GrOW’s Current Initiatives

Posted on by

By Gabrielle Ewall, David Pudlo, Ruby Spring

GrOW is reinvigorating itself this year. We’ve got some big ideas and projects that we’re going to push for, so we’re keeping you, the student body, informed as to what’s going on and how you can get involved. Below are updates on our current initiatives, if you have any questions, contact David Pudlo.

The Olin Secret Garden
Over the summer, a few students created the Olin Secret Garden in the middle of Parcel B! We’re experimenting, trying to learn what we can grow here in MA, and seeing what it takes to build a garden from the ground up. We’ve already had some successful harvest, basil, kale, and corn. Make sure to stop by and check it out, it’s near the trebuchet (and feel free to grab a bit of basil or kale!). In the future, we’re looking into wintering structures and a rainwater collection system, as well as (of course) more yummy plants! Go to
olinsecretgarden.blogspot.com to follow our progress.

Continue reading →

Shower Heads at Olin: Fun Facts

Posted on by

In the short survey I sent out a few days ago for IPD, I asked students to guess how many gallons a typical 10 minute shower uses.

Corey Cavicchi, Olin’s Associate Plant Manager, has informed me that Olin shower heads have a 2.5 gallon per minute flow (the maximum federal regulatory standard since 1994), but that facilities is “planning to install 1.5 GPM shower heads over Thanksgiving break.”

Based on this information, an average 10-minute shower uses 25 gallons of water now, but will use only 15 gallons of water after the anticipated change.

The Business Side of Start-ups

Posted on by

Back in March when Amos and I applied to the MassChallenge accelerator program, we had a cool idea, some initial feedback from potential customers, and a POE-level prototype showing that we could really build a usable bathroom scale for people in wheelchairs. However, when we were accepted into the program and started talking to people, it turned out that there was a lot more to learn about “the business side of things” than we thought. It’s not as simple as just building a product and selling it in an online store, and crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter are not as effective unless you’re selling to engineers (like Technical Machine) or the general population (like 3Doodler). Here are some of the major things we have internalized in the past four months of running a business:

Continue reading →

the one who moves

Posted on by

You are the one who moves
Who can’t sit still
There are too many tools to grab
Too many races to run
Too many sources of brilliance in this world
And you want to know them all
You want to feel the burn of your soul as it struggles to find new meaning
Its sinews stretching
Skin sweating
It will ache tomorrow
But grow back stronger

Continue reading →

Interview with the Foundary

Posted on by

In this email interview, Frankly Speaking asked Brett Rowley from the Foundry a few questions about the presence of the Foundry on campus and how students can get involved.

FRANKLY: What is the Foundry?

ROWLEY: The Foundry is Olin’s student-run entrepreneurship organization. It’s been around nearly as long as Olin, albeit in several different forms. “The Foundry” used to specifically refer to Edison House on Great Plains, which acted as an incubator and office space to student startups like Big Belly and the coffee guys. As it grew, it merged with another Olin entrepreneurship group and “the Foundry” became the name for both the building and the group. Now, since Edison house was re-appropriated for Marketing and External Relations office space, “the Foundry” largely refers to just the student group. We do have space in the Campus Center (on the 3rd floor, you’ll see our sign) that is available for students to use, but that space is not utilized as much as we’d like.

Continue reading →

Olin’s Student Government

Posted on by

Hello there fellow Oliner! As one of your friendly neighborhood CORe representatives, I am here to tell you about what CORe is, does, and can be. The Council of Olin Representatives (CORe), meets every Sunday evening from 9 –10 pm in the Crescent room to discuss improving Olin and we would love for you to be part of the conversation. As you may have seen in our CORe digest, this semester we are already working on some projects including improving the GO bike fleet, replacing drumheads in the jam room, and filling student roles on committees. However, these projects are just a small part of what we currently do, and CORe has the potential to be so much more.

Continue reading →