It's almost August!!

Hi KosNet Friends

Before I noticed, it is almost August!! Wow, more than two months have passed since I reported winning the golf tournament. Well, I am playing a lot of golf in summer, but my score is not really good these days. I guess I got one chance and I took it.

The biggest news is that I gave a talk in ME317B class on June 4th. The title of my talk was "How to build the best and the happiest life system using ME317 design tools". Bold title, right? I wanted to share with students how I am using design tools Kos taught to maximize the value of my life. Yes, I use goal statement, customer value chain analysis (CVCA), structure tree, function tree, priority matrix, voice of customers (VOC) and other tools every day to choose the most value added action to enhance the value of my life. After all, who is the customer of my life? Me, right? So, I need to use design tools to listen to the voice of me, in other words, what my heart really wants.  I also thank to my friend Jeannie for her "receiving theory", which I use as my operating system. I made power point slides for the first time in my life by myself!! I am most grateful that students liked my talk. Yes, I now firmly believe that design tools exist not only to make good products, but also to make good life. I enjoyed the final presentation by students on June 6th and dinner afterwards!!  Now the quarter is over, I am trying to catch up with many administrative things we have been ignoring. One of the projects is to digitize Kos's library, and I am working on that!!  Well, I also had good trip to visit my friends.

So, I was not in cave and did a lot in past two months, and I am grateful for that.

Naomi

I love Golf

Hi KosNet Friends

I would like to share a great news with you. I won the Handicap Tournament at Stanford Women's Golf Club on May 12th. This really means a lot to me, since my name will be engraved on the glass board in Golf Club. It was a three day match tournament and my opponent at the final was D, who is my best friend at golf club. She, her husband, Kos and I went to Hawaii together in 2006. So, I felt that either she wins or I win, I would be happy. Well... I should be honest. I really wanted!!  But more than anything, I am happy that I was able to do my best. It was a really close match and I was always behind and finally caught up on 16th hole, tied on 17th.  On 18th hole, I was very lucky to sink a long put. I am grateful to D for such a great friend and a great competitor. She and I actually are taking lessons together, so we both are thankful to our coach.  I thank Kos for teaching me how to play golf and grateful that university gave me widow survivorship for membership. Initially, golf was such a frustrating sport for me and I did not like it.  I now love playing golf. It helps me to learn humility, though it will take a long way. I shot 89 two weeks ago, but yesterday, I shot 104!! So it comes and goes. I will keep on practicing!!  

Naomi

Visit by VIA

Hi KosNet Friends

 On Wednesday 2nd, we had a surprise visitor to ME317B. Sam!! He was a VIA (visiting industrial associate)  from N company in 2005 to 2006. He came JIT (just in time) to rescue me for changing the wipers. I did not know how to change it, so I have been using the original one for 6 years!!  No wonder it had squeaky sound. And where did we go? Of course, it is ZOTTS. Kos loved this hamberger place. When we were students, we went there many times by bicycle. It is famous for rectangular shape berger. Of course we had boat of fried potatoes, too. Sam then helped me with book project. Since we no longer have laboratory space, we are intending to digitize books so that we can save space. We have more than 30 boxes of books, you know. I found the company called 1$scan, that scan 100 pages for $1. But in order to bring books to this place, I need to go over each book to take out any post-it and erase pencil marks. Well, we went through about 100 books together. It was interesting to see what kind of books Kos liked. It seems numerical formulas were not his favorite. His favorites are more for ideas, design and inspirations. Thank you Sam for helping me. Without you, it would have been a very boring work.  

http://1dollarscan.com/index.php

Kos Ishii Fellowhip

Dear KosNet Friends

I met the first student who received Kos Ishii fellowship. He is a ME student with emphasis on design of Robot. I was able to visit his laboratory and see the work he is currently working. He is designing Human Friendly Robot with professors in Computer Science department and ME department. I am happy to find that he is interested in adding human element to the robot. I am sure Kos is happy to have him as the first recipient.

Spring Break

Hi KosNet Friends

Well, before I realized, Spring break is about to end. We had final presentation of ME317A on March 14th, followed by the get together at Dutch Goose, one of Kos's favorite places. During Spring break, I tried Bikram Yoga for the first time. Wow, what an experience!!  It is so difficult. I am so bad at balancing myself and my body is so stiff. I sweat like horse, but great to have shower after that. So, even though I am not good at this, I intend to continue. Another great thing I did was short visit to Yosemite. It was truly beautiful there. I would like to share some of the pictures. Kos climbed Half Dome while he was doing his Master's degree. I was fortunate to have great weather and it was the time for beautiful wild poppies.

Wedding

Dear KosNet Friends

Today, I went to Memorial Church to attend the wedding of one of Kos's former PhD students. It is always so wonderful to see young couple full of love and dream. Yes, I do admit I got a bit emotional, but it really uplifted me. I am grateful that Kos's students still invite me to wedding. I have another wedding to attend this year.  Well, that means I have to keep my shape!!

 

Three years since Kos passed away

Dear KosNet Friends

Kos with Phil at Graduation in 1987

It is hard to believe that three years has passed since Kos passed away. It is still hard and I miss him very much, but I am grateful that I can do more things than last year and definitely far more than two years ago (including writing this Blog). So, I am making a progress. I am using every design tool Kos taught to enhance the value of my life. CVCA, Priority Matrix, Value Graph, Functional Diagram, Structure Tree etc, etc. It is true that these tools are universal. These are the tools made to design for X, including design for life. So, I am grateful that Kos left me many precious gifts.

Naomi

Kos in Death Valley in 1986

Kos in Australia in 2006