Resana Science The 2007–2008 Review S. Hessam Moosavi Mehr
Led by Farid Khaheshi, Resana Science 2006–2007 reached unprecedented success with unexpectedly enthusiastic participation by first-year students. By the end of its term, though, 2006–2007 was seen as somewhat of a failure. Most new members had left the group, leaving the essential mission of maintaining and growing the community unaccomplished. Grim as the state of affairs looked, invaluable lessons were learned by analyzing the wreck to see what caused the earlier rise and fall: • Most first-year students are attracted to Resana Science solely because they find it difficult to socialize with their class, especially those of the opposite sex, outside a technical context. • Most new students lack a clear idea of what they are expected to do, aside from studying and turning in their homework, in an academic setting. ey turn to Resana Science amid their confusion to seek counsel, but later find it easier to focus on improving their GPA’s. • e community had become overly dependent on Farid, who directly or indirectly organized and directed most group activities. His subsequent leave, perfectly natural for a third year student, delivered a fatal blow and triggered more members to reconsider their membership. • Resana Science focused on transferring as much know-how to its new members as possible. Not as much attention was paid to providing budding new students with the essential academic skills and values that the university has proven constantly and consistently both uninterested in and incapable of providing the with. e general goal for 2007–2008 was thus set to • Establish a thriving, collaborative community of interested students. 1
• Help members equip themselves with the basic tools of research and group activity through advice, tutorials, etc. • Promote a decentralized, non-hierarchic, and honor/trust-based mode of administration to produce a self-sustaining community robust enough to easily endure loss of its members. • Encourage commitment to academic standards, such as honesty and giving proper attribution, which are painfully lacking among students in the faculty. Activities carried out during 2007–2008 are listed below. I tried to interfere as little as possible to further independence and give members the confidence to work toward subjects of their mutual interest. Most activities were in fact organized and conducted entirely by the new students themselves. • Getting to know technical journals, how to choose one to read • Finding one’s true academic interest and why it is important • Screening various recorded lectures and educational videos of general scientific interest • Learning how to program an AVR • Designing and building a line-follower robot controlled by an on-board AVR • Introduction to writing technical documents using LATEX • Introduction to quantum mechanics • Designing and building a precision, adjustable, high-power voltage source, controlled by an on-board AVR • Introduction to Linux and free/open-source software
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