Month: June 2024

Why Fixing Websites Is a Growth Opportunity for Freelancers

For years, freelance web designers have been encouraged to book new projects. It’s how I built my business. I’m betting that many more have done the same.

There’s great appeal in building a new website. It’s a chance for a fresh start. You can use the best tools for the job. The experience is even better if you are unencumbered with technical debt.

It can also be a lucrative business – but there are challenges. You’ll need to book clients with a sizeable budget. You’ll also need to find a way to stand out among competitors. That’s one path to success.

There are other ways to make money, though. The growing complexity of the web creates a different opportunity for web designers.

Think of all the websites out there. Consider how many of them are “broken” or poorly maintained. An enterprising freelancer could train their focus on these clients.

Let’s examine the pros and cons of fixing websites.

An Opportunity Years in the Making

There is no shortage of virtual fixer-uppers. You don’t have to look far to see outdated and neglected websites. But why?

I believe much of it stems from content management systems (CMS). Tools like WordPress offer plenty of possibilities for a great website. However, they also require education and commitment.

Sometimes, an entrepreneur may attempt to build it themselves. But, they will soon find that they’re in over their head. Or they don’t know the ingredients of a stable and performant site.

Even those who hire a web professional can run into problems. That web designer may have done a terrific job. However, they may not have communicated the importance of maintenance.

Continued care is required to keep things running smoothly. Outdated themes, plugins, and core software will turn any site into a bucket of bolts.

Website owners aren’t likely to call for help until something is wrong. It appears to be a common issue these days.

I’m Not a Hero – Just a Web Designer

Longtime freelancers know the drill. You receive an email from a panicked website owner. They’re not a client. However, their site has crashed, been hacked – or maybe both. They need to get it fixed right away.

How do you respond? It’s easier to say “no” if you’re busy. Perhaps you have enough clients. But if not?

There’s an opportunity to play the part of hero. It’s also a chance to make money and establish a relationship.

Fixing this person’s site could lead to bigger things. Since you have their attention, you can use that time to make recommendations.

For example, their site may have other issues that need fixing. Things like accessibility and security could be lacking. Maybe they need a complete overhaul.

Helping a client in a difficult situation can create trust. It may be just the motivation they need to level up. You have a chance to guide them in the right direction.

What’s Lurking Inside That Website?

Website rehabilitation is not without risk. What you see on the surface is one thing. What lies beneath is another.

It’s among the downsides of inheriting a website. You’re stepping into uncharted territory. That often leads you down the proverbial rabbit hole.

Maybe the site was built using unfamiliar tools. Or it’s so riddled with malware that you can’t find the root cause. These issues aren’t for the faint of heart.

There are also questions about the client. How did their website get into this state? Did they have a poor relationship with their last designer? Did they pay their bills on time?

Sure, people can change. But you’ll want to find out why their site is in disrepair. You may find some red flags that scream, “Stay away!”

Perhaps this is the biggest hurdle for freelancers. The willingness to accept risk and dive in headfirst are musts. Not everyone will have the stomach for it.

Pricing is also a concern. Estimating the cost of a fix isn’t easy. So, develop a formula that protects you from taking a loss on a messy site.

Is This the Right Path for You?

Website maintenance services are popping up all over the place. They often consist of teams of developers ready to get to work. There’s a good reason for it. The market needs experts who can turn online garbage into gold.

It’s not as simple a path for freelancers, though. You’ll have to weigh the potential benefits against the drawbacks.

Signing up for these types of projects may take away from other opportunities. But they could be a steady source of revenue. You might also turn them into yearly maintenance clients. And you’ll also be in line to handle the inevitable redesign.

Still, looking at broken websites all day isn’t for everyone. The remediation process can be stressful. Meanwhile, clients are waiting with bated breath for a solution.

There’s plenty of business for those interested in this type of work. It’s unlikely to go away any time soon, as the way we build modern websites almost guarantees it.

The Single-Algorithm AI Chip

Plus a tremendous activity in funding activity in generative AI startups….

