Kevin Rustagi

Kevin Rustagi's Blog!

What I've Learned, Where I'm Headed

Photo:  My senior photo

In the past, blog entries have been about things that have happened in the past.  This one is slightly different.  I've been lately thinking about where I'm going in the next few years and I thought it best to reflect.

A focus on leadership: The past few years (especially since last summer) have been extremely edifying.  Something I have endeavored to study most is leadership.  Reading a number of books on leadership and former CEOs' experiences has given me a unique window into the unique and dynamic environment of the leader.  Todd Scholz's book, New Ideas from Dead CEOs was a favorite - hearing about how Sony's founder Akio Morita got started pulling vacuum tubes and wiring from WWII wreckage to make recording systems was inspiring, among other stories of people such as Disney, Bank of America's A.P. Giannini and Mary Kay Ash.

Latest Reading:  Solly Angel's Tale of the Scale has been teaching me about releasing a product - having a vision and pushing past the naysayers to make it a reality.  Seth Godin's Tribes has taught me about leading groups of people by gaining the expertise necessary whilst understanding that putting that first foot forward is hugely important in terms of leading groups.

Learning from Experiences:  Far and above any sort of personal glory potentially garnered, I have learned that leadership and service are synonmyous.  To lead is to serve.   

In Camp Kesem it has meant giving of my time and energy to make sure that a camp for teenagers with parents who have/have had cancer can learn and grow.  In addition, that means focusing on growing confidence in my team of counselors, a group of students that want to make an impact on the community.  I have learned that these are so much more than just buzzwords.  Camp starts later today and we will be camping with, organizing activities for, and generally loving these teens that are engaging in a difficult period of adolescence whilst dealing with a home situation that is all but peaceful.  With a history of illness in my family, I unfortunately have some idea of where they are coming from.

In the music club and in recording music, I have found that leadership is essential.  The LMC (Live Music Connection) has been a venue for me to understand what it truly means to be one with a cause.  The service component here has involved (and I say this only in an explanatory fashion, with no want for personal aggrandizement) working with artists to record their music, putting on shows (there's nowhere I'd rather spend every other Friday) and also, of course, being flexible and understanding that starting something like this is a messy, and yet, beautiful process.  This has been a very startup-esque experience that I'm now hugely focused on making sustainable in terms of making sure that the organization can bring in new members on exec that are excited about adding on to our now team of 7.

In my startup, LaserKard LLC, leadership has meant understanding where my partner is coming from and where our marketing partner is in terms of his life goals (he's now with BCG and taking on more of a consulting role with us - no pun intended).  So, we bought a laser and bought it for cheap.  But we knew that there would be problems.  My partner spent the better part of 100 hours fixing it only to have a metal card that had lines on it but not an actual logo, etc.  It was hard in that we wanted to show people, but I learned something huge then.  1) He had worked his tail off and I respected that.  and 2) There is ALWAYS tomorrow.  There will always be another advisor meeting, another product showing, and another opportunity to grow the business.  This is barring any sort of bankruptcy of course :).  

Future:   And this all ties into my future, in the near and long term.  Near term - There are two main options.  Grad school is a big option, and I'm still figuring that out.  But it seems to me that there will be an opportunity to enter the working world in some capacity in the next few years.  

And there are options.  Definitely, an opportunity to go back to Apple in some capacity is exciting, but something else has lately arisen, which I frustratingly forgot to mention in a recent interview!  - A Professor of ours recently offered my friend and I funding for taking our business card company largely into the public sphere.  While I'm not at liberty to disclose any sort of valuation (I'm not sure myself at this point), I will say that this would enable us to do it full time.  We've approached the company as a learning experience and I'll be taking an entrepreneurship class in the fall to get focused on this with my partner.

It's one thing to talk about entrepreneurship (and really - not to say this with any harsh demeanor), but as my friend has often implied to me, It is quite a different discussion to be doing entrepreneurship.  At MIT, we learn by doing, and I believe in this.  He often asked me when I approached him with good news, "Oh! You've started your company?"  To which I would inevitably respond, No - I'm sorry.  But I've learned that getting out there is important.   You can't learn without failure and we have now released different product revisions.  It's time to expand and it's time to learn.  I am strongly considering doing this full time.  

Business school at some point in the near future could help in terms of being able to engage this on an active level.  I strongly identify with the ability to discuss complex situations and understand that there is not a single right answer.  I believe that I will be able to understand better how I can pursue leadership continuously in an effective manner that will enable me to give back to the world in a way that is relevant and pertinent to the ever-changing needs of our global economy.  Will this mean a return to a developing world focus, a design firm, or more specifically a product-based company?  I'm not sure, but  I can't wait to find out.  

