Here’s something I’ve been curious about since the day it was constructed: the use of copper panels as a facade for a new building on Georgia Tech campus. While I understand its symbolic value as an engineering material, particularly in microelectronics, I do question its aesthetic use in new construction on a campus championing compliance with LEED standards. In my (apparently) opinionated mind, this is a highly visible waste of a precious resource.
Recently the Marcus Nanotechnology Building (known as the NRC) on the Georgia Tech campus won an award for its use of giant perforated copper panels around its exterior walls. The article is here:
http://www.copper.org/applications/architecture/awards/homepage.html
A quote:
Copper was selected for its sustainable, naturally weathering, low-maintenance and aesthetically pleasing qualities.
I’m at least a little annoyed about the use of the term “sustainable” in reference to the extracting, purifying, rolling, perforating, and mounting of architectural copper as a building facade.
More people seem to be creating T-shirts just for fun recently. Shawn made a T-shirt for his research group which featured a shadow mask image of his thesis advisor with his last name written below, “Tannenbaum.” It’s really funny if you know the guy and see his students wearing the shirts. Well, I’ve been making shirts for organizations… the students love to wear them, and it’s great advertising and shows solidarity at campus functions or conferences. Read more…
One day in Prof. Verriest’s 6500 class, “Fourier Techniques and Signal Analysis,” he, without so much as a smile, proceeded to draw animals as contours in the complex plane. This professor had no clue how fitting his drawings were.
I already felt math is like a zoo: full of so many unusual creatures, each indigenous to some unique environment, and you wouldn’t normally see all of these creatures in daily life; unless it is your job. Then you are a mathematician- a zookeeper. Okay, that analogy may have gone too far, but at least the contours are funny looking.
One of the great things about Tech is the student athletics and facilities. I started playing sand volleyball last summer, and immediately I was able to find an indoor club team that practices twice per week. I didn’t know how technical the sport could be until I went indoors. With specialist positions, rotation patterns, and 6 people per side (double-blocks, etc.), the sport is very dynamic. The club was very accepting of novices like me, and the A/B team structure allowed me to actually get game time at regional tournaments.
Because we just don’t have enough rockstar players (NOTE: if you go to Tech and can both hit and pass, come out and commit to practices!) I was able to go to the National tournament as a backup player. This was a great experience. When we arrived in Louisville, KY, I realized that I’m actually short for a middle hitter. Many teams had 6′ 5″+ guys in the middle position, with all 6 operating like clockwork. Regardless, our team’s biggest weaknesses were passing and positioning. Big fundamentals.
http://www.cyberbuzz.gatech.edu/volleyball
The hardware team pulled everything together at the last minute (in the hotel room!), and we got 6th place at the conference. The first round was really great; ours was the first robot to complete the course.
