My experience in working with the students of the University of Amsterdam was very pleasant. Unfortunately, we were not able to bond together and become as good as friends as I would have liked to, I think this was mostly because of language barriers and that we mostly worked on the project individually and then merged all of our work together. Nonetheless, they were a lovely group to work with, and I found it quite insightful getting their perspective of what it was like to live and study in Amsterdam as an international student. Additionally, when working with them, I appreciated that they were all willing to put in the work and help finish all the assignments in due time. On the other hand, due to most of the work being completed in an individual manner, I feel like this presented a slight obstacle when trying to ensure we were all on the same page and completed the work in similar ways. For instance, when doing the team interviews, we separated into groups of 2 in order to optimize the time, however, due to the language barrier we did not all understand the method we were going to apply to carry out the interviews and record information, hence we all gathered information in different means, such as paper, audio recordings, and simple memory. As a consequence, the process of then making everything work together was a bit more lengthy and complicated, yet we all aimed to put in our best effort and thus managed to complete every task on time and successfully.
Personally, one of the main takeaways I got from the design abilities was the process of narrowing down what the specific problem that we are trying to tackle is. In previous engineering design classes we mostly focused on the solving side of the project, not really trying to understand why we are solving it or who it is targeted to specifically. Likewise, another ability that stood out to me was prototype testing, and testing it in a way that is more tailored towards the specific client. I feel like previously I visualized the prototype testing stage as simply ensuring that the product was functional and purposeful, yet many times overlooked the concept of showing it to potential users and receiving live and unbiased feedback. Hence, having the ability to go out there and test the product with users and actively seeing how they respond to it is now essential to me. Furthermore, another key takeaway for me was learning how to narrow down the users and population for which we are tailoring a specific product. Personally, I always tried to make solutions to problems as inclusive as possible so we can help as many communities as possible with one single solution. Nonetheless, throughout this course, I learned that sometimes it is more effective to focus on a particular group of users that truly will benefit from the solution, rather than attempting to make it inclusive to communities that don’t really deal with the problem on a daily basis.
Something unique I learned about the design challenge while being in Amsterdam was the art of observing. I feel like a lot of the time as engineers we are in this mindset of trying to figure out a solution as rapidly and effectively as possible, yet few times do we pause to observe the environment for which we are creating a solution. My design challenge was on street waste management, and thus by having the time to observe the city in a detailed manner I was able to pinpoint where exactly in the city street waste was problematic and how the residents and tourists contributed to it or worked to improve it, and as a result helped my team and I elaborate a more targeted solution. Nonetheless, I feel like regardless of the design challenge that one is facing I truly learned that pausing to see what exactly we are trying to solve and why it is an issue is of great importance.
I feel like something that would have helped us when tackling this design challenge was to have a more unanimous understanding of the challenge and trajectory that we wanted to head in. Looking back, even though it initially appeared like my whole team was on the same page when carrying out the research part of the project, when we started putting our ideas together and brainstorming for solutions I realised that this was not the case, or at least not to the degree I initially perceived. Some of us thought we were taking the project in one direction, while others thought we were taking it in a different direction. Nonetheless, we managed to voice our opinions and concerns and reached a good conclusion as a team, yet I think that had we taken the time to establish as a team our main objectives and direction we aimed to take this would have helped us in the research portion of the project, as well as probably save us time.
I really liked the solution we came up with, where we wanted to put more trash cans around the city, and add specific recycling sections to these containers specifically for cans and plastic bottles. This is because there is a rewards system in place in Amsterdam where they can earn a compensation for collecting cans and plastic bottles, which in turn promotes recycling and helps earn money. Hence, by implementing this solution, we would be tackling the overflow of waste in the city while likewise helping those who wish to collect cans and plastic bottles do so in an easier manner that will likewise not incite them to rip open the trash bags and litter the city further. Furthermore, if the solution were to be successfully implemented, I think it could likewise be implemented in other European cities as it tackles both recycling and street waste.
I feel like I mostly enjoyed the interviewing process. I see myself as a pretty outgoing person and I enjoy interacting with people, whereas other members of my team were not as outgoing, hence I was glad I was able to be of service to the team in that aspect. Similarly, I tend to naturally take the lead in group projects, not in an authoritative or bossy way but I just tend to be good at organizing the differing ideas flowing through the group and putting together a course of action that we can take as a team.
I think I mostly struggled at the beginning of the design process, when we were initially introduced to the concept of the 2 diamonds and zooming in vs zooming out. I had never really thought about the design process in that light and hence I was initially a bit frustrated that we had to do all of that research and observations before actually getting to design a solution. I am quite a creative person and like coming up with solutions to problems, and thus was really looking forward to elaborating an effective solution with my team, causing me to initially struggle with the purely research aspects of the project. Nonetheless, as the course went on I learned to appreciate why the 2 diamonds exist and why they are so useful.
I loved how Hesam managed to truly make the city the classroom. I had never been taught in such a manner and thought it was very didactic. We got the chance to explore such a fun city while simultaneously learning new things and using the city to elaborate a solution to a problem it is currently facing. Likewise, we had the chance to visit so many places that had we not been in the ISEED program I highly doubt we would have stumbled upon, such as Gazelle or DB55. Furthermore, I appreciated that the course was planned in a way that allowed us to have some free time in the afternoons to rest from the class and further explore the city with the other rice students.
From my personal experience of having the fabulous idea to take another course at the same time as the ISEED program, I would highly discourage taking other summer classes that run at the same time as ISEED. Even though you do have time to engage in other summer classes, this will greatly take away time from enjoying the essence of a study abroad program, as well as many hours of sleep. Furthermore, I’d advise the future students to take as much advantage of the program and of being in a different city. It is not everyday that you get to be in a completely different country and city, with new people getting to make new memories!