Video and Photos by Sara Radin and Rachel Dolgov These photos were taken in the North End of Boston, which is known as the Italian neighborhood. Its famous for its historical buildings and great food. On the night of December 12, 2010, it was raining and the temperature was dropping. Christmas lights lined the windows of shops and the once crowded streets during the daytime are now deserted, except for a few restaurants and bakeries. This collection documents the streets, shops, and lights of the North End.

Here are the projects which the students will be focusing on for their final projects:

Fusion Powered Space Mission

The fuel of nuclear fusion is the most abundant element in the world. Hydrogen is found mostly in water on Earth, but the substance of interstellar and interplanetary space is composed almost solely of Hydrogen. A space mission of our days greatly depends on the amount of fuel the spacecraft can carry. In this scenario, researchers and designers will be exploring the possibilities a novel class of spacecraft, the fusion spaceship could afford us. What minimal size of such a ship must be, what route it should take through space to find the most dense fuel-fields, how fast it would be able to travel are only a few of the most important questions the team will have to tackle. Once the fundamental concept of the spacecraft is described along with the equipment and capabilities it must have (for instance that of mining the interstellar space for hydrogen), the development team will have to come up with a preliminary design which will then be elaborated and prototyped in 3D.

Future Landscapes with Fusion

The way our cities, roads and large scale structures are built are to a large extent determined by our power usage and the way we are able to cater to our thirst for energy. In a future environment where fusion energy is available, many of our ways would therefore change. If fusion were to become a cheap and essentially unlimited energy source or if we are projecting into the far future when all fossil fuels will have been depleted, we would have to rely strictly on the kinds of energy (electricity) such power plants could provide. In this project, the team will be asking the question what the city or more broadly the country of a fusion future would look like. Research and imagination have to be coupled quite tightly together here since our energy usage has surprisingly far reaching consequences from vehicles to farming to home structures and appliances. All ideas will be sketched and the final concept drawn in detail.

Power and Life with Fusion

Change has never been a simple issue. Even inside communities and even with new ideas and technologies which are beneficial to most, there are always struggles and compromises which have to be made. This scenario takes us into the near future where fusion would be available, and the questions about how we would distribute the produced energy, who would benefit from it, who could even build the reactors, what would happen to the countries now relying on using or selling fossil fuels are all bound to come up. Beyond the political scene, this one simple change might and will probably effect our everyday social interactions as well: new kinds of jobs would appear, some of the old ones cease to be, our different energy use strategies might cause changes in lifestyles etc. The task of this team is then to research the socio-economic consequences of our new energy technology and present its results in a creative form in the vein of classic sci-fi.

Here are the 10 fabulous

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We spent the day at the new Media Lab playing with the drawdio kit which was designed by Jay Silver, a PhD student at the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the ML. The movie below was created by Nobuyuki Ueda who is a visiting professor at the ML.

All robots are getting ready to compete tomorrow. The designs and strategies are widely different which will make it very fun to watch tomorrow.

NuVu's Chief Creative Officer Saba Ghole recently gave a talk at TEDxSanJoseCA on her path to learning how to be creative, and how the studio model and NuVu's core methodology nurtures creativity. The event brought together a collection of speakers from around the world who shared their passions, wisdom and "Pay It Forward" ideas. 

This past Monday, NuVu students visited Chef Gabriel at his restaurant,

What do you want to do with your energy? And, how long do you want to do it? These were the first two questions the students were asked as they began the

The students soon after began testing some of the toys Sean brought to the studio, such as this hand-cranked, power-generating gadget that the students used to power three LED lights.

Through the early part of the week, students worked together to envision an integrated energy system design. The students decided early on that the system would use a local renewable energy profile to allow for an integrated energy system. From the initial brainstorming session, the group collectively decided that they would provide energy through pedal-power. The energy would then be used to power a juicer (to have sweet apple juice for the pedalers and other people), a stereo (to have a bona fide dance party), and a laser galactic star show (to dance under the stars!).

The students then split into their various teams to work on the component systems of the "Galactic Juicer." Here the Galactic Stars-Visual Team begins testing their laser-mounted motors to see what type of visuals they can produce.





The Music Team worked diligently to wire the speakers and subwoofer.

