I've been super busy over the past few weeks with various final projects and a writing portfolio and all that. Now I have no finals while almost everyone else is kickin it into full gear to ace their own tests and theses.

Below is the link to my final project for 4.502/4.564, an undergraduate/graduate class which uses programming to design stuff. We learned Rhinoscript, which you can use to program pretty much anything in Rhino 3D, but we also learned Processing, a neat little open source programming language developed by two guys from the Media Lab (naturally...). So instead of making weird shapes in Rhino, I decided to use Processing to turn some data into something a bit more fun to play with.

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http://web.mit.edu/bloggers/www/cristenc10/
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The map linked above (if you can't see it, you probably need Java installed) shows domestic undergraduate enrollment at MIT for each of the past ten years (go back and forth with the bracket keys). Mouseover a data point to see the number of undergrads from that state.

Now that I've gotten the hang of this (note: I've never really programmed in anything before 1-1.5 months ago..) I'd really like to expand this project to students from all over the world, and to graduate students as well. Right now with so little data it isn't as interesting as it could be.. ^_^;;

Today, something magical is happening.

Students, DSL team up to bring produce stand to campus

Anne Wilson, Campus Dining
March 27, 2009

A cooperative effort between students and Division of Student Life is bearing fruit in the form of a campus produce stand that will open for business beginning Tuesday, March 31.

The MIT Market will sell fruits and vegetables from noon to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays in the East Campus Courtyard near Walker Memorial. The stand will be run by Russo's, the Watertown-based retailer that won the "Best Produce" category in Boston magazine's 2007 Best of Boston rankings.

Sophomore Vrajesh Modi, an Undergraduate Association Senator from East Campus, proposed the project to Dean for Student Life Chris Colombo in January after working with other students to poll East Campus residents about ways to make fruits and vegetables more accessible and affordable. Modi, who called the fruit and vegetable stand idea a "unanimous choice," then worked with staff in Residential Life and Campus Dining to make the project a reality.

"Ideally, we would like to see the student body at large use this and see it have a positive impact on health and wellness at MIT," said Modi. "We would also like to see this become a permanent part of the culture and the dining system."

(You can read the rest here.)

As for me, I'm flippin' EXCITED! I don't care much for most fruits as they make my throat itch, but there are many vegetables which I love. Right now, it's 11:54AM. I happened to get out of class early today. I'm sitting in my room facing the EC courtyard, tapping my feet. Consider this a bit of a liveblog.

11:55AM: Check wallet. Cash? Check.

11:56AM: *wonders if just one $20 bill would be enough*

11:57AM: *goes outside*!

~12:00PM: Vrajesh '11 (not pictured) opens the grand opening ceremony with a short thanks to everyone who helped, then Dean Colombo cuts the "ribbon". Shopping commences.

12:19PM: THIS LINE IS REALLY LONG. And somehow it got colder, but I'm just glad it's so nice out.

~12:25PM: I now have a huge head of romaine lettuce, a bunch of snow peas, one red bell pepper, a variety of potatoes, a pound of carrots, and a bulb of garlic. And it only cost me $6! And I only stopped because I couldn't carry more in my hands, because I hadn't thought to bring some bigger, more environmentally friendly bag.. -_-.

~12:35PM: The lettuce is so huge it pretty much takes up the entirety of my dorm-sized crisper. With everything else inside, it doesn't really close anymore.. ah well.

12:37PM: Even Lulu's cat wants to see what all the fuss is about.

I plan to go back and buy a few more things, like green beans and maybe some herbs. Hmm, what should I make for dinner? :)

Back in high school spring break was in the middle of April, but here it's at the end of March. Most other colleges have spring break a week or two earlier, meaning we don't get to see many of our high school friends when we go home. :( But, this is because they start the spring semester weeks before we do because we have IAP. So ha!

Well, this entry is a bit premature. Many people are still in class. In fact I'm in an Athena cluster right now, supposed to be working on my UROP but instead writing this.

By the way, a few weeks ago I got a UROP! I never thought I'd be joining the ~85% of the MIT population which eventually does research in a UROP, but surprise surprise. I won't bore you with details, but my group wants to change old power plants into cogeneration plants (those output both power and heat) by channeling the waste heat into heating for surrounding buildings. Yay!

Where was I? Oh, spring vacation. I used to go home for spring break, but since I don't really like home that much I decided to stay at my boyfriend's home in DE. Hopefully it'll get warm enough to walk along the beaches at least!

Before then I'm trying to clean my room, so that one day I can take pictures and write a post about my awesome room in East Campus for you. :)

Happy Spring~~~~! ^_^

(actually the above screenshot is a lie because I forgot to adjust for the President's Day holiday, oh well)

21W.735: Writing and Reading the Essay. It's my last class in the HASS requirement, and my second writing class at MIT.

4.440: Basic Structural Design. Forces! Trusses! Flying Buttresses! For undergraduate and graduate students who are not engineers! hahahaha!

