- While considering my project ideas for Senior Thesis, I chose to view them as experiments instead of inventions. I know I won’t be creating something so cutting edge that it will land me on the cover of WIRED. My main goal is to take this time to reflect on everything I’ve done in IMM and how I’ve grown because of it. This leads to the strongest skills and interests I developed while taking classes:
– Strongest: 3D animation, design, photography
– Less strong but interested: programming, After Effects video editing
With these categories in mind, I’ve developed three potential project ideas.
- Animated Physics Simulation in Maya
This project involves learning Maya Bifrost, a physics engine that I’ve briefly worked with in Animation II, even though it never carried through to my final project. It would ideally be around 20 seconds or less of simulation experimenting with particles, liquid, smoke, and morphing states of matter.
2. Photo Series Book
One of my favorite courses I’ve taken was a photography class to fulfill a liberal learning requirement. I absolutely loved the idea of developing a themed photo series and communicating symbolism through the images. For my midterm, I developed my first photo series called “Dirty Pennies” where I found and photographed ten pennies with odd characteristics. I have considered taking this project a step further and publishing a book on the series, and add even more photos to the collection. Then I’d make a 3D photograph of each penny and create an exhibit where people can see a 360 view of all the pennies.
3. Interactive Spice Cabinet
So it’s probably no secret I love cooking at this point, and recently I’ve had some trouble finding the correct spices in my ever-growing spice cabinet. I came up with an idea to code a program where you can enter all the spices in your inventory so you always know what you have laying around. Whenever you cook something that calls for a floral or spicy flavor, the interactive spice rack with illuminate every spice that fits that specific profile. There could be custom settings too, for example if you make a meal and use the same spices every time for it, you can save them all to a group so next time you cook, it will be easy to find them all on the rack. For international cuisine, you can select a geographical region and there could be groups of spices that are frequently used in traditional cooking in that area that the chef can experiment with.
Hi!
Your thesis goal is broad and would benefit from more definition as any of your ideas fleshed out to any degree would allow you to reach your current goal. A goal should help you gain clarity on what actions you should take and more importantly what actions not to take. here’s some resources if this topic is interesting: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/smart-goal-examples-2951827
In the process of writing this response, I did this course to understand my instinct on effective goal setting and went through some of the exercises myself which helped me. : https://www.udemy.com/goal-setting/
Besides all the above, I find your write-up super interesting because the ideas seems to be most fleshed out bottom to top! Definitely see more excitement building up as you get to subsequent ideas. Here are some thoughts:
On idea #1: To me, this writeup seems to work backwards from a technology rather than an idea or problem. Sure, it’s cool to experiment with a new tool. But without a clear vision for what you want to achieve, you might struggle with knowing whether you have completed the idea or not.
On idea #2: Seeing more form here! Pro: you are sticking to your strengths. But is there an aspect you can add to this that would make it more stretch? Something you aren’t sure whether you would be able to achieve or not. That personally motivates me to perform better. Also think about the audience – Completed, newly minted book – what do you use it for? Who are you showing it to? Do you hope the audience gains something out of it? What’s the story you are telling?
On idea #3: +1 to combining various passions and pushing outside of your comfort zone in terms of strengths listed. I’m excited that it is be based on an actual problem. However, I would recommend taking a step back from execution and giving the problem of “finding spices in the kitchen” some deep thought. I sense there’s an unmet need there. “In a eyes occupied, hands occupied setting like the kitchen, how might we make it easier to locate stuff?” – I’m sure this is a problem felt not only by you but people across various demographics. Deep diving on the problem might allow you to come up with ideas even outside the one you have suggested above – Ex: a voice enabled skill on Alexa that works with a smart shelf to pinpoint where the ingredient is when a user asks for it.. idk 🙂
Hope that helps!
I remember you saying in class that you liked each idea equally, which could be extremely challenging in choosing which to work on for the next 7 months. I thought that your most unique and interesting idea was your last one! The idea is so cute and could be very beneficial to people who like to cook or those that don’t understand how certain spices affect different dishes. I can also tell that just by watching you talk about this project idea, that you love the idea and you’re so passionate about it. I can tell that you liked the other ideas as well, but when you talked about the spice idea, it was like your face just lit up with inspiration. In my head, I’m thinking that animations for physics has been done before, and you would have to do a lot more research to understand what others have done and how yours will be different. Your second idea really intrigued me with the symbolism of each dirty penny you find. As an artistic person myself, it resonated with me. However, some people may not be so invested in symbolism and may not understand the full idea that your project is trying to convey.
I’m really interested in seeing what you decide to go with and how your project will develop over the next several months. Good luck!
Since we talked a lot about your other 2 ideas in class I’m going to focus on the one I think got the least attention: the pennies.
Despite IMM being apart of the Art School here at TCNJ, I rarely see students make a sort of art exhibit/showcase. I think it could be really cool and refreshing to see a students pieces in their own mini exhibit. I would go all out with it and make it an interactive exhibit to show off how IMM and art collide. It’d be a fun way to make your own art show too and who knows when you’ll be able to do something like that again. It’d be a great way for you to take advantage of this being an open ended senior showcase! I’ve included a video on interactive exhibits and ways you could go about ours if you pick it.
We already talked about this briefly in person but I figured it’d be nice to summarize on here. All your ideas are great! But I agree that unless you present it in a way that is unique and interesting, the Maya effects idea may be the weaker of the two.
I also think your penny installation idea is most definitely an interesting take on an IMM thesis project. Just because it’s not a flashy demonstration of high tech doesn’t mean it doesn’t use have the same values. Again, this one is variable depending on presentation.
I love the spice rack idea, it’s a solid embodiment on the concept of IMM. If you could pull it off, it’d be a great project. I’d suggest really thinking about scope first, however, since it’s pretty ambitious and requires a number of different components like physical computing, mobile app dev and fabrication.
You have some really great starts, keep it up!
You heard me in class…. I love the spice rack idea 🙂 I like that a person might ask the rack a straightforward question, like, “show me the chili powder,” but also more fuzzy questions about spices that are suited to a particular region, or their current mood, etc. I think it would be an interesting exercise in information architecture to organize spices in those various, overlapping categories. You could work that out in software without even building the hardware, but I think you can handle the hardware side as well. As we mentioned in class there are probably several ways to do it… one being RFID tags on the bottles, another being a camera reading code on the bottles.