User:Mchua: Difference between revisions

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* [[/Todo]] - OLPC task list of things I've committed to getting done. If you'd like to assign me a task, leave a message on my [[User_talk:Mchua|talk page]] and I'll notify you when I accept (and move it to my tasklist). Feel free to harass me about anything on the Todo list.
* [[/Todo]] - OLPC task list of things I've committed to getting done. If you'd like to assign me a task, leave a message on my [[User_talk:Mchua|talk page]] and I'll notify you when I accept (and move it to my tasklist). Feel free to harass me about anything on the Todo list.
* [[/Someday]] - Projects and ideas I'd ''like'' to do sometime, but haven't committed to yet. Usually the missing part is a collaborator, knowledge, resources, or just someone to ping me and let me know that something would be immediately useful - feel free to contact me about any of the stuff here.
* [[/Braindumps]] - Thoughts in progress that are not yet fully formed or ready to go to main wiki. Probably inaccurate, half-baked, or some combination of the two. You have been warned.
* [[/Braindumps]] - Thoughts in progress that are not yet fully formed or ready to go to main wiki. Probably inaccurate, half-baked, or some combination of the two. You have been warned.
* [[/Sandbox]] - For testing wiki syntax, templates, etc.
* [[/Sandbox]] - For testing wiki syntax, templates, etc.

Revision as of 22:08, 23 January 2008

@ mel
melchua.com
IRC Nick: mchua
en This user is a native speaker of English.
zh-1 这个用户是能够有助于满足于基本 水平的 中国人 。.
ja-1 この利用者は少しだけ日本語を話すことができます。
Nuvola apps kworldclock.png This user's time zone is UTC-6.

Who are you?

Mel Chua, itinerant hack of all trades and OLPC summer 2007 intern. I'm active in Support gang, OLPC Chicago, and an alumni from (and involved in the OLPC groups of) IMSA and Olin. You may also know me from the MIT Media Lab or Design Continuum. I'm an electrical and computer engineer by training, educator by passion, artist by hobby, journalist by accident, and everything else out of sheer curiosity. Pressed for a short job description, I would say that I engineer educations. More at http://melchua.com.

Contact

To find out where I am, check the Doppler badge on my blog. Leaving a message on my talk page or sending me an email (my first name at laptop dot org) is the best way to reach me 99% of the time. I usually respond within 48 hours. You can also find me on IRC (mchua) and skype (mel_chua). If something's truly urgent, text or call me at 847.970.8484 - please don't leave a voicemail though, as they're extraordinarily difficult for me to understand (I have a hearing loss).


About me

Mchua portrait.jpg

I keep a blog of entropic thought at http://blog.melchua.com I program (primarily in C, C++ and Python, but can pick up other languages), build simple computer peripherals (primarily using PIC microcontrollers, though I'm looking to branch into other platforms), and am learning web programming and interface design. Feel free to grab me if you think I'll be helpful for a task.

What... is your quest: To make a world where makers make themselves. (I need to come up with a more elegant wording of this.) Eventually I want to get two PhD's, one in engineering and one in education, and become a professor teaching and researching at the (currently shaky and fledgling) union of the two disciplines. I am currently preparing for a research trip involving an around-the-world plane ticket and visits to engineering colleges around the world to see how engineers are taught in different parts of the planet.

What... is your favorite color: Yellow.

Drugs of choice: Python, soy milk, and TAing intro engineering classes. Discussions on the future of education and learning and where technology falls into this. I have fairly radical ideas about classroom structure (my preference: none), information distribution (my preference: everything is freely world-readable and world-writable) and student evaluation (my preference: feedback yes, grades no), but these ideas are still quite open and under formation and I love talking to people about these and related topics.

I am Chinese and my family is from the Philippines. I was the first person in my extended family to grow up and be schooled outside the developing world, and the first to develop hardware, software, and participate in internet communities. I grew up as a "disabled" kid with a hearing loss severe enough to warrant a host of technological aids, special classes, and a full-time sign language interpreter. This has shaped many of my attitudes towards education, access, technology, globalization, and development.

Projects

Current

  • Rewriting the Accessibility portal.
  • Compiling material for the first edition of the Weekly zine (particularly Education/Research materials).
  • Maintaining How laptop delivery works and How laptop delivery breaks.
  • Working on support-gang from the Chicago area for the month of January, focusing on wiki cleanup and training documentation for new volunteers.
  • Laying the groundwork for a full-time OLPC office in Chicago this summer.

Ongoing

  • Jams
  • Working on resources and a framework for future content Jams of different types. Writing the woefully neglected How To Run A Jam cookbook.
  • Testing
  • Starting a program for Review squads of young testers and teachers to give feedback on our content. Now recruiting.
  • Wiki cleanup
  • Metacontent - Finding information can be tricky. Let's try to fix that.
  • Metapresentations - Compiling a review/summary of presentations on Laptop demonstrations and Presentations. Can you help?
  • Metawiki - Doing clean-up as per the Style guide whenever I can
  • Being a sort of wiki welcome wagon and helping out newcomers. Let me know if you're interested; we could always use more people to help show newbies around.
  • Grassroots groups I'm actively involved in
  • School chapters I actively mentor

Back burner

Notes

  • /Todo - OLPC task list of things I've committed to getting done. If you'd like to assign me a task, leave a message on my talk page and I'll notify you when I accept (and move it to my tasklist). Feel free to harass me about anything on the Todo list.
  • /Braindumps - Thoughts in progress that are not yet fully formed or ready to go to main wiki. Probably inaccurate, half-baked, or some combination of the two. You have been warned.
  • /Sandbox - For testing wiki syntax, templates, etc.

Potential

These are some ideas I had kicking around that I would like to tinker with at some point; if you'd like to work with me on one of these, offer support, or even adopt it as your own project and go (I'm not clinging to or possessive of these ideas by any means!) go for it.

  • OLPC webcomic
  • Rosetta Stone clone in Pygame
  • Front-end for music composition (GUI for Lilypond? Something to translate between TamTam and Lilypond?)
  • "Heathkit" style build-your-own peripheral kits for the XO (solder your own gamepad, etc)
  • Intro to electrical engineering through taking apart & developing for the XO
  • Ad Libris, a lightweight metadata structure spec for the Library.

Past

Goodies