Methodical Madness Goes Back to the Drawing Board

So, as far as I was concerned, our team had developed an excellent project Wednesday night, which covered all of the bases for the project requirements very well, which involved everyone equally, and which was very multi-disciplinary. As of our meeting Thursday night, we are somehow back at square one, with no ideas. Don't ask me how the whole thing derailed, it wasn't me. I still like the stadium project, though that may change in my quest for a design.

Here follows my consideration of what I want out of the final project.

I discussed in an earlier post the definition of a Heliotropic Smart Surface, and in another the definition of Sustainability. Each treatise was originally a part of this post, but I cut them out due to them being topics of their own, and this post was about to be ridiculously long and almost unreadable. So, just read those first. They give a good basis for what I am about to say.

There are two avenues we could go down. We can develop a surface, or we can develop a network of points that become a surface when you map them in relation to each other. Essentially, they are the same idea, only differentiated by scale. In the point-networking, we do have to worry about communicating with a centralized dispatch of sorts, or with each other. Otherwise, it is not a surface, it is just a collection of mutually exclusive points.

I'm just going to outline a couple of fairly neat ideas that I have. For the record, the stadium idea no longer qualifies - it is not heliotropic by definition. However, if it utilized shade to activate a mechanism, that would qualify as heliotropic, so possibly...

Heated Stadium Bleachers

Solar powered stadium seating - bleachers with some sort of solar panel inside of them, that also have a heating element. When shadowed at low temperatures (below 32F), bleachers will heat up to a temperature above freezing, in order to melt any snow off of them. Would also have touch sensors set to activate at a different temperature (say, 45F), so that when they feel a large amount of pressure, they heat up further to warm anyone sitting on them. Meets the requirements of being heliotropic, smart, and a surface. May or may not be sustainable, depending on what is done with the energy otherwise.

Self-Cleaning Skyscraper Windows

Windows that utilize a light-intensity detector on the outside and inside to determine a light gradient. They would know when the blinds are closed so that they don't activate unnecessarily, but when the blinds are open and the gradient is too large, they would tag the window for cleaning. Triple sensor could be used to determine whether or not the inside or outside of the window needs to be cleaned. A cleaning crew or solar-powered gecko-foot robot could then utilize this data to go up the side of the building to clean the window. Meets the requirements of being heliotropic, smart, and a surface, while also being sustainable. Bonus that this meets the surface and network of points requirements.

Solar Cockroach

Essentially, small robots that are good at staying out of sight. Will wander areas that are dark, but retreat at the first signs of light. An army of them could be utilized to monitor situations in an urban environment and report back data, such as staying out of sight and detecting people carrying weapons or something of the sort. Could possibly be used as street-cleaning robots, mapping out how much litter they pick up in an area and trending it to determine what areas need additional public trash cans, recycling bins, etc. Would only activate at night, and would avoid headlights. Heliotropic, smart, the group mind would be a surface, and it would be sustainable.

Concrete Theory is Sustainable

To me, sustainability is key. I don't want to design something that won't last, and not just in the sense of physical robustness. I attended the annual SME international conference in Denver, CO earlier this year, and listened to the collection of talks on sustainability, the principles of which apply here. This entire argument is basically pulled from a presentation given by Rod Eggert, head of Mineral Economics at the Colorado School of Mines, though it is modified to fit the context.

Sustainability is one-dimensional. It is either environmental/physical, economic, or social and cultural. Sustainable development, also seen as sustainable design, is multidimensional, and must address all of these sustainabilities in tandem.

In terms of environmental/physical sustainability, the object must last. It can't be a design that will be useless in a short period of time, or that it will break down quickly. It also must be environmentally friendly, but that is a given because of the theme of the course. The environmental sustainability also means that it must be easily recycled, and therefore the design should be modular and easily disassembled for disposal, if applicable.

In terms of economic sustainability, the object must be economically viable. It can't be a design that is so far out there that nobody would invest in it. As an engineer, this is especially important, because my job will in all likelihood be to solve complex problems in economically viable ways.

Social and cultural sustainability is where things get tricky. It depends on context. What is 'sustainable' to a small community or area may not be sustainable when you scale it up to a global level. Community-to-community sustainability may differ, as well. If I design something extremely expensive and awesome that would be sustainable to put in Ann Arbor, I wouldn't necessarily want to put it downtown in Detroit, because the chances of it being vandalized or stolen are much, much higher. If I design something that would be culturally sustainable in the United States, I couldn't just take the exact same idea and put it in Sub-Saharan Africa, as they do not have the same culture or capability to utilize such a design. I'd have to take into consideration that change. I don't want to design something based on a 'what if' world, because I am fundamentally opposed to thinking in terms of the 'what if'. Society is the way it is, and we must design around that. Design should not be an inconvenience, but instead should make the inconvenient convenient or in some way more pleasant than the currently convenient.

