Out of over 400 submissions at the Bears Breaking Boundaries competition, the Pinoleville Pomo Nation project won honorable mention in the Curricular Innovations category and CARES (Community Assessment of Renewable Energy and Sustainability) was a finalist in the Information Technology category.

We did not win the main prizes, but we made good contacts!!

See everyone again next year at BBB.

The title says it all!!   The poster session will take place in the atrium of the new CITRIS headquarters building at UC Berkeley.

Here is the link again: http://www.citris-uc.org/events/Big-Ideas-poster2009

Come on out and support CARES!

I got more good news: 

The Greenbuild 2009 Program Committee informed me today that proposal I wrote with the EPA and PPN: Reviving the Oldest Approach to Sustainable Design: How cultural values and a sense of place lead to green building designs has been accepted.

There were 1300 submitted and our proposal was one of the 112 that got in. 

The proposal talks about the co-design process CARES used to work with the PPN to co-design culturally inspired, sustainable housing.

I write so many of things things that I completely forgot about this one. :)

I just found out today that CARES will also receive an Honorable Mention Award for Bears Breaking Boundaries 2009 - Curricular Innovation contest.

I submitted a CARES grant that would establish a community service learning project between UC Berkeley and the Pinoleville Pomo Nation to work on renewable energy technologies.

Competition was rather stiff, but the email I got says "We hope that we can support your project if you continue to pursue it in the coming year. Please also consider re-submitting it to Bears Breaking Boundaries next year."

My answer: You darn skippy CARES will be entering again next year!!

CARES still might win the CITRIS Big Ideas grant though.  I will let you know happens next Wednesday after I present to the judges.

Today in my Qualitative Research Methods class, we were discussing to role of ethnography in new product development (NPD).

We read an interesting paper from Paul Dourish entitled "Implications for Design" that I really loved because it started a discussion about what is contextual inquiry (CI) and ethnography (EG).

In my view, CI and EG are both tools that can be used by engineers to design, invent, and implement new products.  These tools are used to understand the needs/requirements of end user groups, the relationships that end user have between products, and the importance of these relationships.

Understand user needs is important because at the end of the day engineers have to build something that works and can be sold to a target end user group. 

If the product that has been created works, but is not marketable than that is a failure.  Likewise, if you sell a product and it does not work that is a failure.   I will get into what "work" means in another blog.

There is, however, a difference between CI and EG and I always struggle with understanding where CI and EG begin and end.  

Both contextual inquiry and ethnography can be used to build new products, the difference it seems is  that the end goal of CI is to solely aid in new product develop while EG's end goal is to understand the relationships, dynamics, and importance between people and products.

It just seems that EG is just a more in depth study and analysis of the interaction people have with an object, people, and/or an environment.

I will be trying to further refine my understanding of CI and EG as the semester comes to a close, but I am really glad I took that Qualitative Research Methods class. :)

It is Earth Day today!!!

Our dear President Obama kicked it off with style by announcing that the federal government will open up its lands for projects that aim to produce electricity from wind and ocean currents.

This is another strong signal that President Obama recognizes that that the key to national security, economic security, economic prosperity,  energy independence, and sustainable living involves producing energy from sources other than fossil fuels.

Currently, ~ 49% of the electricity produced in the US comes from coal-fired plants.  The next biggest chunk comes from nuclear plants. 

There is significant amount of renewable energy available within the United States and it is high time we start using it and generating more jobs for Americans.

Producing electricity from renewables is not enough though.  We need to start implementing energy conservation and efficient programs and policies at the local and national level in tandem with renewable energy production.

It is much easier (and cheaper) to save a watt than it is to produce a watt. 
 

   

I have more good news about CARES.

A few weeks ago, I submitted a white paper to the Bears Breaking Boundaries competition to design  information technology to improve the sustainability of communities.  

This competition is sponsored by the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS).

Today, I found out that CARES is a finalist for the CITRIS IT in the service of society competition!

The final round of the competition will be on April 29, 2009 from 3 - 5 pm at the Jean & E. Floyd Kvamme Atrium.

Please click here to read the official announcement.

Please come on out and support CARES!!!

I am 25 years old today!!! Woohoo.  

Time to party with some good people.

The CARES database and resources are now listed in the directory for the National Science Digital Library!!

The National Science Digital Library is America's online library for education and research in the fields of
Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics.

You can find the CARES collection here.

The Pinoleville Pomo Nation has decided to build the yurt style home that was designed and modified by students from E10 and CARES.

Construction is slated to start in July '09 and finish by Sept '09.

LACO Associates is the engineering firm being used to construct the home.

A special thanks goes out to Cindy, Tommy, Yao, Tobias, Yael, and Francesca for all their hard work on this partnership.