Long-term, I want to lead companies that effect change through products - working for Apple, GE, and a Product Design startup has enabled me to analyze organizations and see where mine might fit in.

As of late, leadership has been called into question in the news.  I believe that leadership is required at all levels of companies, but most seriously at the senior levels.  Only then, will a culture of true accountability and good will filter down through a corporate (or non-profit) structure.  In the next 20 years, I want to be in the driver's seat.  Many times, I've looked at my friends at MIT and asked - why not us?

Soon, I think we'll come to understand that the question is not that, but rather - how do we do it?  How do we effect change in a global environment where people are worried about the future?  Optimism is vital and together we can do it.  I will be finishing this year at MIT, focusing both on building serious engineering skills and continuing to focus on leadership in whatever capacity that I can.

Where will I end up?  Not sure as of yet, but I'll keep you posted.

Recording a Rock Epic

                           
Click here to download:
recording-a-rock-epic-DodhfCllyrldnfGfHzwp.zip (69612 KB)

Photos:  Me at the drums, and with Rehan, the ultimate Blanket Fort (a sound isolation chamber), Pure vocal passion from Louis Monnich, upside down photos, Rehan at the tech booth (notice video skype with vocal booth), Mark on the guitar.

(download)

Music: The rough and unmastered/mixed version of the rock epic, The History of the Future, which documents legends of rock and roll.  This is a huge personal achievement from a project standpoint as well as from a musical standpoint.  All of the bass parts and the main guitar solo are still in the process of being recorded.

My Texas-based band, The Future, is back and better than ever.  We got some new toys for the home studio and we spent the better part of 72 hours this week eating, sleeping, and breathing a rock epic.

The Goal:  To successfully record a rock epic.  Definition of Rock Epic: A 10 minute + rock song that employs epic motifs,extended guitar solos, intricate drumming and background rhythmic guitar/bass, and most of all earth-shattering bolts of lightning that may or may not enlighten humans on a new way of life.  Classic examples include songs such as Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Project Management:  I'm focused on bringing teams of powerful individuals to a place where their value, or "genius" as Seth Godin calls it to a heading.  I'd like to think that I bring out the best in them and they bring out the best in me.  This summer saw the return of guitar-shredding legend, Rehan Mallick (also a senior in Mechanical Engineering) as he came to understand how computer processing could be incorporated to record immaculate guitar, as well as Mark Ellis, a great friend of mine who holds much of the melodic writing credit.  Mark's brother-in-law was able to join us to reprise his vocals in full 3-part harmony.

The Fall:  Summer after freshman year, we wrote and recorded a rock epic.  At 10:39, it was amazing, but we recorded it poorly, using only a sound card on a computer.  After failing to give the song the respect that it required last summer (we were kicked out of a studio for being scattered - working on too many songs), we realized that we needed to focus.  The question of scope and understanding the task at hand came into play.  We also had an even further restricted timeline to work with.  It was going to be tight.

The Return:  We returned this summer after much research.  I had spent the entire year recording MIT bands and holding shows and my friend Rehan and I had both been in bands at our respective schools honing our schools.  Hours of pro-audio research were put into understanding exactly what kind of semi-pro equipment would be required to attain the quality that we were looking for.  The goal was to possess a quality that was radio-worthy and worthy in our eyes in terms of skill level.

Resources:  Time, money, and people are vital.  After some of our previous equipment failed, I knew that there was a financial need in between us and success.  Investing in pro-audio equipment can be pricy, but it was worth it.  The saying goes that the show must go on, and this was no different.  We had fought too hard to make this happen to let equipment stand in the way.

Actually Playing the song:  We created two booths out of comforters hung from the ceiling (And I quote, "You want a fort, kid.  I'll show you a fort!").  Sound isolation is an important consideration from a physics standpoint.  Reflection and resonance within various mediums is very real and is evident on recordings.  Furthermore, from my perspective, I would have to play this long song without much recent experience.  Indeed, aside from brief work with a church, I had no contact with a drumset for 3 months.  4 days before recording I went to Guitar Center to practice for 2 hours with the newly complete 'scratch track'.  I was also very afraid of the metronome, which I had not practiced with in some time, least of all recorded with. To be able to record to a 'click', one has to understand the song inside and out.  What I did do to re-establish the connections in my mind, was to pantomime the song and listen to it all summer.  Cycling and working out didn't hurt either.  And it worked.  Despite a technically reworked verse and a focus on perfection, I was able to focus on the click of the metronome and lock into that.  The support of my friends was vital - they helped me push it to the brink.

