MSL and Origami

For four weeks in August, selected students from around the South Sound participate in a four week summer camp with an important focus. The Math, Science & Leadership (MSL) program at the Institute of Technology is a multi-year program that begins with a summer camp for students who will be entering 7th - 11th grades here in the South Sound.

The goals of the program are to help students recognize and develop their potential to excel in math and science, ease the transition from middle school to high school and high school to college, encourage the pursuit of math and science electives at the high school level and to pursue postsecondary degrees in these fields.

Believe me, we need more scientists and engineers.



I spoke to a class of eighth graders in during the second week and enjoyed myself greatly. They were outgoing, respectful and interested in the discussion. My focus was on origami and its relation to mathematics. In particular I highlighted Robert Lang, a noted physicist and engineer, who has authored or co-authored over 80 technical publications and 40 patents on semiconductor lasers, optics, and integrated optoelectronics.


He has also presented several refereed technical papers on origami-math at mathematical and computer science professional meetings. His profile on CBS 60 minutes was shown during the discussion via the web in a smart classroom, and the feature noted the applications of origami to engineering problems ranging from air-bag design to expandable space telescopes.

And then of course we made cranes.

MSL Kick Off Around the World Lunch

The general hum in the Institute was interrupted by laughter and the russel of pinatas being hoisted into the air on the second floor. Friday, August 3, 2007 was the kick off celebration lunch for the MSL instructional team as well as the staff. The theme was multicultural in nature with everyone in attendance providing a dish from their respective ethnic background or area they had lived. Some of the food items ranged from Indian, Mexican pastries and salsa, southern red beans and rice to fried chicken.

Pinatas decorated the conference room on the second floor. Around the table, each instructor took their turn sharing their particular area of expertise and discussed the intense training they had just completed.

Their enthusiasm was contagious, the food delicious. Monday August 6, the team would be welcoming the 98 students who had registered for this year's program.

As a way of introduction and information our Math, Science & Leadership (MSL) program is a multi-year program that begins with a summer camp for students who will be entering 7th - 11th grades. This exciting, fun and academically challenging summer program runs from August 6-28, 2007, every weekday from 8:30am - 4:30pm

The goals of the MSL include helping students recognize and develop their potential to excel in math, science and leadership, to ease the transition from middle school to high school and high school to college, to encourage the pursuit of math and science electives at the high school level and to encourage students to pursue post secondary degrees in these fields.

The Institute expect the impacts of the students experience to include providing opportunities for students to tackle subjects in math and science outside of the school curriculum by offering a different style and pace of learning, to provide peer environment that reflects their own diversity and culture, allowing them to build a supportive cohort, to allow students to develop academic skills over time, as well as leadership skills and to allow the student a chance to apply the skills learned, and to have a real-life grounding in how math, science, and technology can be used in jobs and academic careers.

Students who have confidence in their academic and leadership skills are more likely to pursue their interests in higher education and beyond. A more diversified population in fields that are traditionally dominated by white males (i.e., math, science and technology) will lead to greater creativity, productivity and a multiple-perspectives approach to the products, research and information that emerge.

We extend a sincere welcome to our 2007 MSL students and applaud the Adrienne Arnold, Coordinator and her amazing instructional team.

Tacoma dorkbot

There is one in London, one in New York, one in Melbourne, Lisbon and, among many other cities, Tacoma. It is “dorkbot”. Their catch phrase is “people doing strange things with electricity...” and they are described as

“a monthly meeting of artists (sound/image/movement/whatever), designers, engineers, students, scientists, and other interested parties from the Tacoma area who are involved in the creative use of electricity - electronic art (in the broadest sense of the word).”

They are meeting tonight at Tacoma School of the Arts' Club SOTA, starting at 7:00pm and it is open and free to the public.

Tonights presentations include one on light sensitivity in behaviour based robotics by one of the undergraduates at the Institute of Technology’s Computing and Software Systems program, Andrew Becherer. Andrew says he will be “discussing behavior based robotics and specifically how to use behavior based robotic techniques to add "personality" to electronic objects.”.

Sweet.

He will also be talking about Lego Mindstorms, which will include a focus on “the work of Valentino Braitenberg and his seminal text Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology.”

Let’s summarize…”How to program toys to behave like animals”. Now that has the makings of a Summer Blockbuster.

Laura MacCary, who is a local electronics artist, will be presenting on interactivity between people and circuits. According to the dorkbot announcement she will be showing some of her work followed by an opportunity for the attendees to engage in some hands-on experimentation.

For more information on the Tacoma dorkbot visit http://dorkbot.org/dorkbottac/

Briefing on the Cybersecurity Excercise

A Military Affairs Committee meeting was held by the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber entitled “An Update from Ft. Lewis”. Along with presentations from Col. Cynthia Murphy, Garrison Commander and Mark San Souci, Regional Liaison for Military Families, DoD-State Liaison Office, (who gave updates on the base and discussed Pay Day Lender laws respectively), I gave an update on the Cybersecurity Exercise that was conducted a little over a month ago.

Sponsored jointly by West Point, Fort Lewis and the University of Washington Tacoma, the day-long event brought in students from multiple locations where they were lead by Lt. Colonel Ron Dodge from USMA West Point through a series of cyber attack/defense exercises.

West Point gave the participants some preliminary materials to practice with so that the students who were invited would be familiar with the scenario. This way each team would have at least one member who was comfortable with the equipment.

The students brought the necessary ID and met to carpool in order to minimize the number of cars driven on to the base. When they arrived, they formed groups and were given a pod of workstations that comprised a small network. The networks had some security problems that each group had to discover and secure. After giving the groups some time to secure three high powered workstations and six monitors, the people from West Point started attacking.


Don McLane, lecturer at the Institute of Technology, was the organizer of the UWT contingent and deserves credit for how well the students did. He teaches TCSS 431 (Network Security) which covers “cryptographic methods including public and private key algorithms. It examines protocols that utilize such methods, such as secure email, digital signatures, authorization, e-voting, and electronic cash. The course includes a lab component for demonstration of security techniques such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and virtual private networks.”

He reports “Everyone learned…even me, so we’ll be better prepared next time.” And that “Fort Lewis provided an EXCEPTIONAL environment.”.

Also there was Barbara Endicott-Popovsky, Director, Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity (CIAC), University of Washington who said “Don did a great job..His group was given special mention for their success with the exercise. There were between 60-70 people there. Huge group."


Next time the exercise will be part of the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, so Don intends to have an official team prepared for that. Given this years challenge was more difficult that the year before, the expectation is for the difficulty to be further increased yet again next year.

(cross posted at andrewfry.blogspot.com)