Bits and Pieces

First Impressions

2009-02-28T11:55:00.000-08:00

“A whole big part of traveling is to find some sort direction. What i really want to do in life. It’s been quite fun, sometimes i think, is traveling a job?” Writes my cousin, who is presently traveling through Peru on her very first trip outside the US (Canada doesn’t count). My cousin landed in Peru two weeks ago and will spend another twenty-four on the road going through Bolivia, Ecuador, and who knows where else. It’s her first exposure to developing countries, to urban poverty, and to that weird feeling that despite the fact that these people have very little, they seem to be happier with life than many of us. In my response back to her I inform her that everything she’s seeing is the norm for the majority of the world – that as residents of the US, we are the minority.

It’s easy for me to forget that many people don’t know this, and even I forget from time to time. I’m thoroughly enjoying re-living my first impressions of the rest of the world through her. An email excerpt:

“As i see more and more of peru i´m starting to realize how low poverty some of these people live. They remind me most of the natives back home and how they live on the reservations. I go to the local markets and see all these people sellng their goods and i don´t know, someting happens when i see their faces. Eventhough they don´t have a lot of money, they still seem happy and always have a smile on thier face. And laughing with each other. I guess the feeling that i am feeling is compassion.”

Compassion it is, Brandie! Don’t lose it.

Wednesday | Jan 26 | The Orbit Room, SF

2009-01-26T09:12:00.000-08:00

The idea of Catapult Design is officially one year old and we're celebrating!
Anyone and everyone is invited to join us for drinks at The Orbit Room this Wednesday night --
7pm, 1900 Market Street
(checkbooks welcome, but not required)

Let there be wind!

2008-12-20T22:04:00.000-08:00

'Tis the season of no wind. And while it's freezing cold outside, the sky is clear and annoyingly calm. In a desperate attempt to put some mileage on the Wind Turbine testing unit, a few of us drive up to Twin Peaks and draw a small crowd while we assemble our girl for testing. No wind -- as the internet predicted.

(On the plus side, we captured some beautiful shots of the turbine with an SF backdrop!)

The testing unit (pictured above) is three plywood disks with blue plastic blades sandwiched inbetween. This arrangement is solely to enable quick-and-easy profile changes. Our objective: to experiment with the blade spacing, curvature, and width. A DAQ is connected to an anemometer, a force guage, and a tachometer collecting wind speed, force, and turbine rpm, respectively. From this info, the DAQ plots torque vs wind speed for each blade arrangement.

It's week six or so of absolutely zero wind. We've exhausted our contacts trying to find a wind tunnel at Stanford, Berkeley, NASA-Ames, SLAC, etc. Time to play God and create our own wind. To build a wind tunnel, or to build a car mount system? While the latter would make for some hilarious visuals, a wind tunnel would bring consistency to testing. How easy is it to build a wind tunnel? No idea. We'll find out. I'm convinced it can't be that difficult -- in fact, according to my highly technical sketch all I need is a plywood box and some expensive, ginormous fans (via McMaster-Carr). The real challenge is finding a storage facility for it.

Catapult Design occupies donated machine shop space in Mountain View (D2M) and Berkeley (The Shipyard). Neither facility would be pleased about storing something the size of a walk-in closet for us. It may be time call in favors with our friends at the Agilent Foundation, who have offered us space in their Santa Clara facilities.

Wind Turbine drama to be continued...

Engineers cook a meal, socialize

2008-12-13T12:40:00.000-08:00

That's right. Thursday night was Catapult Design's first Catapult Dinner -- a gathering of the Catapult Seven and our Advisers. To throw in some non-engineers, the dinner also included two guests from San Francisco's Saatchi & Saatchi S as well as a small piece of Hollywood -- two producing partners from Los Angeles.

The setting: an old warehouse-turned-residence in the Mission that featured an indoor motorboat, pop-up trailer, 30ft tall Christmas Tree decorated with crayon ornaments, and bowling ball & pins suspended from the ceiling. The menu: engineers prove they can take direction by following an Alice Water's bruschetta recipe... prove they can get creative by making up a lasagna recipe on the fly.

