Oct 27 Presentation Agenda

Presenters arrive 10am for preparation, courtyard set up.

Hand-out on Chairs (contact info & big ideas sheet)
Start Time 1:10 pm

I. Introductions
II. Decathlon Overview
III. Walk-Thru of Competition via Maryland's Entry
IV. Features of Other Entries
V. Univ of Minnesota's Role
VI. Benefits

Transition to comment cards and contact cards 2:00pm
Exhibit and QA with DC trip students 2:00-3:00 pm

2007 Solar Decathlon Information Meeting

SOLAR DECATHLON
Open House - information about the competition and our role in 2009

When: Saturday, Oct. 27. 1:00pm-3:00pm
Where: Rapson Courtyard

Food and drinks will be provided.

Monday Curriculum Meeting

Monday at 6pm (Rapson Courtyard)

Lucas Alm, Architecture faculty, wants to speak to students who are familiar with the Solar Decathlon about how we envision an integrated seminar. His original email is below.

Lucas Alm wrote:
> Hi Shengyin, Joe, and Dan,
> I will be the lead instructor for the Solar Decathlon architecture seminar class next semester and am in the process of putting together a syllabus for the course.
> Renee mentioned that the three of you (and possibly more?) visited this year's event. I would very much enjoy meeting with you to get your feedback and input into the project and how you would envision a seminar based around the Decathlon.
> Would it be possible to meet Monday (10/29) either at 12pm or in the evening at 6pm? Please let me know what works best with your schedules.
> If there are other people you know who are interested or involved in the Decathlon please let them know about the meeting.
> Thanks,
> Lucas Alm

Solar Decathlon Pictures

template for boards

download here

Photo and Document Sharing

Until we work out another method that is more official, I am using the following for sharing documents over the web and on the blog.

http://www.box.net/
It's a free account, so we are limited to 1Gb. Good for meeting notes, pdf documents, word documents, etc. And, it will stay there, it will not be removed from the server after x amount of time.

username: xux*****@umn.edu (my um mail... I didn't set up a special solar D email yet)
password: a*******

http://www.sendspace.com/
Free also, up to 300Mb files. Good for quick transfers, like if you want to send me your boards for this saturday so I can plot. Downside, it will get removed from the server after 10 days or so.

http://www.photobucket.com/
Free - this is a theme. Good place to organize photos, etc. And, since we all will probably draw from these a lot during this week and the rest of the time, its easy for us to access without having to dump EVERYONES photos on our harddrives. They will not get removed either - so they are there to stay.

Username: UMSolarD
Password: a*******

That's all I have for now.  If anyone has any other suggestions, or changes that would make it easier, please comment.  We can move to a more centralized system later on, perhaps we apply for that university site and storage space.  It takes some time, and maybe later, someone can look into it and get that rolling too.

Core Group Curriculum Meeting and Presentation Prep Work

So, from the hectic meeting today, we have identified 2 main goals for this week:
(1) curriculum research for the Friday meeting with Ann Johnson and the directors of IT and Architecture.
(2) presentation on Saturday the 27th for the general public.


PART 1: The Curriculum Info By Friday, Oct 26
a. 2007 Decathlon as a case study
- information from the different schools
- categorize these different schools into 3 levels - no integration, course integration, studio integration
- get course descriptions or syllabi from school website or contacts (if applicable)
b. U Minnesota current curriculum
- information from different departments - IT, architecture, business, etc. (IT is done thanks to Jodi)
- identify courses that relate or could be resources for participants to take, but not directly related to Solar D
- identify topics courses that could be Solar D courses
c. recommendations for curriculum
- scenario 1: no integration, when do we work on it, how do we recruit, etc., give example schools
- scenario 2: course integration, how many people in course, what is basic description of courses
- scenario 3: studio integration, how do we incorporate other majors, when does this studio occur (semester)


PART 2: Saturday Presentation by Sat. Oct 27 (SHENGYIN)
a. flier
- creation of (JAKE)
- posting around IT, ARCH, etc (JODI, JAKE)
b. power point 20-30 minute overview
- goals of Decathlon, rules, benefits to school, application to Minnesota
- walk through of Univ of Maryland to further clarify competition
- select some good aspects from various schools (marketing, architecture, technology, tours, etc)
- video of houses, Pliny, selections of.... (BEN)
- discuss pros and cons of decathlon (ANDREW)
- discuss our current progress, where we are at (proposal stage), overall timeline and types of participation
c. 5 boards
- Penn State (JAKE)
- Maryland (JOE)
- Georgia Tech (ANDERS)
- Santa Clara (ANDERS)
- Germany (ANDREW)
d. contact / comment sheets
- slips of paper for people to write contact info and initial ideas after the presentation
e. looping images (BRYAN)
- DC trip, group dynamic, etc
f. food and refreshments
- feedback: should we all put in c. $5-10? or should we all bring in something, potluck style, but snack oriented?
g. logistical issues
- check with Jim Dozier about availability of space / boards (ANDERS)


Other notes:
- presentation time has changed to 1:00-3:00 pm, Greenlight has a 12:00 meeting, hopefully we can draw in people from the meeting to our presentation.
- send me your photos, and packets (filled out) ASAP (Anders is coming after anyone who doesn't.... jk) There only needs to be one packet per school, so coordinate with your partners. And, if there are still photos, zip them and send them via http://www.sendspace.com/ or make a CD and put it in my mailbox in the Architecture office.