Origami Robots!!
I could remember the time about a year ago when I was sitting in the SUTD canteen and admiring the seniors’ origami work on the SUTD television thinking to myself how amazing it would be if I could make such a creation. Origami Robots integrates creativity with technology. Understanding how we can integrate these simple origamis with technology to give it movement allows me to think what other items we could integrate to improve our lives. Recalling what I’ve learned from the first week in the Design Village where many of the smart products produced by them were combinations of 2 or more different daily used items, I could see how the origami robots are like a starting stepping stone for our ideation of bigger things.
CIP at HuShu Special School
On Friday we visited the HuShu Special School where we conducted a baking class and origami lessons for the students. I was in charge of teaching them how to fold a frog, a paper plane and a heart shape for them to write/draw on to give it to their loved ones. However, due to my poor Chinese Language skills, teaching them was not easy. Furthermore, our expectations of them weren’t as what we taught and we had to move at a different pace as to what we planned. Fortunately, what kept me spurring on was their enthusiasm in wanting to learn the folds and their true delight when they finally completed it. Overall, I had a great time interacting with them, knowing more about them and having a really wonderful experience I cannot wait to interact with the other age groups and play more activities with them.
Wu Zhen Experience
Being our first free weekend without any meetings or classes, my group and I were free to travel around nearby parts of China. One of the places we went to is WuZhen. WuZhen was a really scenic place to visit. Although it was an obvious tourist trap, the owners of the place did a great job to renovate this area making it look and feel like the traditional old days. Following my visit to QingHeFang street last week I could say this is way-way more developed part and the ambiance I got here was really refreshing to the busy city life ZJU was situated at.
