Finals

It’s tantamount to torture. I might as well drop out of college since I’m going to fail all these anyway. I just want to sleep and wake up in 5 days after all my exams have passed. It’s just not worth it. These are all the thoughts that were running through my head before finals week. Everywhere I went, I saw zombies, no wait they were students. I couldn’t tell. Maybe I was one too.
In the meantime, back to studying…

NextGen Conference

Although Cory had invited us to Stanford for his conference, I really didn’t think that I would actually attend the event, because it was on short notice and the costs of going to California were simply too much. The conference sounded really exciting, being billed as a venue for young entrepreneurs to meet up with established startup founders and venture capitalists. It was place where the next generation of entrepreneurs would learn how to shape the world. However, 2 weeks before the event, we got word that iFoundry was trying to figure out a way for a few EI students to attend the event. Before long, I and six others signed up and could not wait for a chance of a lifetime.
To catch our morning flight at O’Hare, we had to leave Champaign at 5 in the morning on Friday. We arrived at San Francisco Airport in the afternoon and the first sign that we were in California hit us as soon as we got there. We figured out that the cheapest mode of transportation to get to Stanford University was to take a taxi. So to transport all 7 of us, the total fare came to over $200!
Before we got to the campus, we went over to HP Labs, where Carl Chow, our EI iCOA, was. He showed us around the HP Labs building and all the cool things that HP is working on. It was an amazing tour. We then had lunch-$100 for four pizzas!-before going to the campus and exploring for the rest of the night.
We got a good night’s sleep, because we had to have enough energy for the conference the next day. Starting at 9 in the morning, the speakers included a Duke Professor, CEOs and other officers of rising Silicon Valley startups, established student-entrepreneurs, and so many VCs that I couldn’t count them all. I took a ridiculous amount of notes and I felt like I was about to explode because my brain was being filled with so much useful information. Each person had something unique to share, something valuable for me to ponder about. But they all had something common: they all looked to the young entrepreneurs as a valuable renewable resource, and one that had to be cultivated the right way to help ensure that the future leadership of the world is in good hands.  

WoW with Cory Levy

I have seen kids do some amazing things. I have seen future sports stars, future computer engineers, seen future politicians. But I have never seen any 18-year-old or under know so many established and successful professionals. This is who I had a chance to meet at the first World of Work presentation. Cory Levy, a Houston native, was invited to give a talk to people involved at the Technology Entrepreneur Center. Along with some other UofI student-entrepreneurs, including the Dynamik Duo and Michael Callahan, Cory Levy talked about how he had a single-minded desire to meet businesspeople so he would have a chance to grow his venture ideas and intern at high-profile venture capital firms. He highlighted some of the ways that he has done this and his future plans. He also shared a “Failure Resume” that lists some of his shortcomings and what he has learned from them.
Afterwards, I had a chance to talk to him and we discussed our interests and how we plan to cultivate them. The next day, I had a chance to play some tennis with him and have dinner with him to further discuss our venture ideas. Overall it was indeed an eye-opening experience and it was so amazing that Cory Levy invited us to his NextGen Conference held at Stanford University.

iFoundry

I knew that in college, I would be afforded many opportunities that I would not get elsewhere. I knew that I would get to meet and make many new friends. I knew that I would get the opportunity to travel and study abroad to get a different global perspective. I knew that I would be getting a world-class engineering education. I knew that I would be able to join clubs and organizations that would help me be a more complete person, and learn things that my classes wouldn’t teach me. I knew that when I would leave college, I would be a different man.
It was that mentality to try new and different things that made me want to apply to iFoundry. It was billed as a fresh new engineering curriculum that would let students get a different perspective on their engineering education.
At first, I was really excited about everything iFoundry could add to my education. However, after a few weeks of ENG 198 class, the Wednesday iCommunity gatherings, and some of my friends quitting, I started becoming skeptical of where iFoundry was headed. I was seriously considering dropping it, because of its time commitment and the fact that our iTeam was not making any significant process in any direction.
But looking back, I am glad that I stuck with iFoundry. Some of the networking that it has provided me, the things that I have learned from the lectures and the books, and the opportunities that it has given me are simply amazing. And I can’t wait for what iFoundry has in store for me in the near future and for the next three and a half years.

iExpo EIG Show

Technology

I am a slave of technology. We all are. This became especially apparent to me when I lost my phone for 2 weeks. I could not believe how much of my life revolved around my smartphone. I’ll try and list all the things that I use my phone for:
• Phone calls and texts
• Alarm clock
• MP3 Player
• Checking my email
• Browsing the web
• My calendar/schedule
• My to-do list
• Jotting down quick notes
• Storing files as a USB
So once my phone was lost, it becomes clear that I have a lost a big chunk of my life.
But I learned something else too: we can survive without this technology longer than we think. I couldn’t check my email like I used to, but hey, I got used to it. I had to communicate with my friends more face-to-face, and that human interaction actually felt better than the robotic text message alerts.
It just takes a little bit of effort to survive without all this technology clogging up our lives. Although I was glad to have my phone back, a little bit of separation made me realize the effect of technology on our lives.

College

Where do I start? I can’t believe that three months have already passed since I first started my college experience. I’m almost one-eighth finished with college and I’ve already learned so much! Looking back, the experiences that I’ve gained, the people that I’ve met, the friends that I’ve made and the opportunities that were made available to me have been more valuable than anything that I learned in my classes. A totally different perspective, that’s what college is about. I’ve heard some of my college friends say that before my first semester at Illinois, but you can never really understand the depth of that statement until you experience the whirlwind that is freshman year of college.

I came to Illinois because of the exceptional engineering education that it provides. Since freshman year of high school I had wanted to be a Mechanical Engineer. But according to my friends, they said that I would definitely change my major at least once during my college career. So, I’ve had my doubts already about whether I had chosen a right major, but it looks like I’ll be sticking with MechE for at least a year.

I started writing this blog at 3:15 AM November 21, 2009, at the St. Louis Greyhound Stop, on my way back home to Kansas City. I have been looking forward to this break for a long time. I need the rest, the time spent with family and friends, the academic catching up, and, of course, some time to reflect on my college experience, hence this post.