Catapult's Advising Team was inaugurated just recently and includes:
Kurt Kornbluth, founder of UC-Davis PIET, winner of Lighting Africa: Development Marketplace
Ralf Hotchkiss, founder and deigner of Whirlwind Wheelchair
Chris Tacklind, founder of TwillTech
Jocelyn Wyatt, Social Impact + Business Factors at IDEO
Gary Zeiff, founder of dissigno, winner of Lighting Africa: Development Marketplace

Full bios on each of our advisers and the Catapult team is coming up on the Catapult Design website -- set to launch in the new year.

Catapult does D-Rev, Stanford

2008-11-26T20:20:00.000-08:00

Long time no blog.

Catapult Design has been uber-busy with social events. At the top of the list was a visit near the end of November with D-Rev ("Design Revolution"), co-founded by Paul Polak, author of "Out of Poverty" and founder of IDE, and Kurt Kuhlman. Since Paul is based out of the Colorado, Catapult met with Kurt in D-Rev's Palo Alto technology offices. Located on Emerson a half-block from downtown, D-Rev is staffed with engineers and interns with the objective of making low-cost, scaleable technologies for the developing world. The designs are based on needs Paul and Kurt have observed from decades in the industry -- D-Rev is funded by grants, with a majority of their funding coming from the Gates Foundation. They're pursuing partnerships with for-profit corporations as well. While there, we took a look at several tech prototypes including: concentrated solar, mini-PV LED lighting, low-cost microscopes, and chlorination and UV technologies for clean water.

D-Rev's office is a mess of product tear-downs, proof-of-concept prototypes, testing equipment, soldering supplies, and workbenches. The front room is decorated with a few photos from the field as well as the latest and greatest from competing LED lighting and UV filtration companies. Looking forward to seeing great things come out of D-Rev.

Following our visit with D-Rev we visited Stanford University's d.School, just a few blocks away. Stanford's d.School has a notorious class right up Catapult's alley -- "Entrepreneurial Deign for Extreme Affordability." Or for short, DfEA. Student teams partner with developing world organizations to develop a product addressing a specific need within their communities. Sounds like what a lot of other schools are doing, ho hum. The key differentiatior is that this comes out of the d.School, not an engineering school. The class is a combination of engineers and MBAs, encouraging each team to approach their solutions with a business model. Students aren't working on modifications of existing solutions, but innovating new ones that address unique needs they've observed during their Spring Break in country. The output of the class has been so good, several companies have spurned out of the class. d.Light, Embrace are of recent fame. Catapult Design is excited to be working with the 2009 class, and hope to take on our first Summer Interns directly out of the class. More to come...

Pop!Tech 2008: Day Two

2008-10-24T15:32:00.001-07:00

It's an amazing transformation that each Social Innovation Fellow and attendee goes through just by attending a Pop!Tech conference. What is Pop!Tech all about? Inspiration. This year's theme is "Scarcity and Abundance" and the speakers and performers include: Malcolm Gladwell, Paul Polak, Imogen Heap, Chris Anderson, Amos Lee, Benjamin Zander and Chandler Burr. Whether you're an economist, an engineer, an artist, a doctor -- this is the one conference that speaks to all. It is a gathering of people listening to passionate and motivated individuals share their stories and their point-of-view. PopTech is a place to cultivate your perspective, learn the latest-and-greatest in pop culture, technology trends, and social impact.

Last night, Benjamin Zander the conductor for the Boston Philharmonic gave a speech on the power of possibility that had the audience singing "Happy Birthday" at the top of their lungs with passion and power that shook the halls of the Camden Opera House. That's right, "Happy Birthday." Zander educated us all on the power of blocking internal voices of negativity that feed our insecurities and hinder us from achieving everything that we're capable of achieving. This change isn't just mental, but about changing our physical behavior too. The next time you experience "PC Load Letter" on the office printer 2 minutes before your big presentation, throw up your hands, smile, and exclaim "That's fantastic!" Only by embracing annoyances, discouragements, or failures can you recognize the potential and the positive in every situation. It's an attitude shift, and having sat through Zander's talk I can tell you that it's also contagious.

Other greats included Chandler Burr, the New York Times perfume critic who passed around several scents and shared the intricacies of combining and sourcing scent; Marion Bantjes, an artist and master of typography, poetry, and graphic design talked about the importance of having love in your life; Paul Polak, the founder of International Development Enterprise shared the latest low-cost technologies aimed at developing world markets; Saul Griffith, the founder of several successful startups in renewable technologies and think tanks, shared how he measures and reduces his environmental foootprint; Imogen Heap performed live and played a beautiful song from her new album.

