Saturday photo(s)

The dramatic skies and the lush vegetation

in my 'second home' and in my 'other' new workplace.

These days, I am getting used to waking up in the morning with the view of the skies about to let go of of the gray colors of dawn in anticipation of the arrival of sunrise.  It's such a beautiful scene... that sometimes, I stay transfixed on my bed staring at the scene in the window by my bed with nothing but the sound of my own breath and the happy chirping of the birds - so serene... until the sun finally burst in the horizon, slowly makes its way to the sky, brightening and intensifying the hues of the colorful surroundings, slowly spreading its fingers on the green, green grass visible in the opposite window until the last drop of mist disappears into the thinning air.  I cannot help but be filled with awe... and, everytime, it makes me wonder what magnificent luck life is about to reveal to me in the horizon of the day that just began.  Such wonderment puts a spring on my strides... and I go about my day with such excitement amid the serenity around me. 

The sky as it welcomes the sun
at sunrise - viewed from my bed
through my window

The trip from my new (second) home to my workplace is about 6km but I am, usually, able to cover the distance in only 10 minutes or so, regardless of the time of day... usually, it just takes two BTS songs.  From my new workplace, I am getting used to switching off my work gadgets as the air gently sways outside, making the branches of the seemingly countless trees and thick bushes around the building sway rhythmically as the chirping of the birds heightens, and the sound of crickets slowly blend in.  I make my way out of the building where I work while the skies make play of its fast-changing colors... from blue to various shades of orange as the sun makes its way into the depth of the horizon... or red, if the skies are generous enough to promise a beautiful day by the next sunrise.

My new workplace will be the seat of the 'highest' of high-technology to be developed by Thomasian scientists and innovators in the future.  It will be a buzzling place for interdisciplinary research for my University with its partners and stakeholders.  As we have a highly comprehensive University, just thinking about the extent of interdisciplinarity of our research and innovation activities in the future graces my imagination with a bonfire of ideas - very exhilarating!  But, of course, I make effort to rein in the excitement lest I resort to 'counting the chicks before the eggs hatch'.  So, I continue to work hard and persevere with my awesome Team in transforming that vast space that we have into what the future needs.

One day... nature and technology shall come together in a beautiful harmony that attempts to sketch God's generosity and wisdom.  The attempt shall fail, of course, as God's generosity and wisdom are boundless, and our attempt is merely to narrowly estimate... but the attempt shall be our way of expressing gratitude... and commitment to keep trying as we make ourselves worthy of, one day, seeing God's kingdom where the true beautiful harmony can be experienced... and not just estimated.  

Until then, we dream, we persevere... and we bask in the beauty of the experience.

***

Image credit:  All the photos in the collage above and the individual photos belong to me.  I took them all.

QOTD

QOTD #10:  On  batteries, innovation and mentoring
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by PAM

 

"In a battery, I strive to maximize electrical potential.  When mentoring, I strive to maximize human potential."

- Prof. Donald Sadoway, Ph. D. 
  Energy Engineer and the John F. Elliot Professor of Materials Chemistry
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT)
  via TIME magazine, "The 100 Most Influential People in the World"

This makes me miss teaching my beloved "Innovation Course" in the University.  I am particularly proud of that Course just because I can say that I built most of it from scratch.  The challenge of turning what used to be a boring Course into something that is innovative and fresh was truly exhilarating.  Seeing students glow upon discovering their own strengths and talents as they clear the innovation "hurdles" along the way brought absolute fulfillment. 

So, why am I sounding nostalgic-and-all over this?  It's because, for the first time, since 2007, I am not teaching that Innovation Course, and  I miss it.  I miss interacting with students directly.  I guess, this is just another trade-off involved when sitting on "big chairs", you lose your daily dose of merry wonderment in the classrooms and research labs, and the tremendous joy of watching incredible talents unfolding and innovative minds lighting up and coming to life to bring forth solutions to pressing problems right before your very eye as the semester proceeds.  Oh, well.... 

Since I am already publicly lamenting over not teaching the Innovation Course this Academic Year anyway, let me just go all the way and 'wallow in grief', and turn pathetically green with envy over this...

"Perhaps, overlooked, Volta's invention of the battery, for the first time, also demonstrated the utility of a professor.....  So, you see, the liquid metal battery story is more than an account of inventing technology, it's a blue print for inventing inventors."

Aaawww...sweet!  Too good, too good... and I feel left out! :(

The happy part is, these "big chair days" will not last forever.  One day, they will come to an end, hopefully after a few of those many "challenging puzzles" on the equally "big tables" have been figured out... and all systems are up and running, and humming healthily.  Therefore, I look forward to teaching that Course again - the sooner, the better!  :)  In the meantime, I'll try to find comfort in the great challenge of filling out this "big chair" in my own little humble way, and savor the opportunities to mentor "big kids" from where I currently stand - around the vicinity of the "big chair".  Yep, I'm still uncomfortable sitting on the cold "bigness" of it... in fact, I think I will always find it "uncomfortable", just because I'm just a simple dudette with simple needs and wants...  I just want to set foot on planet Mars, that's all. ;)

Alright, let's get those "puzzles" figured out then so we could go back to the classroom/research lab soon... aw, yeah!  :)  Here we go.... one challenge/puzzle at a time.  We'll get to the finish line eventually... and then we set out to run the more interesting run, the run that all engineers and scientists committed their professional lives to: the "hard science" for "good life" run!  Leeeezdoit! :)

***
Video Credits:  Thanks, YouTube, for the video links.  

"Ignite"!

