Project Teams
Team 1: Monica, Rozo, and Raul
Team 2: Charlotte Nordstrom, Benjamin Chun, John Edwards
Team 3: Julio Miles, Jeremy Schneider, and Patricia Fung
Team 4: Tim, Matt and Andrew
Team 5: Matthew Johns and David Tate
Team 6: Kathleen McIvor and Erica Goodwin
Team 7: Nohemi Cardenas, Cinthia Diaz, and Perla Martinez
Team 8: Max Shrieve-Don and Chelsea Johnson-Long
Team 9: Adam Pena, Jonathan Chin, Steven Nguyen, and Hao Yee Lim
Team 10: Cesar Hernandez, Shirley Lee and Lily Wu
Team 11: Jack Fuzell, Daniel Sherman, and Anais Vayssieres
Team 12: Samantha Riffle, Tussanee Reedman, and Sarah Kahn
Team 13: Mason Bockelman, Matvei Stefarov, and Thomas Sibbach
Team 14: Daniel Janulaitis, Michael Rosenberg, and Ryan Dineen
Team 15: Scott Croker, Chen Ni, Robert West and Danny Tran
Team 16: Jordy Hyman, Christina Wang, Sam Rosen and Alexa Jones
Team 17: Monica Politron, Lisbeth Gomez, Jacqueline Rios
Team 18: Jared Rosen, Marialuz Garcia, and Sara Cruz
Team 19: Jon, Isaac, and Connor
Team 20: Stephen Johnson, Jeff Galper, and Teddy
Team 21: Laurel DeMarco, Gianna Hoffman-Luca, and Kate Wellmon
Team 22: Alberto Prado, Luke Quattrocchi, Mark Walsh
Team 23: Jose Hurtado, Daniel Carlson, Dan Fermi, and Andy Kortman
Team 24: David Chu
Team 25: Helen Cai and Richard Kho
Team 26: Jason Endres, Lucas Turner, Conan Bradley, Ashley McConnell
Team 27: Nik Altenberg and Marcello Guarro
Team 28: Oscar Leon, Jair Nepomuceno
Team 29: Sean Sasano
Team 1: Monica, Rozo, and Raul
Our main idea right now is about recycling. Now recycling is very profitable, for
the simple fact that you can sell bulks of plastics or metal, etc. (thats just one
way). we wanted to target recycling in third world countries, that already have some
kind of waste system. (maybe Latin America).
Comments: Approved.
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Team 2: Charlotte Nordstrom, Benjamin Chun, John Edwards
Ideas: Design an efficient battery recycling program that will address the problem of pollution contributing to global warming.
Starting out locally, technology will be used to dismantle batteries. The less battery acids that are in the atmosphere will help
end contamination. Money will come from donated batteries that are sold broken down and resold to companies as raw materials.
Comments: Approved.
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Team 3: Julio Miles, Jeremy Schneider, and Patricia Fung
Idea # 1: In this project, we plan to address the lack of affordable and adequate housing for people living on the poverty
line while also constructing environmentally friendly habitats. In the process we hope that owners will become more educated
on environmental issues and solutions as well. Our project would consist of purchasing low-priced real-estate
in distressed areas, leveraging it thorough several means to gain capital, and using that capital to construct environmentally-friendly
housing units using sustainable building practices. These units would then be made available at reasonable prices to people who
are low-income or suffering from high housing costs. Technology would be utilized mainly in the form of the sustainable
and eco-friendly building practices and materials. We hope to construct units that have the lowest possible annual cost as far as
heating and cooling are concerned. The initial capital would have to come from outside investors, and hopefully the
proliferation of these units would raise property values, creating some return on the investment. We would charge some amount of
money for those people living in the units, though it would be a very reasonable amount.
Comments: Approved (barely). I like the idea, however, Depending on where you want
to target this I have some questions. Houses are already constructed and rented for near the minimum price that is possible
in each region. Adding eco-friendly options is possible but will raise the price which is counter to your goal of lowering
rent.. Now you may be able to creatively use the labor of poor people to reduce construction costs, or work in an area of
the world other than Santa Cruz and make the economics different. I won't stop you from doing this idea because I like it,
but I think you'll have a hard time sorting out the money angle.
