The First Two Weeks of Graduate School

Already, two weeks have passed at SICSA. The teams are still nebulous at this point.

Right now, there are two projects: one for the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and another the University of Houston, and the Houston Airport System. The HMNS project is a science/astronomy exhibition space that will be a whole lot more interactive than a typical museum exhibit. Preliminary discussions have involved simulators, screaming children on spacecraft (the louder the screaming, the faster the spacecraft), Ride-the-Hubble, etc. The more interactive and engrossing to the visitor, the better.

I'm on a less exciting, but no less interesting project: Emergency Operating Centers for UH and the Houston Airport System. Wait, before you yawn and wander off, dreaming of entering a museum with a Stargate device as its main entrance, this is hard-core human factors stuff.

For the first phase of the EOC, we have to pick a site. So, I spent this past Labor Day weekend walking around the UH campus. I looked at the Hilton Hotel (yes, UH has one), Science and Research 1, the Hoffheinz Pavilion, the Melcher Center for Public Broadcasting, and the newly expanded library.

I've chosen three, and noted them on a handout. Tomorrow, everyone who is participating in the EOC project will put their respsective handouts up on the board, and the three most commonly picked sites among the class will be investigated further. I hope to scan images as my resources allow.