There is a  bit more to this story, and I will elaborate as we get closer to releasing the final version. 

I do apologize for my lack of entries as of late.  The summer has been quite busy. 

I will, of course update with the following in due time:  Traveling to China, the new road bike, metal laser-etched business cards (we got a laser!), Camp Kesem (starts in <8 hours!), driving from Cupertino to Houston through Colorado, a new project for the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program, and of course, the upcoming school year and all the promise that it brings.

I live to experience how I can motivate teams to do good in the world.  I have been studying this very actively in school and in the work-place and it is something I feel strongly about.

I would like to elaborate on my logic here:

1) To do truly amazing things that create value in the world/marketplace, I am incapable of enacting such things alone.

2) Given that I am incapable by myself, I need teams to support these world-changing thoughts and ideas.

3) Teams can be difficult from a communication and motivation standpoint.

4) I must learn to work with and motivate teams.

More on this soon....  For now, please enjoy the rough and unfinished cut of our re-released Rock Epic, lovingly labeled HOF.  

Thanks to Rehan, Mark, Louis, and anyone else responsible for making this happen (including our parents).

A New CD (Free Download) and an Intense Summer!

   
Click here to download:
A_New_CD_FREE_Download_and_an_.zip (2348 KB)

Photos: The Cover to the LMC (Live Music Connection) CD, my friends: the LMC exec board.

Below: The New LMC CD!!!  Click Download it free! (Cover art by Alex Arambula and myself)

Like Never Before

Things have been exciting as summer has been quite a whirlwind.

I've been looking at grad schools, moved out to Cupertino to work for Apple (iPhone manufacturing), and in general been having some pretty awesome experiences.  I've got a lot that I'll post about soon: awards from MIT, the current state of the Live Music Connection (my club at MIT), the new products my startup will be offering (metal business cards), and all things exciting and new.

To get back into it, I thought I'd post what has been a pretty interesting endeavor that I've been working on nonstop for about a week. 

The Live Music Connection is a student music co-op that we founded to create a place for musicians to play on campus.  A big part of this is getting the word out and understanding where the real value is: what has been and what can be.  And looking at the CD we created for this past season, we had what has become 20 songs from 11 bands.  We'd done it once, but we needed to look at where this was going - what makes it sustainable?


Looking to the Past: Thank goodness, my friend (and our funding representative to the Undergrad Association at MIT) Emily Zhao pointed me in the direction of Stanford, which I found has both a concert network and a group that puts out a CD of student music annually.  After a bit of sleuthing, I was able to actually talk to the head of their CD group.  (We're talking to the head of their Concert Network soon.)  We found out that they actually give away 3,000 of their CDs away every year at an Arts Festival - essentially a big party where they release the album.  It's also free on iTunesU - Search Stanford Soundtrack.  This was interesting in that they've been around for just under a decade and are in many ways similar to something that we may become.

Something in my mind clicked as I saw the 168 tracks from their past years' CDs.  This was real and something that can and will be sustainable.

Looking to the Future: We went back to the LMC and with my summer CD mini-team (3 people including myself from the exec board) we discussed the future of the CD.  We came upon questions like, "Do people really use real CDs?" and "Do people want to deal with the hassle of buying music online?"  The answers to both were dubious and we decided to go back to the drawing board.

Instead of selling the CD at the Battle of the Bands, we have decide to give away several hundred.  We may have a suggested for donation for charity - but the CD will be totally free. 

Putting it online was the next big thing.  If we were going to get it out there we had to realize that it had to be accessible online and it had to be free.  People simply don't want to deal with Paypal or paying online for music, which they often get for free.  Furthermore, in the future, one might predict that physical media won't survive past 2020.  (with the exception of flash drives and quick transfer media, maybe.)  We talked about how it was frustrating to have physical CDs - some of our computers don't even have optical drives.
But why in the heck would musicians let us of all people give their music away?

True Publicity (Why is this a good thing):  Well, the logic goes like this.  If we give it away, then 1) we won't make any money, and 2) everyone will be listening to the music because it's free. 

But this is exactly WHY it's good - we weren't making enough to stay above water earlier.  We should simply raise money as part of our publicity funds for Battle of the Bands, and then ensure that admitted students listen to the music and get excited about the cause.  The campus could have the link then emailed to them.  With the LMC, we have access to thousands of students and faculty on campus.  People will listen to and come to know the bands.

