Biological Origami

Biological Origami is an MIT IAP class:

And here's the website! 

http://www.bioorigami.technology/

This course is developed from an on-going research with the collaboration between Tangible Media Lab and Daniel I. C. Wang lab in Chemical Engineering at MIT. By using biological nanoactuators and their responses to stimuli, such as changes in humidity and temperature, materials can be “programmed” to change form in predictable ways. Students will get exposure to this interdisciplinary research and learn the core concepts of design and synthetic biology. In addition, students will work as team to design their own origami structures using this new actuator design technique. Students will collaborate on various hands-on exercises and discussions, meet local designers and biologists, carry out studio work and deliver a final presentation.

What we did:

• Use dead natto bacteria cells as an actuator for folding on hydrophobic materials
• Design artificial flowers and synthetic organsims
• Learn about the work of MIT Media Lab's Tangible Media Group
• Fold cool shit

Professor Hiroshi Ishii from the Tangible Media Lab

So how does this work?

The Media Lab provided us dead natto bacteria cells to apply to sheet like materials. They provided us pipettes, latex, and standard lab coats. When met with heat and water from a humidifier, the cells expand, causing folding motions. Applying the cells in certain patterns can cause movement upon contact with heat and moisture.

We used these cells to design artificial flowers. It would've been better had we used live cells, but since we weren't lab trained we weren't allowed to :(

An intro to synthetic biology

A design oriented presentation on the uses of bioorigami

So it wasn't actual  origami in the strictest sense. In fact, I was very disappointed with the latex. It was floppy, and wouldn't fold at all.

But the scientist told me that any hydrophobic material would do. So I decided to go look in my enormous stash of origami paper, and use glassine paper.  

So although glassine paper is not ideal for folding origami roses, or for becoming biofilm, it had the best of both worlds. It was more foldable than latex, and yet still had hydrophobic qualities.

Lab partner tracing the outline of a shape on latex!

And....Ta-Da!

I didn't have as much time as I'd have liked to experiment with the cells, but at least now I know this kind of technique exists. 

You can fold anything with paper. What could you make once you perfect the ability to make paper move?

Perhaps flowers that respond to sunlight and can move to block or allow light to enter buildings?

Or maybe synthetic flowers that move to capture solar energy?

Flowers that open in response to moisture to collect rain water?

A month with an Unlimited MMA Gym Membership

MIT students get the entire month of January off. It is one of the most glorious things in the world!

What can you do during IAP? You can take fun classes like glass blowing, do nothing, enter programming competitions, or even take academic classes if you want to get ahead.

This IAP I diiiiid:

• A membership at the MMA gym down the street
• Two programming classes (I'll write more about these later)
• A snowball fight
• Got into a sword fight. I lost.
• A lot of sleeping and eating + experimenting with something called the Slow-Carb Diet
• Picked up basketball, and learned to play COD
• Chilled with my friends :)

So my IAP wasn't the most productive. There are still some things I didn't do - such as make some more of my own origami, and perhaps brush up more on my programming skills. But it was awesome.

So I thought I'd write a little about my MMA membership:

I went to the Redline Fight Sports Gym on Mass Ave - it was AWESOME! 

I learned/at least took a class or two in:

• Wing Chun (Kung Fu style)
• Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu 
• Muai Thai
• Kickboxing
• Boxing

Kickboxing/Muai Thai:

A solid style to learn, with fun combinations involving round houses, knees, and punches.

Kickboxing differs slightly from boxing in the way you stand (because you're expecting to get kicked or swept your legs aren't as wide as that of a boxer's stance?) My favorite part of kickboxing was adding in rotation to all the kicks. The rotation of the body reminds me of a lot of the body rotation there is in swimming - so I had a pretty solid round house.

This may sound weird, but I enjoyed getting the bruises. It felt like I was getting stronger, or at least I maybe the next time I get kicked I won't start crying like a baby.

We used pads and beat the crap out of each other. I especially hate holding back because I love to go wild, and I'd rather my partner hit me as hard as they can rather than be afraid of hurting me.

