READY! SET! DANCE!

During the Spring, The Hip Hop Competition lasted roughly 2 hours. This Event was put together in the ARC Gymnasium. This was the first Hip Hop competition ever held.

Hoping for more events like this in the future.

Enthusiastic Dancers are eager to put their skills to the test. The organizations that were behind this event are: U.N.I.T.E, L.E.T.C (Low End Theory Collaboration), J.B.C Joint Budget Committee and Kaeb.

All funding this event.

UNITE is the community diversity center for American River College, and the Joint Budget Committee and Kaeb funded the competition.

Joshua Bonzo’s idea was set forth the production of this project. Another contributor of this project was Moses Rodriguez. Bonzo has been break dancing since the age of seven or eight.

This competition had a guest star Ken Smith, who lead everyone through each move. Smith was interviewed for more information regarding the culture of Hip Hop.  It was originated in New York, and Smith was among its cultural colors from its first developments.  He currently teaches intermediate Hip Hop at UCLA lecture and lab Arts and Cultures Department despite braving through several physical injuries to his hip, knees, ankles, and fingers.

Some modern Hip Hop moves are: turfing and crumping. Ken Smith describes Hip Hop as a culture, not just a dance style.  He associates the culture of Hip Hop with graffiti, break dancing, DJ-ing, and rapping. Smith strongly emphasizes how the elements of Hip Hop are based on style and not technique. He danced in street competitions and freestyle competitions after it bloomed in California.

They want to bring hip hop culture into the American River College campus, along with break dancing!!

Beautiful U.N.I.T.E. Masterpiece!

A beautiful masterpiece!

Allen Peterson and U.N.I.T.E. was involve with a certain project. In this particular project, He used the plasma cutter to cut out aluminum shapes to create a unique design made by the Landscape Architecture Class.  The Aluminum shapes is a “mock up” of a plan that the Landscape Architecture Class constructed for a future project. 

Photo & Edit by Angelique Doty

The little metal sculpture will someday be built like posts or fenced around a building. The square bottom part will acted as a fence and the top parts with magnificent design, like birds and trees. It will act to give it a  unique design to help make the area it was located in very attractive!

 

This beautiful piece was created approx. 3 hours in only one day

Design Hub’s participation to this project supports the architecture students creativity. The Architecture class needed a miniature variant of the final project to be able to test out the original idea. In a way, They can predict upcoming obstacles or arrangements that may arise in the future.

 

Photo & Edit by Angelique Doty

From a photograph, Allen was able to set it up on a plasma cutter.

Future developments from this project is a metal trophy of a break-dancer for the winner of the Break Dancer Competition for U.N.I.T.E.

Further development from American River College tree logo on April 24 that Allen made.

 

Photo & Edit by Angelique Doty

This project has traveled to a few locations-

Design Hub to the welding location , then back to Design Hub and then off to be displayed at the Architecture Class.  

Dieselzilla

A project currently in progress in  the Design Hub of American River College is called the “Dieselzilla vs. Drones” Project.  We start with interns Kevin and Sean, who are collaborating along with James Mullerleile on this project in the Design Hub.  Kevin is the programmer, and Sean is the 3D Designer behind this project. When we first hear the word, “Dieselzilla,” of course we are left wondering “what in the world is this, and what does it do?”

Well, Dieselzilla is the huge metal sculpture in the front of the Student Services and Cafeteria area (the huge glass building behind the American River College Library).

Every day on the way to class, students who walk past it are seen doing double takes. Most can’t take their eyes off of it- as mesmerizing as a well-crafted, fantastically massive Godzilla sculpture can be.  Most students on campus pass Dieselzilla every day and have no clue as to how or why it got there. Even our photography intern, Angelique, told us “Ever since I started attending, I wondered what it was and why it was there- and now I had the chance to find out,” before she captured some pictures of the magnificent metal beast.

Parts of Dieselzilla. Photo by photography intern Angelique Doty

The Design Hub interns discussed the structure of the sculpture. It actually moves around with the use of a hydraulic system within the Dieselzilla! To the right, we can take a look at what goes inside of the massive metal body. 

