Airplanes

In honor of this summer's blockbuster hit, Batman, we named our planes after the villains, Two Face and Joker.

Summer Research: Poster Session

El Corte De Madera Creek

Near Stanford is the El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve, part of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, a network of 26 preserves available for public recreational use. These are some pictures from the short hike we took.

Deni and Daryl

Sandstone Formations

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Summer Research

This summer I'm working on a research project at Stanford. Our goal is to build multiple planes, have them learn to fly autonomously, and demonstrate fuel savings by flying them in formation (like migrating birds). Here are some pictures of our first flight day this summer.

Garrett, our pilot, and the plane

Tim, another student working on the project, and the plane

Jeffrey, the plane, and Garrett

Favorite Photographs: Spring 2008

Manzanar, California

My View, Roble Hall, Stanford

Peju, Napa

Wine Barrels, Napa

Memorial Hall, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis

Memorial Church, Stanford

Flower and Tree, Stanford

Sandstone Column, Main Quad, Stanford

Palm Drive, Stanford

It's straight up hot!

Weather for Stanford, CA
Thu
Clear
103°F | 61°F

We're melting.

Why are we here?

Last weekend, as part of a student initiated course on Manzanar and the Japanese American Internment, I visited Manzanar National Historic Site, one of ten WWII internment camps used to incarcerate over 110,000 Japanese Americans. The following is a short reflection essay on the experience, required for the course.

Although the WWII internment is the most significant event in 5 generations of Japanese American history, for the most part, it had little impact on those not among the 110,000 forcibly relocated persons. So when I looked around at the others attending the Manzanar Pilgrimage, it was with interest and some surprise I noticed a diversity of people — all ages, religions, and races had gathered in the sandy desert heat to remember what seemed like a uniquely Japanese American experience. Former internees were there to tell a younger generation about the camp experience; parents brought their children to learn about the internment and experience Manzanar first hand; activists were there to continue the campaign for justice on behalf of Japanese Latin Americans internees; a group of Arab-Americans was present to build connections to a community that, 60 years ago, faced similar challenges of discrimination because they also "looked like the enemy"; a lifelong resident of Independence, a town 6 miles north of Manzanar, has been attending the yearly pilgrimage ever since she learned about the internment camps in the 1970's, 30 years after the last internee left Manzanar; and there were dozens more unique stories and reasons for visiting.

So of course I had to ask myself, "Why am I here? What is my reason for visiting Manzanar?" Perhaps I went hoping a journey to Manzanar would help me figure out what Manzanar and the internment means to a 4th generation Japanese American who grew up in a typical suburb, more American than Japanese, where, for many years, being Japanese American consisted mostly of having dark hair, eating rice, and going to a different church on Sunday. The pilgrimage also made me wonder what the internment will mean to 5th and 6th generation Japanese Americans when the direct, personal connection to the racism, injustice, and hardship of the WWII internment is gone. How relevant will this story be to the hundreds of thousands of people whose families have lived longer scattered across the country than in the west coast Japantowns of the early 20th century, when being Japanese American meant more than just having dark hair and eating plenty of rice? Will people think harder or pause longer because they had a great-great grandparent who, over a century before, was moved from one place they've never been to another place they can't imagine? Maybe. But maybe not.

I can't help but wonder if maybe distance can be a good thing. As time passes, it seems easier to look back at this history without shame or fear or anger and share the more universal message of Manzanar. The story of Manzanar and the Japanese American internment serves as a warning to the dangers that racism can pose to freedom and liberty and if the Pilgrimage made anything clear, it was that this is a lesson relevant to people of all ages, all religions, and all races. There wouldn't be a thousand people standing in the sun in the middle of the Sierra Nevada on the last Saturday in April watching a Shinto priest, a Christian minister, a Muslim imam, and a Buddhist reverend perform a joint ceremony commemorating the hardships endured over half a century ago by the Japanese American community if it wasn't.

Startup School Entrepreneurship

This past weekend I attended Startup School at Stanford. The event included an incredible lineup of fantastic speakers and was a refreshing take on entrepreneurship. It seems that a large part of the entrepreneurship education at Stanford seems to be directed towards answering the question, "How do I be an entrepreneur?" The answer to this question seems to be, "build something cool" or "build something that solves a problem." After spending a day with a hundred other techies, hackers, and general nerds, I realized that my interest in entrepreneurship stems from a line of reasoning that is exactly the opposite of this view. The question I ask is "how do I build something cool?" The answer: "be an entrepreneur."