Biohybrid Robotics: Living Skin Successfully Bonded to Humanoid Robots

In a groundbreaking development, researchers have successfully bound engineered skin tissue to the complex forms of humanoid robots. This achievement is a significant leap forward in the field of biohybrid robotics, blending biology with mechanical engineering to create more lifelike and functional robotic systems. The breakthrough,…

Fliki Review: Supercharge Your Content Creation with AI

As a content creator, I know firsthand how tough it can be to keep up with the constant demand for fresh, high-quality content. Balancing quality and quantity is a never-ending challenge, especially when maintaining a strong presence across multiple platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. It’s…

10 daunting cyber physical attacks (and proactive mitigations) – CyberTalk

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Cyber physical attacks, which weaponize computer code to cause physical disruption or destruction, represent a growing threat, worldwide. These types of attacks tend to target water treatment facilities, power plants, transportation services, and other digitally connected, critical infrastructure-related segments of our society.

Years ago, cyber systems and physical systems had little-to-no interconnectivity. However, in recent years, internet-based systems have been employed, at-scale, to control physical systems and objects. Emergent cyber physical systems have sensors, computational capacities, real-time monitoring options, and automated components, among other (fancy and useful) things.

Experts have expressed concern around how AI could result in an era rife with cyber physical attacks. With greater technological advancement comes greater responsibility, one could argue. The challenge, at present, is that we’ve largely under-allocated resources to the protection of cyber physical systems. A rich discussion of cyber physical attack types and prevention modalities is to follow…

10 daunting cyber physical attacks (and proactive mitigations)

1. Water treatment facility threats. Cyber physical attacks on water treatment plants and systems are increasing and growing increasingly severe. Threats include potential contamination with deadly agents, as nearly occurred in the Oldsmar water treatment plant attack. Water treatment facilities, at least, in the U.S., have been notoriously slow to adopt adequate cyber security measures.

Mitigations: Experts broadly recommend that the water sector implement a multi-layered approach to cyber security. This includes rigorous network segmentation to isolate OT systems from IT networks, employing multi-factor authentication, monitoring network traffic and system logs, along with training staff around cyber security best practices.

2. Threats to industrial machinery. Although these threats have not appeared as frequently as water treatment facility threats, some of the world’s most sophisticated cyber criminals can target construction sites.

White hat researchers have proven that cyber criminals can potentially manipulate excavators, cranes, scrapers and other large pieces of machinery. Five years ago, Forbes noted that in the context of cyber security research, “cranes were hopelessly vulnerable.” Patches and work-arounds have been released, however some flaws may continue to persist.

Mitigations: To prevent cyber physical attacks on industrial machinery located in or near active construction sites, cyber security professionals should pursue a comprehensive cyber security strategy – with both technical and procedural elements. Products with integrated AI security, like this, can help.

3. Power plant threats/the grid. As the world moves towards smart grid technology, cyber physical attacks on such systems are growing in frequency and sophistication. And artificial intelligence can make the development and launch of these attacks even easier than ever before, according to experts.

Mitigations: One of the greatest challenges around power plant threats is actually lack of knowledge surrounding mitigation. Organizations need to ensure that all default passwords in systems have been changed to unique passwords. They also need to patch systems to the latest patch level. It’s also important to decommission unused systems. Employees need to remain aware of social media and social engineering threats. Contractors need to be held to high security standards…etc. The U.S. government’s comprehensive analyses and recommendations can be found here.

4. Transportation system threats. Transportation systems move millions of people and products across countries and continents everyday. Cyber physical attacks that target transport systems have the potential to slow down or stop the supply chain, preventing people from accessing essential, life-sustaining resources.

Mitigations: One issue within the transportation sector is the historic lack of resources devoted to cyber security and cyber physical threats. But as different transportation sub-sectors become increasingly connected, improved funding, comprehensive cyber security strategies and collaborative efforts will become essential.

5. Autonomous vehicle threats. Self-driving cars and trucks rely on a complex web of network sensors, AI algorithms and communication systems; potential targets for cyber physical attacks. Key vulnerabilities include sensor spoofing, exploitation of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, and malicious interference with AI decision-making systems, among other things.

In 2023, researchers demonstrated the ability to upend an autonomous vehicle’s driving abilities after placing stickers on road signs. This kind of trickery (or sabotage) can lead to misinterpreted traffic signals or misunderstood road conditions.

