The OLINformer

… my vote goes to anyone involved in FIRST Robotics!

I’ve just returned from my second trip to the National FIRST Robotics Competition in Atlanta, GA. This year, I definitely had a better idea of what to expect but the energy and passion of everyone involved in FIRST never ceases to amaze (and inspire) me!

So I now present the weekend in pictures:

For those of you living under a rock (or don’t listen to the news much) downtown Atlanta was hit pretty hard by a tornado last month, and I must say, several buildings looked rather beat up… okay, that’s perhaps the understatement of the year. But at least the hole in the GA Dome was fixed and folks were able to find other hotel arrangements - I cannot imagine what would have happened if such a large even would have been canceled! Anyway, a shot of the downtown skyline (courtesy of Ash ‘09, from whom I’ve stolen many pics since she let me share her camera over the weekend - THANKS, ASH!)…

Nerd trading cards… (that’s what Ash called them)…

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On Monday evening, an epic culinary battle went down at Babson’s Trim Dining Hall. The teams had one hour to create an appetizer and a main dish for the judges. The teams were judged on cleanliness of work stations, teamwork, plate presentation, and of course, taste. Many members of the Olin community showed up to cheer on our team, which consisted of George (’10), Jen (’10), Connor (’08), Rachel (’11), Steve (’09) and Jeff (’08). The team was supervised and assisted by Lam, one of our fabulous cooks from the Olin dining hall, and advised by Shane Caledonia, the Executive Chef at Olin. Olin won by a margin of five points, and we now have a beautiful trophy displayed in the Dining Hall. Below are some pictures from the event- enjoy!

-Caitlin, Emily and Allison

From Left to Right: Lam, Steve, Connor, George, Jeff, Rachel, Jen, with Shane down front

Hard at work….

Three of the judges, including our own Matt Jadud (visiting Computer Science professor) and Nick Tatar (Assistant Dean of Student Life)

Olin students watching/cheering/eating ice cream

The winner is announced!

The victorious team with (big!) trophy.

…The (belated) Fall 2007 Semester in Review, Part 1!

September:

Some pics from the annual Club Fair:

Visiting Asst. Professor of Computer Science Matt Jadud chats with Steve ‘08 and Ash ‘09 at the FIRST Robotics table.

Alex ‘08 displays his grilling prowess!

Eamon ‘09 and Kent ‘09 at the Olin Christian Fellowship Table.

Carisa ‘11 checks out the Knitting Club.

OK… so I’m not quite sure what Andy ‘10 is doing, but he’s on a unicycle with a weapon…

Learning the basics of poi from the friendly folks in Fire Hazard.

CORe (Olin student gov’t) poster children! Stefan ‘10, Anthony ‘08 and Tiana ‘08.

Mini Baja

What do you do on the last HOT day of the year?!? Pull out the kiddie pool and set up the homemade Slip-n-Slide!!

Photos courtesy of Arash ‘11

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Here we are, working hard (Caitlin on L, Emily on R)!!!!!

Thanks to Susan Johanson for the pic!

This month has been chock full of events in both External Relations and the Admission office at Olin. We have no fewer than THREE major events on campus this month, two of which were last week, and one next week.

On October 11, we had Career Initiatives Day, for which over 30 companies came to campus to recruit our students. Internships and post graduate plans were discussed, resume and career advice was plentiful, and a productive and successful day was had by all.

Here’s a photo of the action!

On October 12-14 we hosted our annual Family Weekend. 112 families came to join in the activities, which included a showing of the film “The Olin Bubble”, a fire art performance by the Olin Fire Arts Club, an Olin Phoenix Soccer Club game, a family Trivia challenge, tons of informative sessions for parents, and plenty of New Englandesque foods and cheer. It was an absolutely wonderful weekend, with striking blue skies and gorgeous foliage, and a good time was undoubtedly had by all.

Here is a photo of the Olin Phoenix Soccer Club in action:

Here’s a photo of the Phoenix huddle:

Next week, on October 28, we have our annual Fall Open House. We have a full house already, and the RSVP system filled up extremely quickly this year. We are looking forward to meeting everyone who has been in touch with us, and if you weren’t able to RSVP, please come and visit us some other time! We want everyone to have a chance to experience Olin in person, because we know that once you get here you will understand just how wonderful this community truly is.

We look forward to hearing from you through info@olin.edu, as well as through the comments section. Keep those applications coming before the December 1 deadline!!

So long for now,

Emily

Emily Tisei Moscol

Assistant Director of Admission

Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Emily.Moscol@olin.edu

781-292-2207

I realized that I never managed to post about Expo last semester! Yes, proof yet again that I am a slacker. *Sigh* Nevertheless, I am here to remedy that with a combined post - a brief description of Expo and photos from both last semester and this one.

Olin Exposition (Expo) provides an opportunity for students to highlight some of their favorite projects and activities from the preceding semester. It’s a great wrap-up for our students as well as a way to continually practice for those all important internship, graduate school and job interviews.

So here’s how it works: At the end of each semester, every Olin student gets an opportunity to refine their public speaking and presentation skills in a small classroom settings or through more casual conversations about project posters. Regardless of which type of Expo presentation an Oliner chooses, there is a “Q&A” aspect to each so students must be able to answer pointed questions about their projects at the drop of a hat. Expo presentations are evaluated by members of the Olin community as well as members of the Boston area business/technology community.

On Monday, underclasspeople presented topics ranging from “Financial Prediction Using Neural Networks” to “Pointdexter: A Wireless Wand” and from “Going Back to Basics: The Necessity of Introductory Drawing” to “A Spectral Control Method for Robotic Spines.”

Tiana ‘08 presents work from a project given to Olin students by Jeff Satwicz, Class of 2006, who helped design the BigBelly solar-powered trash compactors.

