The first set of demos has started for Makeweekend Negeri Sembilan. This is a kind if practice demo ahead of the final demos at the end of the weekend. All of the teams have built something and their prototypes are quite far ahead.

Above is a team working on an interesting project to make any surface a writing surface using digital laser projection. Have you seen laser-projected keyboards? This is a much cooler application of that technology.

Of course, wild ideas are encouraged at Makeweekend. The team below has been working on ways to attach parachutes to airplanes to reduce the likelihood of a crash.

This morning, I went to Mamak wearing a white shirt. As sure as the sun rises and falls every day, white shirts attract flying things that make stains. With all the curry in Malaysian food, I’ve had too many cases where this has happened, I haven’t had the time to clean the shirt in time, and then the stain became permanent.

Thankfully, we have two groups today at Makeweekend Negeri Sembilan who are working on approaches to improving the way we keep our clothes clean. One (seen above) is working on the concept of “cleaning pens,” which help you selectively clean up stains on-the-go rather than washing the whole shirt.

The other group is looking at approaches to replacing SLS, the chemical agent used in soaps to make them foam, with alternatives.

We had 25 pitches on ideas from dealing with medical waste to laser projection writing!

The team is now having breakfast. We’ll be going over prototyping approaches with the teams.

Yeah, neither did we. Then we visited Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) at Nilai, Negeri Sembilan and were presented with the option to having it in a stadium nearby.

Pensive floor manager. "That's a lot of floor to manage..."

Yes, of course there was a more practical venue (that we’re crossing out fingers we’ll get), but how awesome would it be to have a Makeweekend in a stadium? There would be a lot of running around and a lot of happy, tired students by the end of the day.

Makeweekend Negeri Sembilan is NEXT WEEK! 18th to 20th May, with super cool mentors from UEM. Rhythm and Hues, MDEC and Social Enterprise Alliance. If you haven’t registered, head over to weekend.my/register and hook yourself up with some awesomesauce.

For RM6 I’d say for anyone that hasn’t checked it out yet and if you have half an hour to spare you should check it out.

Some picture highlights

Help!
Nick and Hakim

But of course, it would be much better if teams focus on one prototype they would like to build and focus on the most basic feature that would make their prototype work. It was still cool to watch the teams build, take apart and rebuild all the prototypes though.

So here’s what went down:

-       We had 78 participants

-       8 projects

-       3 prizes.

.. and we’ll let the photos tell you the rest of what happened because we know y’all are more keen on looking at photos:

Registration team ready to welcome participants

Teams brainstorming

Pretty problems

Ideation: Putting up problems on the wall

One of the teams formed during the first day

Teams prototyping.. or discussing on what to prototype

More prototyping!

Audrey Foo, mentor from CitiGroup talking to the teams

Team G2H demonstrating their prototype

Team F=ma demonstrating the Running Sphere

team Super Jumper received the most feedback - and got a cake too!

Team G2H won the Best Prototype Award!Team F=ma won People's Choice and the State Innovation Awards!Awesome group photo is awesome

Let’s not forget the people who helped us make this happen, the super cool people from Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Innovation Office! We really could not have pulled this off without their help.

That was Makeweekend Penang – which state are you in? If this looks like something you’d like to be a part of, apply here

I was excited because this was my very first business trip, and although I go to Penang every year without fail to celebrate Hari Raya with my family who are Penangites, I never get tired of it. It was Nick’s very first trip outside of KL (yea sure he’s been to Perth etc but that doesn’t count), and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry or to be nice when he expressed his surprise when I told him that Penang was an island. Poor thing.

We got there in the evening, checked into USM’s guesthouse (which was a hotel especially for guests who had official business with USM, which we had. We had official business. So cool), got some rest and ventured out for PENANG FOOD.

As Penang is the home of Nasi Kandar, Nick and I decided to try some of the infamous Nasi Kandar Line Clear on Penang Street. Or Chulia Street. Not sure, one of those streets. It’s nestled in between buildings and easily missed though, so don’t be shy to ask for directions.

Massive amount of food, soft rice and oodles of other stuff piled on top of my plate – it was like Nasi kandar heaven. Though after eating at four different nasi kandar places, I have deduced that I’m not a Nasi Kandar person. Sorry folks.. I just can’t tell the difference between a bad nasi kandar and a good one. I can tell the difference between a cheap one and an expensive one, though! Yay me.

Although people would normally flock to Penang for the food (which is completely understandable), we were there on business. So. First order of business: Checking out the venues at USM and meeting the people from USM!

Then we went to Wawasan Open University to meet up with Deehba, who gave us a tour of this lovely building

Wawasan Open U has an interesting course on Small-Medium Business Ownership and Technopreneurship, but couldn’t pledge students because the courses were still new Next time maybe!

