Saturday 8 May 2010
Final reflections (yeah, yeah, I know it's not REALLY over)
Final reflections are usually about what the students have learned during the course. This time it’s really hard to think of any concrete things or themes that I might have learned about. I don’t remember too much about the lectures to be honest. I remember liking the participatory methods sessions in the beginning and the workshop experiences later on. Then again I remember sitting at some of the guest speakers’ lectures and literally falling asleep. Not that the themes were not interesting, because they were. It’s just that it felt like I had heard all that before in the earlier SGT courses.
Also, towards the end of the course it just felt a bit stupid to sit at the classroom listening to some guy telling me once again about the importance of community participation in development projects, while at the same time we were really busy with the project and could have used that time working on it. It was the same old story again, and I felt like it didn’t support the project work or help me in any way with the situation we were in at the time. But who knows, if the group had been better organized and not in a terrible hurry, maybe I wouldn’t have been that stressed out and would have enjoyed the lectures as well.
So, if I didn’t learn much at the classes, maybe the project itself taught me something new? Well, not really. Turns out that lo-tech solar concentrator technologies are not exactly rocket science. Once we had come up with the design and the solutions for adjusting – and I’m not saying it was easy, it took a lot of effort and time – the rest was pretty much just about building the thing. But did I learn something new, some new skills or some new knowledge? Sure, I learned to recognize an 8 mm bolt from a distance and to use some power tools, but that’s pretty much it (still, I do value this, it might come handy later in life).
Was this all just a big waste of time then? Definitely not. I did learn a lot about myself, other people and working in a group. When I started with this course I knew that it would be a lot of hard work. Yet I didn’t have a clue of how frustrated and stressed out I would be at times. Normally with group works things have worked out quite OK, and usually the biggest problems and reasons for stress have been related to organizing the time (i.e. always starting everything way too late). Although we finally ran out of time with this project, too, I don’t think the actual problem of the group was organizing the schedule but communicating within the group.
I don’t think I’ve ever been this stressed out and frustrated because of just ten credits. At times I felt like the secret meaning of this course was that if I survive this, I would survive pretty much anything my future working life will bring me. In the end I did survive, although I have to admit that during the last month or so I thought about quitting almost daily. It would certainly have been the easy way out. However, I had already put so much effort into the project that it simply wasn’t an option anymore. This experience might not safe me from all the similar difficult situations in the future, but I have definitely learned an important lesson about how one should work in a group.
Also, towards the end of the course it just felt a bit stupid to sit at the classroom listening to some guy telling me once again about the importance of community participation in development projects, while at the same time we were really busy with the project and could have used that time working on it. It was the same old story again, and I felt like it didn’t support the project work or help me in any way with the situation we were in at the time. But who knows, if the group had been better organized and not in a terrible hurry, maybe I wouldn’t have been that stressed out and would have enjoyed the lectures as well.
So, if I didn’t learn much at the classes, maybe the project itself taught me something new? Well, not really. Turns out that lo-tech solar concentrator technologies are not exactly rocket science. Once we had come up with the design and the solutions for adjusting – and I’m not saying it was easy, it took a lot of effort and time – the rest was pretty much just about building the thing. But did I learn something new, some new skills or some new knowledge? Sure, I learned to recognize an 8 mm bolt from a distance and to use some power tools, but that’s pretty much it (still, I do value this, it might come handy later in life).
Was this all just a big waste of time then? Definitely not. I did learn a lot about myself, other people and working in a group. When I started with this course I knew that it would be a lot of hard work. Yet I didn’t have a clue of how frustrated and stressed out I would be at times. Normally with group works things have worked out quite OK, and usually the biggest problems and reasons for stress have been related to organizing the time (i.e. always starting everything way too late). Although we finally ran out of time with this project, too, I don’t think the actual problem of the group was organizing the schedule but communicating within the group.