Idea # 2: We will be addressing clean drinking water in poor rural areas. We plan to do our project by
using old tires to filter storm and wastewater. This filtration method is meant to be used on a larger scale than
for just the individual or household. This method is more effective than sand filters and it is also cheaper.
The technology being used is the special method of stripping the tire of all its metal and then also cutting and grinding
the tire until it is in its desired state for filtration. We will need some initial start up cash to get a
facility and tools to be able to make these filters. After that, we would be self-sustainable because we will be able
to charge a small price to take used tires, and our price will be below normal disposal fees. Then after we have turned
them into filters, we will sell them for a small price. We will look to charge individuals or more preferably towns,
since We will have filters large enough to benefit the whole town.
Comments: Approved. (but perhaps I like it better only just because
I know less about the cost of tires and water filters?)
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Team 4: Tim, Matt and Andrew.
The main issue that I am concerned with is the economic structure of how proceeds are being given to charity and
charity organizations. I don't have preference on choices, because I am definitely doing something along the lines
of being money related, but simply need to come up with three social issues that we will be contributing to. The
major idea of this project is to develop a type of service or team that charity organizations will be able to go
to when there is confusion or a collection period before the money is actually going out and working for people.
By using the stock market and banking systems we would be able to manage a portfolio of client funds and make sure
that the monies being allocated for donation are actually going towards donation, and not into the hands of some
lobbyist. I'm hoping that this will not only improve the efficiency of fixing world problems, but that it will
also allow the millions to billions of dollars being donated to grow into a much larger amount. These are the
major aspects of our project.
Comments: General idea for oversight and management of charity funds approved.
It's not clear to me how the use stock and banking systems to achieve this, but I am sure that there are good
ideas to be had in this domain.
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Team 5: Matthew Johns and David Tate
Idea #1: Addresses energy consumption/conservation etc. The plan is to set up a car-pooling network at UCSC.
This will reduce consumption of gasoline and emissions. The technology being used is the Internet, and software
will need to be written to make it function. The money is coming from the people that are getting the rides - a
small amount per person but enough to keep the network/website running.
Comments: Approved. (You mean this doesn't exist already?)
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Team 6: Kathleen McIvor and Erica Goodwin
Our first idea that we want to develop is to design a computer program that will somehow minimize the wasting
of paper in offices such as a real estate or dentist office. This would help save the destruction of forests
that are cut down for paper. The money we would be getting would be
initially from a loan or something but after we have developed the program we could sell it to people who run
offices. They would want to buy it not only because its saving the earth but they would save money that they
usually spend on tons of paper.
Comments: Approved. (but with some reservation) You'll need to think
through all the issues. Its not clear to me that paper costs more environmentally than all the technology gizmos
you are presumably going to replace it with. Paper is after all a renewable resource. I look forward to your analysis.
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Team 7: Nohemi Cardenas, Cinthia Diaz, and Perla Martinez
The main social problem we are addressing is helping students in third world countries pay for their education.
We plan on helping students pursue a higher education by providing them with financial assistance that will come
directly from people in the US who are willing to lend students money in return of a tax deduction resulting for
them. An impact that our project will have on the problem is helping students better their education and improve
their way of living. Some technology that will be used is the internet. By using the internet, students can post
their profile online so that people lending them the money can decided which student deserve it or not. The money
will be coming in from individuals who are willing to lend students money to finance their education and so improve
the situation in third world countries. This project will be financed through a small interest rate that will be
charged on the students.
