Donostia Innovation Challenge Week

Last Monday we went to the Kursaal with the aim of gaining knowledge about the different technologies are being developed nowadays, as well as to get an insight on the ways cutting-edge products are usually presented.

Reception:
My first impression wasn't specially pleasing as they made us wait for an eternity outside (which turned out to be worth because they gave us water bottles). We finally entered and find ourselves a little bit lost at first.

Welcome speech:
A woman came and gave us a speech (a kind of welcome and informative one), accompanied by two men who were supposedly a bussiness man and a Council worker.
Then, we were assigned different bracelets with different colors, and we had to head to the room that had the light which matched with the bracelet's color.

Exposure of disruptive technologies:
My team had as topic the 3D printing, the use of modern printers that enable you to print real objects with an array of different materials. We, my teammates and I, were supposed to think about an issue that affects Donostia and its citizens. We could not think of anything but a handler for the plastic bags at first, but we finally came up with the great idea of a menstrual cup with an incorporated software that processes every little change it is happening inside your vagina.

Motivational talk:
After we had defined more deeply our revolutionary idea, we were asked to attend a motivational talk where a man (Iker I think, perhaps Iñigo) told us his experience being a short sized teenager. I understood what he was trying to tell us about self-esteem and attitude when it comes to deal with something, but I could not stand his example of a terrible experience, he was just 10 cm below the average at 13, as if he was not going to grow. I did not really enjoy the talk due to its lenght and the way it was arranged, but I do not think it was a waste of time for everyone attending the talk.

Design thinking methodology:
After some (personally useless) odd games, a man explained us how to create an elavorated design of our idea. Meanwhile, another man with a graphic tablet was schematizing every idea the first man explained. At the end, we got a complex scheme with all the ideas we were expected to take into account.

Lunch:
They gave us a sandwich with fruit (quite decent) and we, my friends and I, spent the spare time to play Twister, joyful if you ask me. I would rather go for a walk just to hover over the area and have an ice cream, but we were not allowed to leave the installation, shame on them.

Energizer exercise:
Once we finished eating and playing, we went back to our ideas, but first we played some rating games in where we were asked to rate our level of tiredness, energy, or even our love for chocolate.

Visual thinking:
Afterwards, they gave us a block of post-its to each group to stick them to the walls as we came up with new aspects for our menstrual cup. After a few minutes of hard thinking, we chose one of the ideas as the best one (mine, unsurprisingly), the app to connect the menstrual cup to one's mobile phone.

Team working:
As the experience was coming to an end, we had to write our ideas about the product on a paper, properly written to appeal the possible customers.

Presentation to the companies:
The crucial moment arrived, we had to present our idea to the bosses of two companies. We were hesitating whether they would like our idea or not. But they approved it and claimed it as unique, a total win!
To sum up the experience, I found it interesting but I reckon that it lacked in many aspects.

Video EDL (Dune, Alaia, Asier and I)

This time, we wanted to create a video that involved many European languages, as weel as the connections between them. This one was an amusing project, and we got down to work as soon as we were able to. Here I give an explanation about the process:

We were divided in teams, and I was matched with Alaia, Asier and Dune, which was an inspiring team.

Our idea consisted in creating our own show: Frinds & Relatives. The main purpose of the programme, in this special EDL edition, is to interview college students from different parts of Europe studying in the universities of UK. You would be for sure in awe due to the wide range there actually is. Moreover, it is expected that in the end of the show we will be presenting a special section, the Friends & Relatives' quiz show, asking some questions about different laguages.

Firstly, we decided to begin recording in Luberri's playground, shooting the scenes in different places of it.

As it is expected, we had to distrivute each one's role. Alaia offered herself to record everything. Asier thought to present himself to be the interviewer, and so  did he. Then, the only one's left had to be the students, so Dune and I took the roles as foreign students, without much complain.

Onintza, is a Basque student studying Economics, and as a good citizen, she likes the potato omelet.

Then was I, a Spanish youngster that apparently likes the UK, but why can not stan fish and chips.

Finally, together with Onintza, we find out a friend of her's, and you won't see it coming, she is German! Her name is Alaia, and she likes chucrut and potato omelet, the taste.

The editing process was tough, but we finally created a gorgeous artwork. Unluckily, we've had some issues. As soon as the video was edited, Asier accidentaly elimiated all the photos and videos used to create it. Then the app he used told him that the video couldn't be loaded as he didn't have the media requiered. He then decided to instantly look for a way to solve this, and after trying many methods, he wasn't able to find a solution to solve it. However, he'll upload the quiz show and the crashed video itself to see if you find something interesting in them.