I don’t think I’ve ever been this stressed out and frustrated because of just ten credits. At times I felt like the secret meaning of this course was that if I survive this, I would survive pretty much anything my future working life will bring me. In the end I did survive, although I have to admit that during the last month or so I thought about quitting almost daily. It would certainly have been the easy way out. However, I had already put so much effort into the project that it simply wasn’t an option anymore. This experience might not safe me from all the similar difficult situations in the future, but I have definitely learned an important lesson about how one should work in a group.
Friday 7 May 2010
Is this the end?
Now when the SGT show is over our blog readers might wonder that is this the end? The rght answear is NO! Although we quite finnished our product, it´s not ready yet. From next week we (at least half of the SGTSolar team) will continue building and propably will update the manual if we find something useful. The mondays final critique gave us some improvement proposals, that we will try to implement. The next GOAL the Maailma kylässä aka World Village festival. As Shalin is one of the exhibitors, SOLAR FLOWER is going to be there too! But before the festivals there is a lot to do to finalize our product. And as I mentioned in my previous blog update the World village is a milestone for the Solar Flower, since we will hopefully get some really useful suggestions, opinions from the audience. Place to enjoy and learn! There have been about 50 000 visitors per day in the festival in previous years so we expect nothing less this year.
So We warmly invite you all, your friends and family to come and visit us and ofcourse the whole festival! I just checked out the performers and I must say, I was amazed! Awsome bands from all around the world! And fo free!!! The festival is free of charge. You can also get exciting new taste experience too, while there are traditional kitchens from all around the globe. Nutrition for your soul and body. And the final culmination for me is the festival club. Saturdays club is funky elephant and sundays club is Balkan Fever (no vested interests :D ) Check out the whole program in www.maailmakylassa.fi We´ll update the blog as soon as we know where you´ll find us. UV purification
I have been thinking about the UV purification that Risto mentioned at the critique. I did some quick research on it, and apparently solar radiation was three effects that are believed to contribute to the disinfection of water:
Of course if we wanted to use this method with our concentrator the water might have to be at least filtered somehow, because it probably has to be clear. And we need to remember that this method only kills the pathogenic organisms but doesn't purify the water in any other way. So if the water contains for example chemicals or other materials, such as arsenic (which is a common problem globally), it would need other treatment as well.
So, would this be something we'll consider, or do we stick to the original plan (distilling water), at least for now?
- UV-A interferes directly with the metabolism and destroys cell structures of bacteria.
- UV-A (wavelength 320-400 nm) reacts with oxygen dissolved in the water and produces highly reactive forms of oxygen (oxygen free radicals and hydrogen peroxides), that are believed to also damage pathogens.
- Infrared radiation heats the water. If the water temperatures rises above 50°C, the disinfection process is three times faster.
Of course if we wanted to use this method with our concentrator the water might have to be at least filtered somehow, because it probably has to be clear. And we need to remember that this method only kills the pathogenic organisms but doesn't purify the water in any other way. So if the water contains for example chemicals or other materials, such as arsenic (which is a common problem globally), it would need other treatment as well.
So, would this be something we'll consider, or do we stick to the original plan (distilling water), at least for now?
Thursday 6 May 2010
Bottom Of the Pyramide- seminar and work shop. 26.1
I attended the BoP- workshop wich was organised by Aalto university. The seminar was held by Peter Schartz and The workshop was in the beginning of the SGTSolar project so it gave me a lot to think and new perspectives for seeing our own project and especially the users of our product. Let me axplain first what BoP means:
As you can see in the photo the people that are normally seen as customers are the ones in the top of the pyramid. But as you can see the biggest population are the ones that earn less than 5 euros a day. So why the markets are so concentrated on the 0,5 billion? Why are the markets top-down oriented and no bottom-up oriented? These 4 billion are seen as numbers, but who are the people behind the numbers? What do they need? Can we produce the items they need? For these peolple the only certaninty is uncertainty. Irregular incomes, uncertainty about what tomorrow brings, but still- todays money money goes for todays spendings. Peple are inventing in future by repairing, renewing for maximizing the benefit of their belongigns. The BoP consumers mindset is about minimizing the risks, making tradeoffs in purchasing descision , stategic money management and the need for proof of the items performance. BoPs are brand loyal, which might sound wierd, but by understanding that the items that theu are farmiliar with are the ones that have proofed their performance. And when there is just a certain amount of money the risk of buying something even cheaper that doesn´t work is too high, so they´ll continue buying the more expencive, but safe items.
