Free Geek Providence midway presentation

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Himalayan Water Project

Artificial Glaciers

Perhaps artificial glaciers could be a viable solution for Himalayan communities in need of water?

"a good artificial glacier costs $50,000," even though "the materials are simple: dirt, pipes, rocks—and runoff from real glaciers high above."

Time to start saving some money.

Assignment 4 | Sanitation

For this project, the class was split into a variety of groups which are focused on certain aspects of tibetan life. I chose to join the group which dealt with issues of sanitation. After a few rounds of brainstorming we were able to decide that the main areas in need of improvement in regards to sanitation were the cleansing of hands, face and body; minimizing contact with human and animal fecal matter; improving the water quality.

From these came a few basic concepts which attempted to tackle these issues of clean water, human waste and animal waste.

Readings for 3/4

Design for Sustainability - Agogino

I think it is great that this course was taught with the inclusion of international and local students spanning a variety of disciplines. The different views of this variety of students definitely brought a whole new vision to the projects that they were assigned.

Metrics for Measuring Ideation Effectiveness - Shah, et al.

It was interesting to see how the ideation process was scientifically organized in this article. I found it helpful to have the ideation process broken up into the many categories and sub categories and given a reason why they all existed. I appreciate the extent to which the author delved into this topic but I find it pointless to quantify the effectiveness of a process where the end result is extremely subjective. A certain ideation process may result in a fewer or greater number of ideas but it is difficult to award one ideation process more validity over another.

Creativity as a Design Criterion - Christiaans

Another article where the end result discovers that creativity is a very difficult and subjective topic to quantify. Depending on who they conducted their experiment on, the results varied because of different levels of involvement and understanding. An object may appear creative to some and to others may appear to be another average run-of-the-mill object.

Social Issues of interest

A few social issues I find interesting and perhaps worth delving into further are childhood obesity, gambling and euthanasia.

Childhood obesity is an issue which is severely crippling the lives of many children and adults all over the United States. I am originally from Houston, Texas, the former "Fattest city in America" and have seen how rampant childhood obesity is. It is an entirely preventable disease and needs to be solved before too many of our children die young.

Excessive gambling is an issue which I find to be an interesting problem to tackle. I was at one time somewhat addicted to playing poker and spent more time playing cards then I did spending time in class. I have grown out of that phase of my life but I still clearly remember how detrimental the addiction was. I'd be interested in finding ways to help counteract the desire to excessively gamble.

Euthanasia is a social issue which is something I am just interested in further researching. I do not know how I could tackle the issue of euthanasia and am not sure which side of the fence I rest. I became interested in the topic after hearing that the first legal assisted suicide had taken place and wondered how this issue can be discussed. I feel that this issue would best be undertaken with a focus on discursive design and producing an object or scenario which encourages debate and discussion on the topic.

Assignment 2

For assignment 2, we were told to come up with quick concepts that would assist the Tibetan communities in regards to heating or cooking.

Dung is essential to Tibetan communities because it is basically a free and renewable source of energy. Coal and kerosene are expensive and not easily obtained and desertification has significantly reduced the number of trees in the area. Dung is their best option for fuel.

I decided to tackle the issue of dung collection and sanitation. Every day Tibetan women spend roughly 3 hours collecting enough dung to help cook food and heat their homes. After they have collecting the dung, it must be dried. This process is accomplished by mashing handfuls of dung together and squeezing them into 8" discs that they then slap against a sun exposed wall to dry. Because of a lack of running water, villagers do not have a chance to rinse off the dung before cooking and tending to children. This results in a cycle which increases the chances of illness because of the pathogens that are being spread amongst everyone.

Bag for easier collection of dung. Modified garment aiding in the collection of dung.

Tools which help flatten and cut dung into smaller, denser "bricks" which help keep hands clean.

Shoe attachments which help flatten and cut dung into smaller, denser "bricks" which help keep hands clean