercely dedicated communities and home to a myriad of small shops, restaurants and, of course, the glorious hipsters. The first note we made as we walked up to Pure Taqueria in the cold, drizzly […]
Eating Atlanta: Chinatown Square
Driving through Chamblee area Atlanta in the rain around 9 p.m. looking for an allegedly delicious-as-it-is-dingy Chinese cafeteria may not sound like a prime Monday night excursion. However, we found that if the Atlanta Chinatown Square were to transplant itself to someplace like the Varsity, no Tech student would be spared from its slew of […]
Citizens discuss science policy
Tech students and faculty brought the state’s major movers and changers together at the fifth annual Legislative Roundtable this Tuesday, Nov. 16, to make headway in science and technology’s incorporation into state and local public policy. The Office of Policy Analysis and Research (OPAR) of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) coordinated the event with […]
Social equity and its implementation
A significant portion of humanitarian problems arise from social inequity, and the greatest problem in determining how to achieve social equity is how to recognize it. Equity is the logos to the pathos of equality, which people the world over have fought fervently for, taking for example Jamaica’s independence and decline because of social inequity […]
Microsoft puzzles Tech students
Does 381SAFETY964 mean anything? One must be slightly familiar with pigpen ciphers and pop culture icons, or else the annual College Puzzle Challenge might be a little traumatic. On Nov. 6, students at Tech and 26 other American and Canadian universities, such as M.I.T and the University of Waterloo, competed to solve as many of […]
Sustainability receives A- rating
Tech is among the highest-rated universities in the Sustainable Endowment Institute’s latest annual College Sustainability Report Card, one of the most-participated-in sustainability rankings in the U.S. Each year, the report card grades participating universities on sustainability-related features of administration, energy use, food, recycling, buildings, student involvement, transportation and finances. This year’s report card grades Tech […]
Student voters respond to midterm elections
With the 2010 midterm elections drawing to a close, the political landscape has experienced a significant shift in party control, with a Republicans gaining majority of governors and representatives and a nearly even split in the Senate with Democrats still in control. Data shows that projected total voter turnout was 42 percent of the electorate, […]
J. R. Crickets beats out competition
Most food styles immediately surrounding Tech are the typical city fare: standard American dishes, often greasy and cheaper than most. Among the better of the dozen or so in sight of campus is J.R. Crickets, self-described as “Atlanta’s wing tradition.” The closest of their 12 locations, just over the North Avenue bridge on Spring Street, […]
Candidates present views, backgrounds
Roy Barnes Roy Barnes, the Democratic nominee for governor, is the former governor of Georgia. Barnes grew up in Cobb County and earned his undergraduate and law degree of the University of Georgia in six years. Returning to Cobb County after college, he opened a law firm until his election to the Georgia State Senate […]
Fellow earns recognition in poetry
A new face is making a big name in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture. Andy Frazee, recently awarded with the Brittain Postdoctoral Fellowship, has won the 2011 Subito Press Book Competition for his poetry manuscript The Book of I. The competition is hosted by the Subito Press, a nonprofit publisher with the Creative […]
NPHC gets in step with audience
The party to be at last week was the National Pan-Hellenic Council’s (NPHC) annual Homecoming Step Show on Saturday, Oct. 2, featuring crews from four fraternities and two sororities as they stepped their way to glory in front of a sold-out crowd. Stepping is a traditional American dance that stems from college students in historically […]
CFA shares traditional festivity with campus
The Chinese Friendship Association (CFA) welcomed Atlanta’s Chinese and Taiwanese university population to a night of cultural gathering at the Mid-Autumn Festival Banquet this Monday, Sept. 27. With over 400 students, faculty, administrators and professionals from around Atlanta in attendance, including 96 just to run the event, that is quite a hefty lot of moon […]
VPID finalist Ervin seeks out collaboration in campus diversity
The final candidate for the Vice President of Institute Diversity (VPID), Archie Ervin, made his public presentation on Tuesday, Sept. 14, at the Global Learning Center, detailing his goals to develop a road map of the next 25 years. “It is clearly understood that the Georgia Tech of tomorrow and its future success is contingent […]
Week 5: End game
>>Thoughts on next week There’s not much to say about last week, considering it was mostly essaying. Next week we’re moving from the fundamentals of the game players to the fundamentals of the game itself. Sixth Extinction’s material doesn’t tell me anything new, really, other than some people’s opinions and specific facts that I could’ve […]
Economic growth and social productivity in market economies
Economic growth has always been a cultural phenomenon, starting with the European intellectual movements. Through the Medieval Age the traditional concept of work – economic life and social life as one – sustained in nearly every culture. Though markets were indeed present, there was no market system or economy other than the transfer of countries’ […]
Week 4: Essay
