Programing profit

“Let’s go to Amsterdam,” the group joked. “Let’s go to Mystic Lake and blow all of it on red” [for UMN Blockchain], Vice President of Communications Danny Bui proposed. The prize money felt out of reach going into LionHACK as underdogs against MIT, Princeton, UChicago, Harvard and Berkeley. Joking about how to spend the winnings was just that: a joke.

After UMN Blockchain’s first team won $7,000 from their division, Bui, a member of the second team, talked himself down: “we already walked away with a win…it’s okay.” The room fell silent after their second team won, bringing the group’s haul to $14,000. How much are Amsterdam tickets, again?

Hopefully, they could afford to upgrade from JetBlue. Flying out to LionHACK, a New York City-based hackathon/social coding event held in April, taught the club not to fly JetBlue. The airline lost Jacob Aune’s checked bag; he survived on hackathon swag until it was found. Flight delays turned a six-hour trip into 16 for Jin Kuan, the club’s now-graduated president and founder, and Brian Eide, the club’s new co-president; they missed the first day.

Finally at their New York hotel after the long haul, Kuan and Eide got to brainstorming hackathon projects. They came up with two solutions to the same problem and split into two groups of five.

The problem: guaranteeing liquidity/the capability to convert between cryptocurrencies.

“Healthy markets have a lot of buyers and sellers – that’s the traditional sense. You can make a transaction whenever. If you want to sell your asset, there will be a buyer. If you want to buy something, there’s always going to be a seller,” Eide said. “But with decentralized exchanges, there’s liquidity pools.”

Liquidity pools are collections of cryptocurrencies used for converting between different tokens for a fee; the fee goes to the liquid providers, who lend their tokens to the pool for conversions. 

The caveat: big price movements incentivize liquidity providers to withdraw their tokens from the pool – leading to lost liquidity, making markets panic, which exaggerates price movements.

The solution: locked liquidity. Liquidity providers lock their tokens in liquidity pools for a set amount of time, ensuring market liquidity. The teams’ solutions diverged in how they incentivized liquidity providers to lock away tokens.

If that explanation didn’t make sense, it’s okay: UMN Blockchain is here to help. Gustav Baumgart and Matthew Choi joined UMN Blockchain with little background, but through conversations, presentations and smart contract workshops, their knowledge grew. “I learned a lot just by surrounding myself with the people,” Choi said. 

“A lot of the smartest people from a bunch of different disciplines all come to the blockchain space to contribute their abilities, skills and knowledge,” Eide noted. “And that also applies to the club.”

UMN Blockchain so far

When Kuan began to break into the blockchain space, the people he met at online hackathons helped him along. “I thought it was eye opening how inclusive people are. You can ask any question on Discord and people get back to you in minutes,” Kuan said. “I wanted to introduce more college students to this experience.”

Kuan knew “it’s more valuable to connect people than go on your own.” After the University of Minnesota’s former blockchain-focused club – Cryptocurrency Club – fizzled out in 2019, Kuan re-established blockchain’s presence on campus. 

“As soon as there’s a club, there’s a community, and people grow together,” Kuan said.

That community was small in fall 2021, the club’s first semester: attendance never exceeded 15 people. “It was just a core group of people who enjoyed talking crypto,” Kuan said. The club tried out an online hackathon but didn’t complete anything.

The club expanded its advertising and started receiving University funding in spring – spurting growth and propelling them to the $14,000 win.

“All of these blockchain concepts are quite intuitive once you get behind the jargon, and they’re going to revolutionize finance,” Kuan said. And maybe even more than finance – how about digital dating?

The future of blockchain

Another college’s hackathon project was Tinder on blockchain; two people received NFTs and paired other people up. If a pair went on a date and gave it a good rating, the people who connected them got paid. 

“Crypto is one of those areas where every couple months, something’s the new fad. And then bam, it’s gone and there’s a new something you gotta be catching up to speed on,” said Abdullahi Abdullahi, a recent graduate and the “brain of UMN Blockchain,” according to Kuan. “It’s tough to do it solo. I’ve realized working in teams, conversing with others…just being able to communicate and share your ideas and hear feedback from others, that helped me a lot.”