Comments: Approved. (You know I'm going to like this since its similar to one of my pet ideas)
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Team 8: Max Shrieve-Don, Chelsea Johnson-Long, Jair Nepomuceno, and Oscar Leon
The main issue we are addressing could still be arguable. However the main goal of the project would be two fold:
to bring more inspiration to the lives of children around the world enabling them to live better lives and to be
part of the change they want to see in the world; and also, to raise awareness to global issues. The plan is to
design projects, in school or in the community, for children to do that would bring more inspiration into their
lives and to raise their consciousnesses. These would be mainly culturally and environmentally inspired activities
where they could express how they feel about life, the earth, the current condition of the world, and more
importantly demonstrate the change they would like to see in the world. Then a group of people would document
these activities through video, interviews, etc. This documentation would then be posted online on web pod casts,
for example. Children from all over the world would be able to see what other kids in different parts of the world
are doing to help "fix" the world, to help heal the world. This would generate more inspiration to do even more of
these projects. Also, the general public would could view these pod casts and documentaries and become aware of
the life/global issues that these children are addressing. How we would generate money exactly, we're not sure
yet. But perhaps either charging the participating schools a fee to be documented, or to be given all the materials
necessary to document, or to be part of the online community; or perhaps simply to sell the web pod casts themselves
to world educational schools. Still thinking about it. This is all the main gist of our project idea. We still have
some developing and detailing to do, and also have to pinpoint the financial income.
Comments: Approved (barely and with reservations.) My reservation is
that so far you are describing an activity that feels good, but is not quantifiable in terms of who it helps.
Raising awareness in the abstract sense isn't sufficient. In general people are already aware the world is screwed up.
What is missing is solutions. I will require you to chose the issue more carefully are you interested
in raising awareness in children in order to change their lifelong activities, are you interested in increasing happiness,
are you interested in using the children to change the habits of adults? I will need you to quantify your project so
that it is possible to evaluate if progress is being made.
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Team 9: Adam Pena, Jonathan Chin, Steven Nguyen, and Hao Yee Lim
The problem we are addressing is the lack of Hybrid Taxis in major metropolitan cities, such as New York and
San Francisco, which is contributing to Global Warming and our direct dependence on fossil fuels. Currently
there are only 15 hybrid taxis in each city (according to a website). Our plan is to start our own Hybrid Taxi
company, utilizing, of course, a fleet of hybrid taxis. The use of hybrid cars would reduce harmful emissions into
the environment. The technology used is already in place - hybrid cars. The money generated of course comes from
people using our taxi service. We could also expand out idea into hybrid limousine services as well.
Comments: Approved. I think you'll have to think carefully with the
money angle. Why are you going to be able to compete with existing taxi companies? Will your hybrids be more
expensive to buy/maintain than whatever cars exist. Do you know that most cities limit the number of taxis and the
'taxi license' are bought and sold. For instance in Boston it costs about $400,000 for a taxi license and people
get 30 year mortgages just like houses.
Another idea we were toying with was the idea of a guard less prison. Instead of human people watching over
everyone, we would instead use (mostly) technology. Once the system is in place it would serve to reduce costs
of running a prison because of the huge number of personnel required to guard the inmates.
Comments: I already approved your first idea, but this is something
I have long wanted to see so I'm commenting. The social angle here (for me) is that cameras don't abuse inmates.
In CA we have a big problem especially in juvenile prisons of guards beating up the kids. (Anyone who thinks that
only inmates cause problems needs a little first hand experience with lockup.) A few cameras in place would solve
the problem. However when I asked about this, I've been told that the prison guard union probably won't allow them
to be installed. I currently have a grant proposal submitted on just this idea.
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Team 10: Cesar Hernandez, Shirley Lee and Lily Wu
We have three vague ideas right now that we want to work on. One of them is to attach filters to the exhaust of
cars. A simple device would purify the Carbon-Dioxide being released from the car. This device would be small,
easy to produce and a great way to help stop global warming.
Comments: Approved. You will need to get an appropriate tech person
to say this gizmo can actually be invented of course. I'm a bit fuzzy, but I thought this is the point of the
catalytic converter that is required in CA.
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Team 11: Jack Fuzell, Daniel Sherman, and Anais Vayssieres
Solar powered ovens or water generators for poor villages. The main problem this addresses is global warming
by providing clean renewable energy. The technology used is the solar paneling for the ovens and the condenser
for the water generator. It will make money by selling the products.
Comments: Approved.
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Team 12: Samantha Riffle, Tussanee Reedman, and Sarah Kahn
Make cheap water filters and find a way to distribute them to third world countries. We're not sure of the
distribution yet, we'll have to figure that out.
