Unconventional Christmas lights jazz up college quad
Will Rice, McMurtry college project dazzles onlookers

BY JESSICA STARK
Rice News staff

The halls are decked both inside and outside for Will Rice and McMurtry colleges. But not with boughs of holly. Thanks to a group of Rice University students, the McMurtry College quad is decked in 8,000 Christmas lights, which blink on computer command.

"We couldn’t just put up Christmas lights," senior Michael Rog said. "The project had to be Will Rice-worthy. So Robert (Li Kam Wa), our resident electrical engineer, had the idea to set them to music."

To turn the idea into action, Rog and Li Kam Wa teamed up with Joe O’Gorman and Daniel Podder, fellow students who are among those from Will Rice living at McMurtry while their own residential college is undergoing renovation.

As the group began to set the musical light show up during finals, other students from Will Rice and McMurtry took a break from their books and pitched in. Under Rog’s leadership, about a dozen students wrapped six trees in the quad with 40 200-bulb strands of lights, while Li Kam Wa handled the electrical engineering and programming.

The lights turn on and off using four channels of USB-controlled relay switches with one or two trees per channel. The show uses custom-designed software, Flick, which plays back light actions on a timer, synchronized to recorded music. First the team used the A, S, D and F keys on a keyboard to prerecord light programs but expanded the application to allow live control via computer keyboard or Wii remote.

"We’re also working on a Web-based recorder so folks can create their own light shows at home for us to play early in the spring," Rog said.

Rog and Li Kam Wa plan to leave the software with Will Rice for further improvement and innovation. That should make the many students who have seen the show happy: about 150 cycled through its first night and several asked about starting a tradition around the idea.

"Robert has said many times, ‘You know you’re in the right place and the right major when your studies and hobbies are the same,’" Rog said. "I think it reflects well on the university at large, not just the colleges. But the college system does make it easy for this kind of thing to happen. There’s an atmosphere of intellectual curiosity in the first place, and there are good channels for providing funding for worthwhile projects. Most importantly, there’s community, camaraderie and a general spirit of goodwill, which is what ultimately drives projects like this."

The Will Rice Technology Committee funded the lights and relays, and Lisa Balabanlilar, head resident fellow and assistant professor of history, purchased the electrical cabling. Both Housing and Dining and Facilities, Engineering and Planning assisted in setting the project up.

To see a clip of the light show recorded by students, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Czlaxuhtkk.