This effect had happened to me with the Stanford album, and now professional artist, Chris Ayer.  I listened to 3 of his songs on the Stanford albums and I ended up buying his new album.  It doesn't hurt that he won the John Lennon Songwriting Award a while back.  The only reason I could think of that artists like him would want to buy in to a free album is just that - it's free.  Publicity only builds and the more people listening, the more people will listen.

Getting Buy-In:  We had already gotten permission from the musicians to put their songs on a CD for the club, but we hadn't gotten them to agree to allow us to give it away.  My partners at the LMC are extremely level-headed and guided me - the polite thing to do was to contact the bands.  I knew that this was a complex issue and warranted a phone call.  I called all 10 other bands (my band is #11), and as I explained the situation, it made more and m

ore sense.  This was about the community.  We only had one 'no' and that was unfortunate, but we did our best.  An artist that had played with us after the release of the physical album agreed to substitute their songs out.

The Big Goal: to spread the word and share the music.  This is the true goal of the LMC and the reason behind the album itself as well.  We call it Open Source Music, and what that means is that music is available for everyone.  Music serves as a healer, soothing tired students after a hard week.  It also brings people together for a fun time that exercises the artistic mind, for both the player and the listener.  The artists for the LMC understand this and have advocated it through their actions and continued commitment.  I am proud to have the privilege of representing them.

What happens now: Well, my team and I have learned a lot from this process and now, of course, the aim is to make this year even better.  More live recordings, more bands, and more wonderful music.  We've been enormously gifted by some organizations on campus, and I'll be working directly with our current exec board as well as new recruits in passing on the skills required to mix and master music.  I'm still learning a lot as well.

In addition, we'll be publicizing the album on campus and hopefully get a lot of downloads in conjunction with our schedule for the upcoming semester's concert series. 

Between initially creating the album, and now having it online for free, this CD has been a huge learning experience in terms of how to work with a large community of groups.  I'm excited about the future of this CD as well as putting this on the radio.  I'm applying for a radio show on MIT campus radio station WMBR, and I fully plan on featuring MIT music on the radio. 

Sorry about the blogging silence from me. There will be more to come soon.  Please download the music and let me know what you think.  The mixing and mastering isn't perfect, but as always - it's a learning experience, and I can't wait for the next challenge.

Enjoy the music!

The Guitar Knives - New Song!

This is a new song that I am very proud of. The video is of us playing it at the MIT student center for the LMC's final show of the 2009-2010 concert series.

This song represents a style transition for the Guitar Knives. We've taken more of a light feel to this while incorporating some interesting vocals on the breakdown 2/3 of the way through.

It also marks the first song in our main playlist that I've created anything on guitar for - the vamping intro was something I worked on for a while before bringing it to the group.

I'm really proud of the simplicity of the design of this song as well as the integration of deep chordal strumming with a higher guitar part that sings in time with a strong backbeat from the drums and the bass.

It's been an interesting semester for the band as we've been hard at work helping out with our club, the MIT Live Music Connection, and it was good to rock out for our friends with the semester drawing to a close.

Enjoy!

Light-Up T-shirt, a Prototype

         
Click here to download:
Light-Up_T-shirt_a_Prototype.zip (9371 KB)

Photos: The shirt as a whole product, the morse code that it displays through red LEDs, the eyes- dash!, the nose - dot!, the circuitry that kept me awake - basic microcontroller


Alas, MIT has indeed gotten a bit hectic, and I've been working on a few really fun and interesting things here.  Making my student organization, the MIT Live Music Connection, sustainable as well as holding Battle of the Bands (just finishing up collecting all the media from that, will post soon), my band getting covered by the school newspaper, working on graduate school applications, pitching my business at a student entrepreneurship conference and oh yeah, classes are important as well.  Busy, and fun.

Here's a brief entry on a prototype that challenged me in interesting ways:

This semester I've learned how to create a website as well as enhancing my sketching and graphics skills in 2.744, a graduate level product design class taught once every 4th semester at MIT.

Part of this is an intense process of iteration, not the least of which is the creation of 'sketch models'.  Designed to demonstrate the concept in a 'works-like' model and a 'looks like' model, these are designed to answer certain questions about usability while showing a team, or client in some cases, what the d

esign is before the engineering team really takes off with it and does a large amount of work to build a full, beautiful, and often expensive working and aesthetically pleasing prototype.

We had several ideas based around the theme of commemorating MIT's 150th anniversary: an MIT mascot USB connector, a  3D puzzle of an MIT building, and a t-shirt that lit up one of MIT's 'hacks'.  The term 'hack' was actually coined at MIT and refers to how MIT students change things creatively in fun and interesting ways, feel free to check out the wikipedia article.