Imagine how your life would change if you didn't sweat the small stuff, embraced love, biked to work everyday, or could make a difference in the lives of the poorest people in the world. That's what Pop!Tech aims to share -- and "That's fantastic!"

photo by Kris Krug

Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellows Program: Day Three

2008-10-22T21:14:00.000-07:00

It's the end of day 3 at Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellows Program and it's been a non-stop two days. Our programs run 13 hours per day -- our brains are constantly absorbing new information and being stretched and pulled to the limits. On top of that, most of us are deep in the midst of funding and communications. After a long day at the Point Lookout Conference Center, we had back to our cabins to put in a few hours of work. Four hours later we wake up and repeat the cycle.

With that said, Pop!Tech treats its guests like royalty. They do their very best to reward their Fellows with comfort, mentorship, tools, and contacts. Did I mention that there's heaps of food on demand?

Day two featured two intense sessions: "Funding Social Innovation" and "Taking Projects to Scale." Jon Balen of Canaan Ventures headed off "Funding" and Jim Koch and Kevin Starr led "Taking Projects to Scale." In the latter, each Fellow's organizations was individually evaluated by best evaluation metrics for economies of scale.

Day three tapped into our creative sides with a morning session on "Digital Storytelling" led by David Sasaki. We finished out afternoon with "Media Training" by Fenton Communication and topped the evening with a personal conversation with Paul Polak, founder of International Development Enterprise and Bunker Roy, founder of Barefoot College in India. Both Polak and Roy shared their stories of what drives their enormous contribution to a global society. Paul Polak, who's devoted the majority of his life to helping small farmers get out of poverty, gave us all chance to ask him any question we wanted:

Q: What's the hardest challenge?
Polak: My own stupidity... I'm willing to learn from failure

Q: Do you have hard days where you wonder why you do what you do?
Polak: I crash and burn. I lay in bed and read a chap novel.

Q: Is there a correlation between wealth and happiness?
Polak: If you talk about a dollar a day... those people in some ways got it a lot better than people in the West. But a mother has to watch her kids go hungry. That's not happy. Unhappiness has to do with the 20% probability of watching your kids die. Having wealth doesn't guarantee happiness, but it gives you options.

Q: Is there anything you've learned that you wish you learned when you were 25?
Polak. No. I made a lot of mistakes at every age. At 25 I grabbed the world by the throat and throttled it -- but I learned that I had no control. And once I learned to give up control, I was more powerful. Be open to the mysteries of things you don't control.

Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellows Program: Day One

2008-10-19T20:47:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellows Program.

What is Pop!Tech? It's a non-profit focused on facilitating the conversation on the social impact of technology and innovation on people. Every year they host an annual conference in Camden, Maine and although this will be my first year in attendance, my impressions are: forward-thinking, connecting, and embracing opportunity. The type of people that attend PopTech are the type of people who make great things happen.

What is the Social Innovation Fellows Program? A group of sixteen high-potential transformational change agents working on technology development for poor people throughout the world. Our 4-day training program includes workshops from industry leaders on: Branding, Design for Social Change, Digital Storytelling, Funding Social Change, Media Training, and Taking Projects to Scale. Each workshop is designed to make each of us more effective as leaders and social entrepreneurs.

Before I left for Maine I had a few stressful, sleepless nights getting ready for the Fellows program. I boarded a red-eye to Portland, Maine and then napped through the two-hour drive to Camden, a small Norman Rockwell-esque community. We're housed at Point Lookout, a gorgeous resort center overlooking the ocean bay, Oh, and did I mention that the leaves are turning this month? It's a beautiful, serene setting.

"Brand Camp" with Cheryl Heller, Heller Communication Design
It's day one of the program and our first workshop was an eye-opening experience. As the founder of Catapult Design, I live and breathe operations and have become completely detached from people's perception of what I do and how I do it. I'm caught in a bubble of industry lingo and the details of organizational issues that most people don't care or need to hear about. In our session, Cheryl asks each of us, "Why do you do what you do?" My answer's easy: Billions of people around the world lack basic needs; design can change that. "Okay, so why is that important?" Hmm... Good design enables access to clean water, night time lighting, food security, etc. "Okay so, How do you do that? What's the benefit?"

