Rocket Science

John Seely Brown gave the 2010 MacVicar Lecture at MIT on Wednesday, March 10. I’ve had the opportunity to hear JSB talk a number of times through my work in Open Education, and also talk with him in detail about our projects in the past.

Here are some observations I made during his talk that I think are relevant for our projects and approach to innovation:

Fail, fail…fail fast in order to get it right. (In surfing, in learning, etc.)

A kid who has an epiphany, has it for life. It never leaves them.

How do develop a gut feeling for the system you’re working with?

–John Seely Brown

Design: Perhaps Engineers should follow the Architects’ Lead?

JSB also talked about the difference between architects and engineers. He described the studio model with it’s “crits”, critiques by the faculty (expert) and peers. In a design course taught by architects, with both architecture and engineering students, the students will often redefine or refine the problem. Something about the nature of architecture education leads to unique and often out of the box solutions/designs. The same course, taught by engineers, tends to lead to similar solutions–the engineering students stick to the given problem statement.

I’m reminded of a class project from my undergraduate days. At UC Berkeley there was a two course design sequence 102AB. In 102B, we had a visiting professor that gave us an unusual, and unique class project. We were asked to design a system to explore a pie shaped region in a rainforest. The course focused on gears, mechanical design, and so on.

Simliar to the story JSB told at the MacVicar lecture, most of the students in the class designed mechanical systems that used all of the things we learned in class. My project partner, Erin, came up with a quite innovative solution–using water counterweights and pulleys to move an cab through the pie shaped region. To be fair, I was concerned that we’d get docked on our score because we weren’t really using any of the “engineering” we were learning in the class. However, of course, things turned out all right–we got a good score (probably an A if I remember correctly). And we had an innovative and unusual solution to the problem–we created a “design”.

(As a further aside, I was able to revisit the design to build a mockup in a subsequent class. We were able to scale down the model and demonstrate that indeed, the design was workable.)

I republished my Master’s thesis on my updated website.

Abstract

The Vibrating Beam Experiment Instructional Courseware (Version 1.0) has been developed at the University of California at Berkeley to assist students’ integration of seemingly disparate information related to the experiment into a cohesive structure. The courseware provides a framework to understand the fundamental principles of the apparatus, theory, and laboratory procedures related to the experiment. This report details the design and development of the Vibrating Beam Experiment Instructional Courseware. By using hypertext and hypermedia, we provide multiple levels of material, including information that has not traditionally been available for this experiment (e.g., full derivations and supplementary reference material). The courseware has graphical maps that serve as both a foundation for the structure as well as the backbone of the navigation. In user surveys, students responded that the courseware contributed to both their understanding of the preparatory homework as well as the laboratory itself. The on-line usage logs show that the majority of navigation is still linear despite the numerous alternate navigation schemes. Additionally, students were more interested in practical tips than the supplementary material that we included to help them understand the theory. The usage logs also indicated student use of the courseware was very dependent on the instructor’s integration of the courseware into his teaching. The courseware can be used in many different ways depending on the instructor’s preference. It contains the information required to let it serve as a stand-alone reference source for the theory involved in the experiment, or it can serve as a guide for the practical information required to complete the experiment.

That phrase means a lot to Berkeley alums. As most of you that read my site know, I received my degrees in mechanical engineering from UC Berkeley.

Recently, Erik Tarloff posted an article to the Atlantic website decrying “UCB RIP.”

I’m torn, Erik might be right is his opinion that the days of Cal might be waning. He fears that the dramatic cuts in the current state of California budget have started the long, slow slide into obscurity for Cal.

Cal has long been regarded as one of the greatest universities in the country, and in the world. A remarkable, and unique, achievement for a public institution.

But it now looks as if those days are over. It won’t happen overnight, and it won’t happen completely. But absent an unlikely, massive injection of private funding, the university is on an inexorable glide path downward.

Tarloff, E. (2009, July 22). UCB RIP. Retrieved July 24, 2009 from Atlantic Web site:
http://correspondents.theatlantic.com/erik_tarloff/2009/07/_when_my.php

And I’m torn with Chancellor Birgeneau’s response that:

As Chancellor of Berkeley, I see the real challenge as not whether Berkeley can remain one of the greatest universities —there is no doubt that it will — but whether it can do so and still retain its unique public character.

Birgeneau, R. (2009, July 24). Berkeley will remain great, but will it retain its public character? Retrieved July 24, 2009 from University California at Berkeley Web site: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/07/24_ucbrip.shtml

I do think that there are challenges ahead–but as a Cal alum that bleeds blue and gold–I have to believe that Cal will solve them. I believed in what Berkeley had to offer so much that I worked there for 9 years after I graduated with my Master’s (bypassing the entire dot com thing). I worked to improve the teaching and learning environment for students. I worked along side faculty and staff to continue the excellence that is Berkeley. My contribution back to Berkeley for my world class education, was my time, expertise and experience.

When I tell people where I work now, MIT, they go “wow, that’s a great university.” I mostly respond with “meh, I used to work at UC Berkeley.” (Not to belittle MIT in the least, I’m used to excellence and working with really smart, innovative people because of my experiences at UC Berkeley.)

In the last twenty years, Cal has gone through budget crises in the past, and has emerged stronger. Though I have wondered what would happen if Berkeley went “private.” During my time there state funding rapidly eroded. I know this change is one that Chancellor Birgeneau (one of the few recent Chancellor’s I haven’t met) is warning against in his reply. He says that he hopes that private giving will make up for state shortfalls–I wonder if Cal can be “public” without any state support at all?

’nuff said for now.