Mitigations: Explore this expert interview pertaining to connected vehicle cyber security mitigations. In addition, this EV cyber security risks and best practices article may be of interest.

6. Smart building system threats. While building-based attacks are rare at the moment, building system attacks are poised to become a serious problem. It’s not worth waiting for a catastrophe before taking action.

Modern buildings often have interconnected HVAC, lighting, access control and elevator systems – all of which are indeed vulnerable to cyber physical attacks, unless properly secured.

Mitigations: Cyber security professionals should first familiarize themselves with the inherent management system and its built-in security features (basics, right?).

Subsequently, professionals may wish to implement network segmentation. Systems should be regularly patched and updated. Security assessments at regular intervals are a must. In addition, implement strong access controls, like least privileged access, and monitor for anomalous behavior.

7. Manufacturing facility threats. Within manufacturing environments, Industry 4.0 has led to heightened levels of connectivity. On this account, cyber physical attacks could disrupt production, compromise product quality and/or crush profits. Operational adaptations, such as remote work adoption, have also increased the risks of cyber physical attacks in this sector.

Mitigations: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency recommends developing both a long-term and multi-faceted cyber security strategy. Manufacturing organizations are also advised to invest in training for both security analysts and those who are working on the ‘shop floor’. Those on-site should maintain cyber security and operational knowledge. Partnerships between production staff and security analysts should be facilitated and aligned with the organization’s risk tolerance.

8. Healthcare device threats. Cyber criminals have been known to target hospital-based IoT systems, implantable IoT systems, and personal wearable devices (like smartwatches).

To highlight the magnitude of implantable IoT security challenges, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, an American neurosurgeon, noted that former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney’s heart defibrillator had to be monitored ahead of implantation to avoid potential cyber physical terrorist attacks.

Mitigations: Because the healthcare cyber physical attack landscape is so varied, it’s tough to summarize mitigations in a single paragraph. For hospital-focused threat prevention insights, click here. For medical IoT (IoMT) cyber security insights, see our Buyer’s Guide.

9. Drone system threats. The proliferation of commercial drones has created the potential for cyber physical attacks of new varieties. We’re not talking about flying pizza that fails to land…Drone threats could result in disruptions to critical national infrastructure and could lead to public safety concerns.

Mitigations: Enterprises that leverage drones are advised to encrypt drone communication technologies. They should also deploy anti-spoofing and anti-jamming technologies. Beyond that, experts suggest establishing real-time monitoring capabilities for drone fleets with automated anomaly detection. These reflect just a handful of the cyber security tactics that can be put into place.

10. Quantum computing threats. While technology isn’t quite there yet, quantum computing may present a threat to cyber physical systems by making it possible for adversaries to break encryption methods used for sensitive data.

In turn, cyber criminals may be able to gain access to industrial control systems or other sensitive cyber infrastructure that could be used to incite physical damage.

Mitigations: Organizations may wish to focus on hiring talent that is familiar with quantum computing security. In addition or alternatively, organizations may want to participate in the development of quantum security standards, and help to establish best practices. As quantum technology evolves, stay informed.

Summary

To effectively prevent cyber physical attacks, organizations need to fully understand their own ecosystems; both digital and physical assets.

Comprehensive visibility into systems will enable organizations to prioritize risk mitigation efforts, allocate resources more effectively, and develop targeted strategies that address the most critical weaknesses in cyber physical infrastructure.

Also worth mentioning: A cyber physical security approach should also extend beyond internal systems as to include third-party vendors and supply chain partners.

For more on cyber physical attacks, click here. Lastly, to receive cyber security thought leadership articles, groundbreaking research and emerging threat analyses each week, subscribe to the CyberTalk.org newsletter.