Question after question until we're forced to get to the very core of our organizational objective. Why does our organization exist? How are you unique? What promise do we make to our customers, our investors, our employees?

I learned that while I know all the answers to those questions, I don't communicate them in an effective manner. In fact, most people and companies don't. Even when they think they are. Worse yet, in our group exercise I tended to skew people's perceptions of Catapult with my descriptions of our organization. Not a good sign; but a problem plaguing a lot of passionate leaders face.

Lessons learned:
When my mom tells me she doesn't understand what I do, it means I'm not communicating effectively.
Good communication and solid branding are vital tools for non-profit survival.

Other workshops for Day One included:
Design for Social Impact with Jason, Luke, and Robert from Frog Design
Social Media with Ethan Zuckerman and Erik Hersman

Rock Crushing for Clean Water

2008-10-10T23:37:00.000-07:00

Last night EWB's Rock Crusher team met at The Shipyard in Berkeley to run a full system test of their first rock crushing prototype. Why rock crushing? Great question. The rock crusher was initiated by "A Single Drop for Safe Water," a Filipino non-profit that implements bio-sand filtration(BSF) manufacturing facilities in communities that need clean drinking water. In a few of the regions their working there is a lack of appropriate sized sand for filter media. This requires shipping in sand in order to construct the BSFs. (expensive) However, there is gravel sized river bed sediment available in these communities. If only they had a device that could crush down these stones into a size and shape suitable for the filter meda. Enter Engineers Without Borders. EWB began working with A Single Drop earlier this year and started prototype fabrication this summer.

There's still a lot to learn about crushing rocks, but if the team is successful, this technology is also planned for implementation in Africa. Gemma Bulos, one of the founders for A Single Drop was also present at last night's session. Exciting stuff. More to come as the Rock Crushers continue to make progress....

Pictured: Gemma Bulos, Ann Torres, Eric Bennett, Jeff Hayashida, Bill NOtt, Sam Burd, Heather Fleming, Charlie Sellers

Health tech for the poor

2008-10-06T23:51:00.000-07:00

This weekend's trip took me to Washington State to visit two very different organizations -- PATH in Seattle and GRuB in Olympia. Operating budget for PATH: $200million. Operating budget for GRuB: less than a million. PATH: heaquartered in Seattle, 20-something field offices around the world, and an office in DC. GRuB: an organically growing effort operating within the local community. Two very different non-profits -- two very different approaches to fundraising.

The key for PATH is a partnership with the Gates Foundation. PATH's technology department has over 15 staff members including managers, engineers, and technicians. Their technology development is derived internally. Thier focus: high-volume health technologies that will reach millions of people in the developing world. While there, I saw the recently launched female condom, the vaccine vial monitors (indicates when vaccine is spoiled), transdermal drug delivery device, and a device that prevents contamination between injections when using a multiple-use injector. These are a far cry from the "appropriate technology" true bloods who tout locally available materials, income generation, community-maintained, etc. etc. Nonetheless, these are the tools needed to help prevent disease in poverty-stricken communities. In general, I rarely come across groups that are focused on health technologies. This is only the second group that I've found, although I don't doubt there's more.

GRuB, on the other hand, is all about donor diversification. They're careful not to put all their eggs in one basket and intentionally do not seek grants that are too large. This makes them less reliant on big donors and helps ensure their efforts are focused on their mission and not catering someone else's needs. GRuB operates a local, organic garden that feeds local food banks. Their employees, at-risk youth, are responsible for planting, harvesting, and helping make operational decisions.

I walked away from both organizations having learned a few things about organizational structure and fundraising. Also may have picked up a donor or two and a collaboration project. But most importantly, it opens up the mind to the various possibilities. Wonder which way Catapult Design will go...

Solar Panels for the Developing World?

2008-09-21T22:30:00.000-07:00

Every time I tell people about my line of work (www.catapultdesign.org), they immediately tell me about their idea for a solar powered (insert your gadget here). I know their intentions are good -- generating energy from the sun is a wonderful thing, it's less polluting than harvesting oil and depleting natural resources. However, I question whether or not solar cells are appropriate for the developing world. Yes, I've read a few of the published papers on the benefits of solar and successful solar programs implemented in developing world communities. But if environmentalism is your argument, then you have to consider the full life cycle of the panel and the affect is have on developing world communities. They're likely shipped in from China and once they "break", they're tossed into the street. Almost *everything* in the developing world is salvaged and re-used for a secondary purpose. Solar panels? Does anyone know what happens to the cheap-o mini panels on store shelves in Africa and India? They're not readily re-used and they're full of toxic materials. There's little to no infrastructure in place to "properly dispose" of used panels. Or anything for that matter.

