Phase 3: SWOT Analysis

Stuart Heinlein

Question: How can the roads and sidewalks become more sustainable, requiring less construction with an environmentally friendly option.

My Solution: Replace broken and rundown sidewalks/roads with Solar-Panel roads. This has never been done on a school campus but is in beta for U.S. highways. Other than that, this stands as a unique idea because no college campus has ever attempted to replace their worn down roads and sidewalks with solar panels, which fills out the definition, “being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else.”

Strengths:
• Can make money for Michigan State
• Can melt snow off roads (sidewalks already have heaters for melting)
• Can make enough energy to power Michigan State
• Environmentally friendly; reduce greenhouse gases
• Theorized as more durable than an actual road
• Easy maintenance
• Cheap installation compared to re-cementing and paving a road/sidewalk
• Can light up during the night for visibility
• Can display messages on ground (ex:// Stadium this way!)
• Never have to deal with asphalt for roads and sidewalks again, which is a major plus for environmental debris caused by pouring concrete and worksite digging
• State of Michigan was approved for $215m for potholes and road construction; The amount given to MSU could be used for constructing the solar-panel roads and sidewalks

Weaknesses:
• Never been done before; solar-paneled roads are only in prototype stage and still testing
o Michigan State might have to invent its own kind of solar-paneled road if the road in prototype did not succeed or lost financial backing
• Solar-panel’s could crack/break from stress
o While there have been tests where tractors will drive over solar-panel prototypes to test their durability, and have passed, you still have to be skeptical that after years of stress there will be some sort of negative result
• Initial spending fee would be high
o However, the money earned over time would combat this weakness. Time is the question however.
• Training crews to install the panels
• Replacing broken panels
• Technology malfunctions

Opportunities:
• First campus in the world to be solely powered by solar-panel roads/ sidewalks
• Make money from road for school
o Money from solar-power cells
o Money saved when heating roads instead of paying for snow-plow
o Money saved on signs by roads; messages can now be displayed in road
o More money for scholarships now
• Taking a prototype solar-paneled road into the FIRST real official road comprised of solar-panels
• Be the #1 environmentally friendly college campus (Go Green!)
• Store extra power made from roads
o Can be used during blackouts
o Can be used during power shortages

Threats
• Another school could install successful solar-panel roads ultimately making this an ordinary idea (instead of unique), therefore making this Phase 3 SWOT analysis invalid.
• Michigan State is cloudy during the winter
• The unknown factors
o No one has ever done this before so there are endless possibilities to what could happen.
• Perhaps it’s bad for the environment with photovoltaic cells leaking into the ground?
• Perhaps during a thunderstorm and the grid gets hit, every car/person on the road is electrocuted?
• Perhaps the grid has electronic malfunctions and begins exploding?
• Traffic accidents
o Lets say two cars have a head-on collision and glass shatters everywhere. Could glass flying off a car windshield badly damage the panels?
• Concrete/asphalt road companies create cheaper prices to combat solar-panel roads
• Testing results from prototype can be false
• Installing the panels could prove difficult and timely
o Winter delays, stopping installation
o Rainy days, stopping installation

Revised idea: creating only solar-panel sidewalks.

Explained Solution: creating solar roads could lead to expensive and dangerous conditions. Creating solar-panel sidewalks are a simpler beginning to the concept, and could help to test out many unsolved variables while still solving the original question asked for sidewalks.

Creative Assignment #3

Creative Assignment #3
Evaluate an Image

I decided to evaluate an image after about an hour of failing the “Blackout Words of Wisdom or Poem” challenge. Recovering from that, I decided I wanted to choose a difficult photo to evaluate and recover my ego, and stumbled across this one:

It’s extremely simple, showing a tic-tac-toe setup where one mark is the Earth and the other is a water bottle. At first I was like: well the Earth is water, so this makes no sense… so it’s perfect! After sitting longer, thinking harder, I realized that, that’s the point. There is no winner, even though it looks like Earth is about to win, and again, that’s the point. In order for Earth to win, water also has to win. The Earth is 70% water and in order to sustain it, and to sustain us, we need to take care of our water. Water is a resource that is a constant scarcity for 1 in 9 people. 2.5 billion people don’t have access to clean water. Also, only 2.53% of Earth’s water is fresh, most of it trapped in glaciers. Water, like global warming, is a problem we will be facing far into the future that needs to be addressed. And I think this ad does an excellent job of sparking emotion and thought. Without clean water, the most important thing we need to survive, it’s undeniable that it’s a problem that can spark war, chaos, and harm- something that’s already begun to occur in many countries in Africa. A resource more valuable than gold, we not only need to sustain it, we need to protect it.
The picture also sparks another idea when you realize the water bottle isn’t a plastic water bottle, it looks like a refillable bottle. The simple tic-tac-toe ad also approaches the problem of plastics and recyclables, saying that in order to maintain Earth, we need to take care of it and not pollute and be careful of the resources we use.
I would not improve this photo, but I think it’s an effective way of approaching a problem. I thought you could switch the water bottle with a human and it would be a human vs. the Earth, which could also spark questions. Or perhaps a human vs. apes and we get planet of the apes!