Currently, Abdullahi is working on crypto trading algorithms. Whereas the stock market is crowded with large firms spending substantial sums to edge a profit out of the market, trading cryptocurrencies has far fewer players.

“I’m just trading [on] a lower scale in a crypto market because there’s a lot of edge in areas without a lot of players…an analogy would be you go to a poker table late – 2 a.m.-3 a.m. You see the drunk guys gambling, you have an edge. If you’re sober and clear minded, you can beat them…Understanding where your edge is, is always the most important thing.” Abdullahi’s edge is in crypto because blockchain has a limited talent pool.

“People with technical backgrounds, as of now, aren’t seriously considering blockchain as a career path,” Kuan said. UMN Blockchain has around half a dozen sponsors in “a community effort to raise awareness about blockchain being a viable career path,” Kuan explained.

Most sponsorships don’t lead to career opportunities, but Jump Trading, a sponsor for the hackathon and UMN Blockchain, liked Kuan, Bui and Aune’s hackathon project; they’ll be continuing work on the project for the company. 

While Kuan has graduated and moved on, Eide is taking over as co-president. UMN Blockchain, much like blockchain technology, isn’t going anywhere.

“What we’re witnessing in the blockchain space is similar to the internet boom – lots of things may completely revolutionize our life,” said Kuan. “I recently read about how the Agricultural and Industrial Revolution[s] were made possible, not necessarily by the advancements of technology, but rather by the way money, debt and credit were handled in society.”

People began tracking their transactions, which created trust for inter-city trade, and the invention of joint-stock companies enabled the Industrial Revolution. Now, with blockchain allowing the masses to manage financial records, as opposed to a single source, “we’re witnessing the next step in that direction,” Kuan said.

“We don’t know what this is going to do to society, but it’s definitely going to be here to stick,” he said. “And it’s going to change the way we think about money and economic justice in the long run. That’s what draws me to blockchain.”

Spring Jam returns, rebooted with more student involvement and free student tickets.

When this year’s Spring Jam organizers got to planning the University’s end of year extravaganza, they had a problem: “People didn’t like Spring Jam; the truth was people were not enjoying it,” Samantha Howell said, this year’s lead coordinator for Spring Jam.

The team of third-year students – Howell, Abbie Hengel, and Genevieve Krause – had never attended Spring Jam due to a two-year pause of the festival. After reviewing copious Spring Jam feedback and old comment sections, they chose to shift the festival’s format.

“We’re not a music festival, we’re a festival with music,” Howell said.

The focus changed from concert to community; highlighting what’s at the University as opposed to in-demand musical guests. With this shift, it felt natural to have Spring Jam host the Battle of the Bands finale, Howell said.

Party Foul, an indie-alternative rock group, is one of four bands competing in the finale. Composed primarily of first-year students, the band formed through Welcome Week activities.

Guitarist Alex Powell recalls how Battle of the Bands felt “like some faraway thing up until a couple months.” As they prepare for their biggest show to date, the band is churning out new songs on a weekly basis without letting the pressure compromise their process.

“We’re all bringing our same amalgam of fun ideas and lyrics, and puzzle-piecing them together to make fun music,” lead vocalist Abby Vela said.

To complement musical acts, Spring Jam will feature dance performances from student groups such as the Choreo Oreos. Combining multiple dance styles, eight choreographers and 20 dancers, this will be the Choreo Oreos’ first entirely original routine.

“I wanted to bring that creative aspect of originality to our dances, rather than copying off a video,” said Stephanie Ye, president of Choreo Oreos.

As a choreographer, Ye said she feels nervous.

“We’re still working on it every practice,” Ye said. “Our roster keeps changing with availability, so we have to change our formations pretty much every week.”

For some dancers, Spring Jam will be their first time on stage. As an experienced performer, Ye said she is excited to get on stage.

