Local Motors New Olli

“This is the world’s first autonomous on-demand shuttle. So basically you call it on an app and it picks you up just like Uber and it will talk to you,” says Justin Fishkin, Local Motors’ Chief Strategic Officer.

Local Motors, the manufacturer of the world’s first 3D printed vehicle, is actually local to us with a micro factory and base right here in Chandler, Arizona.

The newest addition to their line up is the uberly-cool (pun intended) Olli “Your friendly neighborhood mobile solution”. The self-driving Olli was the genius of industrial design student, Edgar Sarmiento, who at the age of 22, entered his concept into a Local Motors competition.   With an app on your smart phone, the coolest micro bus ever, will pick you up and take you where you need to be … in style.

More on Edgar Sarmiento and Olli from NPR here.
More on Local Motors read more here!

August 23, 2016August 23, 2016 by kbennes Categories: Arizona, Culture, Engineering, Entrepreneurial, STEAMTags: 3D printed, Arizona, Automotive, Autonomous, Chandler, Edgar Sarmiento, Industrial Design, Local Motors, Manufacturing, NPR, Olli, Self Driving, Watson Leave a comment

Advising Guides for Engineering Students

Engineering students at the Maricopa Community Colleges have a new resource for navigating the maze of courses and sequences needed to prepare for transfer to ASU.

The recently updated Advising Guides provide students with information from five other common sources in a handy two-page format.

They are a great tool designed to save students and advisors time and money.

Here’s the link!
https://advisementblog.wordpress.com/20162017-engineering-advising-guides/

August 6, 2016August 6, 2016 by kbennes Categories: Arizona, Engineering, GCC, STEMTags: Advising guides, Arizona, asu, Engineering, Glendale Community College, maricopa community colleges, Science, STEM Leave a comment

Italy rules that stealing food not a crime if desperately hungry

The right to survival prevails over property,” Italy’s highest court of appeals ruled this week when reviewing the case of a homeless man who had been given a six month jail sentence and a €100 euro fine for stealing cheese and sausages.

The man was caught before leaving the store and returned the goods, so the state prosecutor argued for the sentence to be reduced from “theft” to “attempted theft.”

But when the court of appeals heard the case, they radically upended the decision. This wasn’t worthy of punishment, they argued. In fact, taking food to stave off hunger should not even be considered a crime.

The judges wrote that the food had been taken “in the face of the immediate and essential need for nourishment.”

They also rebuked the entire process that brought this case before them–an attempt to take less than €5 of food went through 3 rounds of court hearings.

Italy, like large parts of the world, is coping with a recession. Each day, 615 people in Italy fall into poverty, according an op-ed in response to the ruling, many of whom struggle to find housing and food. Forgetting about these people is not an option, the piece argued.

Another op-ed argued that the ruling aligned with one of the most fundamental pillars of Western legal thinking–the concept of humanity that says a person’s dignity should be protected and that dignity rises when basic needs like food, water, housing and security are met.

On one level, this ruling attempts to return sense, discretion and an appreciation of context to criminal justice. Why, after all, was it necessary to spend so many resources to punish a man suffering from hunger, especially when this punishment will only deepen his poverty? Why not, instead, provide food for this person?

On another level, this ruling is a radical rethinking of human rights. Sure, it connects to ancient ideas of “humanity,” but these ideas have never fully been practiced on a large scale. The thought of a homeless person walking into a grocery store and just taking food without paying for it is, in a way, a radical affront to the market-based logic that rules most societies. If you want food, you pay for it just like everyone else, right?

Then there’s a more mundane explanation to all of this. Recently, Italy passed a law requiring all sellers of food to donate unsold food to charities rather than throw it away. So this decision may have been made under the aegis of the new legislation.

But even still–in a world of abundance, should the vagaries of circumstance–job loss, illness, traumas–ever leave a person without the ability to get food?

When grocery stores around the world are stuffed with food, is it moral to allow someone to suffer from hunger?

These are challenging questions that strike at the core of many societal arrangements. But they’re questions that are worth asking, and finding some compromise for, in a time when inequality is rising and more people find themselves in economically distressed situations.