These are the parts that were designed and put together by our interns, and this is what makes the magic happen. With everything in place, Dieselzilla comes to life!

This is a very cool, collaborative project, as well as an impressive and intriguing presence everyday on our campus. 

Design Hub Gives a Demonstration for Encina High School

Jason demonstrating the gesture feature for the DJI Spark drone Photo by Photography Intern Kyle Chan

Design Hub interns Sean and Jason gave a demonstration to three groups of students from Encina High School. They explained the advantages and opportunities that are available to them here at ARC as well as the Design Hub.

Sean spoke to the Design Hub’s ability to offer students the opportunity to not only learn how to fly drones, but to create them through 3D printing. He advocated that the students would also be able to bring their own ideas and passions and turn them into reality here at ARC.

Photo by Intern Kyle Chan

Jason gave a talk about the business aspect of obtaining a drone pilot license and how to start up a business flying drones. The two of them then gave a demo to the students, showing them how to fly the 3-D printed drones, the DJI spark, and a mini drone that allowed the students to have a first-person goggle view.

 

 

 

Design Hub Interns Work to Save Our Water Systems

Photo by Intern Angelique Doty

Here we meet our Design Hub interns, Dave and Melissa, to explore their new project titled, “Constant Monitor Backflow.”  Dave and Melissa, as well as our Design Hub team lead Randy are involved in the fulfillment of the project. Randy was asked by a former co-worker, Bernie Clark, who does field research for Watts, Aims, Fab Co, and most of the back flow companies.

Pictured: Dave, Melissa, Randy, Bernie. Photo by Intern Angelique Doty

This project has to do with our water systems, where the industry today is faced with a challenge. From time to time, our potable water sources can come in contact with contaminants, and the problem our population is faced with is detecting when exactly this happens. Currently, there are annual tests that detect problems, but this is a cause of concern because they are not only costly, but we have to wait a year to see a problem. By the time any problems are detected from these annual tests, damage could already be done, and even more time and money would have to be spent in order to fix these problems.

Photo by Intern Angelique Doty

Of course, our interns saw a challenge, and came up with a solution: blackflow prevention monitors! What the Constant Monitor Backflow project is setting out to do is to eliminate this scenario by implementing a new system where we monitor the backflow prevention to detect problems before they happen. These backflow monitors detect the contamination of the pure water with the sewer lines quickly, providing data that is easily accessed. Now it can be constantly monitored, which will help to detect problems sooner so that they can be fixed in a timely manner.  This will increase productivity, and they do not need to turn off the water for the constant monitoring, unlike the annual tests, where the water has to be shut off.  

Photo by Intern Angelique Doty
Pictured: Intern Dave, hard at work. Photo by Intern Bailey Wineland

Without the hard work of our dedicated interns, this project would not have been made possible. It began about two years ago, and as this project has unfolded, Design Hub intern Dave has been responsible for the many hours behind the creation of these backflow prevention monitors. He tells us that everything that lies in place now within the confines of these little boxes, all started in his head. He coded the device in our Design Hub lab, making sure it would properly collect and display data, and hand-crafted the circuitboard, complete with all of the wiring and placement within the device.

Pictured: Intern Melissa, hard at work. Photo by Intern Bailey Wineland

Alongside Dave we have intern Melissa, who has been learning the ropes of this project and training as she assists in implementing these monitors. She will one day have the torch passed on to her as this project continues to evolve. Our interns predict that this project won’t end anytime soon, as it is constantly growing and they continue to brainstorm new ways to improve its productivity.

Photo by Intern Angelique Doty

We are hoping that by the end of the summer, there will be monitors set up all over the entire campus. Currently, we have one monitor backflow.  By the end of the summer, the interns’ goal is to have one monitor per backflow all over the campus. By increasing the number of monitors, this will help increase the prevention of problems.

Photo by Intern Angelique Doty

In the long run, we are seeking to collect enough data to prove that these devices, though small, are actually quite mighty. As our interns work to fine-tune these monitors, our hope is to have the opportunity to impact an important industry in a vastly positive way. Few things are as important as safe drinking water, and we are setting out to keep it safe in a clean, efficient, and budget-friendly way.

Photo by Intern Angelique Doty