iD News and Blog

Fordham University Guest Blogger: Keeping iD Green

You know you are at iD Tech Camps when kids are getting excited about “protein folding”.

As a product of the Quaker education model, the act of incorporating service into the work/school day is a very familiar habit for me. At the Quaker school I attended, there was actually a five hour block built into our work week in which students could volunteer with different organizations, depending on the student’s interest. This was not only beneficial to the institutions we supported, but also served as a valuable hands-on opportunity for students to learn outside of the classroom walls.

So, as a believer in compulsory service, I’m delighted that iD Tech Camps encourages a variety of service related projects, the only difference really being terminology, here it’s “iD Greening”. I would like to take this opportunity to describe a service project that I’m very excited to have brought to iD Fordham, hopefully setting a trend for all iD’s to follow.

The project is called “protein folding” and I’ve been at it for about two years. On a regular schedule, my computer downloads a set of data, in my computers idle time (when a screen saver normally runs) my computer analyses that data and then reports it findings. All this information is passed to and from and organization called “Rosetta@Home” (http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/).

The data it’s analyzing are different amino acid sequences, which are the building blocks of the proteins that carry out virtually all functions of the human body. The amount of computing power which would be required to definitively map all these sequences is virtually infinite; hence, software such as BOINC (http://boinc.berkeley.edu/) allow people to donate their computers idle time to assist in this process.

By now, you are probably wondering what the significance of this data is; it is very significant. By defining potential 3-dimensional protein shapes we can assist in finding cures and treatments for some of the most threatening diseases in our world today. The organizations collaborating with this project are using this data to find potential cures and treatments for:

HIV

Malaria

Cancer

Alzheimer’s

(further research info at http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/rah_medical_relevance.php)

Members participating in Rosetta@Home are able to track their progress through credits; every set of data the computer crunches awards them credits. Some members even like to get competitive about who can earn the most credits in a period of time. There are two ways to increase the rate at which you earn credit:

1: over clocking your computers processor and/or using a very high end machine

2: combining the processing power of multiple users, all benefiting a single member account

For some time now, I’ve been running an account between my laptop and desktop yet I’ve always wanted an opportunity to deploy BOINC/Rosetta@Home on a much larger scale and harness the computing power of an entire office or even company. Since I started my account two years ago I’ve gained 3500 credits. The account I’ve started at iD Fordham earlier this week, FoldingWithiD, is installed on about 30 machines and will far surpass the personal credits I’ve gained, probably by the end of tomorrow.

The fun part about this project is that BOINC/Rosetta@Home has really cool visualizations; you can actually watch the protein shapes being folded. My overnight students and I had a BOINC/Rosetta@Home install-fest and then enjoyed trancing-out to the trippy visualizations of protein folding on 30 different monitors at once. Prizes were awarded to the students who could install BOINC/Rosetta@Home the fastest. My day students are eager to learn about the cool visualizations that replaced their default screensavers.

I hope that other campus’s follow our lead! We are all able to operate under the same account and the combine computing power of all of iD’s computers would be a dominating force within the folding community. It is also a very cool collaboration for iD as it allows all of iD’s locations to work together on a singular project spanning distance, time zones and potentially every single student’s computer!

To get involved:

1: Install BOINC http://boinc.berkeley.edu/

2: Attach BOINC to the Rosetta@Home project: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/

(optionally)

3: If you are an iD employee, e-mail FoldingWithiD@gmail.com for account info so that we can all fold for the same account and collectively earn credit for iD

iD Tech Camps at Fordham, we salute you!  Way to go!  Keep it up!  Thanks for making iD Tech Camps greener.  We thank you and so does the planet.  Every little bit helps, and you are doing your part!

-Pete

 

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University of Central Florida Guest Blogger: Keeping iD Green

At iD Tech Camps UCF, we take various measures to stay green. Whenever we leave our labs, whether it be for lunch or an activity, we power down all the computers, including the monitors and speakers. Also, we always turn off the lights.

We’ve minimized the number of garbage bags we use to one a week for all the overnight campers’ trash. Although we’re in Florida (it’s hot and humid), we try to respect the amount of energy the dorm room Air Conditioners use by not setting them on the High settings. Finally, we have been successfully recycling our, as well as the campers’ families, old ink cartridges and cell phones.

Next, we reuse, as much as possible, all our drinking cups.

Our commuter staff has taken to walking to work instead of driving, despite the heat

Be Green!

Low-power-consumption game:  Checkmate!

iD Tech at UCF, we salute you!  Way to go!  Keep it up!  Thanks for making iD Tech Camps greener.  We thank you and so does the planet.  Every little bit helps, and you are doing your part!

-Pete

 

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Wake Forest Guest Blogger: Things are iD GREEN!