We rewarded ourselves with not one but TWO bowls of this yummy Penang laksa.

This is how the shop looks like if you ever want to go:

This joint is across the road from the Chinese Girls’ School on Gottlieb Road/Street. SO WORTH IT.

That’s all for our Penang visit – was highly successful! We’re looking forward to having the first Makeweekend here in USM Penang and to having more delish Penang dishes!

Special thank you to Rizal Alwani who lent us his car, drove us around, fed us and made sure we left the island with at least 4 additional kilos tucked into our tummies. THANK YOU!!!

Love ya Penang, xoxo. See you soon!

]]> http://www.weekend.my/adventure/planting-seeds-penang/feed/ 0 5.357559 100.3051215.357559100.305121 http://www.weekend.my/news/interesting-advice-from-mit-media-lab-director-3/ http://www.weekend.my/news/interesting-advice-from-mit-media-lab-director-3/#comments Thu, 22 Sep 2011 07:27:34 +0000 admin http://www.weekend.my/news/interesting-advice-from-mit-media-lab-director-3/ We spotted an interesting interview with Joi Of Neoteny Labs Speaks on his new role at the MIT Media Lab. Here are a few snippets from his interview in the Asian Scientist.

You have spawned a long list of successful initiatives that include Creative Commons, Technocrati, Flickr and Mozilla Foundation. You obviously have an eye for online media. Do you have any words of advice for start-ups such as Asian Scientist Magazine?

I didn’t actually start most of those projects, but I do have advice for start-ups. I think it is very important to understand what sort of differentiators you, your region and your network has, and focus on trying to figure out how to leverage that. Also, most start-ups fail, not because they don’t have an interesting product, but because they don’t get distribution – they can’t attract users.

Make sure you have a distribution plan. Also, launch early and talk about your work. Reid Hoffman often says that if you’re not embarrassed by your first launch, you’ve launched too late. He has a famous line, “Don’t ‘ready, aim, fire’. Instead, ‘almost ready, aim, fire, aim, fire, aim, fire.”

You mentioned previously that surrounding yourself with smart people stimulates your thinking. Where do you derive inspiration from, and who are your role models?

I derive my inspiration from my interactions with people and their interactions with other people. These people also make things, do things and impact the world around us. Being a part of a global network of active, learning and inspired people is my goal and my source of inspiration and energy. I find role model behavior everywhere I look – almost every single person that I meet has something that I can learn from or be inspired by. Having said that, there are people who have had more influence on me than others, but I have dozens of extremely important mentors and not a single one.

The Media Lab is an unusual place, in that it is a hybrid of art and science. Does science & technology complement and enhance the arts? If so, what significance does that type of research have for MIT?

I believe that the arts allow us to think about and explore science and technology in extremely creative ways – extending the models, frameworks and tools in ways that researchers and engineers wouldn’t naturally try. I think the arts are an essential component of the creative exploration of any scientific and technical area, and that the relationship with the deep and rigorous academic side can be extremely fruitful.

Read the full interview here.

You have spawned a long list of successful initiatives that include Creative Commons, Technocrati, Flickr and Mozilla Foundation. You obviously have an eye for online media. Do you have any words of advice for start-ups such as Asian Scientist Magazine?

I didn’t actually start most of those projects, but I do have advice for start-ups. I think it is very important to understand what sort of differentiators you, your region and your network has, and focus on trying to figure out how to leverage that. Also, most start-ups fail, not because they don’t have an interesting product, but because they don’t get distribution – they can’t attract users.

Make sure you have a distribution plan. Also, launch early and talk about your work. Reid Hoffman often says that if you’re not embarrassed by your first launch, you’ve launched too late. He has a famous line, “Don’t ‘ready, aim, fire’. Instead, ‘almost ready, aim, fire, aim, fire, aim, fire.”

You mentioned previously that surrounding yourself with smart people stimulates your thinking. Where do you derive inspiration from, and who are your role models?

I derive my inspiration from my interactions with people and their interactions with other people. These people also make things, do things and impact the world around us. Being a part of a global network of active, learning and inspired people is my goal and my source of inspiration and energy. I find role model behavior everywhere I look – almost every single person that I meet has something that I can learn from or be inspired by. Having said that, there are people who have had more influence on me than others, but I have dozens of extremely important mentors and not a single one.

The Media Lab is an unusual place, in that it is a hybrid of art and science. Does science & technology complement and enhance the arts? If so, what significance does that type of research have for MIT?

I believe that the arts allow us to think about and explore science and technology in extremely creative ways – extending the models, frameworks and tools in ways that researchers and engineers wouldn’t naturally try. I think the arts are an essential component of the creative exploration of any scientific and technical area, and that the relationship with the deep and rigorous academic side can be extremely fruitful.

Read the full interview here.