I mean, I'm so swoll it won't hurt anyways.....:)

Aside from the standard round house, I learned teep kick, front kick, switches, flying knees, elbows, and takedowns. I think take downs were the most fun for me because now I can counter round houses :D

Boxing:
Good 'ol boxing. Reliable, fast-paced, and just as fun as kickboxing. You want to get closer to your opponent. In kickboxing you'd want to stay a little farther out of reach because you can throw kicks/ avoid clinches. I didn't take any boxing classes officially but there was some boxing thrown in to some of the classes I took.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu:

Kickboxing may have been my favorite class, but THIS class was super fun. Except it made me feel REALLY stupid.

Kickboxing and boxing are sort of intuitive. It's not too hard to punch and kick. The more you want to hurt someone, the better your technique to an extent. That's not to say kickboxing and boxing are easy, but they're definitely more accessible than BJJ is for beginners.

Why? To a beginner like me, BJJ is a mess. It is pure, raw, grappling and calculated technique. You definitely can't win with brute strength. I know, I tried and it got me nowhere except humiliating defeat. 

Brazilian Jiujitsu focuses on ground fightings, and promotes the concept that a smaller, weaker person can defeat a larger one by using proper technique and leverage through joint locks and choke holds.

I've never thought of myself as small, so I approached this the wrong way. Against an opponent bigger than me and more experienced, I literally tried to brute force my way through it. The result? I got flipped over and choked over and over again. 

In my first class, they taught shrimping and how to get away from a person while on the mat. It's an important technique to learn.

So when you're on your back, you can sort of scooch away from your opponent, creating some distance.

Except right after that first class there was free jiu-jitsu wrestling, and I had NO clue what to do.

Yes, it's awkward when a sweaty guy is literally trying to get on top of a girl. But it's only awkward if you make it awkward, and I respect these people who can master such a difficult sport. 

With nothing more than one technique under my belt, the instructor gestured me towards the mats and said, "Go". 

Wait what? What do I do with my hands? What's illegal? How do I subdue someone? How can I make this NOT look stupid? 

So it was awkward at first, because I was just a mess of flailing limbs and "sorrys", but then I thought, " Aw fuck it" and tried to do something stupid, like put someone in a head lock, which never worked, but it at least looked like I was trying.

In at least 20 scuffles I perhaps won twice- but it was awesome and fun. It was like being a kid again, and thinking on your feet. I had no idea what I was doing, but for the first time in a long time I went at someone like I really wanted to have a go at them. And yes, I did learn a few things in the process. Painfully.

It's a pretty good stress reliever :)

Wing Chun:

I took this class right after the BJJ class. I stopped after 15 minutes because my back started hurting. I can't say much about this class.

MMA is FUN

• More girls should try it. Don't ever think you can't do it because you're weaker.
• If you fight like you mean it, you WILL  do awesome.
• Kick like you want to hurt someone, practice like a respectful partner, and fight like you're protecting your loved ones.
• It's also a great way to burn calories :)

Design For America

This semester I joined MIT's chapter of Design For America!

What is it?

It's a network of student managed studios located in certain colleges throughout the nation! This year is MIT's first year doing DFA projects. Students in DFA work with each other to tackle social challenges with human centered design.

In other words, we make cool shit to help others. We learn new things, teach others what we know, and go way out of our comfort zones to attempt to solve challenges.

DFA Projects?

MIT has 4 teams this year, each comprised of 5-6 people. Each team picks a theme for its project. This is MIT's first year taking on projects. My team is Improving the Patient Experience.

So, what did you do?

The first thing we did was get to know our team members and leads!

From left to right: Me, Juan Angulo (Freshman), Malena Ohl (Project Lead, Junior), Wen Zen (Sophmore), and Ming Wang (Freshman)

An awesome group of people, I couldn't ask for a better team!

We did a lot of ideating, brainstorming problems, and heading to Brigham and Women's Hospital. We partnered with Brigham and Women's, and they let us take a tour of General Medicine and interview patients.

Stickynotes everywhere!!!