Globally, 795 million people do not have enough food to lead normal, healthy lives. Many more people struggle to buy and find food every day.

It’s unlikely that this ruling in Italy will lead to widespread theft from grocery stores and it’s cynical to suggest that a breakdown in the rule of law will follow (as some critics have suggested).

The more likely result will be an evaluation of what really matters in life and how much another person’s humanity should be respected.

In an ideal world, there would be consensus that a person’s dignity is the top priority in any situation and from there other rules based on other, secondary considerations would apply.

Read More @ Global Citizen

May 4, 2016May 4, 2016 by steamgcc Categories: Culture, Environment, Food Science, Humanity, SustainabilityTags: Arizona, Glendale Community College Leave a comment

CONCERT BAND & SYMPHONIC WINDS @ GCC

When	Tuesday, May 3, 2016, 7:30 – 9 p.m.
Where	Performing Arts Center
Contact E-mail	william.humbert@gccaz.edu
Contact Name	Bill Humbert
Contact Phone	623.845.3726
	Directed by Bill Humbert Free & open to the public

May 2, 2016May 2, 2016 by steamgcc Categories: Arizona, Arts, Culture, Event, GCC, Music, STEAMTags: Arizona, Bill Humbert, Concert Band & Symphonic Winds, Glendale Community College, Glendale Community College Performing Arts, STEAM Leave a comment

Photography Exhibit @ PAM

http://www.phxart.org/exhibition/ffbb

What is still life? Although at its most basic still life is an assemblage of inanimate objects, historically the term refers to artworks that engage with concepts of achievement, ephemerality, and mortality. They rely on symbolic objects to suggest impermanence: flowers, fruit, books, bones. The English term “still life” contrasts with the French term for the same genre, nature morte, literally “dead nature.”

Unlike paintings, which are primarily intended as artworks, a still life photograph may originally have been made for another purpose. In Flowers, Fruits, Books, Bones: Still Life from the Center for Creative Photography, the exhibition features photographs initially made as descriptive documents intended for a range of uses, from advertisements to teaching aids. Regardless of intention, the exhibition explores how photographers use the characteristics of the medium such as focus, abrupt framing, and detailed description to extract, isolate, and describe their subjects. They direct our attention to shapes, textures, details, edges, colors, negative spaces, shadows, and unexpected angles.

A more common genre in paintings, the exhibition includes paintings from Phoenix Art Museum’s collection, inviting viewers to examine the ways photographers have approached the still life genre as compared to their painter counterparts.

Each of the works invite the viewer to slow down, to leave our normal lives behind, if only for a moment, and lavish our attention on each of these unique objects. For a moment, in the gallery, all motion, all life, is stilled.

April 30, 2016April 30, 2016 by kbennes Categories: Arizona, Arts, PhotographyTags: Arizona, Center for Creative Photography, Phoenix Art Museum, still life Leave a comment

CESAR CHAVEZ FILM NIGHT

When	Wednesday, April 27, 2016, 5 – 8:30 p.m.
Where	SU-104E
	MEChA will be hosting a special screening of the documentary Harvest of the Empire: A History of Latinos in America in honor of Cesar Chavez’s birthday this month.

April 27, 2016April 27, 2016 by steamgcc Categories: Arizona, Cinema, Culture, Event, GCC, STEAMTags: A History of Lantinos in America, Arizona, Cesar Chavez's Birthday, GCC MEChA Club, Glendale Community College, Harvest of the Empire, STEAM Leave a comment

DÍA DE LOS NIÑOS CELEBRATION

When	Tuesday, April 26, 2016, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Where	Central Mall
	El dÍa de los NiÑos/El dÍa de los Libros (Day of the Child/Day of the Book) is a celebration based on childhood and literacy that began in 1997. Borrowing from the traditional Mexican holiday “El dÍa de los NiÑos,” the American version expanded to include literacy when acclaimed author Pat Mora took up the cause in 1997. A year later, the U.S. Congress officially designated April 30 as “Day of the Child.” Members from GCC’s MEChA Club will set up games to celebrate this event.

