Influential Architects

We watched 10 short videos about influential architects and were asked to record what stood out to us from each architect.

1. Miles van der Rohe: He is one of the fathers of modern architecture because of his extensive use of steel, glass, and lightweight structures. He coined the phrase "Less is more".
2. Shin Takamatsu: His buildings are original, ascetic, and inventions. His buildings all have a weird look to them, like a machine. He was an innovative genius who had a different view of structures.
3. Andrea Palladia: He is famous for the use of proportions in his works.
4. Etienne Louis Boulle: Based off of the Greeks and Romans, he expanded their buildings with symmetry and expanding the sizes.
5. Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris (Le Corbusier): Considered one of the first modern architects, he was very interested in designing a new way of urban living. Developed and used a unique system of proportions.
6. Frank Furness: Taking the Victorian style, Furness uses a common architectural language to oversize, squeeze, stretch, or over accentuate buildings.
7. Frank Lloid Wright: Known as one of the greatest American architects of all time, Wright used and is known for his extensive use of free flowing forms.
8. Antoni Gaudi: Breaking from traditional lines and forms, his buildings prove that buildings do not have to be normal or by certain guildlines.
9. Tadao Ando: Using deliberate, bold, and serious forms, and the use of concrete, his building are sublime and beautiful, using water and light in his elements.
10. Coop Himmelblau: Using deconstructionism, Coop Himmelblau changed the way we look at buildings, with the unique, shuffled and misplaced styles of buildings.

Marshmallow Challenge

Sean Lee, Israel, Chase, and I competed against the class in a marshmallow challenge in which we had to create the highest free standing structure with the marshmallow on top. We had twenty pieces of raw pasta, a foot of tape, a marshmallow, and a piece of string. In the beginning, we made a long and drawn out structure that would have worked if we had more time and more supplies, would have worked, but in the end, we made two triangular bases taped together with pasta bundled at the top. We did not use the string at all, but we used all of the pasta and tape, but we didn't even use the tape. In the very end, our structure stood at about 25-26 centimeters tall, winning the challenge as the Rise Against Plastic team.

TED Challenge 2012

1) What is the TED organization about?

The TED organization is about the spreading of useful ideas and knowledge intended to educate and introduce a variety of useful topics to everyone. TED stands for Technology, Engineering, and Design.

2) What is the purpose of their website and how does the functionality of their site support that?

The purpose of the sight is to offer free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers. The functionality of the website supports it by uploading thousands of videos and speeches by thinkers, free, of course, and easy to access, displaying various videos as soon as you load the page.

3) As Engineers and Problem Solvers, which topic areas (the choices from the "Show talks related to:" section on the sidebar) are of most interest to us? Justify your answer.

I believe that the most interesting areas to engineers are the design, technology, and global issues tabs because we use design to come up with solutions to problems, technology to arrange what constraints and what we can do with them, and global problems because some of the problems may need engineers to come up with a solution to them.

4) Based on your previous answer, what are 3 talks (videos) on the site that appear like they would be of most interest to you as an Engineer/Problem Solver? Justify your choices.

Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology, this talk solved the problem of humans being distant from our technology, how it is nothing like us, so Pranav created a solution where we use our bodies and surroundings to enact with this new technology, currently hung around our necks.

Eben Bayer: Are mushrooms the new plastic?, Eben Bayer is a very Eco-friendly man, and he has his own company that takes an organic (really -- it's based on mycelium, a living, growing organism) adhesive that turns agriwaste into a foam-like material for packaging and insulation. He proposes that instead of our widespread use of plastic, we can use mushrooms, combined with other organic compounds, and make a safe to use plastic.

Klaus Stadlmann: The world’s smallest 3D printer, this man, Klaus, actually decided to invent the world's smallest 3-D printer when his laser printer broke while attempting to print off his thesis for his Vienna Technical University PhD.

5) Each student will watch a unique video (clear your choice with me... first come, first served!). Watch the video. Embed the video in your blog post and create a bulletized outline of the key issues presented in the talk.

http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_technology.html

• Humans are too distant from technology
• Need a way to enact better with technology
• Use our bodies and motions to enact with new technology

6) How could you get involved in the field/technology/issue you chose to hear about? What experience/skills/training/education would you need to learn to get involved with this field?

I believe that to get involved with the technology advancement, I would need the education and skills of the engineering of the product, to know it well, inside and out. I would also need a lot of experience with robotics, like maybe a prostetic limb that the person could control, and then advance from there.