>>Thoughts on last week I learned quite a bit about corporate philosophy this week from the readings, but I really didn’t like the movie. It seemed to be one of those “ahh! scary corporations sucking the life out of us!” It seemed that some fundamental ideas of capitalism and market-level libertarianism are treated as sinful. […]
Mysterious organization unveils itself
Their goal: to make sure every student sees success after college and they never leave Tech behind. Their methods: philanthropic initiatives selected by members, hanging out with and attending talks by Tech alumni and deriving inspiration from Tech’s traditions and history. After months of erratic marketing through matrix barcodes and yellow-splattered banners with vague event […]
Sort of a.. life manifesto
I recognize three views, observe two views, and actively engage in one view: super-macroscopic, macroscopic, and microscopic. Macroscopically, I am completely negligible and have absolutely no use to this particular universe except in terms of entropy and act as a physical manifestation of energy. There is no goal I can accomplish alive than dead. Thus, […]
PUBP: Week 3, Corporations
>>Thoughts on last week Economic personality and trends are often shared by generations. Post-WWII generation saw epic growth, which led to healthy spending and financial security, assumed it would continue. 1980s generation saw major downturn, forcing more saving habits and drive to ensure a better future for next generation. Readings touched on globalism, considering the […]
Astronaut Crippen on campus to award scholarship
On Friday, Sept. 3, Captain Robert Crippen, US Navy, Rt., and pilot of the first orbital flight of the Space Shuttle, presented one of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation’s (ASF) $10,000 scholarships to Joy Buolamwini, a third-year CS major, for her academic and research work in computer science. A crowd of about 50 students and faculty […]
Students explore Asia
While other students study abroad in Asia, Tech students in Atlanta were able to experience the tastes and tones of Asian culture as they trekked through a series of Asian-oriented stands across campus on Tuesday, Sept. 7. “This was our first attempt at such a large-scale event,” said Elysia Hwang, vice president of the Asian […]
Walesby makes claim for newly created position
Speaking to a combined audience of students, faculty and administrators in the Global Learning Center on Thursday, Sept. 2, Anthony Walesby presented his qualifications and goals as he vies with two other finalists for the newly-established position of the Vice President of Institute Diversity (VPID). “My interest would be to assess the what’s happening now, […]
Glee club spreads spirit, song across campus
The men who made the Ramblin’ Wreck tune a nationally, if not internationally, recognizable fight song are seeking fresh vocals to strike their chords. With a variety of songs, the Glee Club presented Tech’s singing voice to incoming students this Mon., Aug. 23, at the Rock Your Face Off Concert. Beginning at the Navy ROTC […]
Prominent Tech figures give advice to freshmen
MEET…THE MAN WHO RUNS THE PLACE: Institute President G. P. “Bud” Peterson Holding a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, Peterson has been president at Tech since April 2009. Before that, he held top academic and administrative positions at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Texas […]
Robot see, robot do for socially apt machine
http://nique.net/focus/100898 Within the 200,000 square foot Technology Square Research Building, the Socially Intelligent Machines (SIM) Lab is developing the next revolution in advanced human-machine interaction: robots that learn from socializing. “First, we revolutionized the office and the home using dumb terminals, but now we have embodied agents that can automate things in the real world. […]
GTL still adding programs, students after 20 years
http://nique.net/focus/100856 Tech’s first and largest satellite campus, Georgia Tech Lorraine (GTL) in Metz, France, has provided its students an international campus-away-from-campus for 20 years this week. Hundreds of people attended celebrations in Metz, including, for the first time, Institute President G.P. “Bud” Peterson. A representative from the Georgia Department of Economic Development, CEO of Coca-Cola […]
Students share mixed feelings about tuition hike
http://nique.net/focus/100845 With a $227 million decrease in the University System of Georgia’s (USG) budget, Tech students will see a $500 per semester increase in tuition starting with the Fall 2010 semester. The tuition increase will offset $80 million, and reductions in USG’s 35 colleges and universities’ operating budgets will offset the remaining $147 million. “I […]
MRDC evacuated after mercury spill
http://nique.net/news/100823 On Wednesday, April 21, at approximately 7:30 p.m., Atlanta and Tech emergency services responded to a reported mercury spill in the Manufacturing and Related Disciplines Complex. Six fire trucks, two police cars and four emergency response vehicles were on the scene soon after the incident. “I was sitting and studying on the first floor, […]
RoboJackets extend metallic hand to high schoolers
http://nique.net/focus/100797 Paper brochures, e-mails from admissions and information sessions may not always persuade prospective students to consider Tech as the college of choice, but what about the opportunity to learn engineering skills while building robots with Tech’s engineering students? The student organization RoboJackets offers a hands-on perspective of engineering as well as a unique view […]
IsraelFest showcases Israel’s modern society