From a genre-diverse lineup of musical acts to dance performances, “we designed Spring Jam to make sure it has a little bit of something for everybody,” Hengel said. And designing for everyone means incorporating everyone — including student groups.

UMN Blockchain will be minting NFTs — yes, you can finally own an NFT — and helping set up crypto wallets.

“A lot of people hear about NFTs on the news, but how many have the chance to experience the technology themselves,” said the club’s president Jin Kuan.

Once you purchase an NFT, your ownership can’t be disputed; that NFT is yours unequivocally. That’s the utility of NFTs — proof of ownership. “Blockchain”, the underlying technology for NFTs and cryptocurrencies, “is as much about finance as it is about technology or even politics,” said Danny Bui, UMN Blockchain’s vice president of communications.

The Psychedelic Education Club will be installing a photo backdrop featuring their logo CNC-machined from plywood, an encircling flower mandala and branded records. Try to spot the Easter eggs scattered throughout their layered arrangement.

“That’s a psychedelic idea for me; the more you look into something, you see greater and deeper complexity. That’s what we’re trying somewhat to build into this photo backdrop,” said co-founder Zane Crabtree.

Hosting more than 20 student groups, Spring Jam “isn’t Coachella, isn’t Lollapalooza, we are a university and it is in a parking lot,” Howell said. “With shifted expectations, we can create an event that is fun, free, accessible and enjoyable for everybody. That’s the real goal this year; that has been the goal since the beginning of planning.”

Student tickets to Spring Jam are free this year. Head to Spring Jam’s website to claim yours.

Like an action hero establishing the stakes of a climactic stunt, the turkey surveys the gap it prepares to fly over. For a human, falling could lead to a broken bone or two, but we’re dealing with a turkey. It bends the legs, pounces with a flap of its wings and sticks the landing. For a bird weighing up to 30 pounds, it’s amazing they can fly.

 

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This is one of many stories chronicled on the @turkeysofumn Instagram page. Run by second-year students Amanda Ichel and Paige Robinson, the account is a steady stream of turkey hijinks.

Robinson was inspired by @turkeys_of_uw_madison (a comparably turkey-themed account for the University of Wisconsin-Madison) and asked Ichel to join her. Ichel, who is afraid of birds, said yes and has since come to appreciate turkeys. Now boasting over 3,000 followers, @turkeysofumn and campus turkeys are the cluck of the town.

Why have turkeys captured campus culture? It could be because a turkey’s head can swap colors between red, white and blue in a matter of seconds, but it probably isn’t the turkey’s innate patriotism captivating students.

Let’s go back to campus turkey origins.

Turkeys haven’t always had the beloved omnipresence they do today. In the 1970s, Minnesota traded ruffed grouse to Missouri in exchange for wild turkeys, according to David Andersen, a University of Minnesota professor researching birds. The turkeys were released in southeastern Minnesota and slowly established themselves.

“There’s not a lot of historical evidence there were turkeys in Minnesota, at least not very many of them,” Andersen said.

When turkeys began showing up on campus, Sally Noll, a University professor specializing in turkey nutrition, got frequent calls asking if the poultry turkeys had been lost. Of course, the poultry turkeys hadn’t gotten out; a new bird had arrived on campus: the wild turkey.

For fourth-year student Robert Glisky, it’s still a shock to see turkeys on campus. He followed @turkeysofumn because of “the novelty of seeing a turkey drew me into wanting to see more, and it hasn’t got old.”

It isn’t just students paying attention to the account. Official University accounts for Carlson School of Business, Boynton Health and the alumni association have all taken notice and commented on posts. Ichel even recalls a Thanksgiving when the professor of her 200-person neuroanatomy lecture sent her a Canvas message congratulating her and @turkeysofumn for being featured in the New York Times — the account had made it into a Thanksgiving article.

By posting turkey content, Robinson and Ichel have tapped into a deeply rooted Minnesotan oddity. However, they don’t consider themselves a part of campus culture.