By the end of the day, the Music Team was dancing to

Meanwhile the Juicer Team was busy calculating the Juicer's power needs. The team measured both the current and voltage over a 6-second period to understand how much power and resultant energy over time would be required to produce a tasty glass of fresh apple juice.





The Juicer Team also drew some section sketches to explore and show how the juicer, table and lasers would integrate together and be assembled with all the component supporting parts.

And, at the end of the day, I decided to test out the Generator Team's built seat and pedaler apparatus for generating power for the juicer, thumping bass, and galactic star show. Pedaling for Galactic Juice...what a brilliant idea!

NuVu invites you to our Winter 2012 Exhibit that will be held at our new space in Cambridge. The event will showcase students projects from the Winter BRAIN trimester. Come listen to the sound of your brain, play games with your brain, test our products that will help you focus, and witness the debut of our viral video. On display will be a mind pod, games, interactive installations, a virtual puppet show, a cute robot with a mind of its own, a robotic tripod, a plant holder that looks for the most light, a smart toilet seat, and many more. Time: Sunday, March 4th, 2-4pm Location: NuVu Studio 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139

post by Dr. Ryan Wartena The NuVu Crew has successfully embarked on a balanced charitable and social venture called NuVu GELI DONUTS to develop a sustainable business model, design a distributed renewable energy system platform and craft the Social Energy Network to connect the Energy Computers with communication rather than wires. The NuVu GELI Crew named their project DONUTS: Development Organization for Networked Utility Transformation Systems. They have carefully right-sized all components of their Energy Computer platform from knowledge gathered by Leo Rossi from 20kwatts, a charitable organization from Los Angeles who raises funds for renewable energy systems for villages in remote areas through benefit concerts from Rock n Roll bands like Dishwalla. The NuVu GELI DONUTS Crew also took suggestions from Miguel Granier of Invested Development who emphasized applying a business sustainable business model to the deployment of renewable energy systems in developing areas. The reasoning is the Energy Computers allow individuals to engage in business practices which bring them out of poverty. Applying a healthy and reasonable financing model to fund the Energy Computers allows a sustainable and renewable energy infrastructure to grow beyond the initial deployment. For Invested Development its all about follow up and assisting in the sustainable growth of renewable energy systems. The NuVu GELI DONUTS Crew has developed a model to bridge the charitable and sustainable methods of deploying renewable energy systems by designing the Social Energy Network to provide communications between local systems and to the World. The software allows system health monitoring so systems are not abandoned if they start to degrade and provides a platform for education, small businesses and energy sharing/exchange. The DONUTS model allows initial systems (Phase 1) to be given charitably to provide basic living functions such as lighting, TV, radio and cell phone charging. The Phase 1 DONUTS systems can also be the initial framework for a small business such as cell phone charging and any business that can be operated by the Internet. Invested Development has observed once basic electrical necessities are delivered that the operators of the energy systems want more functionality to further bring them out of poverty. In the NuVu GELI DONUTS business model, the additional accessories and energy generating capacity can be financed progressively for a portion of the extra income generated by the systems. The nine students have gone through Energy Awareness training where they deeply came to understand the difference between electrical power, which is instantaneous, and electrical energy, which is power for a duration of time. They have compiled an Energy-Economic Energy Computer sizing tool that asks what a person wants to do (which defines the necessary power) and how long they want to do it (which defines the necessary energy and energy storage). At the current moment the NuVu GELI DONUTS Crew are finishing up the construction of the initial Phase 1 Energy Computer system. They have assembled 12V solar panels from solar modules and have an economic analysis for each of the Phases of system deployment. The DONUTS Crew has determined the current material cost for 21 Phase 1 Systems for Cerro Segovia village in El Salvador $16,050.51. The NuVu GELI DONUTS Crew are be applying for a $10k Lemelson Award and talking to businesses including Apple, Google, FedEx, Amazon and Claro (El Slavadorian cell phone service providing 3G in the area) to support the development of new small businesses through the deployment of Energy Computer systems utilizing the Social Energy Network to empower individuals and lift them out of poverty with a balanced charitable and sustainable business model. Dr. Ryan Wartena April 21, 2011