I explained to him that the Media Lab was a different part of MIT; they were looking for students with a diverse background of interests, not just engineering. Their feeling was that new discoveries happen when you apply knowledge from one field to solve a problem in another. I put together this portfolio to show the vastly different skill sets I brought to the table.
He looked at the table of contents, which included my NASA experience, many inventions, publications, patents, awards, a book, photography and photojournalism, the fact that I wrote the music for a children's play, that I was an elementary school tutor in college and a 'Big Brother' for many years. "Wow!", he said. "So did you get in?"
He was incredulous when I told him they turned me down two years in a row. "What on earth do you have to do to go there? Get a Nobel Peace Prize?"
I think I did him a disservice by sharing that story. Now he probably thinks MIT is unattainable.
Here's the full portfolio: https://friedmanarchives.com/~download/blog/MIT%20Portfolio%20smaller.pdf
(More after the photo.)
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In going through this for the first time in 30 years, I noticed these "Works in Progress" ideas, many of which I completely forgot about. (These are the kinds of ideas you capture before they evaporate if you have a Data Egg. 🙂 )
The Trustworthy Digital Camera ended up being patented. The Enhanced Voice Recognition is a great idea that I never pursued. The Adaptive Overhead Projector was never pursued yet is now a staple of every projector in existence (and of course I get no compensation). And the Holographic Optical Element is still a great idea but smartphone capability has pretty much eclipsed the quality that it would have produced.