Anyway, I signed up for making the shirt for my team, saying that it would be both a looks-like and works-like model.  I left my room at 8 pm that night, telling my roommate that I would return the same time the next day with a light-up shirt.  I did sleep some.  One hiccup - Unfortunately as I was wrapping up in the wee hours of the morning, my ground wire - essential for all the lights to actually light up, came out just as I was hot-gluing the electronics, a process that is a bit a jury-rigged way of preserving the state of the circuit.  As I saw the hot glue seep into the wire's socket on the micro-controller circuit board, All I could think was, "Nooooooo!!!!"

Hours of work, my LEDs ready to go and there it was slipping away.  An hour and a half later, I managed to clean out the socket, very, very carefully (heat and circuits don't mix very well).  And I was able to implem

ent my Morse Code.

That's the thing - my shirt says MIT 150 on it - in Morse Code.  Thanks so much to Geoff for suggesting this, and Marguerite, my teammate, for putting the graphic of a hack of MIT's dome together.

I awoke a bit late the next day, just in time to do the t-shirt iron-on transfer and make tiny light-diffusers for my LEDs, and it WORKED!!!  I managed successfully to avoid the 'demo syndrome' wherein a prototype works right up until the presentation and then is DOA (Dead on Arrival.) 

So, yeah - this is one for the cabinet as we ended going with the MIT Mascot Beaver Tail USB.  I'll blog on that later.

But for the record - I did return to my dorm room the next day with a light up shirt.  I kept my word.  I have to admit - I was pretty fearful of being able to implement given such time pressure (my circuit board shipped later than I thought it would, sadly), but my friend encouraged me.  I wasn't about to get bested by a light-up t-shirt.

And hey, it was pretty fun.  I might make one again sometime.

More from MIT soon...

The Guitar Knives - 2 Songs Recorded!

The Classics by The Guitar Knives  
(download)

Jump! by The Guitar Knives  
(download)

Music:  2 Originals, Mixed and Mastered by yours truly - always learning, this was pretty interesting practice at what can be a very fickle art.  These are the songs that will be released on the MIT Live Music Connection album next week.
--------------------------

Over Spring Break, I was working on the latest to come out of the MIT Live Music Connection, the student group my friends and I have been working on to unite live music at MIT.   Well, the club is recording a CD that I'll do an entry on another time (just know that it's the first of it's kind, all MIT bands!), and my band wanted to submit songs.

Our recordings from the shows we played for the club weren't so hot because we hadn't expanded the club yet (very excited to have expanded from us 3 to 7 awesome team members - contributing and very part of the movement).  We were playing so we couldn't mix.  The two friends that I started the club are also in a band together.  I mean - who better to unite the live music scene on campus than members of it, right?

So, there we were before spring break, time-crunched by the Institute as always, and wanting to lay down some tracks.  Because of a recent lyrical change in our original Get Away, we decided to give these a go.  I learned a ton from mixing them.  Compression, which rounds out the sound and serves to even out the highs and lows can make the sound a little more professional, and I ended up using that as well as frequency equalization on a number of the separated tracks.

Also, mixing vocals can be very tricky, and thank goodness my professor and Speech Designer Blade Kotelly, saw the project and encouraged me to bring the instrumental track volumes down so that they wouldn't create a static-y effect known as 'clipping'.

I'm very excited to be putting these on the MIT LMC (Live Music Connection) CD, which comes out next week.  Thanks to the MIT Student Activities Office for helping fund the initial upfront for getting the CD project started as it becomes sustainable. 

Things have gotten a bit crazy at MIT with the Battle of the Bands coming up (my club took it on last minute as we found out that it wasn't going to happen), and we're really looking forward to that.  Enjoy these tunes from the Guitar Knives, the first of music to which I've contributed to be featured on a released album.  I'm singing lead on Classics, and backup on Jump!  I'm playing the drums on both tunes and helped write and arrange the songs.

My band is a team like so many that we hope to encounter in life.  And they've become great friends.  I've had a lot of fun exploring the music with them.  We're developing a new tune for the Battle of the Bands that I'll post when we finish.  (Hopefully we can get the campus radio station's recording in addition to ours - they're covering the show!) 

As Mick Jagger would say, It's only rock and roll, but I like it.

Learning Art - at MIT?

         
Click here to download:
Learning_Art.zip (3088 KB)

Drawings: The Logo I just put forth for my Product Design Class Team (The Fuchsia Frogs) - sketched over a very low-res picture on the computer and interpreted, The 3 Concepts (original and drawn without pattern, except for the mascot's face) listed below for potential products for the class, and a treadmill interface re-design (albeit with a few perspective issues.)