http://nique.net/focus/100772 Following last week’s CultureFest and TASA’s Night Market, Tech’s Jewish student organization GT Hillel hosted its IsraelFest Tuesday, April 13, at the Campanile, attracting approximately 600 people to the free activities and cultural information opportunities. “We wanted to give the appeal of Israel in modern society,” said Eran Mordel, first-year ISyE and Israel programming […]
Culture Fest – Students showcase language, food and performance
http://nique.net/focus/100721 With about 45 cultural student organizations on campus, one of the best ways for students to explore these different cultures is Tech’s annual CultureFest—a week-long schedule of activities sponsored by Culture Tech and AIESEC, featuring activities by eleven student organizations. Culture Tech has hosted this event since 1985, stemming from the Annual International Festival, […]
GT Observatory lets students, public see stars
http://nique.net/focus/100700 Atlanta may outshine all but a star or two on most nights, but atop the Howey Physics Building both students and the general public may bring celestial bodies into focus with Tech’s first observatory. Taking the elevator to the top floor of Howey, a flight of stairs to the roof and then a second […]
GT Jam for Haiti to rock out for a good cause
http://nique.net/news/100645 When passionate Tech students aren’t spending their 72-hour days on studying, they are dedicating 72-hour days to a noble cause. Jesse Clark, an MCRP grad student, and several others from student organizations have spent the last month organizing the GT Jam for Haiti: a benefit concert to relief for Haiti. The concert will host […]
Diversity defined and evolving on campus
http://nique.net/news/100615 While diversity may just be a fashionable buzzword for marketing campaigns, an institution like Tech—as a whole—actually takes the word to action from the administrative to the individual student level. “From a collegiate standpoint the world was evolving from ‘affirmative action’ to ‘diversity’ when I was at Tech, so it was this new terminology […]
RHA raises watt waste awareness
http://nique.net/news/100582 Following Tech’s trend of sustainability innovations in practice and building design, the Residence Hall Association’s (RHA) improvement committee has announced this year’s round of Wasted Watts — a competition between residence halls to lower their power consumption. “One of the biggest issues that we’re looking at is how to get people to use sustainable […]
Black History Month expands diversity awareness
http://nique.net/focus/100554 For the seventh year now, Tech’s African American Student Union will host its Black Leadership Conference over the Feb. 19-21 weekend, focusing on their I-Change campaign: a call to individual change in and out of their normal communities. “The Black Leadership Conference is a breeding ground for those who believe in leadership and diversity […]
Trailblazers helps students give back, get dirty
http://nique.net/focus/100542 Each spring break since 2007, several dozen of Tech’s Trailblazers—including undergraduates, graduates and post-doctorates —combine outdoors exploration with environmental improvement via trips to national parks and local service projects. The Trailblazers club offers their alternative spring break trips, local environmental service projects and convenient services for the “outdoorsy” student. Their Alternative Spring Break (ASB) […]
Students weigh in on campus carry legislation
http://nique.net/focus/100492 Campus weapon control is still on the radar for both the apolitical and outspoken student. At a recent interview with the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC), Institute President G.P. “Bud” Peterson stated his opposition to firearms on campus, specifically concealed weapons. Among his points, Peterson cited possible weapon misuse, the unlikely event that a major […]
Yellow Jacket Flying Club soars through the skies
http://nique.net/focus/100437 The Yellow Jacket Flying Club is perhaps the only club at Tech that casually travels the country on weekends, grills on a mile-long asphalt driveway and maintains $170,000 of equipment. Since 1946, Tech students have been flying to earn their pilot license or to cross the country for a barbeque and airshow. Their fleet […]
OIT ramps up security success
http://nique.net/focus/100438 Stephen Colbert once said, “I’ve never trusted the web. How do you hold it personally responsible? Can you put a distributed network of fiber-optic cable on notice? In other words, can I challenge it to a fight?” He makes a good point: how can we trust the web? Network security on a scale as […]
Soviet influences in central-eastern European cinema
The most prominent feature of central-eastern European cinema is its overt challenge to Russian influence of communism and Stalinism that imperialized the region in the latter half of the 20th century. Films such as Sedmikrasky, a 1966 Czechoslovak “new wave” film directed by Věra Chytilová, and Przesĺuchanie, a 1982 Polish “cinema of moral concern” film […]
CoC project reboots IT professionals
http://nique.net/focus/100365 Operation Reboot, a project in the College of Computing, will pair laid-off IT professionals with high school teachers to give them a leg up in their career options starting in the spring of 2010. The project is headed by Barbara Ericson, the computing outreach director at the CoC’s Institute for Computing Education (ICE). The […]
Provost office offers link between students and administration
http://nique.net/focus/100333 Gary Schuster announced on Oct. 21 that he will be stepping down from his position as executive vice president for Academic Affairs as soon as his replacement is found. The Institute hopes to find a replacement for the position by July 1, 2010. Schuster has served as the provost since August of 2006 and […]
Why documentaries?