Comments: Approved.
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Team 13: Mason Bockelman, Matvei Stefarov, and Thomas Sibbach
Create a space, via the internet, for completely unrestricted, secure speech which can be used anonymously
and would have no form of censorship.
Comments: Approved. (And I note that this idea is quite different
from existing projects.) You didn't mention $$. I know you want to be non-corporate, but you're going to have
to stay financed somehow.
Create a protocol which would allow decentralized use of the internet, completely separate from locations and
specific computers, so that there is no way to associate a specific online action with a specific computer.
Comments: I was thinking about these issues after meeting someone
from Myanmar. His country has heavy censorship and I've lost touch because they keep shutting down access to
email. The basic issue in this case is exactly as you suggest.
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Team 14: Daniel Janulaitis, Michael Rosenberg, and Ryan Dineen
are working on an idea on how to switch to electric cars in the near future, hopefully in conjunction with
cleaner electricity production. Since electric cars run on batteries that are heavy and need to be charged,
which takes several hours, it is more inconvenient in today's world to have an electric car than a gasoline
car. If, however, as oil supply stops increasing and starts decreasing, we believe it would be possible for
oil companies to switch over to providing electric car batteries in a system of battery trade-ins. We are
quite excited about this because we feel that electric cars have the capability to be much more efficient
and effective than corn, ethanol, hydrogen, or many other forms of alternative
energies sources for cars. Old gas stations, already with power lines connected to them, could be converted
to stations stocked with fully charged, standardized car batteries. Any passing motorist whose battery was
running low could trade theirs in for a fully charged one while starting to charge theirs for someone else,
in a system of one-for-one exchanges that would eliminate the inconvenience of electric cars. The efficiency
of electric motors over gas motors is worth mentioning as well. We aren't sure about the specifics of the
system, and will have to work out the sustainability aspect, but that's the essence of what we want to try to do.
Comments: Approved.
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Team 15: Scott Croker, Chen Ni, Robert West and Danny Tran
Idea #1 - Increase Distribution of Biodegradable Materials =
Everyone in the developed nations generate large amount of waste, especially "disposable" cups, plates,
utensils, bags and packaging made from oil or trees. Switching to a biodegradable materials would be
better since these types of products usually don't get recycled.
Currently, the companies that sell these already only have a limited effect or presence in the market.
So our business would aggressively market these to consumers and businesses to use these biodegradable
bags, utensils, "paper" products. Trying to get viable shelf space into supermarkets and stores to sell
these products. Urging businesses to start using biodegradable bags instead of plastic or paper so the
consumer would use these bags to line their smaller trash bins without a second thought. Our business
would also try to acquire sources of the material in bulk needed to make biodegradable products to lower
costs and sell them to manufacturers so they can lower their cost of production, hopefully passing the
savings to the consumers. The business would also run research on how to make the manufacturing process
more efficient, cost effective and find alternative biodegradable materials.
Comments: Approved.
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Team 16: Jordy Hyman, Christina Wang, Sam Rosen and Alexa Jones
We chose an idea which addresses the problem of making solar power more accessible to businesses and homeowners
(and the UC) in Santa Cruz in order to pollute less. The plan is that new solar panels would be given or sold
cheaply to applicants, who would begin generating electricity. They would then be able to sell any excess
energy to pay for the cost of the panels. This way people would be able to begin using clean power and
not pay for expensive new technology directly; instead the panels would literally pay for themselves.
We have a few variations on this plan, but that's the basic idea. The technology involved already
exists but is still being improved, and ideally the panels provided would be the most up-to-date and
efficient. To get the project started we would need to start manufacturing solar panels ourselves, or
convince a major power company to buy from another manufacturer and provide them to people themselves.
The latter may be easier because power companies have power lines in place for excess energy to flow to
neighbors' houses, and this way they can make money from the neighbors to pay for the initial cost plus
a profit. However, if the idea was successful enough they might be phasing themselves out by doing this.
Comments: Approved.