Let me create an example. Say I am a CEO of a company, and I have this great idea to pay my employees a wage for the time it takes to walk or bike to work, or give them a stipend and a bonus to use public transportation, and then I want to charge a bunch of money for parking. Environmentally, this is a great idea. More people would leave their cars home, especially if they are getting paid to do so. This means less parking spaces required as well, so more land can be used for green space. Socially, this is inconvenient, and the cost/benefit would have to be weighed. Economically, this is a tossup. The less parking could also mean that there is no need for all of that extra land, and it could be sold off, reducing overall costs. It also could be painful in the sense that I would be paying more money for less work. The stipends would have to be adjusted to make the idea viable economically to the company as well as to the employee. Some employees would still drive, as well, because of the distance of their commute.

Concrete Theory Consults a Dictionary

I think one of the biggest issues with the final project is the lack of a definition for 'heliotropic smart surface'. I'm actually going to tackle the words in reverse order in order to build a definition that is hopefully useful..

People appear to be running around willy-nilly with the idea that "you can call anything that is on this planet a surface", as is reflected by the ideas of some of the other groups. I'm pretty sure that the word surface has an actual definition, but I...

Main Entry: 1sur·face
Pronunciation: \ˈsər-fəs\
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from Middle French, from sur- + face face, from Old French — more at face
Date: circa 1600
1 : the exterior or upper boundary of an object or body
2 : a plane or curved two-dimensional locus of points (as the boundary of a three-dimensional region)
3 a : the external or superficial aspect of something b : an external part or layer
— on the surface : to all outward appearances

Oh, there it is. Now, the key here is definition # 2, the locus of points argument. Anything can really be made into a locus of points, as long as there are at least 3 of them. My uncle is a programmer, and one of the things that he has worked on is a set of geographical overlays - taking bulk data and mapping it onto an actual geographical map. The map could then be deemed a surface. There's the argument for a coordinated set of individual objects being a 'surface'. Well played, other groups, well played. Just remember, each object is only a data point on the surface.

The big issue with this is that the surface can't just be a surface, it also has to be 'smart'. This means that there has to be some change to the individual point data based on an outside stimulus, and the whole map has to update to reflect that change. The update has to be automatic, and done entirely by the system itself, or else it isn't really the surface being 'smart', it is a person being smart. We're already pretty smart, so that's not very revolutionary.

The final hurdle is the heliotropism. This one's tricky. Webster, can you help me out again?

Main Entry: he·li·ot·ro·pism
Pronunciation: \ˌhē-lē-ˈä-trə-ˌpi-zəm\
Function: noun
Date: circa 1854
: phototropism in which sunlight is the orienting stimulus
— he·lio·tro·pic \-lē-ə-ˈtrō-pik, -ˈträ-\ adjective

Well, that helped almost none. Let's try this again.

Main Entry: pho·tot·ro·pism
Pronunciation: \fō-ˈtä-trə-ˌpi-zəm\
Function: noun
Etymology: International Scientific Vocabulary
Date: 1899
: a tropism in which light is the orienting stimulus

Well, aren't you clever. Can I get an answer now, please?

Main Entry: tro·pism
Pronunciation: \ˈtrō-ˌpi-zəm\
Function: noun
Etymology: International Scientific Vocabulary -tropism
Date: 1899
1 a : involuntary orientation by an organism or one of its parts that involves turning or curving by movement or by differential growth and is a positive or negative response to a source of stimulation b : a reflex reaction involving a tropism
2 : an innate tendency to react in a definite manner to stimuli; broadly : a natural inclination : propensity
— tro·pis·tic \trō-ˈpis-tik\ adjective

Well played, Webster, well played. Let me boil this down.

Heliotropism is an involuntary orientation [reflex orientation] by an organism or one of its parts that involves turning or curving by movement or by differential growth, and is a positive or negative response to [sunlight].

OR

Heliotropism is an innate tendency to react in a definite manner to [sunlight]

Wow, that definition is pretty broad. So, it sees the sun, and it does something. Awesome.

So, to summarize, our objective is to design a surface, either an actual surface or a locus of point objects that are connected in a map, that reacts in some way to sunlight and updates the configuration of the surface or the layout of the map automatically. By definition, human interaction can not be a stimulus that the surface reacts directly to, but instead can fit into the category of data. The only way that I can see human interaction being a stimulus is if the interaction causes an absence of sunlight, or a change in intensity of sunlight. There can be secondary characteristics that the surface reacts with based on human interaction, but the sun is the primary stimulus.

