respect savoy
While the Newman Hall Thanksgiving Dinner could trump out a presidential banquet (maybe…), I went to the Thanksgiving Feast at the sometimes fallible D2 this evening with a large group of friends/residents. The ads I saw plugged a fruit buffet, which ended up being little more than the typical selection magnified by a factor of 10. And they had kiwi, which is not a usual. Alas! How many more days will I put my trust in Student Programs.
Answer: one semester.
I had another talk with my brilliant acoustics professor today about spring research. He gave me some ideas of projects I could spearhead (do FAA noise regulation measurements actually realize legitimate intensities? what modeling can be done to find resonances of large structures using typical noise sources?). The aircraft noise idea was very interesting and, trust me, the idea being proposed brought an eager smile to my face. Nerd. (It’s a small part, but a part).
Afterwards, I went to an office nearby and super luckily ran into a certain professor. I attended a lecture of his recently going into detail about psychological acoustics (psychoacoustics) or the study of how humans perceive sound. Topics under this field frequently, as of late, involve 3D simulation of sound (like those Bose 3-2-1 systems that simulate surround using only front-placed speakers). I introduced myself and we talked about some random stuff and then he mentioned something I might be interested in.
I mentioned being in Industrial Design and he practically interupted me to give me some research direction. Phoebe’s Field is an attempt to spend NSF grant money to design a museum for children to teach concepts of physics in a psychologically-friendly manner. That’s a horrible summary of the project, but the effort was so successful in concept form that the university wants to continue it to full realization and construction. It is a mix of architects, ID students, programmers, and engineers, all working to design a museum.
This project concept was pinned up in the Cowgill lobby last spring where I read every single page of their documentation, nearly requiring a committed morning, afternoon, and evening. I had not realized this was actually a goal to be achieved; I presumed the project concept, so detailed as it was, was the final aim itself - maybe some entrepreneur would want to pursue it later.
In the spring of 2007, there will be a course offered to move this project to the next step: Phoebe’s Field design implementation. The professor highly recommended me to request the course once it was finalized. And I will. I am certainly keeping a research proposal on hand, but I am also willing to spend the same amount of time, if not more, to help move this project along.
Maybe I did not make it clear - I’m really excited about this. This potential.
The vegetarian butternut squash was good, too. Very good.
November 15th, 2006 at 6:47 am
I also received an invite/note about the Phoebe’s Field course in the spring. If I have the space in my schedule I’ll certainly do it.
November 15th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
I would be honored, sir, honored, to work alongside you. We could turn Phoebe’s Field into an unprecedented top10, four-star, two thumbs up, web2.0, four-color swatch hit.