The staff and campers at iD Tech Wake Forest have embraced iD’s green philosophy.  She also explains the importance of conserving energy by habitually turning off computers, monitors, printers and lights that are not in use. We have found that campers are committed to protecting the environment in all areas of their life.

In our staff’s opening greeting of new students on Sunday and Monday, Lead Instructor Kim S. routinely discusses the importance of recycling paper, aluminum and plastic, ink cartridges and cell phones.

Camper Zach C. sports a t-shirt sold by his class that supports the purchase of land to be preserved in the Rain Forest.

This type of environmental commitment is re-enforced by the abundance of recycling signs in the lab, and the easy access to recycling bins in the dorm and lab.

Week 4 Day camper Eli C., who brings his lunch daily, crushes his soda can and discards it in the recycling bins near the lab putting into practice the three Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle!

iD staff members walk or carpool for personal errands off campus.

Director Kathy rides her bike around campus to handle iD Tech business.

We use traditional kitchen ware & cutlery in our dorm kitchen that can be washed and reused.

iD staffers carry reusable coffee mugs and green iD water bottles to reduce waste.

iD staff members hang their laundry to dry instead of using the dryers.

iD Tech Camps at Wake Forest, we salute you!  Way to go!  Keep it up!  Thanks for making iD Tech Camps greener.  We thank you and so does the planet.  Every little bit helps, and you are doing your part!

-Pete

 

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UC Santa Cruz Guest Blogger: iD Greening

UCSC the Greenest of them all

Lab:

Motion Sensing Lights minimizes on time.

Nathan Green aka Acquired has written a script that controls all start up and shutdown of computers in the lab. This minimizes power draw.

Dorm:

All rooms have compact fluorescent bulbs (Maximum light and minimum energy use.)

All instructors have switched to Biodegradable Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castile Soap.

Showers are once daily. Toilets are low volume flush toilets.

Additive and dye free laundry detergent has been provided for staff. Staff combines laundry to minimize loads and energy usage. We used an empty dorm room to air dry our clothes.

Cafeteria:

Vegetarian and Vegan options are encouraged.

“Only take what you are going to eat” rule strictly enforced and rewarded.

“Salad and Vegetable” plates earned for tickets.

Recycling:

We separate and recycle cans, glass and plastic. Paper is sorted into mixed, color and white. Everything is then placed in its proper recycling bin.

Only 1-2.5 gallon jugs of water are used. After initial use they are refilled with filled water found on campus.

No disposable plates or plastic ware is used.

Others:

All overnight snacks are organic and purchased in bulk.

Director Skip Intro drives a 1985 Mercedes 300 SD powered by 100% recycled vegetable oil.

Laser aka Diane Ko drives a Hyundai Accent powered completely by love and appreciation.

We push Acquired aka Nathan Green’s 1992 Ford Explorer around = total manpower.

All Camp staff have declared a “Steel Strike” and will not shave this summer.

Activities:

Our lush and large campus assures that any CO2 we produce is turned into chlorophyll.

Lab to dorm walk is 1 mile. Overnight campers get a minimum of 3 miles walking per day! Day campers get 1.5miles not including afternoon outdoor activities.

Afternoon nature hikes are an option to campers. They are environmentally and historically informative.

This document is 90% true and recycled information.

iD Tech Camps at UCSC, we salute you!  Way to go!  Keep it up!  (Even if it is only 90% true).  Thanks for making iD Tech Camps greener.  We thank you and so does the planet.  Every little bit helps, and you are doing your part!

-Pete

 

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Photo of the Week, Week of July 4th

Hello iD Nation!

First of all, Happy 4th of July!

We looked at the summer computer camp photos today and selected some great ones.  This week’s theme was, naturally, the 4th of July.  There was a lot of 4th of July spirit across the country and it was fun to see the creativity.  For all the camps that participated in making camp a little something extra special this week–thank you.

The winning computer camp Photo-of-the-week: 

University of Miami.  Congratulations!!  Students and Staff at the University of Miami will have extra funds to spend at camp today and tomorrow!  Congratulations, guys!

There are a lot of great pictures posted at EVERY iD Location.  How do you view them all?

1)  Students/Staff:  Go to the iD Student Corner.

2)  Parents:  Log into “My Camp Account” .

Winner, Photo-of-the-Week, University of Miami

Please note the University of Miami photo was removed because it inadvertently offended some people.

Runners Up:

Stanford University, Fireworks

Northwestern University, Reenactment

University of Houston, Watermelon

UNC Chapel Hill, Lab Decorations

MIT, Fancy Photoshop

Colorado College, Patriotic Robot

Emory University, Patriotic Party

Have a fantastic week, everyone!

-Pete

 

Posted in Summer Camps | 1 Comment »