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Team 17: Monica Politron, Lisbeth Gomez, Jacqueline Rios
1) Education for all- Trying to develop a whole new educational system that is going to maximize everybody's
abilities. And they are going to be able to learn at an equal paste. The technology that is being used for
this would be computers because we might be able to help others learn with computer programs kind of like
wizards. The money is going to come from grants, and corporations that are willing to donate money.
Comments: Not approved. You cannot run a sustainable enterprise
with financing from donations and grants. You must have a plan for the enterprise to sustain itself.
2) Illegal drugs in Prisons- The short and long term effect of going to jail or prison. We will talk about
what is considered fair for the third strike California imposes.
3) Immigration-Let them immigrants in with the condition that they are going to pay taxes just like
any other person living in this state.
Comments: Sorry, none of these ideas is sufficiently
developed for me to approve it. Your team should come talk to me and I'm sure we can sort it out.
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Team 18: Jared Rosen, Marialuz Garcia, and Sara Cruz
1) Creating a type of shell for nuclear power plants that would block or diffuse radiation leaks.
This technology would probably include some kind of combination of layered metals, and the government
would easily pay for it if it were readily available.
Comments: Approved. You're going to be learning a lot about
nuclear power plants to make a sufficient technology argument. =)
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Team 19: Jon, Isaac, and Connor
Water pollution in Africa - We plan to provide water filters to make clean water more accessible
in African countries. The project will be financed by selling these filters.
Comments: Approved.
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Team 20: Stephen Johnson, Jeff Galper, and Teddy
We're addressing the problem with the recording industry. Specifically, the way that new artists get
screwed over by all the people they work with. We would like to set up a business that rivals with the
RIAA does. Our business would give the artists more freedom, and more profit from their success. Technology
is being used by making a website and by the ways we'd promote and sell the music. We would charge the artists
based on a % of how much they make. To get started we'd need investments from people to set up an infrastructure.
Comments: Approved. People are doing this, so you'll have to
analyze why they aren't succeeding. There seems to be a huge problem with the rehabilitation of
prisoners in our countries jails. Many of these prisoners need some type of job training or career
consulting while serving their sentence so when they get released from jail they are prepared to look for employment.
One of the ideas I had is to team up with a public University or junior college and offer many of
the inmates an opportunity to take college courses online while they work towards obtaining an AA
or BA. We could set out some type of student loan system and have the inmates pay their debt off
when they find a full time job. This way many inmates will have a college education by the time
they are released from jail.
Comments: I've tried proposing this idea to people. A common objection
is that "Why are you helping inmates get a college degree. There are lots of honest Americans
who can't afford college you should be helping out first." I don't want to judge this statement,
I'm just offering that I've heard that a lot.
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Team 21: Laurel DeMarco, Gianna Hoffman-Luca, and Kate Wellmon
permaculture- a technique used to maximize crop and food growth with the land available. Using the
landscape, green engineering, and organic gardening you can produce a sustainable environment for you
and your surroundings. we want to teach people how to develop their own permaculture, to grow their own
food and also have the opportunity to sell it at a farmers market.
Comments: Not approved yet. What social issue is being
addressed? How will you measure your gains? Which people? Africa or Santa Cruz? How is the money
flow working? (if you want to do this one, come talk to me and I think its possible to work out.)
2. car wind turbines - this idea involves constructing mini wind turbines that create
electricity from the wind and attaching them to our cars so the wind from driving can
charge your own portable generator.
Comments: Not approved. There are basic physics
reasons this won't work. Any additional energy from the car wind is going to be spent equally
by burning more gas to drive a car with this gizmo attached. If this wasn't true we could make
free energy by just driving these cars around all day.
3. fastpass carpool parking- this idea involves having designated areas around town where students
can go and wait for a ride. cars can drive up and fill with waiting students. on campus there will
be a parking lot in upper campus that only permits full cars to park for the day at a discounted
rate. this eliminates the full buses problem as well as cutting down on the amount of cars on campus.
Comments: Approved. You still need to work out money
flow and good luck arguing with the evil campus parking office. However I think this one might
actually be doable, so that makes it attractive and I think you'll be able to answer the questions.
