From devoured meals to deep dives into simulation theories, this is our little corner of the internet – a cozy digital nook where Team Nexus shares our journey. No rigid schedules, no corporate fluff — just genuine curiosity and a sprinkle of chaos. Who’s Team Nexus, you ask? Well, let’s dive in.
We’re a group of graduate students, each armed with different skills and a shared appetite – for both food and knowledge. Meet the crew!
To begin with, we have Shannon – the Project Manager, keeping us grounded and in check. Then there’s Mark, our Software Engineer, converting yuzu to code and with a brilliant sense of humour. Followed by Claudia, a Designer whose creativity gave life to our beautiful thumbnail. And finally, Anoop, the Storyteller, piecing together the puzzle of our adventure. What ties us together? Food. Whether it’s hunting down the best Korean fried chicken in town, experimenting with cuisines, or talking for hours after a good meal, our love for eating is as strong as our love for brainstorming.
Lights, Camera, Team Nexus
One of the first tasks as a team was to create a short introduction video. We decided to keep it short – to be fun, a little quirky, and a lot of us. We brainstormed over coffee, prototyped over snacks, and landed on a frame we all love. The idea was simple: highlight our diverse cultures, shared interests, and of course, our foodie bond. From scoping out locations, to planning our messages, to laughing through the actual shoot, it was a blast. Oh, and if you haven’t watched it yet, check it out on our homepage, go give it a watch!
Exploring Water: The Opportunity Cards
With the video behind us, the next exercise we worked on was exploring water-related issues in our communities. After an initial overview and some help from the US Environmental Protection Agency, we picked out topics each of us had a personal connection with, while making sure that there isn’t too much of an overlap to cover more ground. This was a part of the “Problem Exploration” phase, and this was where we had to teach ourselves to just explore, and not jump to solutions. This took a bit of time to get used to, but we eventually got there. This becomes a part of what we call, “The Opportunity Cards,” a card that we could hand out to help an 18 year old understand what the problem is. And yes, it’s an 18 year old and not an 8 year old, and there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for that. The exploration phase should ideally be really long, and that’s what phase one of this program is going to be about.
Here’s a few of the water issues we explored. And feel free to leave a comment with any ideas you might have we should consider.
- Microplastics in Hudson River – With over 7 million microplastics entering the Hudson River on a daily basis, could we repurpose them sustainably?
- Harmful Algal Blooms in Central Park – With 51 poisoning cases reported in 2015 alone, what’s causing these blooms, and how do we stop them?
- Non-Potable water reuse project in Brooklyn – Despite 400,000 gallons of water being available through this project, no one wants to use it. Why?
- Oil Spills in Hudson River – Although the largest oil leak in the Hudson river was 45 years ago, there have been 13,000 cases of oil spill reported in 2024 alone. We wanted to understand the causes, and identify potential places of intervention. What’s going wrong?
- Flood Gates at the East Coast Resilience Project – With the newest projects for coastal resilience being remotely operated, what risks do they pose to local neighborhoods?
- Oyster health and population – With oyster populations in the Hudson reduced to just 10% of their former numbers, how can we help them thrive again?
Altogether, we identified 12 distinct problems, which we then took to CERN’s two-week intensive, diving into a world of physics, tech, and endless possibilities.
Reading, Watching, Learning
The problem space being as big as it is, required a little more reading, and we did this through books, podcasts and even a few movies. And we promise we binged through every single episode. The reading included a lot of interesting topics including terraforming, legal challenges to consider when settling on a different planet, challenges in space travel and more.
The Journey’s Just Begun
We hope this helps you understand the process, and stay tuned fellow curiosity seekers! This is just the beginning for team Nexus, and we promise this is going to be anything but boring!
By: Team NEXUS
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