Extra Credit Photo

Phase Two: Brainstorming

Stuart Heinlein
Question asked: How can we limit construction on campus in order to have long periods of time without construction without MSU naturally deteriorating?

Deteriorating dictionary definition: the process of becoming progressively worse.

Revised Question for more Specificity: how can we limit road/sidewalk construction on campus without the roads deteriorating? Or, how can the roads and sidewalks become more sustainable, requiring less construction.

Personal Note: It is very important to not only solve the high rates of construction on roads/sidewalks, but to also do it environmentally friendly. So I split up my twenty questions into the appropriate categories:

Ideas handling the Deterioration Effect of Roads/Sidewalks:
1) Encourage students to walk/bike, preventing road deterioration from motorized vehicles.
2) New types of construction material that is stronger/ more durable.
a. Something more expensive than cement that’s longer lasting
3) Build roads on safe and secure ground to limit potholes and collapses.
4) Solar Panels- I read an article that many scientists want to replace concrete roads with solar panels, which would not only help to power buildings and factories, but also be more sustainable than regular roads.
5) Instead of building the road with cement, build with movable blocks.
6) Convert roads to a combed, silky dirt that allows for a relatively bumpy-less ride, but requiring no construction
7) Change all roads into rivers, and drive Jet Ski’s to class.
8) Invent a personal flying device to avoid roads all together
a. Environmentally friendly jet-pack
b. Hover-board’s like from Back To the Future
9) Use stress-tests on roads to see where the majority of stress will take place, predict it, and take action before maintenance is even required
10) Make it illegal to drive, take away the roads, and erase all road construction in general.
11) Invent a Transportation Machine to zap us from one building to another.
12) Horse-Friendly School: main choice of transportation becomes horses
13) Subway: create a subway system underground and take away roads above ground.
14) Ski-Slope-like-System: at ski-slopes they have those platforms you get on that slowly wind you to the top of the mountain. Set up a bunch of those and ride them to class.
15) A series of slides/rides that entertainingly rides you to class; like the slide at Google.

Ideas to Protect MSU’S Natural Beauty during Construction:
1) Prevent runoff by setting up safe construction sites
a. Perhaps constructing on non-windy days
b. Perhaps putting up tents around construction to stop air-blown debris
2) Reconstruct roads without having to drill
a. Perhaps with warming technology to melt the road
i. But that would also require a safe way to re-grab the melted road, and stop it from falling to environment
b. Build the road in moveable blocks, so broken blocks could be taken out and replaced without any mess
i. Kind of like Lego’s
3) Protect water pollution during construction
a. Perhaps have chemicals placed in water to combat debris and polluting chemicals
b. Don’t construct around water/rivers
c. Micro-technology/nanotechnology with tiny robots to destroy debris/chemicals in water
4) If Solar Panel Idea works:
a. Simply single panels would require construction if broken, so it would require stopping waste/liquid from a broken panel from leaking into rivers/lakes or underground.
5) Robots Designated to Clean Waste
a. Have robots specially designed to spot and limit runoff waste and wind debris, catching it before it can land/contaminate the natural environment

My Solution
After reading the article on Solar-Panel roads, I fell in love with the idea. The pros would include:
1) Decreased Greenhouse Gases by 50-75%,
2) Roads that eventually pay for themselves in energy created
3) More durable roads with very significantly less maintenance
4) Relatively Cheap installation
a. More expensive than concrete, but a larger payoff in the future
5) Roads can light up during the night for visibility
Fun Fact: If all major roads in the US were converted to Solar-Panel roads, we’d produce over three times the electricity the United States uses a year. I wonder what State would be capable of with Solar-Panel roads?

Phase 1 of Complex Problem

Stuart Heinlein
Topic: Too Much Construction!

Explanation of the Problem: Coming from Texas, I am naturally used to seeing small construction problems year-round because of the warm weather, which allows for long periods of time without construction. Being in Michigan now for college and living at Michigan State, naturally, heavy construction occurs during the summer and fall when the weather allows. However, living on a beautiful campus such as Michigan State, having to watch constant construction diminishes its full effect. I will attempt to limit construction in order to enjoy the campus more.
Research:
Facts: 1) I have talked with friends who hate the amounts of construction that occur, stating that it gets in the way of transporting around campus and getting to summer classes. 2) I have brought the discussion up in one of my summer school classes and they agree that it is a problem for getting around. 3) I researched online about why construction occurs during the summer and it’s because the winter is not favorable for construction work. 4) Michigan State has four upcoming construction projects planned that are either currently being constructed or plan to start construction soon. 5) Construction projects require five phases: planning/design phase, schematic design phase, design development phase, construction documents phase, and construction phase. 6) There are nine different types of construction projects. 7) America has the highest amounts of construction in the world. 8) There are a lot of websites for announcing construction projects and detours but regardless, communication of construction is at a minimum. 9) Construction degrades personal opinions about campus’ beauty. 10) Construction is the highest water polluter
Opinions: I personally do not enjoy the construction. My friends agree that it is annoying while necessary for keeping campus beautiful. It’s impossible to enjoy campus when it’s always under construction. It ruins outsider opinions of MSU when they see all the construction.
Guesses: Construction mainly occurs during the warm periods of the year because construction work requires reliable weather and snow gets in the way. Also, less construction is probably good for the environment. MSU probably has a lot of future construction projects planned. The construction process is probably complicated. Roads and buildings probably don’t degrade that fast.