📝 Guest Post: Designing Prompts for LLM-as-a-Judge Model Evals*

In this guest post, Nikolai Liubimov, CTO of HumanSignal provides helpful resources to get started building LLM-as-a-judge evaluators for AI models. HumanSignal recently launched a suite of tools designed to build production-grade Evals workflows, including the ability to fine-tune LLM-as-a-judge evaluators, integrated workflows for human supervision,…

Creating the crossroads

A few years ago, Gevorg Grigoryan PhD ’07, then a professor at Dartmouth College, had been pondering an idea for data-driven protein design for therapeutic applications. Unsure how to move forward with launching that concept into a company, he dug up an old syllabus from an entrepreneurship course he took during his PhD at MIT and decided to email the instructor for the class.

He labored over the email for hours. It went from a few sentences to three pages, then back to a few sentences. Grigoryan finally hit send in the wee hours of the morning.

Just 15 minutes later, he received a response from Noubar Afeyan PhD ’87, the CEO and co-founder of venture capital company Flagship Pioneering (and the commencement speaker for the 2024 OneMIT Ceremony).

That ultimately led Grigoryan, Afeyan, and others to co-found Generate:Biomedicines, where Grigoryan now serves as chief technology officer.

“Success is defined by who is evaluating you,” Grigoryan says. “There is no right path — the best path for you is the one that works for you.”

Generalizing principles and improving lives

Generate:Biomedicines is the culmination of decades of advancements in machine learning, biological engineering, and medicine. Until recently, de novo design of a protein was extremely labor intensive, requiring months or years of computational methods and experiments.

“Now, we can just push a button and have a generative model spit out a new protein with close to perfect probability it will actually work. It will fold. It will have the structure you’re intending,” Grigoryan says. “I think we’ve unearthed these generalizable principles for how to approach understanding complex systems, and I think it’s going to keep working.”

Drug development was an obvious application for his work early on. Grigoryan says part of the reason he left academia — at least for now — are the resources available for this cutting-edge work.

“Our space has a rather exciting and noble reason for existing,” he says. “We’re looking to improve human lives.”

Mixing disciplines

Mixed-discipline STEM majors are increasingly common, but when Grigoryan was an undergraduate, little-to-no infrastructure existed for such an education.

“There was this emerging intersection between physics, biology, and computational sciences,” Grigoryan recalls. “It wasn’t like there was this robust discipline at the intersection of those things — but I felt like there could be, and maybe I could be part of creating one.”

He majored in biochemistry and computer science, much to the confusion of his advisors for each major. This was so unprecedented that there wasn’t even guidance for which group he should walk with at graduation.

Heading to Cambridge

Grigoryan admits his decision to attend MIT in the Department of Biology wasn’t systematic.

“I was like, ‘MIT sounds great — strong faculty, good techie school, good city. I’m sure I’ll figure something out,’” he says. “I can’t emphasize enough how important and formative those years at MIT were to who I ultimately became as a scientist.”

He worked with Amy Keating, then a junior faculty member, now head of the Department of Biology, modeling protein-protein interactions. The work involved physics, math, chemistry, and biology. The computational and systems biology PhD program was still a few years away, but the developing field was being recognized as important.

Keating remains an advisor and confidant to this day. Grigoryan also commends her for her commitment to mentoring while balancing the demands of a faculty position — acquiring funding, running a research lab, and teaching.

“It’s hard to make time to truly advise and help your students grow, but Amy is someone who took it very seriously and was very intentional about it,” Grigoryan says. “We spent a lot of time discussing ideas and doing science. The kind of impact that one can have through mentorship is hard to overestimate.”

Grigoryan next pursued a postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania with William “Bill” DeGrado, continuing to focus on protein design while gaining more experience in experimental approaches and exposure to thinking about proteins differently.

Just by examining them, DeGrado had an intuitive understanding of molecules — anticipating their functionality or what mutations would disrupt that functionality. His predictive skill surpassed the abilities of computer modeling at the time.

Grigoryan began to wonder: Could computational models use prior observations to be at least as predictive as someone who spent a lot of time considering and observing the structure and function of those molecules?

Grigoryan next went to Dartmouth for a faculty position in computer science with cross-appointments in biology and chemistry to explore that question.

Balancing industry and academia

Much of science is about trial and error, but early on, Grigoryan showed that accurate predictions of proteins and how they would bind, bond, and behave didn’t require starting from first principles. Models became more accurate by solving more structures and taking more binding measurements.