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Team 22: Alberto Prado, Luke Quattrocchi, Mark Walsh
Smog is an unpleasant part of big cities. Luke and I are both from the L.A. area so we thought it
would be an interesting thing to try and tackle. Basically we want to break down smog somehow into
its composite elements (creating products like water, pure Nitrogen/Carbon, etc.). In turn, these
products could be sold to businesses who need the chemicals that we extract from the air.
Comments: Approved. The basic science isn't clear to me,
but you don't need to invent a solution. You only need to get a bunch of scientists to say its possible.
Creating a business where we hire poor people to play online video games and get resources in
those games which we can then sell in-game. Not only would we pay people decent wages, but we
would be giving computers and internet access to communities that didn't yet have them (though
setting up internet systems would take a lot of money, so we would probably have to start in
areas that were already established).
Comments: Approved. Also this has huge media hype
potential if you are into fame. I'm not sure if the basic money flow will work, but then I'm
not sure the basic science works on the first idea.
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Team 23: Jose Hurtado, Daniel Carlson, Dan Fermi, and Andy Kortman
Idea #1 Mushrooms can be used to leech heavy metals out of a contaminated site. These mushrooms
could then be smelted, their ore recaptured and recycled. On non-contaminated sites, mushrooms can
also be used to improve soil quality by speeding up the process of decomposition. Organic soil could
be sold as well as edible and medicinal mushrooms. This type of ecosystem remediation and gardening
could be done by groups of homeless people. Their homelessness could prove to be an asset in collecting
spores from fungi in the forest as well as improving soil quality and moving to the next site.
The main idea is to have relatively simple work that one could do with their hands, but be building
something technological and profitable. High technology is what's needed for the poor; mycoremediation
can be that profitable technology.
Comments: Approved. I have no idea how this whole thing works, but I
look forward to learning about it. Silicon valley certainly has a lot of polluted ground to be treated. I'm skeptical,
but then I'm skeptical of all new ideas.
Idea #3 The other possible project would be the creation of an educational pilot program in three prisons
employing one television channel and perhaps one recognized university as the provider of the education
to inmates in preparation for their return to society.
The initial cost of setting it up would be minimal as the technology for distance education is already a
reality, and the project would be self-sustaining by charging the prisons themselves for a service that they would
like to have but do not implement due to various reasons.
Comments: You will certainly find professors that support this. For example
Sharon Daniels in Film and Digital Media does quite a bit of work with inmates. As I mentioned to an earlier group I
think you will face societal objections.
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Team 24: David Chu
Due to unfortunate circumstances I'm a one-man group. But I ain't screwed yet though. I plan to do something about
solar power being more accessible to people who want conserve energy. Objects such as solar panels exist to
provide more renewable energy that will benefit our environment. I don't know how much it costs but with
some time I find out eventually.
Comments: Approved (barely). This isn't sufficiently thought out yet.
However I'm aware that you had only very short notice and will probably get it sorted out.
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Team 25: Helen Cai and Richard Kho
Address the current state of orphanages in China. Their conditions
are so bad that they can't even provide proper heating for the orphans. We
have an idea for creating cheap but efficient heaters to send over, though
we don't know where to start on creating them. Funding would be through
donations and loans/grants.
Comments: Not approved. You can't fund by donations loans and grants.
You need to make money some how. However you could sell the heaters which would
resolve this. I have serious questions about heaters that are cheaper than
burning coal which I observed to be a common solution when I last visited
Beijing. So I'm not convinced really. How can we get cheaper heat than
burning stuff?
We have an idea to setup a site which lets users watch streamed movies
in exchange for viewing a few commercials at the beginning, middle, and
end of the movie (like NBC's online streaming service) and gives the user
an option to pay a premium ($5-10?) monthly to get higher quality versions
free of commercials. Additionally we can offer incentives for the site
like Blingo and Winzy's search engine concept (win random prizes for using
their search engine, paid for by their advertisements). Not sure how this
is going to work yet though.
Comments: This is approved barely. However I need you to clarify the social issue
being addressed. What do you hope to achieve? I believe the tech and econ
half of this one, and I think you will eventually phrase the social issue
in a reasonable way.