Question: How can we limit construction on campus in order to have long periods of time without construction without MSU natural

Creative Assignment #2

Stuart Heinlein
Creative Assignment #2

“What happens is a continual surrender of himself as he is at the moment to which is more valuable. The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality.” – T.S. Eliot in Tradition and the Individual Talent

This is one of my favorite quotes because it is completely correct. I am a large writer and my ideal job is to become a screenplay writer. I discovered at a young age that writing was an excellent way of managing emotions and getting things off of my chest. When it comes to writing, and I have a strong feeling or powerful emotion towards a certain topic, writing it into a poem or screenplay not only releases the emotion but takes a piece of me and places it within that personal writing.

“Do I dare to eat a peach?” –T.S. Eliot in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

While this isn’t necessarily a quote about creativity, it is one of my favorite lines of all time pulled from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. This is also one of the most debatable lines written in literature, allowing it to be translated in multiple ways. For me, it simply reminds me to continue challenging myself and never be afraid of life. It reminds me to keep moving forward and continue doing things outside of my comfort zone and to never allow myself to live a boring life. I have to stay daring.

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend it’s whole life thinking it is stupid.” –Albert Einstein

I had to throw this quote into the assignment because after reading it during one of the lectures, it instantly became my favorite quote. I’ve always been bad at math, especially in comparison to my father who is a CFO. Naturally, he has always wanted me to pursue a business-oriented job, which involves quite a bit of math, and it always made me feel less intelligent. I’ve always considered myself to be intelligent, but being bad at math was quite a confidence buster. After reading the quote, it really made me sit and think to myself and realize that being bad at math is a stupid thing to worry about.

“It’s impossible, said pride. It’s risky, said experience. It’s pointless, said reason. Give it a try, said the heart.” –Unknown.

This quote is simple, intelligent, and brilliant. However, when applied to the wrong subject, it can be a dangerous way of thinking, like if applied to getting back together with your ex who cheated on you five times. But when applied to a desire to be creative and pushed against the idea of a normal job and ordinary life, I think it speaks wonders. It also shows the power of the heart, which can be used as a powerful weapon throughout life. But, the key is using this quote towards healthy goals.

“There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.” –Pablo Picasso

This is the only quote I had to look up. The others were already saved on my phone as reminders, and I’m glad to have found this quote and add it to the collection. The power in it is Picasso’s detail towards the “art and intelligence “ of the craft, which speaks in unison to the things we’ve been learning in class. It tells me to use my intelligence in unison with my creativity to create something for the world in a unique way. Especially coming from such a naturally creative person, it speaks many words of wisdom.

Something Out of Garbage: 360 Speakers

360 Degree Speakers not only increase the loudness of the iPhone being played, but spray out the music 360 degrees compared to the normal speakers that play straight forward. Created only with red solo cups and toilet rolls. Cut and pieced together with a knife… no glue or tape!

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The long awaited comic book arrival of, “Scorpion Mail Man,” finally hits the shelves in a U.S. Post Office attempt to rebirth of a company!

Creative Assignment #1

July 13^th, 2014

I write this in fear for my life and the lives of my companions present. If anyone finds this, know that these were possibly my final words.

The cabin is a dark and damp place deep along a grim and rugged road that stretches miles away from the highway that brought us here. It’s only been one night and I can’t seem able to bear it any longer. It began as my prison sentence: “Two involuntary weeks away from the world in which to find inner peace”… or whatever bullshit he said. All that mattered to me was that the burglary would be erased from my juvenile record after two weeks of hell with two equally guilty criminals; how ironic that statement sounds to me now.

Prison guards who treated us friendly but cautiously bused us in. The minute they left was when I began to question my surroundings. Eerily hung from the trees were random ropes, carved into them names and numbers. The house itself, a pitifully dressed black paint, shrunk in its shallow existence away from the world. James was the first one to enter, and his hair stood on end when a wild, cold wind rushed out from the house and back into the world.

Our first task was to find light as we managed to collect wood and begin a fire within the worn-down fireplace that sat in the corner of the house. Only a single room big, the entire house seemed difficult to light even with the largest of sparks. Me, James, and Eli sat close together by the fire as the bitter night approached without warning. And that’s when my nerves lost all sanity.

It began when we could hear footsteps below us. Eli dared to circle the house from the outside but he found nothing. When he came back in, it allowed wind to kick up a loose board in the floor. As it stuck there awkwardly, strange devilish voices began seeping their way up towards us.

“Join us.”

So now we pause to reflect on our surroundings. I pause to write this letter. We have made our choice, and now are to explore the unknown below. We simply find no other plausible choice. Into the darkness we go.

-Stuart Heinlein

 

Challenging Assumptions with Mind Map