It finally came to "life"!  Woohoo!
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by PAM



A dream and vision realized... by persistence and labor of love.


It took a while... but the dream finally came true... and through! 

The maiden issue of "Ignite", the Thomasian Chemical Engineering Product Innovation Magazine, is already out in limited circulation.  The magazine is primarily the Department's yearly 'product portfolio' of sorts, which features products exhibited in the yearly "UST Chemical Engineering-Rebisco Product Innovation Challenge + Mini Expo".  It also contains feature articles on the event and the winners of the Challenge.  The maiden issue features products from the 2011 edition of the Mini Expo dubbed as "InnoVision", organized and participated in by the UST Chem. E. Batch 2012 - the Neo-Centennial Batch - under the very able leadership of Mr. Aaron Joseph J. Peñano, Miss Heidy V. Cruz, Mr. Emmanuel P. Jimenez and Mr. John Lester C. Lim.

"Innovention" - Day 2

Lift off!  Houston, we're on orbit... aw, yeah!  :)
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by PAM


When your efforts are supported and appreciated by Science and Technology Innovation stalwarts in the campus and in the country...

Tell me who your supporters are... and I'll tell you 'what' you are! :)

...does that mean, you are actually doing something along the innovation line, too... and, perhaps, doing a few things right?  Aw, gosh, we sure hope we are!  :)  "Innovention", the 2012 edition of the "UST Chemical Engineering-Rebisco Product Innovation Challenge + Mini Expo", was such a fantastic feat, and it's hard to keep joy hinged on jubilation alone.  Therefore... oh, humility, please come!  I need you right now! :)

***
Blast-off to innovation outer space... up, up, and away!

Yes, we have managed to "throw ourselves" out there!  From a 15-entry "mini-er than mini" product development challenge and exhibit at Room 110 of the UST Engineering Building in 2008, we grew to a 52-entry "Product Innovation Challenge + Mini Expo" at the UST Qudricentennial Pavilion Covered Court this year... ah, it looks like we have managed to grow our "baby rocket" to an "Innovation Enterprise" and sent it out in a blast-off to the innovation outer space!

And it's all because... we have brilliant students - past and present!  

Ah, UST Chemical Engineering Batch 2013... how do I describe you, guys?  I wish Mr. Webster had words to describe people like you... but he hasn't!  Naturally, I haven't either!  Your unassuming and understated awesomeness limits my vocabulary... you put the 'bottomlessness' of innovation to utter shame!  Ah, and what a shame, too!



Our "INNOVENTORS"...
The UST Chemical Engineering Batch 2013... indescribable --- in an, oh, so fantastic way! :)

Saturday photo

Bitten...

For a few days now, one of the biggest news stories on the face of the earth and, perhaps, in the whole Universe, is the resignation of Steve Jobs as Apple's CEO. The ailing 56-year old Jobs is no longer the Captain of the "Mothership". He has relinquished the helm to the Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook. While Jobs has been elected as Chairman of the Board, he will no longer be walking the hallowed grounds of the Apple Campus at One Infinite Loop like a thunderous force that sweeps everyone in its way off his or her feet to the stratosphere of innovation - if he/she was worthy (translation: an authentic geek who can decipher the "Jobs code of visionary creativity") - or to the pits of destruction - if he/she was only a "common intellectual"! Acknowledged by many as brutal but inspirational (a combination of adjectives that could only be used when "Steve Jobs" is in the same sentence... and the owner of the name doesn't mind either), Jobs revolutionized personal computing to a whole new world of digital technology. And then he lured us all to this new world with his incredible charisma, fiery passion for innovation and admirably brilliant mind. Weaker mortals as most of us are, we, of course, succumbed to the skillfull seduction! And we got transformed... and irreversibly, too! Such is the power and influence of Jobs in this century. And why not, when he is such a visionary leader... at least, in this techie world of ours.

Of course, this news troubled me... for the past four years of re-inventing a lab course in my University to a platform for Innovation (oh, please! Of course, not in the Apple scale! I'm not even worthy to tie Jobs's shoe laces!), I have used the "Jobs model" as the definition of innovation. While I'm sure Apple will continue to be the seat of innovation in the technology world, I don't feel prepared to use it as a model for innovation without the Steve Jobs by-line in its technology preachings. Then again, his legacy is too potent and permanent to not stay influential for as long as we enjoy hanging out in this "digital world"... and maybe even beyond it.

***
I took the photo during my most recent visit to the "Mothership" on July 2010... to check out the cool sleekness of the iPad, of course, and hear members of the Mothership's Corps of Engineers themselves explain its geekiness merits... like I needed any of that to decide to get the toy! =) iPad was not available in Manila yet that time, and I heard that it won't be until several more months. For an innovation follower, "several months" was too long, and it's but natural that I followed "the apple" that leads to the Mothership... and dressed carefully for the occasion, too! ;) The result? Techieness overdose - ahem, I totally, shamelessly flipped! =)