Hello, this is the end of week 6 in ALP 2018!
A lot of events is happening around the world this week, from Historical Trump-Kim Summit in Singapore to the Hype of World Cup in Russia, and here too.. in Zhejiang University, Hangzhou!
We ended a class (Design Fiction), doing DIP and our own theme projects, and also started a new class (Design Thinking)
Yeah, this week we were rushing to progress on our DIP Project as it is going to reach the end soon. Almost every day, the workspace was full with different theme students and also our ZJU colleagues. Our kind TA also always present in the workspace to accommodate our needs.
FYI: DIP course is the equivalent of Term 2 3.007 modules in SUTD. However, here, they are quite focusing on the use of machine learning toolkits.
After the DIP ended, we are expected to create machine learning toolkits which can be easily implemented by designers in their work. Having been working together with design students in ZJU so far and also solving weekly theme task, we have acquired relevant machine learning knowledge and also how to use tensorflow, a powerful open-source machine learning module from Google. We also learn others skills to make the DIP products work, for me is javascript and css.
Surprise..
Our SUTD President and Acting Provost Tow Chong was visiting us with his colleagues. In the 40 minutes short meeting, he told us about the challenges of the first ALP programme and also what has been happening in SUTD since we left Singapore. We are told to take the advantages to interact with ZJU students and learn more from our experience here.
We also started a new class, Design Thinking, which is led by Guanyun Wang. This class is developed by ZJU for us, SUTD students. It had caught my attention since the first time ALP Programme was introduced to us in freshmore year. Check this video (the previous year Design Thinking class):
This year, our Design Thinking class task is to explore paper actuator technique and complete the title “This book is a ….”. The technique includes the use of some kind of polylactic acid material filament on a paper which will contract in room temperature and relaxed if it is expose to hot temperature. By putting it above of paper, it allows paper to bend when it is cold and relaxed when it is hot. The working principal is similar to bilayer metal which is used in fire alarm. This enables the paper to possess some interesting behaviours. It looks quite interesting!
The TA gave us 2 days to think about the concept and we present our ideas to the mentors. I learned something new from this session. From what I observed, the mentors were expecting us to deliver our idea with a story behind it. It reminded me of my experience during the first week in Hangzhou. That time, I realized that Chinese products tend to use personifications and stories. It makes the products looks more attractive in the market. The example is one of famous restaurant in Hangzhou, Grandma’s Home, where customers are served as they are in their Grandma House. I think it’s kind of related to preference and growing trend in Chinese society, that’s why we are expected to have a stories for our products.
On friday, we are busy working with Adobe Premier Pro to make video about Generation Z, which is the final work for our Design Fiction class.
Well, that is all for this week. To sum up, this week is a busy week, but interesting one.
See you again. 😉