4.431: Architectural Acoustics. A little seminar where we're presumably taught how to design spaces while enhancing acoustic quality.

4.502: Design Scripting. A new class, this one is both undergrad and grad like 4.440. I learn Rhinoscript so I can code things in Rhino. (Why yes, you'll probably end up coding something regardless of your major..)

4.292: Special Problems in Architecture Studies. This is a weekly nighttime graduate seminar on 'Responsive Cities' which runs until March 17. Oddly my largest class (like 70 people showed up last week!?!?)

Note that I don't have any class lasting only an hour this semester. In Course 4 I'm much more used to having some 3-hour long blocks of class, and many 1.5-hour long blocks of class. And no, my schedule isn't the best -- I still have to wake up before 9am every morning I do have class, and having 3- or 6.5-hour long breaks in between classes can sometimes feel awkward. And everything ever is due Thursday mornings, and of course I have APO meetings on Wednesday nights... but that's just bad luck.

Oh yeah, happy Friday the 13th everyone. :D

One other thing many people do during IAP is get an internship. So while everyone else was frolicking in the snow or relaxing at home, I was waking up at 7:30am on weekdays (this is hard for a college student. really!) and busting my butt off at my JOB.

I chose to get an internship in New York City partly so I could live at home. But more importantly, I found the project interesting and meaningful. As an Intern in the Green Communities program, I gathered data from several building owners around the city for analysis so recommendations could be made for energy-efficient retrofits in low-income housing. I made a few site visits along the way.

(This is not a very widely-known fact about me, but I used to want to study hurricanes. This comes from staring at The Weather Channel for hours on end as a child, and having a deep fascination with weather and climate in general, especially natural disasters. When I applied to MIT, I said I wanted to be Course 12 (Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences). Freshman year, I declared Course 12. Then somewhere along the line I decided to do Architecture instead. They're both small great programs. Anyway, I decided to visit AMS sort of as a way to see "what could have been." There was even free dinner!)

It was a rainy and cold afternoon but the feeling of liberation from classwork kept the atmosphere (heh) light. We met under the Green Building (where Course 12 is located) and took the T to Park Street then walked through Boston Common.

So I guess I haven't seen many Headquarters in general, but I was expecting something office-building-like. Instead I walked into someone's holiday-decorated home...

It's unmistakeably weather-oriented, no?

On our tour of the house, we learned a lot about the history behind the house (built for and lived in by some wealthy politically-important Boston man) and the features and architecture of the house. Now, this wasn't what I expected, because I thought I'd learn about the AMS or something, but here I am seeing architecture! Just goes to show architecture is everywhere.. o.O Here are more photos:

As you might know from the handy banner above, I am a Course 4 (Architecture) major. I have recently completed my HASS Concentration in Course 11 (Urban Planning) and really want to pursue a minor but probably won't due to time constraints. Neither courses are overwhelmingly popular majors here, and in fact the entire School of Architecture+Planning is pretty small. The school encompasses three undergraduate and some more graduate programs at MIT; the undergraduate majors are Course 4 (Architecture), Course 11 (Urban Planning), and Course MAS (Media Arts and Sciences).

The Architecture major itself requires, after six core subjects, a choice of one of five concentrations leading to the Bachelor of Science in Art and Design degree:

• Architectural Design. The overwhelmingly popular concentration; this is what everyone thinks of when they hear "architecture major." We learn how to design and how to express our design's intentions with models, drawings, and photos through a sequence of studio classes, each more intense than the last.. :) The first introductory studio.

  
  A graduate studio!

  
  
• Building Technology. Akin to 'building science' or 'architectural engineering'; this is the one I'm studying. It is a joint program between Course 4, Course 1 (Civil & Environmental Engineering) and Course 2 (Mechanical Engineering). Here we focus in areas such as structures, materials, energy and lighting in buildings, HVAC systems, air quality control, and building simulation. In other words, we make buildings work so they don't fall down, grow mold between the walls, or leave you unbearably hot or cold. :) We can also go above and beyond this, by not only building normal functioning buildings, but also designing and constructing places in such a way as to maximize natural daylighting, eliminate heat losses, or perfect acoustics.



• Computation. This one is new. Use technology/computers to design! Researcher Larry Sass, who teaches the intro class here at MIT, fabricated a house featured in a MoMA exhibit last summer (there I am in it below!). It's made up of smaller parts designed to fit together. No glue, no staples, no screws.
  



• Visual Arts. Why yes, you CAN major in art at MIT. Here it has more of a studio art flavor, and so there are no drawing or painting classes here..
  
• History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art. I think it's self explanatory. I don't know too much about it, but according to its website "its mission has been to generate advanced research within MIT's School of Architecture and Planning and to promote critical and theoretical reflection within the disciplines of architectural and art history."

So there you have it regarding one of MIT's smallest and least-known schools. :) For those curious to find out more about Course 11, Karen and Anthony will have some relevant information. For art, ARTalk always makes for a fun read.