There's a fine line between looking out for people in the present vs. looking out for future generations. I think there's a middle ground. In the case of solar, it's alternatives like wind-power, human-power generation, micro-hydro, bio-fuels, etc. Many of these renewable technologies are mechanical systems, which are far more favorable for the developing world. For example, a small-scale wind turbine, made of materials that can be sourced and manufactured in the developing world, creates local manufacturing and maintanence jobs. Its worn parts will undoubtedly find a second life. The only toxic materials will be in the battery which: 1) are already in heavy use in the developing world, and 2) are also part of a solar system.
Our objective should be to promote solutions that fulfill present needs as well as consider the present and future environmental impact. After all, there are billions of people in the developing world. Environmental impact *must* be considered.

Our second objective should be incremental change of social behavior. That's not something one can do overnight with a single installation of a solar panel. Successful technologies are sensitive to the cultures they serve.

My message: solar panels and solar cookers are not the answers to all the world's problems! Technology for the sake of technology is not a good thing. History (and the developing world) is littered with these failures -- pushed by people with laudable intentions.

Lastly, I need an education. I welcome success and failures stories related to solar power in the developing world. As well as analysis on economic, environmental, and social impact of solar panels (esp. the mini ones). Particularly since I'm fighting an uphill battle -- I'd like to have more ammunition for future arguments (er, "discussions").

(photo by Mark Hankins)

Wind Tunnel, Anyone?

2008-09-14T23:31:00.000-07:00

I sure could use a wind tunnel right about now. Anyone out there have a spare one in their backyard? The trouble with trying to test a wind turbine on the cheap is that you'll continuously be frustrated with your results. You'll keep saying, "If only I had a _____." Our team has been at the point several times over the past couple months -- so I've made the executive decision to fork over the cash for a much needed data acquisition system. Now, if only I could source a wind tunnel...

Wind turbine improvements this week include the addition of "caps" on the blades (see above photo). The fabulous Charlie Snyder retrofitted our turbine friend with three plywood disks that will help force the wind to blow through the blades. High School (!!) kids tested out this concept back in August with promising results. Regardless, next steps for the turbine (besides more testing) include analyzing more rotor configurations based on the test results from two weeks ago. Planning on more prototyping sessions in the upcoming weekends.

Highlights for the wind turbine:
- Ralf Hotchkiss joined us in today's session. Ralf is the founder of Whirlwind Wheelchair, a local organization that's been generating wheelchairs for the developing world for two decades.
- We've also had another fabulous organization express interest in the turbine design. Could possibly be tested out in Africa in the next few months.

Sustainable Transportation

2008-09-09T18:51:00.000-07:00

During my stay in New York last week, I had the pleasure of meeting with Walter Hook of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (or ITDP). A 23-year old organization, ITDP consults on mass transit systems and urban development for cities and governments. They focus on providing sustainable transportation systems -- advocating and strengthening bicycle systems, developing low-cost rickshaws, implementing bus rapid transit systems (a significant decrease in cost over subway and other rapid transit systems) and stressing the importance of low-emission, safe development that accounts for population growth.

ITDP is active worldwide working on several high-profile projects both in the US as well as developing world countries. During my stay in India back in February, I spent a day in Agra visiting the Taj Mahal, which is a hotspot for viewing the evolution of the cycle rickshaw ITDP developed for India. Their prior prototypes are in use throughout the city, addressing the cities need to preserve the Taj Mahal by reducing the amount of air pollution around the city. Their final design cost only $100 -- 300,000 are operating in nine of India's major cities. From their website:

"In collaboration with local experts, ITDP developed design innovations that made India's traditional cycle rickshaw lighter, more comfortable, and easier to handle. The improved design increased the earning power of cycle rickshaw operators and drew passengers away from highly polluting, motorized rickshaws. "

Not bad at all.

