Blog Entry 3 1/10/2012

For setting up the main presentation to present to the public, I feel as if less would be better and being as simple as possible so the public will be able to fully pay attention with little distraction. I'll probably make at least 1 or 2 poster boards as a visual display while presenting with one maybe being a data chart. Even though the poster boards will be a source of visual representation, I believe it would also be beneficial if I were to add sample pieces of the materials I am discussing to give the public a more hands on approach so they will know what I am trying to explain way more clear. The dress attire for the presentation would have to be business attire because this is a governmental and economical issue therefore, you want to present yourself as serious as possible to pass on to the public so they will be aware this is a serious and important topic. For that actual speaking portion of the presentation, it would be really important I include cost, the benefits, and stats. To help further the project, making a brochure to hand out to the public to take home with them will probably be a big benefit because you are giving the audience a condensed version of the presentation you just gave them so they can give it to people who ask about the presentation or just look back over the issue again which will keep them aware at the least. I also plan to incorporate some forms of media which would be videos and I plan to have a short series of public service announcements as another form of visual representation that cold give a more clear understanding to parts of the audience that aren't able to clearly understand the actual presentation.

Blog Entry 2 Multimedia Capstone 1/5/2012

To make my goal come to real life, I decided to create a website that will host Public Service Announcements that will bring awareness to our community and hopefully will initiate a movement to make this change. I'm thinking about making my site a tone of green to represent the environment since I am making a motion to make the automotive industry environmentally friendly or "green." Along with the green background theme, I would like to also incorporate something that also represents the automotive industry so people will be able to instantly identify the point I am trying to get across. I find it appropriate if I approach this project with a serious attitude because this is a serious issue in our nation and I believe if I approach it in a comical, humorous way, people will over look the main motive I'm trying to portray and will instead focus on the humor. To get my point across and clearly understood to the public, I will provide several facts comparing the 2 different arguments in my project (polymer composites and plant fiber composites). If I am able to provide these facts in a clear and simple way for people to clearly understand, I feel this will grab the public's attention and make them aware and maybe have them go out and tell others about this. Along with the facts I will provide on my website, I will also do a series of Public Service Announcements giving a visual representation of my project and also providing an alternate way of persuading people to share the same the same motive as I do. Other visual representations I might also incorporate in my website might including some graphs to show different stats to also give a clear description of what I am trying to explain. My intentions of this website is to raise awareness to the public of this issue and hopefully will result in a more massive motion to make this change take place.

Blog Entry 1 Multimedia Capstone January Term

In today's times, our nation is moving to make our community green. The way we are making this motion is by going paper free in schools, making products out of recycled materials, and making hybrid vehicles which run off electricity. The one place we should all have our cross hairs on is the automotive industry because they are the leading factor to the green house effect and pollution in our nation. If we really want to make this nation environmentally friendly then we should make some important changes in our automotive industry. I feel the biggest and one of the most vital changes would be to replace the polymer composites that are used as the main material when making the body and panels of cars and trucks. These composites are non renewable and non biodegradable, therefore meaning they will not break down into the soil when the life of these composites have reached it's end. What we can use to replace these composites like fiber glass and carbon fiber would be using plant fiber reinforced composites. Plant fiber reinforced composites are made out of cellulose based plant stalks like hemp, flax, etc. Along with these fibers, we could use coconut oil or corn oil to replace the polymer resin as the adhesive to hold the fibers together. Making this change would result in making the composites 100% biodegradable and renewable. With this change being environmentally friendly, this new material will be cheaper to produce and will be just as strong if not stronger that the polymer composites. Making this change would greatly reduce the amount of waste that goes into land fills and non renewable waste from vehicles. Also making this change could also result in the movement of using this new material in several other objects that use plastics. If this were to happen, everything could very likely become biodegradable and completely environmentally green.
I decided to target this issue because I am majoring in Mechanical Engineering and I have a undying passion for cars and making them faster, and along with this, making cars more green and thought a major issue in our community is making vehicles environmentally friendly.