Grigoryan credits the leaders at Flagship Pioneering for their initial confidence in the possible applications for this concept — more bullish, at the time, than Grigoryan himself.

He spent four years splitting his time between Dartmouth and Cambridge and ultimately decided to leave academia altogether.

“It was inevitable because I was just so in love with what we had built at Generate,” he says. “It was so exciting for me to see this idea come to fruition.”

Pause or grow

Grigoryan says the most important thing for a company is to scale at the right time, to balance “hitting the iron while it’s hot” while considering the readiness of the company, the technology, and the market.

But even successful growth creates its own challenges.

When there are fewer than two dozen people, aligning strategies across a company is straightforward: Everyone can be in the room. However, growth — say, expanding to 200 employees — requires more deliberate communication and balancing agility while maintaining the company’s culture and identity.

“Growing is tough,” he says. “And it takes a lot of intentional effort, time, and energy to ensure a transparent culture that allows the team to thrive.”

Grigoryan’s time in academia was invaluable for learning that “everything is about people” — but academia and industry require different mindsets.

“Being a PI [principal investigator] is about creating a lane for each of your trainees, where they’re essentially somewhat independent scientists,” he says. “In a company, by construction, you are bound by a set of common goals, and you have to value your work by the amount of synergy that it has with others, as opposed to what you can do only by yourself.”

Faces of MIT: Anthony Hallee-Farrell ’13

Experiencing MIT as both a student and as a staff member is unique. When Anthony Hallee-Farrell ’13, senior program and technical associate for the MIT Community Services Office (CSO), graduated from MIT, he immediately began his time as a staff member at the Institute, transitioning from a student worker to a full-time employee. As of today, he has been a member of MIT community for 15 years: four as a student and 11 as a staff member.

The CSO is part of Institute Events in the Office of the President. It supports the MIT Activities Committee (MITAC), the Quarter Century Club, the Association of MIT Retirees, and the MIT Community Service Fund. The CSO aims to strengthen the connections between the Institute and its community members, and to optimize the work-life experience for staff, faculty, and retirees by providing opportunities to participate in social, educational, and cultural activities.

When Hallee-Farrell was a senior in high school planning for his future, he had plans for a humanities-focused college experience. With his parents’ encouragement while visiting Harvard University, he stopped along the Charles River to see his brother, who was a computer science major at MIT. To Hallee-Farrell’s surprise, the visit piqued his interest in the Institute. “Everyone I met had an interesting story about what they were working on. The people really drew me in,” he recalls. Hallee-Farrell was also happy to learn that students who find their major in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) can additionally enroll in courses in other areas of study including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Having the ability to continue to develop his skills in those disciplines was important to him.

The summer before Hallee-Farrell’s first year as a college student, he worked as an administrative assistant with the federal courts in the northern district of New York. His job entailed scanning case files as part of a large project to digitize all the files in the district, an integral part of the project. After working at the courts, he knew that after he graduated, he wanted to continue to assist people who are passionate about their work. As a student at MIT, Hallee-Farrell continued to sharpen his administrative skills by working in the Admissions Office and Technology Licensing Office (TLO). While job searching after graduation, and continuing as a temp worker at the TLO, he applied for a full-time job at MIT and learned that the benefits are exceptional. He also wanted to remain in the Boston area and was excited when he landed the role.

After six months with MITemps, he joined the CSO. Initially, his role was a catch-all data entry and administrative position. Over the years, the job has expanded as the needs of the office have changed. What has remained consistent is that in the team atmosphere, Hallee-Farrell helps everyone. He is the one that his colleagues call on when there is something in the office that needs to be fixed, or if a project needs an extra hand. One day he is compiling RSVPs for upcoming events, and the next he is ensuring email lists are accurate for the next communication.

Being an MIT student and proceeding to become a staff member is not the only rare experience that Hallee-Farrell has had at the Institute. He was the only person who majored solely in literature in the Class of 2013 (the other five literature majors in his class were double majors). Therefore, he was the only student who walked for the Literature Section at Commencement.