Inspirational Females

2008-09-04T00:33:00.000-07:00

The development community is blessed with several amazing women leaders. I've been volunteering with Engineers Without Borders for several years now and have met some amazing people doing amazing things. I'm an engineer by training, so I'm not accustomed to seeing so many females around. Unfortunate, but true. However, through my volunteer work I've met some of the amazing females advocating social equality around the world -- some in their spare time and others are also budding entrepreneurs.

Anurupa Rao - is a design engineer at D2M Inc, but in her spare time she's developing an extremely low-cost water storage container with International Development Enterprises for farmers in Myanmar. She's also an active volunteer in Engineers Without Borders

Emily Pilloton -- founded a non-profit in San Francisco called Project H Design. Her focus is using design to address some of the world's most pressing humanitarian needs. She's currently expanding her non-profit.

Ann Torres -- a mechanical engineer at Function Design who also leads an Appropriate Technology Design Team, focused on technology design development for the developing world.

Erica Estrada -- co-founder of d.Light Design, a for-profit organization based in India that develops high-quality LED lighting for low-income communities throughout India... and soon the world, I hope.

Jocelyn Wyatt -- leading the Social Impact + Business Factors group at IDEO, one of the world's largest design firms. Jocelyn has a long list of international organizations she's worked for and is also a former Acumen Fund Fellow.

Parmita Dalal -- working with Hippo Roller in South Africa to develop an innovative, affordable way to safely transport water in rural communities. She's also joining d.Light Design in October to help expand their product line.

The list of these unsung heroes goes on and on. I'm glad to know them and push to advocate them and their work. We need more women like them.

Wind: Light some LEDs, Charge a cell phone

2008-09-01T00:22:00.000-07:00

Almost two years ago, EWB's ATDT started a project with AIDG down in Guatemala. Our task: to design an affordable (less than $100) wind turbine capable of generating 15W of electricity. Just enough to charge a cell phone, power LED lighting for night use, play a small radio, etc. Not much for us, but a luxury for people around the world without electricity. The design has to be manufacturable within the walls of Xela Teco, a micro-manufacturing facility established by AIDG in Quetzaltenango. Our current solution -- a vertical axis pico-turbine constructed of electrical conduit, canvas, steel tubing, and bicycle gears. With that said, the turbine is not fully optimized and is still in the design phase. But thanks to article's like Alexis Madrigal's in WIRED.com and MakerFaire, we've attracted more volunteers and fresh brain power to keep the project going strong.

Today was a few hours of testing out at Candlestick Park -- measuring torque, rpm, and..... wind speed. Excpet that I forgot the anemometer. A finger in the wind test suggested between 10-15mph winds, which is our target average wind speed. Test results still to come.

AIDG did put together a great video about the Wind Turbine with Heather and Tyler were visiting Guatemala in April. More turbine blogging to come...

Hippo Roller Arrives Stateside

2008-08-29T14:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the Hippo Roller arrived in Mountain View after a several week journey from Johannesburg, South Africa. We immediately took her out for a spin at Shoreline Park.

Hippo is a 90L barrel-like water transport product. It's manufactured in South Africa and distributed to local communities. Women and children use them to collect water -- their alternative is a jerrycan or 5-gal bucket. Needless to say, the Hippo volume and transportability far outweighs both options. When you have to walk 4km to get your water for the day, I'd also appreciate something that rolls. The Hippo is very Flinstonian in appearance, and is simple to push on grass. Gravel is a completely different story. We struggled to get it up a small-grade hill... and... at one point, completely lost control of the Hippo altogether. Watched it break away from it's handle and roll uncontrollably back down the hill and splash into the water. This, however, was due to subtle misuse on our part.

So what's it like being a South African woman using this product? I still have no idea... but it certainly made for a fun afternoon.

Turbines, robots, and Star Wars paraphernalia

2008-08-21T23:42:00.000-07:00

What a day.

After witnessing a horrific accident on 101-N, I met up with Chris Bright at the SFMOMA Cafe. We chatted about new project work over Diet Coke and chocolate chip cookies. Not a bad lunch. It was difficult to top a conversation with Chris Bright -- however... Intel Developer Forum may have been the only thing that could have. I arrived at the Moscone Center at 3pm and immediately received a cool badge (i'm easy to please), $100, and my own man to help me bring in my bags. Plus, they paid for my parking! (easy to please)

Inside was a whirl of talking robots, giant heads made out of e-waste, blinking LEDs, red clown noses... and of course, Wind Turbines. EWB's Proto3 exhibited at the event -- drawing a lot of interest from Intel-types from around the country. It's always affirming to meet people interested in your work.