A few years back, I had an Uncle of mine tell me something along the lines of - Your sister's good at art, and you just aren't.  Just let that be her thing.  Before coming to MIT, I had never taken a class that focused on art or graphic design.

Now - I agree that my little sister Michelle, is not only good at art, she is excellent.  Her ability to see deep emotion through color is quite inspiring (I'll do a blog post on her paintings at some point.)  However, I am not one to be told that things are impossible.  I truly believe that if you dedicate yourself to accomplishing a goal that you will figure out a way to make it happen.  What MIT has taught me is that it's usually just a matter of learning some key aspects, getting the right tools, and good, old fashioned practice.

Last summer, I painted a painting to prove to myself that my Uncle's words, though well-meaning, were at that point full of baloney.  I am very thankful for my friend/former roommate Kyle, who encouraged me by saying, "Don't worry - oil painting isn't that tough, just try it out."  (His main helpful tip was just to sketch it out, get the colors down - feel great for 2 seconds- realize it's not that good - then go back and touch up until satisfied.)  Check it out at: http://kevinrustagi.com/the-mountain-she-burns-my-1st-painting-contin  I've decided to take it a step further by enrolling in a Grad-level Product Design class, 2.744 - offered only once every other year.  The theme this year is MIT's 150th anniversary with our target customer being the MIT museum, which does several hundred thousand in business per year  There are actually close to 50% undergrads taking the course, but I must admit I was pretty intimidated when I first walked into the classroom.

Some of the grad students have worked at places like Apple, my undergrad friend has taken an Industrial Design class at Mass. School of Art, and everyone seemed that they had been drawing and sketching for years.  One, that's not exactly true.  I was consoled by the fact that some of the students were as much newbies as me.  Sketching was covered in other classes briefly at MIT, but I ended up learning vector graphics and CAD largely with the help of friends and on the job for my company or a startup that I worked for.

But I recently read Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind , wherein he talks about active ways to increase use of the right side of your brain to increase one's ability to design and create things.  And I've always loved mixing music, designing products and experiences, and other design-y type of things - how hard could it be?

We started off with lines and arcs, moving on to circles and ellipses and then proceeded to perspective and 3D shading.  Practice doesn't make perfect instantly, but it definitely doesn't hurt.  Again, though I was initially pretty anxious about how my work would stack up to the rest of the class, I finally realized that it's about learning and practicing skills one must possess if they want to design pretty much anything, from an engineering system to a consumer product.

Drawing is something I've now spent a few hours doing and what I've learned from the class is that it is sometimes simply a dramatic improvement on other forms of communication.  The drawings here for the storyboard took me around 1.5 hours and the concept sketches took 1-2.5 hours.  I also learned to create a basic website (harder than it looks, but not bad once past a pretty steep initial learning curve).

These are skills that help me feel much better about designing products and just designing in general.  This newfound confidence will enable me to make things like the branding for the MIT Battle of the Bands, which my club is newly hosting this year. 

More than anything, I've been learning that design is more about seeing the bigger picture and how something fits when zoomed in that counts.  I'll keep you posted on the new designs that I'm working coming out with - especially in relation to music - something I've been working on for quite a while new. Below are explanations of the different product concept sketches that I drew. 

It's very exciting to be conquering what society often labels as something that is an innate talent, the lack of which is paralyzing.  I feel that this is largely nonsense, and I plan to continue designing things and seeing just how far the rabbit hole goes.  More later.

The Ultimate MIT Mascot: Tim the Beaver can do it all these days. He dances, holds your stickies and your pencil, has special Beaver-Vision (light up eyes), an Ipod speaker in his stomach, and even a USB flash drive for his tail. Tim is like any MIT student: fun and friendly, with a multitude of talents.

The MIT Green Building Hack: Users will be able to feature a hack on their own desk with this concept. There are two potential methods of 'hacking' the Green Building here: manually with shutters, or a basic on/off control pad (this could even be simplified to blister buttons with the same layout as the building, or having the building lights themselves be pushbuttons.) A conversation starter for anyone who's visited or gone to MIT, this GreenSpeak will keep people talking longer than any ordinary paperweight.

A 3D Puzzle, MIT Style: Made of metal, with both snap-fit and basic screw-in pieces, this puzzle allows the user to create a form of metal sculpture. It comes complete with one of the Institute's most famous hacks (Police Car on the Dome), so that they can have the fun of hacking their own dome. This will look and feel very tech-y with the bolts, without being overly difficult to assemble.

