Showing posts with label UOM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UOM. Show all posts

Monday, August 27, 2012

Dreams, Vision, Innovation and Smart Car Technology

The feeling of Joy you experience when what you had just dreamt about, is actually happening, is amazing!! Isn't it..Well, I just re experienced something like that today..While reading through my regular emails on University of Michigan's Alumni Association, which gives me info on the latest technology and happenings at UOM, I came across an article, which was highlighted.  It was about smart car technology and UOM's involvement in the research. 

For a long time now, I had these two ideas for automobiles.  Remembering these ideas, takes me back to my college career fair days, where companies like GM and Ford, would ask you about some innovative ideas you have thought about and these two were mine...My first idea, dates back to my 7th-8th grade school days.  Two of my dad's brother are in USA, so as a kid, my grandmother used to come to US often and tell us stories back home about the life and technology in US.  One of the stories, I remember as a kid, she told us was about Automatic car, which both my uncles and aunts had.  It was fascinating, that as a kid, just with the word automatic, I had assumed an automatic car is like a robot, which drives itself automatically with a touch of a button..Ofcourse, as we grew up, we talked less about the specifics and types of these cars in US, so deep down, it was always there, that, that is how an automatic car works..Now, you can definitely imagine my disappointment when I first landed here in 2004 and saw an automatic car..But, in about 2008-2009, while my sister priyanka had attended some networking session, she had met someone, who talked about the same technology, where car would automatically drive themselves..When she came home and told me about it, and told me about Google actually working on that technology, I was jumping with joy, thinking finally!! The vision, even though it was just a child's imagination, was actually coming true..Ofcourse, I was disappointed and wished, I was somehow involved or part of this technology...

During one of my regular commutes, there was huge traffic jam and though there were news on the radio and all, no one actually seemed to have any idea on what was going on..Also if you have been through accidents like that you know, sometimes, the lanes are slow, just because everyone is curious what might have happened there and just driving slow, resulting in more back ups.  At that stage, I wondered, what if there was technolgy, which let me communicate from one car to another to pass the message of what is going on, on the road, if there a cop, oh be careful, or if there is an accident, slow down, accident ahead etc..While thinking about this, one day, I came across some signs, which you can install on your car trunk to put the smiley face, and I was like, yes, we are definitely getting closer to that..And now, when I read this article, my joy knew no bounds....again, I do wish, I was involved in this...One thing, I think about is, even though I am not a car fanatic (yes master's in mechanical engineering, but not highly passionate about cars), I should definitely keep a track of my visions and dreams...Who knows, some day, I might be the first to encash the vision/opportunity..Regardless of that, I am so happy, that the technology is atleast moving forward..I do wish HVAC technology, the field where I work in, would advance at this pace..Incase you are interested about this research, you can read it at the following address:

U-M Transportation Research Institute leads way in 'smart car' technology

Happy Dreaming!!

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Volunteering at National Rebuilding Together


25th April was the National Rebuilding Day where University of Michigan, Dallas Alumni Club decided to volunteer. Being part of the Alumni Club, I found out about the opportunity and was quite excited since this was going to be my first volunteer work experience in the USA. One of my friends Nileshbhai and I registered as a volunteer for the UM Alumni club. It was a saturday morning and we were suppose to assemble at the place around 8 am, so I woke up early quite excited about the opportunity. My excitement had two reasons, first it was an unselfish work which I would be doing, that would make someone happy and the other reason was to meet fellow wolverines. Its been almost three years since I move to Dallas, Texas from Ann Arbor, Michigan, but I miss Michigan a lot since I have some of the loveliest memories there...

The house we were assigned belonged to a 90- year old lady. She was very nice and friendly. The week before some other group had helped clean up the interior rooms and organize things inside. Our assignment was cleaning from the outside like the car garage, the backyard, painting the house exteriors, weathering the windows etc. We assembled in front of the house around 8 am and introduced each other and started working. Initially we started with garage, there was hardly any space to walk into the backyard since the garage was full of stuff. We threw away lot of items and kept some, which were her fond memories like a rocking chair of her grandmother etc.

Next when there was enough space to reach the backyard, we went there and started working on it. It looked like it had not been taken care of for years..The grass and the trees were overgrown. Some of us started cutting the trees while others picked up the twigs and big branches so that it would be easier for the lawn mower to work.




It was fun, but scary at times when we encountered small snakes on our paths...Finally we managed to clean up everything in the backyard and it looked beautiful....completely different from what we had started on....

The next work for painting the exterior house. We needed to apply the primer initially and then once the primer was settled for an hour, we could start painting. We divided into two groups, one group was working on the front part and the other group was working on the back side.







Over the door, it was difficult to reach from the ladder, so someone climbed on the roof to get to it..The enthusiasm of people to work and help was tremendous. It was a pleasure to be a part of such an enthusiastic group..

Around noon all of us were hungry and were waiting for the pizza which had been ordered. We ate the pizza and in the meantime, the primer had dried so we started the painting operation. I painted the entrance door and the lady came out to show us one of her pictures as a flight attendant. It was a beautiful pic.

Some of the volunteers were working on painting the floor in one of the rooms where the carpet had been peeled off..We were almost done, when someone remembered we needed to paint the fireplace. So we started working on the fireplace...It was about 3:30 pm and we were done, with paints on our jeans, hands and t-shirts....The house looked beautiful and totally different from the morning when we started working on it.

It was a great satisfaction to be helpful to somebody in this way....I have decided to look for more volunteering opportunities in the future.

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