Hallee-Farrell has been a supporter of the MIT community since he arrived on campus. As a student, he was involved with the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Student Services, also known as the Rainbow Lounge. For nearly 40 years, the Rainbow Lounge has been a place to hang out, plan events, and catch up with friends. During his time as a student, he was a part of a task force organized by students and the Rainbow Lounge advocating with senior leadership to have trans health care covered by the student health-care insurance with the hope of it also expanding to the employees.

As an undergrad, Hallee-Farrell recognized MIT’s importance as a research institution. Now, as an employee, he has an even broader sense of the magnitude of what it takes to keep the Institute running. His role not only helps to keep the CSO and their initiatives on track — it truly impacts the community at large.

Soundbytes

Q: What is your favorite event or project that you have been a part of?

Hallee-Farrell: Our department welcomes foreign dignitaries and governmental groups. There was a large project in 2016 for the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America proposal, in collaboration with a few other universities and the United States Department of Defense (DoD). Members of the DoD came to campus for regular meetings, including (then) Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. On Secretary Carter’s last day visiting MIT for this project, he gave everyone on our staff a challenge coin. I keep that coin in my wallet. I believe the only challenge coin that outranks one from the secretary of defense is one from the president of the United States. My dad works in the federal courts, so we share a dedication to federal service as an important part of our civic duty. At one point I thought I would go into governmental work, so I feel fortunate that I was able be a part of the project.

Q: What do you like the most about your job?

Hallee-Farrell: Being around people who enjoy their jobs and are doing important work. I really enjoy being with a group of people that help others succeed. The goal of the CSO is to keep people connected to each other. Whether it’s MITAC encouraging people to enjoy cultural events in Boston, or the Quarter Century Club recognizing people that have worked at MIT for a long time, or keeping connections active in the Retirees Association. Each of those are ways of keeping people connected to each other and to the Institute.

Q: What advice would you give someone who is about to start working in MIT?

Hallee-Farrell: It can feel daunting to start out, especially if you don’t have the context of having been a student at the Institute. Allow yourself time to get familiar with the Institute and don’t be embarrassed to ask questions. Many of your first moments on campus are spent trying to learn the things that you will use every day. It’s easy to forget that there is much more to discover that might be useful to you outside of your day-to-day. For example, you can go to the Ombuds Office and talk to someone about a concern or problem you need help solving. The MIT Community Services Fund can help pay for materials needed for a volunteer project you are working on. There are a lot of resources here.

From group stretches to “Hitting Roman,” MIT Motorsports traditions live on

While siblings Kevin Chan ’17 and rising senior Monica Chan may be seven years apart in age, as Monica Chan puts it, “we’re eight grades apart, so, like, eight life-years apart.”

Despite this age gap — Kevin left for college when Monica was in fifth grade — the siblings share remarkably similar experiences and interests. Both led subteams on the MIT Motorsports team, albeit eight years apart. Kevin was the electrical systems lead from 2015 to 2017, and Monica is the current software lead.

Founded in 2001 by Rich James ’04, SM ’06 and Nick Gidwani ’04, and supported by the Edgerton Center, MIT Motorsports designs and builds a high-caliber Formula SAE car to race in yearly competitions. Over the past 23 years, MIT Motorsports has built 19 cars, won 10 trophies, and has had hundreds of team members. Alumni are die-hard fans and established an endowed fund for their 20th anniversary to ensure the team’s longevity. In 2017, Kevin’s team won Second Place Overall at the Formula SAE Electric competition in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Kevin was one of two electrical engineering students on the team, and today Monica oversees a subteam of 10 students. The subteam expansion has facilitated the development of a custom telemetry system. “You can view live data coming off of the car that’s transmitted through radio, and we have a custom dashboard that we created with a custom PCB that transmits all that data now,” Monica says.

“It’s so funny to hear Monica talking about this, because when I was on the team, our UI [user interface] for the driver and everything was so simple. It was just a little, single-line display that showed the max cell temperature and minimum cell voltage,” Kevin chuckles. “And then we literally had a sticky note on the dashboard that was like, do not go above this temperature. Do not go below this voltage.”

