A Candid Conversation with Lawrence Neeley

Posted on by

Lawrence Neeley has been teaching at Olin for four years. He grew up in Oakland, California before crossing the country to go to the honors college in Maryland, where he decided to be a mechanical engineer. He earned his master’s and PhD at Stanford, and then came to MIT for postdoctoral mechanical design work.

The MechE side of him was clear stepping into his office; he had various small metal parts lined up neatly on his desk, and elegant, magnetized carabiners hanging from his shelf. His bookshelf was full of rapid prototyping and design theory, and a vinyl cutter in a case rested under his clean desk.

Continue reading →

A Few Thoughts

Posted on by

I would like to challenge some of the underlying assumptions upon which much of the argument in “The Meaning of Empowerment” was based.

The author states that much violence is due to greed or hateful religious beliefs. This is a gross oversimplification of reality. The reasons that people commit acts of violence are complex, but I believe that people are driven to violence because they have needs that are not being met, whether those needs be physical, emotional, social, etc.

Continue reading →

Smooth Moves

Posted on by

Walking through West Hall late at night, you’re likely to encounter a crew of satisfied patrons of FBE’s newest venture. You don’t even have to leave the privacy of your room to order up something sexy out of Smooth Moves’ diverse— and colorful— catalog. Whatever your tastes—light, sweet, rich, or saucy—Smooth Moves delivers. Literally.

Continue reading →

‘Like’ This, ‘Like’ That

Posted on by

If you have ever had a teacher who was picky about conversational grammar, chances are they have commented on everybody’s usage of the word like.

Of all the common grammar mistakes we make daily, ‘like’ is the worst of them.

Unfortunately, even the most cautious speakers end up slipping the word incorrectly into their sentences, often not even noticing they have done so. We use it so frequently, we have become desensitized to its incorrect usage and accept it in any conversation.

Continue reading →

Candidate’s Weekend

Posted on by

Well, it’s that time of year again.

For three weekends in a row, our small campus is descended upon by hundreds of candidates and their parents from around the world to be interviewed, judged, and not evaluated. Current Oliners, alums, parents, staff and faculty are called upon for help with the design build, interview panels, club fair, performances, Friday activities and the dorm Open House on Saturday.

Continue reading →

Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester

Posted on by

Over winter break I read a book by a journalism student at Brown, Kevin Roose, called The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University.The book is the author’s account of a semester attending Liberty University.

Liberty is a school literally billed as the largest and fastest growing Christian Evangelical college in the world. For Kevin Roose, who grew up in a “crunchy liberal enclave” in the middle of the Lake Erie Rust Belt, the semester he spends away at Liberty is far more foreign than any abroad.

Continue reading →

The Meaning of Empowerment

Posted on by

Reading the front-page article in the most recent issue of Frankly Speaking, this reader became very perplexed. The article used phrases like “military-industrial complex” and “ultimate institution of disempowerment, of aggression, domination, and death” to describe the U.S. Armed Forces. The article included radical implications – that a nonlethal defense-sponsored project, or even a project sponsored by a company whose customers include the U.S. Department of Defense, is undeserving of Olin students’ time and effort and just plain immoral.

Continue reading →

A Candid Conversation with Brad Minch

Posted on by

On Star Wars, stained glass, and integrated circuit design.

Brad Minch is one of Olin’s best respected professors. The son of two mathematicians, Minch earned his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and his PhD in Computational Neural Systems from CalTech.

He came back to the Northeast for a teaching position at Cornell, where he won an award for dedicated and inspirational teaching, and a year later, came to teach at Olin.

Continue reading →

Interview with a Freshman: Cory Dolphin

Posted on by

Ryan Mitchell: So, Cory, tell us about where you grew up.
Cory Dolphin: I grew up in Weston, it’s about 8 miles over. I was only there until I was 10.
RM: Are your parents engineers?
CD: My father has a masters of engineering, but he’s a biophysicist.
RM: Was he excited about you applying to Olin?
CD: Yeah! I mean, my parents wanted me to do whatever I wanted to do. I played with Legos, I played with Kinex, built cranes, I mean, it was pretty clear what my passions were, what direction I was going in. I loved to visit MIT, and I was pretty sure that’s where I wanted to be.
Continue reading →