After weeks of brainstorming and shooting down MANY ideas we came up with three problems and solutions. We couldn't all agree on one idea, so we prototyped a few.

Short Summaries:

1. The Boo Boo Buddy 

Head Designer: Malena Ohl

Problem: Young children have a hard time articulating where their pain is, and how much it hurts.

Solution: Boo Boo Buddy, a doll that children can use  to tell others where there pain is, and how much it hurts!

By using color coded band aids and app tracking, children can place these fun bandaid/stickers on the doll's body, corresponding to where it hurts. 

Here are some pictures from her presentation!

2. FIRST RESPONSE

Head Designer: Me!

First Response is a website/iphone application designed to answer emergency first response questions a user may ask in their first hour of an emergency. First Response is for those who are unfamiliar with what to do in a non-life threatening medical emergency, and is designed to help the user save time and money.

The Story: 

One day my sister and her friend were visiting Hong Kong. Her friend suddenly began to feel unwell - he had food poisoning. 

In an unfamiliar country and surroundings, my sister didn't know what to do.

• Did her friend need emergency care or urgent care?
• What was the difference between the two?
• Which hospitals accepted her friend's insurance if any?
• Who could she call in Hong Kong? How would she get to the hospital?
• Where was the nearest hospital?

After an hour of calling the insurance company and finding a hospital that DID support her friend's insurance, my sister took a taxi there, only to discover that the hospital didn't even have an emergency room! She was then forced to take her friend to another hospital, and then had to wait an additional 4 hours after the first hour of looking for a hospital.

And that really really really sucks. So I want to make sure others don't make those mistakes! 

1. Why not just call an ambulance?

Yeah, that's what I'd do in any situation. If I didn't know better, and even if I wasn't suffering from life threatening situations, I would call 911 and get an ambulance. 

A 15 minute ride on an ambulance can cost up to $2000. A taxi ride, much much less.

Use an ambulance if you have life-threatening injuries. If not, you can opt for a taxi or have a friend drive you to save money.

2. Can't I just Go to the EMergency room? What is urgent care?

Most people don't know the difference between emergency care and urgent care. In face, not many know that urgent care exists.  Hint: The urgent care lines are super short in comparison to emergency care!

Urgent care is for non-life threatening medical emergencies such as minor broken bones, sprains, and much more. In fact, roughly 70% of the cases in the emergency room could have been treated by urgent care. Urgent care is faster, and cheaper:

So if you really don't need emergency are, go for urgent care! However definitely head to emergency care if you have even the slightest doubts. It's better to be safe. First Response provides facts. It's up to you to the make the final decision.

3. Ehhhhhh Insurance? What?

Believe it or not, even the emergency room costs money. It'd be nice if we lived in a place where we wouldn't have to worry about bills when our lives are in danger.

Unfortunately, emergency rooms can cost A LOT. It greatly reduces costs if the hospital you're at covers your insurance.

Better yet, insurance reduces the cost of urgent care waaaaaay more than emergency care. Look at the chart above!

First Response features

Originally I wanted to make an app. However at Design Critique (Design Critique is a presentation meeting where all the teams present ideas to professors and authority involved in the social challenges we try to tackle), a critic asked me why First Response deserved to be on his phone. Most people don't think that far ahead. How would we spread the information?

So I believe First Response should be a website that can be accessed from the phone. First Response can/has....

• Location Services to provide a list of hospitals nearby, and pertinent information on insurance, distance, and care.
• Filtered search results based on cost and/or time efficiency
• Average wait time estimate
• Online checkin to urgent or emergency care rooms

First Response is just a prototype, so some of these features may disappear or more may be added! In the end, however, it is just meant as a way to provide facts to people in medical emergencies who don't have to immediately go to the emergency room.

3. The Hub

Head Designer: Juan Angulo

Juan decided to listen to the ideas of a patient we interviewed. The patient complained of being unable to reach anything on his poorly designed table. Juan, who has much experience with wood working, took the lead on designing The Hub, an all-purpose bedside table that caters to the movements and reaches of almost any patient. Although I don't have any clear pictures of his table, I do have parts of his presentation and a short summary of its features. Juan worked with Wen and Ming to build the foam core and wooden prototype of the table. 