“We are not part of campus culture. Instead, we funnel the culture of the turkeys; we provide an outlet for people who care about the turkeys,” said Robinson.

People have flocked to the account. A popular video nears 4,000 views and captures a turkey thoroughly inspecting and pecking the windows of Ridder Arena.

 

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“My suspicion is that the bird can see its image in the glass. It thinks there’s another turkey there, and that’s annoying it because he’s used to being in charge,” Anderson said. “He’s probably trying to harass the turkey that he sees in the glass, which is him.”

Encounters like this have mythologized turkeys. “They’re some mysterious godlike creature that roams campus,” Glisky said.

Creating mythic statures is core to turkey culture.

 

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It’s entertaining to personify turkeys with otherworldly capabilities plotting your destruction.

One St. Paul turkey even holds a grandiose name: Mega. After spotting Mega on Instagram, sophomore Taylor Boothe tweaked the name to Meg (short for Megalodon) and now sights him around McNeal Hall.

Turkeys are even portrayed as peacemakers; one caption remarks, “Turkeys are the only thing that can still bring people together in this day and age.” That may sound corny and dramatic, but it’s true for Robinson and Ichel.

“If we didn’t have the turkey account, we wouldn’t still talk,” said Robinson.

“That’s why we were friends,” added Ichel.

Collaging is synonymous with magazines and glue — the elementary school project that had you digging in the trash to find last week’s newspaper.

At “Stratified Silhouettes,” collaging has grown up. The abstract exhibit by four local artists in the St. Paul Student Center’s Larson Gallery presents a collection of layered compositions and is on display now until April 29.

Holly Kilander, a recent University alumna, is an environmentalist who came to the University to supplement her art curriculum with environmental classes. Recently, her art has been about “bringing the outside in,” she said.

“The Waste and the Method,” one of her pieces on display at Larson, explores landscapes through mixed media. She began the construction with aerial photos as reference, blocked out the form and then began choosing conflicting colors to put next to each other. “It’s grotesque in a sort of juicy way; it looks good, but something’s kind of weird about it,” she said about the colors. As the most traditional collage on display, the piece uses fabric, paint, netting and string on unstretched canvas.

Emily Quandahl, an avid classical violist and Minneapolis-based artist, has a degree in music, but one day decided music wasn’t for her and transitioned to visual arts. She admits the decision was less romantic than it sounds but carries a romantic spirit in her work. “I romanticize the world and simplify it down to colors in shapes,” Quandahl said.

Combining hard lines, fluid washes and traces of spray paint, Quandahl’s paintings are a dense collage of layered techniques with anywhere from 10 to 50 layers per piece. The layers don’t stop until she’s content, and if the piece isn’t quite working, she’ll add a couple layers of wash and start over.

With a visual medium, “I can say what I want to say without having to say anything. I never felt I had the ability to do that with music,” Quandahl said.

Igor Dukic, a Minneapolis graphic designer, sees music and art interchangeably: “Art is like making music: like layering of symphonies and different instruments,” Dukic said.

For his piece “Becoming Nobody,” inspiration came from 10 years of meditation experience and a meditative state he’s recently been falling into:

“I was nobody but I was one with everything, there was this oneness. On an atomic level, this energy can sink in the ecstasy of love. Everything would be illuminated, and my body would be the same as everything else,” Dukic said. “It would be this energy emanating and making all these forms.”

The piece depicts the silhouette of a face dissolving into a collection of colored blobs which Dukic refers to as the universal consciousness.

For Dukic, life is about finding who you are, and art comes from the subconscious.

Taking a deep dive into one’s self for inspiration was crucial to finding creative identity for aspiring tattoo artist Alexander Pollock.

When tough times hit Pollock, living out of his car and couch-hopping become a reality. At that point, “there were lots of opportunities for me to become a different person, but instead I focused on who I truly am — whether or not my environment was telling me to be that way,” Dukic said. Finding creativity and inspiration within himself allowed Pollock to be his own muse and get past artist’s block.