 

April 25, 2016April 25, 2016 by steamgcc Categories: Arizona, Culture, Environment, Event, GCC, Reading List, STEAM, STEMTags: Arizona, Dia de los ninos, GCC, Glendale Community College, MEChA Club, STEAM Leave a comment

FAFSA WORKSHOP

When	Monday, April 25, 2016, 12 – 2 p.m.
Where	B-104
	Assisting student with FAFSA applications online.

April 25, 2016April 25, 2016 by steamgcc Categories: Arizona, DIY, Event, GCC, Scholarships, STEAM, STEMTags: Arizona, FAFSA Workshop, Glendale Community College, STEAM Leave a comment

Volunteer Orientation

Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona

Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona is the only nonprofit organization in Arizona delivering creative and therapeutic arts programs to abused and homeless children, ages 3 to 21 years.  Established in 1993, Free Arts offers four distinct programs and serves more than 8,000 children annually. We partner with 32 child welfare agencies, spanning 100 + sites throughout Maricopa County, including group homes, crisis shelters, residential treatment facilities, and unaccompanied minor programs.  Since our inception we have provided creative healing services to more than 95,000 youth. The dedicated adult volunteers and employees of Free Arts are proud of our twenty-one year history of consistently and compassionately providing quality programs that result in changed lives for vulnerable and neglected children in our community.

Become a caring, adult role model and Free Arts volunteer today!

Volunteer Opportunities Include:

• Mentoring a group of children at a group home, shelter, or treatment center for one hour a week through artistic expression

• Supporting children for one day art events at places like the Phoenix Art Museum, Desert Botanical Gardens, and Arizona Opera

• Assisting children to create, heal, learn and grow during our Summer Camp Series!

All volunteers start by attending a Volunteer Orientation.

These one hour, no obligation orientations are held each month at our office located at 103 West Highland Avenue Suite 200 in Phoenix. Join us to learn how you can give your time to Free Arts and make a difference in the lives of our community’s most vulnerable children.

Click here to learn more about Free Arts.

* Due to facility restrictions volunteers must be 18+

Official Link Provided: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/volunteer-orientation-registration-9469829515?aff=FBAPR

April 25, 2016April 25, 2016 by steamgcc Categories: Arizona, Arts, Culture, Event, Interdisciplinary, STEAMTags: Arizona, Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona, Glendale Community College, Phoenix, STEAM, Volunteer Leave a comment

INFLUX Public Art Project in TEMPE, AZ

INFLUX Public Art Project in TEMPE, AZ

I’d like to announce that my ‪#‎influxaz‬ project is up -All Credits given to Casey Farina. on ‪#‎HaydenMill‬ in ‪#‎Tempe‬.‪#‎publicart‬ ‪#‎projectionmapping‬ ‪#‎raspberrypi‬ ‪#‎influxcycle6‬ ‪#‎generativeart‬‪ #‎CityofTempe‬ ‪#‎downtowntempe‬

Cascade.Erode.Construct. is a video installation that abstractly explores the history of the iconic Hayden Flour Mill. The Mill’s proximity to water (the Salt River) is an integral part of its identity as a Tempe landmark. The movement and erosive power of water form the fundamental structure of the animation from which new forms are constructed. The visual artifacts that remain on the north wall of the Mill are isolated and reinvigorated by the projected light. The animation was created by using a digital image of the wall as the input for a variety of algorithmic processes. The installation repeats every ten minutes between 8:00 PM and 1:00 AM on the north wall of the Hayden Mill. Casey’s research was facilitated by John Southard and E. Hunter Hansen in the Tempe Historic Preservation Office and Jared Smith at the Tempe History Museum.

This project was funded through the City of Tempe Municipal Arts Fund with the support of the Tempe Municipal Arts Commission.

https://vimeo.com/163623598

Thanks,

Dr. Casey Farina

April 22, 2016April 22, 2016 by steamgcc Categories: Animation, Arizona, Arts, Cinema, Culture, Digital Culture, Interdisciplinary, STEAM, STEM, TechnologyTags: Arizona, DownTown Tempe, E. Hunter Hansen, Glendale Community College, Hayden Mill, John Southard, Salt River, STEAM, Temepe Municipal Arts Commission, Tempe Historic Preservation Office, Tempe Municipal Arts Fund Leave a comment