Interviewed and written by Trina Moran   When we give back to a community, it is felt locally. When we give back to the planet, it is felt on a global scale. For Radu Postole, serving the community and the Earth go hand in hand and has become a career. A recent graduate from UBC’s Integrated Engineering program, Radu is a systems engineer for SunCentral and a volunteer engineer for the Tetra Society of North America (a non-profit organization that creates assistive devices for people with disabilities). At SunCentral, Radu is a project manager and operations engineer. As well, he oversees various design concepts. Currently, he is working on solar tracking technology that uses sunlight to light office space. This concept utilizes mirrors on the outside of office buildings that track the sun, lenses that concentrate the sunlight, and a light guide to pipe the concentrated light into the depths of the building. Electric lighting is also used in this method, but is instantly dimmed when the sun shines, making this a hybrid energy source. It also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. The process is instantaneous. Therefore, the sunlight outside is instantly converted into the lighting used inside. Human benefits to this hybrid lighting system include a better workplace environment and a connection to the outdoor environment. Now, I know what you’re thinking: Vancouver = Rain city. Also, with hydroelectricity available in this region the cost for electricity is low. This specific type of hybrid energy source is marketable to regions that experience longer, frequent periods of sunlight throughout the year (California, Spain, Portugal) where hydroelectricity or other affordable energy is not always an available option. Overall, Radu’s goal at SunCentral is to further develop this concept so that it becomes a readily available option for...

  Graduated from Emily Carr University 2012 as an industrial designer. He is passionate about observing people’s daily needs and problems, whether psychologically or physically. Through the process of design thinking and hands on model making, he explores and cultivates creative solutions, which balanced between form and function, and also poetic solutions that enrich people life experience in an elegant and riveting way. His works encompasses medical product design, consumer electronic product design and furniture design. His graduation project, “funup”, a rehabilitation electronic product concept, explores the possibility of altering people’s unpleasant experience of the rehabilitation process into a more fun and engaging experience by utilizing state of art technologies. Currently, he is working on a series of hand made whirl threaded lampshades, which come in different shapes and colours that represent different stories and emotions of the maker. By immersing himself in the process of making, the repetitive motion not only focuses his mind, but also brought up memories and emotion of the maker. Through this work and design he wishes to share his experience and stories with people in a seamless but also direct, open but also intimate way. whirl lamp whirl lamp Bloom Lamp Bloom Lamp More About Adrian….GO...

‘Patriotism is identification with others in the ongoing life of a political community. The patriot is someone who looks ahead into a future where she hopes her community will persist and prosper, and also behind into the past of her people, a past which, by virtue of identification with her fellow citizens, becomes integral to her own story as well.’

  Joy Silver a retired elementary school teacher and a trainer of the Spirit Play How do we choose to live our lives? Joy Silver explores what being spiritual means to you. She explains us how the Spirit Play Methodology of telling stories can be used to model universal values and respect our interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. The stories can inform and inspire all children of all faiths to act in the world with compassion, to recognize what we have in common; and to understand our differences. An Interview with Joy Silver Video:...