A Day in the Life - Part 5

Part 4 of our Day in the Life series features MSI Mayank Khanna
(Copied with permission from Facebook)

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Hello everyone,

My name is Mayank and I am a second year student specializing in HCI & Social computing. I am an international student from India and did my undergrad in engineering in Bangalore. I worked with Infosys for around three years before I landed in the amazing town of Ann Arbor.

Currently, in addition to being a student, I am an officer with SOCHI (Student Organization of Computer Human Interaction) and a GSRA with Prof. Fontichiaro on the Making in Michigan Libraries initiative and have had the opportunity to participate in several activities/initiatives outside the classroom.

I will be posting throughout the day for all of you to experience UMSI through my eyes. Feel free to comment on any of the posts with questions and I will be happy to answer them

Go Blue!

Post 1/4

My day started with quickly grabbing a coffee at Espresso Royale and then heading to fourth floor, where most faculty and PhD students are located.

After a quick checkin with Prof. Fontichiaro about our project, I landed in the lounge space on 4th floor to catch up on some work and emails. Work started with me finalizing work for SOCHI officer elections 

After that, I was back to work on the summer road-trip as part of the Making in Michigan Libraries initiative. Basically, I am co-planning a summer road trip across the entire state of Michigan to eight specific towns to promote Maker culture in the state. The intent is to create hubs within Libraries across the state that allows people in these communities to build their own makerspaces with the help of the library.

After this, I have to rush to Scarlett Middle school to meet the awesome kids there. More details coming soon.

Stay Tuned!

Post 2/4

Before I could leave for the Scarlett Middle school, I dropped by the International center to pickup my OPT documents.

The international center at the university has the most helpful staff. You can go to them anytime you have doubts regarding your VISA, travel or work related questions.
If you are an international student, you will most likely drop by this place at least four times during your time at UMSI.

Now leaving to meet the kids.

Post 3/4

And we just wrapped up at Scarlett Middle School where we run an after-school STEAM program for kids in the grade 6-8. The lovely Sandy Ng and Prakruthi Shetty help me run this program at Scarlett 

More details about the fun we have: http://michiganmakers.si.umich.edu

We work with kids to build STEM related projects and practice different kind of crafts to give them an outside classroom learning experience. While today we taught kids how to etch glass, in the past we have taught them to build their own LED flashlights, make 3-d prints using the Makerbot and practice coding through online tools like the Hour of code.
If any of you would like to volunteer for this after-school program during your time at UMSI, feel free to contact Prof. Fontichiaro and you can choose a site based on your schedule. It can be the most fun activity you do in your entire week.

Post 4/4

After the fun at Scarlett, I was back to North Quad with the amazing Amber Lovett to record a webinar for the U.S. Department of Education. 

This webinar is part of a series of lectures planned by the department for their CTE Makeover Challenge. The challenge aims at promoting Makerspaces within high-school education in the country. Prof. Fontichiaro is one of the many esteemed judges for this amazing challenge.
Interestingly, the Makeover challenge was recently announced by President Obama during his keynote at SXSW. This announcement also included the approval of the "much-in-debate" STEM extension opportunity for International students.

With this I am posting my last update for today. It was really fun sharing my daily UMSI experiences with all of you. Wish all of you Good Luck as you transition into Grad school.

Feel free to post any questions you have and I will respond at the earliest.

Adios!!