Andy ‘10 presents his research on the history of the Olin website, one part of the MetaOlin class this semester.

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As promised, a chronicle of my inagural FIRST experience. No, it doesn’t have much directly to do with the admission process at Olin… but it was a recruitment trip and it was a lot of fun and I figure there’s a fair number of you out there with at least a passing interest in robotics…

So the National FIRST Robotics Championship took place in Atlanta at the Georgia World Conference Center. Holy cow, is that complex big!

Atlanta welcomes FIRST (on every other lamppost downtown!)

Gorgeous weather and pretty grounds means lots of teams hanging around outside

This is where I lived for 2 days - Scholarship Row, right outside the “pit” in Building C

I was honestly speechless when I first saw the Pit from above. I mean, that is an insane number of people and robots!

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I can’t believe it… Spring has finally sprung in Boston! So what if it’ll be in the 50’s again later this week?!? The past 3 days have been gorgeous and everyone has been trying to spend as much time as possible outside.

Example #1: ICB Lecture

So Profs John Geddes and Mark Somerville decided – rightfully so! - that ICB (Integrated Course Block) lecture should be held outside on Friday. Who needs a lecture hall when you’ve got “portable” white boards, a window and a dry-erase marker? (photos courtesy of Angela ‘09)

Yep, that’s pretty much the Class of 2010. (more…)

So my eyes are STILL broken, but I shall forge on…

Now, where was I? Oh yes…

Last Thursday brought the Ignite Clean Energy (ICE) Competition. While I was in no way involved in the activities, it seemed pretty cool that we were able to host the semifinals at Olin AND we even had a participating team! The idea behind the ICE is to build the clean energy business cluster in Massachusetts (and regionally) by working with entrepreneurs to crystallize their business concepts and helping them produce a compelling ten-minute investor pitch. By getting entrepreneurs in front of investors and others in the sector, the ten finalists got some great exposure.

The highlight of the day for me, however, was Trivia Night - sponsored by the Class of 2007. It was emceed by Chris Morse (our Chemistry prof and resident QuizMaster) and scored by Adam “Joe” College ’07 (who was banned from playing because he could beat every team there by himself!)

Professor Rebecca Christianson, David ’07 and Jeff ‘07 chat prior to the evening’s trivia smackdown.

There were about 10 teams, several of which included faculty and staff members.

Apparently Carol Kelley, Assistant to the Dean of Student Life, didn’t want me to take her picture.

Chris Morse distributes the answer sheets, while Alison Black, Assistant Dean of Student Life, discusses strategies(?!) with teammates Alison ’07 and Tiana ’08. And yes, they are wearing boas!

So my team, Four Eyez – Katherine ’10, Ellen ’10, Jon ’08, Teresa Kelleher from the Admission Office and me - held our own through 5 rounds… despite being down one person for the first and last rounds! In between the question rounds, Lindsay ’07 lead some fun games for extra prizes (most donated by Class of 2007 parents… yes, our parents rock too!). (more…)

There’s been a lot happening at Olin this week! Upon my return from a tiny trip home to Texas, I jumped right back into the thick of things… beginning with our largest information session EVER at Olin!

This is a pic of our welcome board - it doesn’t begin to illustrate how big the group was! But, alas, we forgot to get a picture of the auditorium… oops.

I don’t have an exact headcount but my best guesstimation was about 60 people listened to my “song and dance” in the auditorium that day. Wow… we’ve come a long way since the days of 1-2 families chatting in our lobby!

Next was an Ecumenical Passover Sedar on Tuesday evening. The Sedar was open to the entire Olin community, so it was a really cool mix of people and faiths. For some of us, it was a great (comforting?) way to celebrate Passover when we’re far away from family; for others, it was an opportunity to learn/try something new with a group of friends.

Our Ecumenical Sedar in the East Hall Lounge. Lots of people spent many hours (Bonnie ‘09, Ben ‘10, Karen ‘06 and Professor Lynn Stein to name a few) organizing and COOKING this delicious homemade meal for the Sedar. Photo courtesty of Yifan ‘10

Sadly, some folks had to jet off early to prepare for the next item on the agenda: ExpressO Black. As Ellen and Jessi mentioned in their blogs, it’s an “uncensored” version of our variety show known more commonly known as simply ExpressO (some of you saw a sampling at Candidates’ Weekend). Because of its racier/edgier content, this one’s mainly for the current students but I was dying to check it out! So I hung out with some first-years in the mezzanine to get a birds-eye view. There were a variety of acts – some exactly what I would have expected (bawdy, raunchy, funny) but others were truly clever and amazing displays of talent, including a powerful monologue by Keoni ’07.

Wednesday brought Big Conversations, a day when classes are cancelled and our community takes time to ponder the world beyond the “Olin bubble.” Amy Smith, an inventor and instructor at MIT, was a terrific addition to Olin’s Speaker Series on “What’s Important?” Professor Smith is dedicated to developing technologies that optimize limited resources and solve seemingly intractable problems in developing countries; she and her students are making a difference in the lives of thousands of people all over the world with their inventions.

Amy Smith sharing one of her favorite quotes (and guiding principles of her life) with the Olin community during Big Conversations.

I must admit that it was a pretty amazing and inspirational presentation! Afterward we had several options including a series of short films, continued discussions over lunch (free and sponsored by our Office of Innovation and Research!) and a variety of activities related to appropriate technologies, social entrepreneurship and community service.

So, my eyes are broken and I must stop staring at this computer screen. Thursday and Friday (aka Part 2) will arrive soon…

allison.bahme@olin.edu
781-292-2203
IM: OlinAdmission
http://www.olin.edu/