The OLINformer

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/

So it’s been something like a month since I’ve darkened the blogging doorway… Apologies, but well… there are only so many things a girl can do in the name of Olin College! But I’ll try to make up for it now…
I am still recovering from Candidates’ Weekends! Yes, still recovering. I was kind of hoping for a really long vacation in some far away place, but alas my friends, there is still work do. BUT I think I can safely say that the 2007 Candidates’ Weekends were a great success… at least that’s what everyone keeps telling me!

Actually, thanks for the feedback. I know it seemed like we threw a lot at you over the weekend (well, we did) but it’s great to see that so many of you took to heart the Olin ideal of constant improvement and threw your ideas/suggestions/comments back at us. We really appreciate it. I also want to thank ALL of you for joining the Olin community for a couple days - it was an honor to have you (and your families) on our campus. Seriously. Although you were invited to Candidates’ Weekends and, yes, it is a requirement for admission, you could have decided that a trip to Olin wasn’t worth the time or money or… whatever. But 178 of you did take that chance - you did take time off from school or away from outside activities, traveled to campus (whether it was from down the street or from halfway around the world) and, hopefully, got a better sense of what Olin is all about. And whether we made a good impression or not, you at least got to know us a bit better… and we got to know you a bit better too! Although I didn’t get to meet everyone during the weekends, I truly enjoyed my time spent with you and your families! It was also great to finally put happy, smiling faces with all the applications and emails and IM’s and….

Some highlights included:

• Candidates telling “bad” jokes between sessions in the auditorium
• Some impressive ideas/creations in the “No, you are not being evaluated” Design Build exercise
• The most amazing Poi shows EVER (fire spinning, dancing, juggling, tossing and more)
• A glimpse of our “quirky” and talented students at the Variety Show
• Impromptu unicycling lessons on the “O”
• The 1.25 story K’nex calculator at the Mini Expo (yes, this is proof that I have a nerdy side)

photo courtesy of Maia ‘10

• An opportunity to see our fine thespians in action at FWOP’s presentation of The Importance of Being Earnest
• The “Risotto Incident” - I am not too proud to say that it was perhaps the most unprofessional moment of my illustrious career

And of course, great food and scintillating conversation around every corner! Oh and before I forget… (more…)

So things are crazy busy here in anticipation of the 2007 Candidates’ Weekends! Can’t really talk now, but I thought that any Candidates out there - as well as anyone else! - might be interested in the updated (but still officially tentative) schedule for the Weekends. Here you go… my Valentines gift to you all!

2007 CW Schedule

And on a different note…we’ve finally got our first REAL snow of the year!!

Happy V-Day everyone,
Allison

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

Today, the Olin community was a bit larger than normal when 70 4th grade students from Hillside Elementary School in Needham became “Guest Judges” for our Design Nature class (that’s the first-year design component of ICB, our Integrated Course Block, and students use nature as the inspiration/guide for their design projects).
The Design Nature students showed off their toy prototypes this morning in the first floor hallway of the Academic Center. The Olin students were challenged to develop bio-inspired wall walkers for elementary-aged children; the cool part was that the Hillside 4th graders got to evaluate the toys and experience a little bit of Olin!

It was *so* much fun! I almost felt like a kid again! As I wandered back and forth along the AC first floor, it was amazing to see how engaged and excited the Hillside students were - they took their assignments very seriously as they carried their clipboards and moved from team to team, asking questions and rating each design on an evaluation sheet. Rather than just doing a standard presentation, this was a great way for the Design Nature students to explain their designs and see if they appealed/made sense to their target audience.

And now… the requisite pictures! And yes, the team names are rather, er, creative…

Hard-core evaluating goin’ on!

Ryan, Luis, Victoria and Jeff (Team Two Step Program) and their Caterpillar, Senior Meef Quesarito!

Nikki, Marti, Garrett and Heena (Team Hot Glitter Concept)

Daniel, Brian, Ashley and Giulia (Team Nizhegorodov)

Erika, Annie, Amy and Evan (Team Mega Blab) show off their wall walker to Asst. Professor Oscar Mur-Miranda

Ilari, Ben, Julie, Nina and Yifan (Team Walker, Texas Ranger) demo their walker for Asst. Professor Ozgur Eris - “it walked up a 58 degree incline, w00t w00t!” (a direct quote from Ben ‘10)

Evan, Tatiana, Pam and Jenn (Team Verti-Go)

Alyshia, Sarah, Greg and Roland (Team Las Tres Ardillas) get ready to demo their Fire Snail for Oscar - “our fire snail climbed an incline of 42 degrees! woot!” (direct quote from Sarah ‘10)

Andrew ‘07 and Asst. Professor Ben Linder test out another design

Avinash, Matt, Leah, Eric and Chujiao (Team Sky Walkers) demo their Flying Squirrel design for Assoc. Professor Allen Downey - “Our walker was modeled after a flying squirrel (see the parachute on it’s back?). He DID walk up a VERTICAL wall and did GLIDE down to a safe landing on the floor. In fact, I believe we repeated this over thirty times!” (Direct quote from Leah ‘10)

Morgan ‘10 (Team COW - Crawls on Walls) explains her team’s design to one of the young evaluators

Casey, Amanda, Ben and Andrew (Team Snakes on a Vertical Plane)

Members of Team “Willing2FallMakingAttempts2Elevate” show off their fuzzy wall walker; seen here are Andy, Brittany and Sarah (Wellesley ‘09)

…. very sleepy… that’s all for now.

Keep working on those applications!
Allison

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

A lot actually!

On December 1st, the Olin community descended upon our Dining Hall with cash and checkbooks in hand for the annual SERV (Support, Encourage, and Recognize Volunteerism) Auction. SERV is the umbrella organization for community service at Olin and, each year, it organizes a auction on campus to raise money for various charitable organizations. This year was the most successful SERV Auction yet (we raised $6,805) and all proceeds were donated to two organizations: half to the Chernobyl Children’s Project and half to Partners in Health.

The event is actually two auctions, one is silent and the other is live. There was a dizzying array of goods and services donated for the auction, from Baked-Goods-of-the-Month to rides to the airport and “Story Time” with Montana Mike (’10) to organizing your home/office/dorm room. And yes, one of the donated items was a pair of tickets to the opening series of the Red Sox and Yankees next April (courtesy of Visiting Asst. Professor of Chemistry Chris Morse). Members of the Office of Student Life and Asst. Professor of Mechanical Engineering Jessica Townsend got in a bidding war…

Note how Prof. Townsend (pictured at right) is staring down her competition!

The tix sold (eventually!) to Jessica for over $200.