An invention is not an invention untill it´s adopted by it´s users- John Heskett
This is a challenge to our Solar Flower aswell. We have a design and an invention, but how will the users adopt it? Hopefully we will learn a lot from the Maailma kylässä festivals, where anyone can test it and give feedback. Although we had a critique on monday, but the real judges are the Solar Flower users.
Reflections on Final critique
Amazin monday I say! I am so proud of the Solar Flower team and of the other teams as well! Athough our presentation was a bit different due to beeing outdoors and our voices were fighting with the wind, I think that we nailed it. It´s amazing that our students are so professional in their works and I belive that every project was a succes. The presentations were well presented. I want to thank the teams, mentors, rewievers, listeners and SGT staff for inspirational, interesting and succesful day! The discussions were so fruitful that we deffenitely would have needed more time for them. The course and the project work taught us many useful things and beeing in a real project gave us all important lesson. Thanks for trusting your projects in students hands! I really hope that each one of the projects will continue some way!
Like Marko always says, let´s give us our selves a big hand!
Wednesday 5 May 2010
Reflecting on the long Journey
You can call this piece a wrap up or final reflection. I just write what I have felt throughout the long route though. Well, after this long route, hard work paid off its servants and our project – Reflecting energy for community development – comes to a fruitful conclusion with the birth of our precious product SunFlower. I believe this product is all but a monument that represents the essence of innovation and the power of unity. Moreover, it is one of its kinds that can be used by anyone as a basis to begin with to provide similar real life solutions to the target groups.
Bringing individuals of different personality in a single team to work for a common cause and achieving their goal is a monotonous task by itself. It requires bearing the frustrations and angers, respecting one another’s opinions and most importantly converging diversified individual ambitions to a single focus to boost the team energy. And sharing the fun, of course! That said, at times, heated arguments and clashes of opinions were not uncommon among our group members and I think this is one of the attributes of a group work which stretched in such a long period of time and I think it is quite Normal.
At the early stages, the more we started working together, the team dynamics developed progressively but the notion of not knowing how to organize the work seemed to take its toll on our progress. In a project of such depth, unless one sit down, split the tasks to smaller ones, dot them down and start working on them, it could be a nightmare to simply think about the final product. Before we gave the real first kick to our work, I personally, at times, thought this whole thing is a mere theory and unachievable. Once we dared to take the first step; the second was easier and then after it got as easy as taking a candy from a baby. Ok, maybe I exaggerate the fact a little bit here. But it is to emphasize the importance of organizing the task and get immersed in it for the smooth flow of the whole activity. Working on the deliverables throughout the project route was between tough and crazy though, especially the construction thing.
And then came the final day ………….
It was everybody’s pride and honor to present their thing in front of such audience and in that breathtaking atmosphere and mine was no different. I have to be honest here. I thought, at some point, that there is some sort of relationship between the names in the audience and my heart beat. The bigger the names, the faster my heart beats when I take the stages for presentations. With all the arrangements and the way things flow together, with that magical atmosphere in the room, it seemed like it was a thesis work defense before the faces of those bunches of academic personalities that crammed the room. So, let us say Hats off for all the teams who keep nerves and did great job to ensure the magnificence of their presentation. Overall, the day lived to my expectations!
We are at the very end of this long journey now with all the funs and the challenges we have shared, with the huge lessons we learnt, with all the great friends we made, along the way. I can sense mixed emotions running down my nerves right now. I am relived because I believe we as a team managed to deliver what was expected from us and from our project. On the other hand, I am afraid I am going to miss all my teammates the, teaching staff, the mentors and the casemates who all worked together as an Item for the success of this mesmerizing course – SGT. Finally, I would like to thank my team members and mentors for what we have done together. I have reaped all the benefits that working with you guys brought with it. The same is true for all parties involved.