Hopefully this helps people by becoming a constraint.

Methodical Madness has a Plan

Our group formulated a grand scheme for our final project.

The Grand Scheme: Utilizing permanent partial-use outdoor seating in both passive (photovoltaic) and active (piezoelectric) ways to collect energy. The project breaks into three steps, which will be designed one at a time.

The Basic Bleacher

A modular, permanent seating system, designed with solar and piezoelectric capabilities.

Solar would be year-round.

Surface material selection for collecting and retaining heat.

Photovoltaic collection for electrical energy production.

Solar collection would go directly to the facility grid.

Piezoelectric materials would pick up both sound and motion.

Power various activated interactions.

May contain things such as heating elements, malleable surface, powered by piezoelectrics.

Aisle in front of bleacher would also be piezoelectric.

The Activated Interactions

Analog: Heating elements, malleable surface, lighting changes, etc.

Digital: Data collection, digital feedback (scoreboard stats), etc.

The Grand Concept

A full visualization of a revolutionary multi-use outdoor open-air stadium.

Designed around the concept of being powered by itself.

Would likely be a re-design of Michigan Stadium, since we do go to Michigan.

From here, we will be communicating with the Michigan Athletic Department as well as athletic departments at a few other schools to gain energy usage and spectator information.

Concrete Theory Discusses the Art of Blogging

I spend a lot of my time reading blogs, and feel like mine just isn't up to snuff for how I would like a blog to look. Neither of mine - this one, or my semi-defunct football recruiting history blog which I never have time to work on... It's safe to say that writing a real blog about a real subject can be a full-time job. Brian at MGoBlog is my blogging hero - he writes the best blog I have ever read, period, about a topic that is extremely important to me.

A good blog has many key elements; here are a few of the top ones:

• Purpose - First, a blog has to have a purpose. A clearly defined aim. Deviations can be made, but they should not be substantial. Know your audience, and try to tailor content to them in some way.

• Substance - Probably the biggest point. Blogging isn't Twitter, a good blog post is several thousand words, and it's not just fluff. I don't follow this rule all the time, but I really should, and am going to try to from now on. More on that later.

• Information - A good blogger does his homework. Knows what he's talking about before he writes a post. Research, with references, is key. Not like a works cited or anything, but if information is pulled from somewhere, link to it. Example: Nebraska won tonight. Easy, right? One more thing, any multi-point Information really should be put in...

• Charts - Charts? Charts. Data should be displayed in an orderly fashion. I could tell you that Tate Forcier is sweet and made our offense click pretty well against MSU, even though we lost, or I could tell you to go look at this. What is it? A really, really big chart. Followed by less monstrous charts with summary information. THAT is a blog post.

• Formatting - I keep using MGoBlog because Brian is so good at this - everything is crisp, everything is universal. Posts are named in a useful manner, so you know what you are getting into before you get into it. Blog tags are built to be useful. If someone is a part of a blog post, their name is a tag. I'll be doing this from now on, as well.

• Editing - It's the internet, there's spellcheck... try really hard to not make mistakes.

• Shameless Plugs - Well, these aren't necessary, but sometimes you just need to shout out to people or organizations that are important to your topic. OK, the second one wasn't relevant at all, I'll admit.

So, considering what I just talked about, from this point forward I will be reorganizing the structure of my blog. I intend to divide it into a few key post types. These will be followed absolutely. I will try to make most of these once per week. I will be using oxymorons for a couple of the titles, because Unverified Voracity at MGoBlog is about my favorite blog post title there is, and it is a general title.

• The Final Product: ___ - Posts that purely show the end result of a team project.

• Methodical Madness ____ - Posts that discuss teamwork, development, etc. "Methodical Madness has a Prototype" is an example. Team work is always madness, but there has to be a method.

• Concrete Theory ____ - Conceptual posts. This is one of those. These are broad, broad topics, core to the class, or something like that. Theory can't really be concrete, since concrete implies permanence, and theory isn't permanent.

• Inarticulate Eloquence ____ - Code posts. Eloquent to someone who can read code, inarticulate to everyone else. "Inarticulate Eloquence Follows the Sun" would be a code post with sun tracking code, for example.

• Calculated Spontaneity ____ - Miscellaneous things, unrelated but cool. "Calculated Spontaneity Shows You Some Beaches". I contrived them, but they are out of the blue for the reader.

My tags will also become a little more universal. I will include people's names, Arduino, Processing, and various other things. Some will be creative, some will just be descriptive and to the point.

Version 2.0 of my blog begins now.