While at MIT, Kevin kept up with his sister weekly, updating her on everything happening at Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE). “A big piece of advice Kevin gave me when I was a junior in high school was that you’re never too young to do something amazing,” Monica says. “He told me back then that ‘you’re not going to be much smarter two years from now than you are now.’ That piece of advice helped me get through high school and pushed me to do my best to do the hard and difficult things because indeed, it’s more about the personal qualities you have that push you to do the hard projects. Knowledge can always be acquired, but the drive is the harder part.”

Traditions are part of the fabric of the team culture. Their team stretch at the end of every meeting is an enduring tradition. “Everyone just extends their arms out while standing up and then does a squat. Then, they clap. This is just a thing that has been done on the team since before I was on the team. They said that the origin of it was the stretch that Japanese autoworkers do at the beginning of the day to stretch out their jumpsuits in the factory and make the knees a little bit more flexible. And it’s just fascinating, because this stretch is now almost 20 years old on the team,” Kevin says.

“Hitting Roman,” the day the car first rolls, is an important milestone. “When I was on the team, we were convinced that saying that the car was going to run was bad luck,” Kevin says. “We were trying to come up with a new term to replace the term ‘running car’ because we thought that saying the words ‘running car’ would make it so that the car never ran. So instead of calling it a running car, we called it ‘Roman Chariot.’” The name stuck, and Monica’s team hit Roman in April.

For Kevin, the spirit of Motorsports remains ever-present, as he shares his home with four Motorsports alums and collaborates with three Motorsports alums at Tesla, where he serves as a staff energy systems design/architecture engineer.

“FSAE and the Edgerton Center played a huge role in jump starting my career and my internships. I think there’s not many places where you can get both the breadth and the depth of the design process,” Kevin says.

For Monica, “Race car puts many things in perspective where you implement a lot of the things that you learn in class into a physical project. Sometimes I learn things through race car before I learn them in class. And then when I go back to class, it gives me a better physical intuition for how something works because I have experience implementing it.”

The team recently returned from the Formula Hybrid competition in Loudon, New Hampshire, where they finished first in design, first in scrutineering [mandatory technical, safety, and administrative checks], second in acceleration, third in the racing challenge, fourth in project management, and fifth overall. Edgerton Center Technical Instructor Pat McAtamney reports, “I’ve never seen a team complete a brakes test in one try.”

The Legend Of Zelda: Majora’s Mask Part 19 | Super Replay

After The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time reinvented the series in 3D and became its new gold standard, Nintendo followed up with a surreal sequel in Majora’s Mask. Set two months after the events of Ocarina, Link finds himself transported to an alternate version of Hyrule called Termina and must prevent a very angry moon from crashing into the Earth over the course of three constantly repeating days. Majora’s Mask’s unique structure and bizarre tone have earned it legions of passionate defenders and detractors, and one long-time Zelda fan is going to experience it for the first time to see where he lands on that spectrum.

Join Marcus Stewart and Kyle Hilliard today and each Friday on Twitch at 1:00 p.m. CT as they gradually work their way through the entire game until Termina is saved. Archived episodes will be uploaded each Saturday on our second YouTube channel Game Informer Shows, which you can watch both above and by clicking the links below.

Part 1 – Plenty of Time
Part 2 – The Bear
Part 3 – Deku Ball Z
Part 4 – Pig Out
Part 5 – The Was a Bad Choice!
Part 6 – Ray Darmani
Part 7 – Curl and Pound
Part 8 – Almost a Flamethrower
Part 9 – Take Me Higher
Part 10 – Time Juice
Part 11 – The One About Joey
Part 12 – Ugly Country
Part 13 – The Sword is the Chicken Hat
Part 14 – Harvard for Hyrule
Part 15 – Keeping it Pure
Part 16 – Fishy Business
Part 17 – Eight-Legged Freaks
Part 18 – The Side Quest Episode

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If you enjoy our livestreams but haven’t subscribed to our Twitch channel, know that doing so not only gives you notifications and access to special emotes. You’ll also be granted entry to the official Game Informer Discord channel, where our welcoming community members, moderators, and staff gather to talk games, entertainment, food, and organize hangouts! Be sure to also follow our second YouTube channel, Game Informer Shows, to watch other Replay episodes as well as Twitch archives of GI Live and more.