See you again, somehow.
Bringing individuals of different personality in a single team to work for a common cause and achieving their goal is a monotonous task by itself. It requires bearing the frustrations and angers, respecting one another’s opinions and most importantly converging diversified individual ambitions to a single focus to boost the team energy. And sharing the fun, of course! That said, at times, heated arguments and clashes of opinions were not uncommon among our group members and I think this is one of the attributes of a group work which stretched in such a long period of time and I think it is quite Normal.
At the early stages, the more we started working together, the team dynamics developed progressively but the notion of not knowing how to organize the work seemed to take its toll on our progress. In a project of such depth, unless one sit down, split the tasks to smaller ones, dot them down and start working on them, it could be a nightmare to simply think about the final product. Before we gave the real first kick to our work, I personally, at times, thought this whole thing is a mere theory and unachievable. Once we dared to take the first step; the second was easier and then after it got as easy as taking a candy from a baby. Ok, maybe I exaggerate the fact a little bit here. But it is to emphasize the importance of organizing the task and get immersed in it for the smooth flow of the whole activity. Working on the deliverables throughout the project route was between tough and crazy though, especially the construction thing.
And then came the final day ………….
It was everybody’s pride and honor to present their thing in front of such audience and in that breathtaking atmosphere and mine was no different. I have to be honest here. I thought, at some point, that there is some sort of relationship between the names in the audience and my heart beat. The bigger the names, the faster my heart beats when I take the stages for presentations. With all the arrangements and the way things flow together, with that magical atmosphere in the room, it seemed like it was a thesis work defense before the faces of those bunches of academic personalities that crammed the room. So, let us say Hats off for all the teams who keep nerves and did great job to ensure the magnificence of their presentation. Overall, the day lived to my expectations!
We are at the very end of this long journey now with all the funs and the challenges we have shared, with the huge lessons we learnt, with all the great friends we made, along the way. I can sense mixed emotions running down my nerves right now. I am relived because I believe we as a team managed to deliver what was expected from us and from our project. On the other hand, I am afraid I am going to miss all my teammates the, teaching staff, the mentors and the casemates who all worked together as an Item for the success of this mesmerizing course – SGT. Finally, I would like to thank my team members and mentors for what we have done together. I have reaped all the benefits that working with you guys brought with it. The same is true for all parties involved.
See you again, somehow.
Oh the relief!
The course is finally over then. It feels like it's been forever since we started working on the project. It's been on my mind since January, and especially during the last few weeks we've been working really long hours at the Design Factory trying to get everything done before the deadlines. So, needless to say that it was quite a relief to have returned the manual on Thursday and finally to have given the presentation on Monday (and what made it even more relieving was the fact that we had a good last minute panic going on on both days...why ruin the fun by doing things in advance, right?).
Everything hasn't gone quite as planned during the project, so all and all I'm really pleased with what we managed to put together, even though there are still some things yet to be figured out. However, I am quite confident that we will be able to solve the last little details and get Solar Flower and a working application on display in Maailma Kylässä festival. Come and see it yourself!
Everything hasn't gone quite as planned during the project, so all and all I'm really pleased with what we managed to put together, even though there are still some things yet to be figured out. However, I am quite confident that we will be able to solve the last little details and get Solar Flower and a working application on display in Maailma Kylässä festival. Come and see it yourself!
Tuesday 4 May 2010
03 May 10: FINAL CRITIQUE
The final critique was great but too long due to "something" beyond the organizers' control; so please be realistic with the timing and manage it better next time. All the teams did a wonderful job and it was nice to see how successful the projects were. However, my only regret was that, I could not talk to one particular intelligent, smart and pretty lady who was in one of the teams, after the whole show. Here we go again, the same old story. That was just by the way.