Language challenge (with the French class)

This week we have done two kahoots with the French class about languages to see who knew more about European languages. The kahoots in English were made by our Audio-Visuals teacher, and the ones in French were writen by the French teacher.

The first one was in French, and to make things fair, we mixed up classes and split in 9 teams. At first the idea seemed exciting but as soon as the game started I got pissed off, I couldn't understand any question in french!

What worked me up too were the unproper manners of my teammates when it came to translating the questions, but ain't no tea ain't no shade.
We went through the questions in English easily, even though we answered properly just a handful of questions among 14.

We, as you can expect, didn't get to win any of the games, but no one can deny our joy during the proccess!

Donostia Inovation Challenge

1.Problem:

The first problem I could think of is the lack of public faucets, we all feel thirsty somewhen and, in my case, I am not able to find a tap to drink water. This may not be so important in winter, but it gets boiling in summer, and it mainly affects to the older people who just want not to faint due to the heat. I'd recommend setting in more faucets around the city, specially in the places meant to be for having a walk.

2.Problem:

Finally, we decided to follow Xabier's proposal and cope with the increasing traffic jams. A majority of workers of San Sebastian need to commute in order to get to their jobs. Their puntuality is always under control and so this transport problem afffects directly not only to their businesses but to their anxiety, damaging their mental healt, and affecting to their work-efficiency. This delays produce a lot of pollution as they make cars drive for hours and hours. 

They, the drivers, want to have the right to drive around the city freely as long as they do not pollute. To achieve this goal, we have thought of an app that not only will help to reduce traffic jams in a significant way, but it will suggest you the best routes and the utopical speeds you should drive with.

Exchange

Last week, we recieved a visit from some Germans who were taking part on an exchange programme, they spent a week in Donostia, and the last day they went sightseeing on Bilbao.

This made me think whether I would like to do the same or not (obviously I want), but I would prefer avoiding the part on the exchange where the other part of the exchange is supposed to come here and spent an entire week in my house, such a nightmare no matter how you look at it.

Anyways, I wouldn't complain too much because if I had the chance to go on an exchange to Germany (where I would like to go), the one with the worst side of the exchange would be the other one, having to cope with the local weather.

This course, however, we (the eleanitza students) are going in an exchange with Cerdenian students, and I am looking forward to it.

Your favorite film

The huntsman's legend: Winter's War

This american film was shot in 2016 and it is both a sequel and a prequel of the first one (becuase it tells the story before and after the first film). It is also the directorial debut of Cedric Nicolas-Troyan and the cast has some famous actors and actresses as; Chris Hemsworth, Jessica Chastain and Sam Claflin. The film is set in a foreign kingdom where a hunstman is asked to retrieve a golden mirror, where resides an evil golden queen that plans to conquer all the kingdoms in the surroundings. During his travel, he comes across with a pair of elfs, and then with a couple of fairies, who help him get the mirror. He also meets his beloved boyhood-girlfriend, who he though had died. They do not success on their mision and the mirror ends up on the hands of the Snow queen, Golden Queen's sister, who had ironically been like a mother for the heroes couple (the hunstman and his ex-girlfriend). The story concludes with the Snow Queen been killed by her sister while she was trying to betray her, due to her lingering feelings for her "children". That is when the heroes get to kill the evil Golden Queen at last, and the enjoy their happy ever after life.

YOU: The huntsman has defeated the Golden Queen for the very first time, and he lives his life peacefully, unbothered.
NEED: The new queen, Snow-white, requires him to collect the fishy mirror, just in case somebody can unlock the magic spell that keeps the villain trapped.
GO: He just sets off and spends the first days as planned.
SEARCH: The plot starts complicating when his supposed-to-be-dead girlfriend appears filled with rage, because she thought he has left her apart the day they planned to scape from the Snow Queens Childhouse (what turned out to be an illusion created by the queen to separate them both phisically and emotionally).
FIND:The outstanding finding is the re-encounter with his ex-girlfriend after all those years.
TAKE:He falls in love once again with her at the point he sacrifies himself so that she survives, even though he does not die, obviously.
RETURN AND CHANGE: As the story only tells you one important or pertinent fight, I have mixed both cases. The huntsman followed by a handful of soldiers kills the Golden Queen for ever and they procced to live their happily-ever-after life.