http://aapj1102.blogspot.com/2009/11/why-documentaries.html One of the greatest atrocities of modern societies is ignorance. This ignorance can either be intentional – like in the sheltered life of the suburbs or parents preventing their children from seeing conditions or ideas that contrast with their own – or unintentional – like the majority of Americans who wish to simply live […]
Utopia and dystopia in cinema
http://aapj1102.blogspot.com/2009/10/utopia-and-dystopia-in-cinema.html [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp4B4z3wfmc&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999]
Students, administration collaborate to meet green goals
http://nique.net/focus/100278 In early October, the Sustainable Endowments Institute released its College Sustainability Report Card. The report card grades universities on their efforts to improve energy efficiency and dedicate sufficient resources to environmental issues. This year Tech earned a “B,” the highest grade yet, thanks to the initiatives undertaken by Tech’s Office of Environmental Stewardship and […]
Student awarded prestigious Astronaut Scholarship
nique.net From high school to his third year at Tech, aerospace engineering major, Jonathan Walker has contributed to his community in the name of science, and his deeds have recently been rewarded by a $10,000 scholarship from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF). Astronaut Charlie Duke visited campus on Sept. 22 to present Walker with the […]
MLR, UtC to be renovated in the Student Center
nique.net Since the 1970s, the Student Center’s Music Listening Room (MLR) served students as a place for relaxation, a cool atmosphere and often for mid-day naps. However, by Spring 2010 the Student Center will convert the MLR into a new location for Under the Couch (UtC). “For some people, relaxing means lying down on a […]
Utopia and dystopia in cinema
Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of A Clockwork Orange share intellectual ideas of technocracy, societal degradation, failed prioritization, and a disregard for humanity via their dystopian or side-by-side utopian/dystopian settings, highlighting the youth’s address of these problems. The origins of these ideas stem from the zeitgeist of each film’s era, where the youths […]
Interracial ideas in film
http://aapj1102.blogspot.com/2009/10/interracial-ideas-in-film.html One of the major pre-1960s cinema trends was role segregation, where the film industry considered non-white actors somehow unfit for a particular role solely because of race. Roles non-white actors could, however, manage to land were often confined to minor, static characters having little to no complexity or development. Often, a white actor even […]
Volleyball looks to continue success vs. ACC opponents
nique.net The Jackets’ volleyball team begins conference play in earnest this weekend, and the team’s 7-4 record through four early-season invitational tournaments has generated confidence and enthusiasm among the coaches and players. Tech got off to an exciting start with a five-set victory over Georgia in the season opener and has seen success throughout the […]
LED lights offer potential green alternative
nique.net What used to only be found in instrument panels and holiday lightbulb strings, LED (light-emitting diode) technology shows great promise in lighting the way for Tech to a more economic and environmentally-friendly direction. Facilities faculty has completed several lighting renovations already on campus, including converting all the lighting in the Tennenbaum Auditorium to LED […]
Free your mind
There are relatively few encounters in life that show the consistencies in human behavior and the inconsistencies in why we think we behave that way. Everyone lives with some purpose: getting through life happily, getting a decent job to support a family, getting to heaven, getting more cocaine from the gentleman in the alley. However, […]
House of Flying Daggers commentary
http://aapj1102.blogspot.com/2009/09/house-of-flying-daggers-commentary.html In our class, the feeling of heavy Westernization (strongly relying on visual effects and CGI to attract and hold an audience) is strong; however, the plot at least is strong, and the scenery complements it in an interesting way. The plot is indeed twisty, with the audience probably most confused with Jin, who is […]
Lottery program may not sustain HOPE past 2012
Nique.net Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship program needs some help of its own to continue providing financial assistance to students at Tech and all state universities. The Georgia Lottery Program, which funds both HOPE and statewide pre-kindergarten programs, is not growing along with the budgeted allowances to students needing the scholarship. In the last fiscal year, HOPE […]
SGA Freshman Representative elections begin next Friday
Nique.net Until 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 4, Tech freshmen will be able to apply for candidacy in the Student Government Association’s (SGA) freshman representatives elections. The new freshman class will elect four representatives to SGA’s undergraduate legislative branch from Sept. 11-16. The elected freshmen representatives serve with 53 other representatives from majors/schools, athletics, co-op […]