• rotating face (like those rotating tables you see at restaurants)
• drawers that extend from the table like spokes. You can get a better idea in the gallery below.
• height adjustability
• charging stations 
• translational mobility to for ease of moving the table around the hospital bed

Although The Hub is originally designed with patients in mind, it's a very flexible table more multiple purposes.

Metal Bending

So if you've seen Avatar, I don't mean the awesome power of manipulating metal like Toph, my all time favorite TV-show character...

Arguably one of the most bad ass characters of all time. 

By metal bending, I mean going with my sister to Tech Shop and learning how to fold sheets of metal. Still pretty dang awesome. Thanks Merlyn (my sister), who gave me the best Christmas ever!

We used 16-gauge steel to fold simple metal boxes. We first outlined the shape we liked, and used a hydraulic sheet cutter. 

After that we used a corner notcher to cut corners into the metal. We did some finer and more detailed cutting with a straight (slitting) shear. The straight sheer operates like a gigantic pair of scissors. It's pictured below.  

Next we used a turret punch (gigantic hole puncher) to drill holes into the metal. Why is this important? Unlike paper, metal is really thick and the bending places lots of stress on the joints. Putting holes into the corners of the box we are making-the most folded areas- relieves the stress of folding. It is not necessary, but it does help a lot!

Turret punch

The hole punching creates a little dimple in the metal when the drill is pulled out of the metal. It is pretty easy to even out with a few swings with the hammer.

Next up, the finger break! My favorite part :).

We use the finger break to actually bend the metal. 

Finally, the spot welder. It joins the metal folds together using electrodes. The current is applied through the tips of the electrodes-resistance between the 2 sheets of metal causes a bonding at the point of contact. 

Finished result!

It's a pretty simple design! But now I know how to fold metal sheets any way I want :).

MIT Iron Nerd Super Sprint

So one week after AC, and I've already gotten another triathlon under my belt!

This week's was the MIT Iron Nerd Super Sprint (200 yard sprint, 5 mile bike around dorm row, and a .9 mile run around Brigg's Field). This triathlon took place right on MIT campus, and is meant as a beginner's triathlon to give others a taste of what it's like to race. It was super fun, and I loved every part of it! This was hosted by the MIT Triathlon Team, who graciously volunteered, set up transition, and provided signs for the race course. Thanks guys :)

There's something different going down dorm row when you're racing on your bike, and not walking back sluggishly after a day of classes. Macgregor (the dorm I live at), transformed from my living area to an insignificant blip on my radar. The otherwise boring walk back from classes became the last biking leg of the Super Sprint. Yes, everything is magical when you're oxygen deprived and going at 16mph. 

The swim leg was fun! Seated 4th, I maintained my position throughout the 200. Those pesky clockwise flipturns did ram me into the lane rope a couple of times....

The bike leg was pretty chill. I decided to slow down a bit- last week's triathlon taught me to save my legs for the last leg.

The run was great! I sprinted, my legs felt great, and I was the first female to cross the finish line (though 3rd female overall).

Left (Me, third place! 00:20:35.000 ) Middle (Yuri Matsumoto, first place! 00:19:54.000) Right (Margalit Glasglow, second place! 00:20:06.000 And my workout buddy on the tri team) 

Right, Michael Feffer 2nd place 00:19:06.000. He's also a triathlon teammate, and a former swammer as well!

This was a great race! The best thing about triathlons is that it's the perfect mix of a competitive race and a supportive experience as well. Everyone cheers for each other to the finish line, with words of encouragement along the way. There's always someone that's going to spare a few breaths while racing by to say, "keep it up!" I'm glad to know this spirit is still alive on the level of an amateur super sprint at MIT.

Third place, 3d printed, Iron Nerd Trophy.

A final pic with my friends in transition! Left to Right Alan Alahmad (dormmate on the cycling team that decided to join) Lisa Deng, Michael Feffer, Margalit Glasgow.