22 Mar 10: Sustainable building in Finland and the Eco Viikki case
Tapio Jalo's presentation/lecture was great because eco-friendly buildings are what we need today. Moreover, energy issues are the "talk of the town" and so it was not surprising that his lecture was concentrated on energy. Furthermore, it was of interest to me because my team's project for this course was on ways of harnessing energy from the sun, which is super-green.
08 Feb 10: Practical cases of international projects: how local communities have participated?
The presentations by Helena Sandman (architect), Peter Kuria (NGO, Shalin ry) and Mika Skarp (NSN) were interesting, informative and educative. Peter's presentation on foreign aid was the most interesting since that is the order of the day. Institutions that offer foreign aid to developing countries always have selfish interests and at the long run, worsen the plight of those countries. This is all because of politics and there is politics everywhere, even in the bedroom.
26 Apr 10: Large, Complex, Difficult: Doing Extreme Projects in Murky Places Around the World
The presentation/lecture by Mikko Koria was OK but not all that interesting, because I have had so many project management/project risk management/project courses already and just tired of hearing project this, project that. However, such a topic is very good for this course since it is not everyone who has taken courses related to this topic.
19 Apr 10: Development cooperation project - KATHMANDU VALLEY CULTURAL TRAIL
The presentation by Panu Könönen was interesting, though it is also the same old story. Making it easier for people/tourists to navigate to areas of interest by the help of the trails was good. Moreover, the tour-guide training given to the locals in assisting foreigners/tourists during sight-seeing was great because it is a form of job creation.
12 Apr 10: How to make and give good presentations
The presentation/lecture by Philipp Schmidt-Thomé was quite boring because at this stage, a student, a master's student for that matter, should know how to make formal and informal presentations. We all defended our thesis works and were taught presentation skills during our bachelor's degree, I guess, so the lecture was not of interest to me. Pamela also made a contribution to the lecture by adding that, we should be practicing it in front our mirrors, our friends and families in order to get used to with; these are things I heard when I was in stage 5 and we should know these by now. So, it was the same old story over and over again. Hence, the surprise exercise for the debate and presentation was unnecessary.
15 Mar 10: Presentations of the student projects from SGT studio course 2009.
The presentations of the student projects from SGT studio course 2009 were quite OK. I did not enjoy them much since I have heard those stories over and over again, so there was nothing new. Except the RCS project which was more on disaster management and recovery, I guess it was because it was something related to my field of study and could relate to the issues he talked about.
Monday 3 May 2010
The Banana CD scratch remover
What you’ll need:
* A banana
* A banana peel
* Some glass cleaner
1. Take a CD / DVD that has smudges and minor scratches on it.
2. Using a circular motion, apply a freshly cut banana to it.
3. Next, wipe it down with the banana peel. The wax from the peel will help polish and further clean the disk.
4. Take a clean cotton cloth and wipe the entire surface of the CD / DVD. Be sure to apply moderate pressure while moving in a circular motion. This should be done for around 3 to 4 minutes.
5. Finally, spray the disc with glass cleaner and wipe it clean.
Voilà! Your scratched CD or DVD should now look like new! Please note that this trick will also help you repair scratched PS2 and Xbox CD’s and DVD’s.
http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2007/08/11/how-to-use-a-banana-to-fix-a-scratched-cd-or-dvd/
* A banana
* A banana peel
* Some glass cleaner
1. Take a CD / DVD that has smudges and minor scratches on it.
2. Using a circular motion, apply a freshly cut banana to it.
3. Next, wipe it down with the banana peel. The wax from the peel will help polish and further clean the disk.
4. Take a clean cotton cloth and wipe the entire surface of the CD / DVD. Be sure to apply moderate pressure while moving in a circular motion. This should be done for around 3 to 4 minutes.
5. Finally, spray the disc with glass cleaner and wipe it clean.
Voilà! Your scratched CD or DVD should now look like new! Please note that this trick will also help you repair scratched PS2 and Xbox CD’s and DVD’s.
http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2007/08/11/how-to-use-a-banana-to-fix-a-scratched-cd-or-dvd/
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