Product Launch!

Screenshot: The New Homepage for laserkard.com

Houston, we have Liftoff.

LaserKard, LLC.  A vision that started last September here at MIT, this week was a place of what one can only describe as a childish wonderment. 

We confirmed supplier negotiations recently and are now Open for Business!

It all goes back to beaded alligators.  In 2nd grade, I attended a week long summer camp, where my friend Ryan Llewellyn introduced me to making alligators with yarn and beads.  We started talking about all the different animals one could make [platforming], and resolved to sell them by mail.  We even wrote down prices.  Well, though we never got that off the ground (if only we'd had email!!!), It has at last come full circle.  I finally sold the beaded alligators, well - kind of.

I'm very excited that we are currently offering our Clarity Series, clear acrylic laser-etched business cards.  It is amazing how easy it is to say, oh yeah - just be able to sell it, and then actually see how thorough the logistics are.

We're very excited to be launching this product, and we also have some different customization options in the work.  I'm not at total liberty to say, but we are definitely working on a few different materials that are going to be very interesting.

We've established our order pricing model, which has the $99 price at a special introductory offer of 30 cards.

What's interesting here is that, as we're starting out, we will flex the system, making adjustments and changes as we optimize both our supplier-side and customer-side faces.  We just had our first non-MIT/LaserKard team-affiliated order, which was extremely satisfying.  The website worked completely as a means to advertise, demonstrate, and show our product.  For hours and hours, this is the most gratifying thing.

The customer found us surfing on LinkedIn, the professional networking site, of all places. 

Surprises:  There is a huge value to the element of surprise in products and LaserKard is no different.  If you want to know what the surprise is, you'll have to place an order, but suffice it to say, the angel is in the details.  We have thought and discussed a great deal the thoughts and emotions that go into experiencing a product when one orders it - how that feels, and where the 'bonus points' lie.

We still have a lot of progress to make on both the front and back end and will be strongly moving towards marketing endeavors, style updates (more card styles!), logistical improvements, and at some point, the addition of online cart-ing software, as well as of course, increased card customization.

It has to start somewhere.  This is the ultimate experiment.

And the Real World is the ultimate test-ground.

I really can't quite describe the feeling of the 1st so-called 'random' (meaning we didn't know the person) order.  It reminded me of a story I've heard of Amazon back in 1995, all sitting in the house they were working out of, going "Is that your mom?" "Is that your mom?"  Haha! My mom was indeed the 2nd order.

I'll keep you posted as business heats up and we do what all designers must, iterate and improve.


Camp Kesem National Conference!

   
Click here to download:
Camp_Kesem_National_Conference.zip (222 KB)

Photos: Me and MIT Camp Kesem, Myself and a counselor (Jennifer Truong) from another campus (Arizona State) at the Conference

This was amazing.  They talk about experiences in college that you really shouldn't pass up. I just got done with one of the craziest catch-up weeks I've ever had at MIT, and you know what?  It was worth it.

My journey started at 4:30 AM Friday 2/26 at MIT - admittedly not having slept much trying in vain to debug code for a Measurement Analysis Report (debugging tools are key).  I ran back over to my fraternity to do a quick packing job, and then went to my friend (the founder of the MIT branch and recent Rhodes Scholar) Caroline's dorm.

We grabbed the cab I'd called and headed to Logan Airport.  I've never taken a Virgin America flight, but Wow! That truly re-emphasized the importance of investing user experience.  Leather seats, an interactive flight system, and happy - really happy flight attendants.  Richard Branson is really smart.  I mean, who wouldn't be psyched about having great ABS (high quality plastic) seatbacks, leather seats, and pink/purple lights on a plane?!

Arriving at the conference we found that there was a new plan for Camp Kesem at this most important 10th Anniversary (see: http://www.campkesem.org ).  This camp, which has now grown to 23 campuses nation-wide, has long been getting requests from campuses around the country to start their own branch of this amazing camp for the children of cancer patients.  For those that know my family background - families dealing with illness is a huge cause for me.

And hey, wouldn't it be great if more campuses could host Camp Kesem??  The answer that the board was a resounding and confident," Yes!"  They set a dramatic vision to continue exponential growth and continue solid fundraising efforts to increase the number of camps by an order of magnitude to 123 camps by 2015. 

Now, I really have a passion for entrepreneurship and the music club has this in spades- so I can perceive the notion that growth encourages more growth funded by real dollars.  However, the vision was indeed dramatic.