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Team 26: Jason Endres, Lucas Turner,
Conan Bradley, Ashley McConnell
We wanted to use social documentation tools (such as film, pictures,
internet, news columns) to help spread awareness about local social
issues. We believe that one of the large problems behind these issues is
simply that people don't completely understand what's going on, and by
spreading awareness, we could get people excited to participate in their
communities to solve problems. At first, we would start locally, spreading
awareness about things such as homelessness in Santa Cruz (and the high
price of living here), and issues that affect students, such as the recent
cutbacks in the linguistic program here at UCSC, and how this affects
people. We would eventually want to spread out and make films on poverty
in other countries, pollution, and various other things. We wanted to make
a website, in which we would write a news column and stream our videos for
free. Funding would be provided through advertising (on the videos, and on
the website), and through donations (a link we would place on the
website). We also thought about possibly making a documentary on a local
social issue and trying to get in playing in some local theatres.
Comments: Approved barely. You need to define your methods of evaluation better.
So you made a film. What did you hope to address? Did you have any impact?
Did people actually go change things? You didn't mention money, but I
assume its coming from movie admission price?
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Team 27: Nik Altenberg and Marcello Guarro
Our first choice topic addresses transportation difficulties in santa
cruz. Organizing a co-op that rents bicycles to students (eventually all
of santa cruz and beyond, but for starters... students). This will make it
easier for people who dont have cars to run errands around town. We would
need a start up fund, or bike donations from the bike co-op, to get some
bikes and storage for them. Then people would sign up and pay a small fee
to be part of a small group that "owns" a bike.
Comments: Approved. Check out things like city-car-share,
does the same for cars in SF.
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Team 28: Oscar Leon, Jair Nepomuceno
Create a radionic battery and sell it to communities that would want to be
able: 1)to store hundreds upon thousands of Spiritual energy, invoked by
certain spiritual practices and prayer, for a future time of crisis or
great need, and 2) to then be able to release this energy to any given
place and time almost instantaneously.
Comments:
Approved. You are addressing both the social and economic parts of the
story. I believe the biggest issue here is development of the actual
technology for a 'spiritual battery'. I have not asked you to develop new
technologies for the class project, but I have asked that they be
plausible. You will need to get experts to give testimony that such a
technology is possible.
I personally don't understand how this battery is going to work, but I
don't understand how the mushrooms or fuel cels or many other things are
going to work either. Thats why I say you need expert validation on your
plans.
I'd like to address also that you seem to come under heavy criticism from
your classmates. I'm a scientist. I basically agree with your clasmates
that your battery is impossible. However I think one of the most important
lessons in this class is that the best way to change the world is to make
a plan, and then just do it. I admire your ability to push forward with
your ideas despite people who disagree. This is the single most important
trait in successful people. (It is not true that all determined people
succeed, but it is true that nearly all easily-discouraged people fail.)
However I will make a suggestion. You have to deal with other people who
have other views of the world. You have to make your ideas acceptable to
all these other people. I changed my 'buying slaves' to 'giving student
loans'. Same idea to me, different idea to everyone else. I think you will
get more support for your ideas if you learn to phrase them in a way that
is in tune with the listeners.
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Team 29: Sean Sasano
One of the leading causes of accidental deaths in America is still motor
vehicle accidents, and a large portion of these involve at least one
participant being intoxicated. We can examine the regulations that apply
to driving under the influence. Laws - while laws threaten extremly
harsh sentences for DUI's, when your intoxicated, you tend not to think
of these as much, and the problem still exists. Norms - drunk driving is
constantly frowned upon by our society, I know this especially as a
teen, however the same problem applies that does to laws. Market - the
market works to stem the problem in many ways, from anti
drinking-driving messages on their ads, to the fact that totaling a car
in an accident can set you back financially. The problem, however, still
exists, so my idea was to market a product that changes the Architecture
regulator to inhibit drunk driving.
The product itself would be a stand alone breathilizer that when
attached to a car requires a test to be passed or else the ignition is
locked. This product would virtually eliminate all DUI cases when
installed. I predict the market for it being huge; soccer moms who worry
about their kids would buy them, and government programs could implement
the product for people who have already been convicted for a DUI.
Comments:
Approved.
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