He began painting canvases out of his car, making use of an abstract and unconscious style. What started as collages of color, splatters and textures, later incorporated graffiti-style calligraphy to give Pollack’s art its signature contrast.

Want to try your hand at collaging the pieces together? Head to the gallery on April 15 at 5 p.m. for a jigsaw competition with puzzles based on the artists’ works.

“I like to think of collaging as real-life Photoshop,” Quandahl said. “It allows my brain to think — I can make another piece to this puzzle that looks completely different to the piece next to it, but it still works together.”

Looking for an art adventure? Try exploring Minneapolis’s public art scene.

While public art can feel sparse, with a prepared route, you can find murals in all corners of the city. For students in a time crunch, murals are just a couple blocks away.

From The Cedar Cultural Center to the Music Wall, this eight-stop trip around Minneapolis packs in murals of all sizes and styles while staying reasonably close to campus. I recommend biking to avoid frequent parking while keeping commute times to a minimum; however, the route can be completed on foot or by car.

Since many murals are painted anonymously, some artists couldn’t be located. All murals with a known artist have the artist in the description.

Stop 1: The Cedar Cultural Center

Meet your mates at the mural in the pavilion adjunct to The Cedar. Collaging West Bank architectural staple Riverside Plaza with the Metro Transit light rail and bordered with flags from Ethiopia, Somalia and beyond, this mural saturates your eyes with ideas. At its center, a fist morphing into the roots of a cityscape — a concise representation of Minneapolis’s resilient spirit. Artist Jordan Malcolm Hamilton works with youth groups to strengthen community relations through art. This mural was painted in collaboration with the Brian Coyle Center and Hope Community. What better place is there to start a tour of Minneapolis?

Stop 2: Parking Lot Trio

Make your way to the parking lot down the road past Palmer’s Bar. One wall of the parking lot features a giant shark, hot air balloons and an atmospheric diving suit. The other, a touching portrait of a parent helping their kid navigate crossroads. If you venture towards the back of the lot, you’ll find a mural of Minneapolis through the seasons.

Stop 3: Minnesota Varnishes Color Wall

Take your route of choice to 312 11th Ave. S for this feast of color. While not as intricate as others, this sheer wall of weather-worn color ranks among the rest for its vibrance. It's a jumble of overlapping and intersecting shapes against a grainy brick backdrop creating eye-catching simplicity.

Stop 4: Loon Mural

A couple doors down at 921 10th Ave. S is one of the newest installations on the list: a geometric depiction of our Minnesota state bird by artist Yiqiao Wang. From the waves of Minnesota’s lakes to the loon’s red eye, this mural emanates “land of 10,000 lakes” energy and brings a colorful abstraction to the common loon's familiar shape. In an artist statement on Periscope, Wang described the loon as holding a “hidden wisdom that something big and beautiful will happen.”

Stop 5: Positively Yours

On your way to stop six, take South Third Street, and watch out for this mural off the Chicago Avenue intersection. Flying against a sky blue background are butterflies, bees and dragonflies with positive words written on their wings. Balancing realistic insect compositions with surreal colorings complements the written constructive messaging.

Stop 6: Bob Dylan

Towering over the corner of Hennepin Avenue and South Fifth Street stands portraits of Bob Dylan at three stages of his life and the inscription, “the times they are a-changin.’” While the times are changing, Dylan’s presence throughout his home state of Minnesota has remained constant since he appeared on the music scene in the early 60s. Even before Artist Eduardo Kobra captured Dylan’s colorful yet stoic likeness, his image stood tall over the city of Minneapolis. Recommended viewing experience: standing close and marveling at the scale – it’s a challenge to view its entirety at once.

Stop 7: Baby I’m a Star

Just past the Orpheum Theater at 930 Hennepin Ave., is another mural citing a Minnesota music icon. Artist Greg Gossel inscribed the iconic lyric “baby I’m a star” as a subtle nod to Prince.