We spent much of the conference discussing challenges and opportunities both as small groups and as a camp with the board about how both ends might be more effective and better served.  I was so pleased with how professional the board was and yet, how open.  This is the new age of business and now, non-profit work was what so resonated with me.  And the fact that everyone truly cared about continuing the stellar level of quality that the program sought to espouse and continues to deliver was also quite meaningful.  Change is a powerful tool, but, granted, one that must be accepted and accounted for.

The board members were available for individual and group discussion at any time.  I really enjoy speaking with people that have a wealth of experience and it was great to swap perspectives and see where the overlap existed. 

For the cause - It was such an intellectually and emotionally stimulating experience to witness the fact that others around the country cared as deeply as I do about this cause.  We heard from a few of the families affected as well as some former campers.  I also was able to meet a young woman who spoke at the anniversary dinner.  She lost her father in middle school and attended Camp Kesem, leading her to eventually now lead the Camp Kesem organization at UC Berkely as a Junior.  I have no doubt that her father would be proud.  She had such a maturity and grace about her.

Not only was the conference emotionally enlightening, but it was also useful for the other of Camp Kesem's foci - building student leaders.  We had myriad micro-talks from author of the Mark of a Leader and Self-Proclaimed -Chief Story Teller, Doug Keeley, as well as renowned Camp guru - Scott Arizala - check out his new book! great for conflict management and camp too!- http://thecampcounselor.com .

These made a lot of sense and helped to ease potential tensions as the camp continued to undergo what will be a massive change.

What I will not soon forget was the feeling that I had as I looked around the room at the Anniversary Dinner - I couldn't help but think - wow - there are thousands of hours of caring and hard work in this room, more than is put into most small companies.  I saw what the founder and those who followed her amazing vision had created and it inspired me.  I hope to one day feel that way about a community - having enabled the doing of so much good for so many.  I myself have grown in ways I had never even thought of through connecting with these kids - just helping them be kids.

I'll keep you posted with progress on the new Teen Program that I'm a part of planning.  I have to say - It's March 6th and I'm already excited for camp.

An Update on Life - New Logo for the Music Club + an Addition to the Jam Archives

Logo: I put the finishing touches on this after the concept was generated by the VP of the music club I've helped start, MIT LMC stands for The MIT Live Music Connection

Act Out by The Guitar Knives  
(download)

Music: An improvisational jam session workout with my MIT band, The Guitar Knives from this past weekend.

MIT is getting more intense these days.  There are all kinds of interesting roles with the organizations that I'm involved in: recruiting for my new club (link above next to logo explanation), interviewing new counselors for MIT Camp Kesem, and working with suppliers actively for my startup LaserKard.  I'll keep you guys posted on what goes on with the 3 projects into which I've been pouring my time these days.

It is a wild ride indeed.  The band is as alive as ever - keeping me sane and pushing me to go further with drumming and mixing.  In addition, having the boldness to have a vision - getting a singer and winning (we will compete in a Boston wide Battle of the Bands as well as one at MIT, both in April).  Through Camp Kesem - I've gotten to read and review over 60 applications of some amazingly motivated students who want to help the children of cancer patients.  With the business - I've learned what it means to have a supplier pledge positively and then flake in a heartbeat.  And also the thrill of having people tell me to call them when things get big - "If you want to make this big, give me a call."  It's commonly known of as Friends and Family or Angel Investing.  You can guess: I'm a fan.  And with the music club, I'm learning what it means to unite a community.

Oh, and I'm doing classes.  Haha, let's not forget those.  I'm actively pursuing higher goals with each of my classes.  Meaning holds me firmly to the ground.  There must be meaning in my academic pursuits.  Intrinsic motivators are the only way for me to truly be committed.

1. Chinese Level 4 - Pursuing Conversational Fluency and Written Competency

2. Measurement and Instrumentation - Understanding how Well Thought out science and statistical analysis works.

3. Advanced Product Design - I seek to fully gain an aptitude for the tools of the trade - web design, sketching, photoshop, illustrator - to basically be able to  take what's in my head and make it a visual and then a prototyped reality.

4. Engineering Innovation and Design (A class utilizing Speech Interfaces) - taught by Designer Blade Kotelly (he actually wrote the book we are reading in class!), this is a class purely about design.  Usability, understanding what makes a product good.  In this case we are creating awesome voice interactive apps (I'll post a youtube video by the end of the semester.)

This is life.  This is MIT.  

Is it work, or play?  I'm not sure.  (by the way - great book I read last month: Drive by Daniel Pink)

The opportunities are here.  I'm game.