Not only was I surrounded by interesting people and Burner-worthy work, but there was also all the cheese and Diet Dr. Pepper I could consume! Needless to say, my stomach was a giant wedge of cheese by 6:30. At which I headed promptly to EWB's ATDT meeting at Hiemstra Product Development. Erica Estrada, co-founder of d.Light Design, gave a great presentation on the who/what/why/where's of the project. She had an amazing amount of energy and answered everyone's questions with such fervor -- even though I imagine she's answered the same questions a bazillion times before.

Not a bad day. Lots of neat sights, sounds, and individuals doing blog-worthy things. Definitely worth breaking my blog-drought.

High Schoolers... not so bad

2008-08-02T21:37:00.000-07:00

Busy week with Engineers Without Borders activity. Spent Wednesday night in Berkeley with the UC-Berkeley LEAD Program. I learned that I'm no longer hip in the eyes of 16-year-olds. I mistakenly made a reference to High School Musical -- only to learn that high schoolers apparently don't watch HSM. (who knew?) My two student teams are working on optimizing the blade profile of our Wind Turbine (recently featured on WIRED.com). Am impressed by their enthusiasm, thought process, and their sourcing of some cool new blade materials (using plastic rice bags for the sail!).

Thursday night I attended the Green Living Project presentation in Saratoga. Very cool. Great videos. Great Keynote. Great organization. Catch a presentation if they come to your town. Their touring schedule is here.

Friday night I hauled my un-cool self back to Berkeley for more high school fun. Other student teams are working on fuel-efficient cookstoves and solar powered water pumps. Kids these days...

Mom Passes State Exam

2008-07-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

Congrats to Mom Fleming for passing her practical state exam! This is old news, but I'm always late to the party. My mom is a master of trying new things. And I wish I could have found a better picture of her. Sorry mom.

Obese Cat is Muffin Extraordinaire

2008-07-26T12:03:00.000-07:00

A little over a year ago today I took a trip to the local Humane Society to look for a friend. I met some beautiful cats in need of homes -- some had been there over a year, some were young, some were older, and some didn't play well with others. Very few were kittens, since the youngins are typically the first to be adopted. I was perusing the cages and chatting with each cat, turned around to see who was in the play zone when I saw him: 30lbs of cat, trying to squeeze himself into a small cat bed on top of a carpet scratching post. He stuck out like a sore thumb -- easily three times the size of every other cat there. It was an easy decision for me. I filled out papers right away and came back two days later to pick him up.

He didn't fit into the standard pet-carrier adoption box. The ladies at the Palo Alto Humane Society managed to find an old pet carrier for a medium-sized dog that my new cat could fit into.

Hanz Strudel moved to Roble 1B in June 2007, and after a few days of shy, under-the-bed behavior, emerged and started sharing his life story. A native of Austria, Hanz had a successful muffin shop there called Muffins, Muffins, Muffins! and moved to America to establish a shop near the California coast he saw in travel magazines. Through a spin of bad luck, he ended up in the PA Humane Society.

Hanz has many other endearing quirks -- he likes to chew on ears (which is barely endearing), has a fascination with kneading dough (which he'll do to my head all night long), and will run under the bed at any sign of alarm (which includes a small fly buzzing into the room).

The moral of the story: consider adopting a senior, low-key cat who will have lots of life experience and personality to share with you.

How I spend my Friday nights...

2008-07-24T23:30:00.001-07:00

Hanging out with Charlie Sellers, the resident stove expert for Engineers Without Borders - San Francisco.

Charlie has a container at The Shipyard and Berkeley and has a great life "doing as a little as possible." He's got a rocket stove setup there -- we spent the evening playing with sticks and fire. We measured, we burned, we watched the smoke appear and disappear. Fire is fun.

So is The Shipyard.

D2M Inc. brainstorms for Hippos

2008-07-24T23:06:00.000-07:00

Monday night D2M Inc., EWB's Appropriate Technology Design Team, and Project H brainstormed design solutions for Hippo Roller. The Hippo Roller is a 90L barrel-like product used for safe & efficient water transport in South Africa.

To find out more about Hippo Roller... or the ATDT... Project H... or D2M Inc.