However, Gossel didn’t want to make the piece about anyone in particular: “I felt it was a better fit to leave the characters in the piece open for interpretation … I wanted people to be able to find what they resonate with.” What's most fun for Gossel is seeing a wide gamut of people connect with his work.

Gossel said he wanted to keep the mural “simple, bold and quickly recognizable.” Whether you're riding a bus or high up in a downtown building, Gossel wanted you to catch a glimpse and “absorb the whole piece.”

Stay on the lookout for Gossel’s return to the Minneapolis mural scene this summer; he’ll be painting an indoor piece and multiple outdoor murals.

Stop 8: Music Wall

On the corner of Marquette Avenue and South 10th Street is where our tour ends. While simple in concept, color scheme and execution, early photos of Prince and more recently Lizzo’s music video for “Boys” have used this wall of sheet music as a backdrop. Get your sights in while you can – the view may soon be blocked by an office tower.

Now that you’ve landed in downtown Minneapolis, why not explore a bit more? If you're looking for a snack to end the trip, check out Cardigan Donuts in the Minneapolis City Center. Or, if you’re looking for more public art, wander around a bit and see if you can find the wind turbine blade on display (it's out there).

The Whole Music Club welcomed performers of all skills and talents to a packed and welcoming student audience.

Since the Whole’s open mic night started on Zoom during the pandemic, the motivation behind the event has changed from simply engaging University of Minnesota students to being an outlet for novice artists to get a taste of what it’s like to perform.

For some performers, that taste is intoxicating; Nolan Litschewski, the planner of open mic night, said there are some students who return every month to perform in front of their peers.

Stowed in the basement of Coffman Union is the Whole Music Club: a space that brings the University community together through music. Worn blackboard walls and columns plastered with old flyers make the place feel more like a newly renovated maker space than a music venue.

Q Ho brought their handmade effects box setup to the event and was the only artist to unplug the microphone and captivate the crowd with just a guitar. They came to step outside their boundaries. “If I can handle playing in front of a crowd, I should be able to handle anything,” Ho said.

Jame Moua, a recent graduate, impressed the crowd with their use of a looper pedal to harmonize with themself. It was one of Moua’s New Year’s resolutions to attend at least one open mic night a week. Another resolution? Networking with artists. Moua came to the Whole to “try to connect with other people.”

Anirudh Ganesh had been looking for standup opportunities, and after their friend signed up to sing, they added themself to the list a day before the event. Ganesh then, quite impressively, wrote a full set about campus security the night before that came full-circle to a bit about mugging at spoon-point.

After the event’s over, artists will gather around, exchange information and chat about each other’s performances. Litschewski described it as like a writer’s round.

“Everyone’s just talking about the things that they loved about each other’s stuff,” Litschewski said. “[The performers] definitely, at this point, recognize each other.”

Part of open mic night’s draw is these connections between artists. As open mic night gets busier, people form more connections; that will eventually benefit them in their musical endeavors. Litschewski added that local recording studios have checked out the event before.

Just sitting in the crowd, there’s a sense of connection to the performers.

“Everyone’s sitting at a table and it’s a very intimate setting,” Litschewski said. This intimacy creates interactions between the audience and performer. During the most ​​unusual act of the night, a standup comedian had everyone pretend to laugh at the punch-line of a made-up joke so they could prove to their mom that open mic night had gone well.

What keeps artists coming back is the welcoming vibes. When performers finish their set, walking through the crowd back to their seat is a victory lap of compliments from those you’re trying to squeeze by. Even if you’re a new performer, “you never get the vibe that their performance is any different than the people who’ve done it every time,” Litschewski said.

“Open mic night is a lot of other students trying to find their way in the world,” Moua said. This connection between students is what makes Whole Music Club’s open mic night a uniquely supportive setting for performers and an engaging experience for the audience.

As for the future of the event, Litschewski said, “I want to see some juggling.”

Open mic night is a free event that will return April 19 with 7 p.m. doors and a 7:30 p.m. show, which is also streamed on the Whole Music Club’s YouTube channel.