Hi! My name is Julia Styles. I have always been full of ideas and advice (just ask my little brother), but my professional idea generating skills were first noticed by my prior co-worker and current employer Darin Eich. We were co-coordinators for the Graduate Student Collaborative at the University of Wisconsin. Now I am happy to say that I have been generating ideas for Brain Reactions for more than a year.

I love thinking about how people work together, and how to put together a great team. That has lead me to be extremely interested in personality tests. I have taken many.

On the Personality Index I am a sail which means I am a leader and I like getting things started.

On the Myers-Briggs test I score an ENFP, which means I am extroverted, intuitive, feeling and perceiving. More or less it means I get energy from being around people; my decision making comes from my gut rather than weighing all the pros and cons; I like variety, challenges, and opportunities to learn; and I am emotional, personable, and talkative.

My favorite personality test of all is from “Now, Discover your Strengths” by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton. The authors have come up with 34 dominant themes or talents. The test determines what your five dominant talents are. This is a great book for anybody that wants to find out how to describe their strengths to others. You might even realize you have talents you never knew were useful. Anyway, my talents are in strategic planning, communication, ideation, activation and WOO (winning others over.) As I job hunt, these themes help me describe my talents in descriptive ways.

I realize that my identity goes beyond a test. So here are some other things you might like to know about me:

I love to travel and live abroad. I worked in the border-city of Juarez, Mexico for three summers. I studied at the Catholic University in Santiago, Chile. I attended a bible school in Amsterdam, Holland. I volunteered in Israel and Germany. I have also traveled to Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. My traveling inspired my degrees. I have a bachelor’s degree in Spanish Literature and a Masters in International Public Affairs. My dream job would be leading groups of Americans to foreign countries to volunteer.

No Comments | Pro Brainstormer profiles | Email Article | Share on Facebook | del.icio.us | digg this

What’s up ladies and gents, my name is Anshu Khanna. I got involved with BrainReactions when I was looking for a job this summer, and happened across a listing on the UW website for an “administrative assistant.” After meeting with Anand, we decided to combine those administrative duties into an internship, and I worked over the summer with Darin and Niranjan on some business development stuff for BR. Since then, I’ve become more and more involved with the brainstorming side of things, which definitely beats trying to type the hundreds of ideas you brilliant people come up with in a matter of just a few hours. Having been involved in many different facets of BR, I can honestly say that it is truly amazing how important your work in these brainstorms becomes to the success of the company, and how amazing a job everyone does. It’s difficult to imagine how many ideas you are able to churn out and how these clients use them, but everyone should be proud of how easily they are able to work together and put together such an in-depth yet wide-spanning forum of ideas. I just felt like getting that off my chest, and since this is a BR blog, it’s probably an appropriate place to do so.

Anyways, back to me…I am majoring in industrial engineering here at UW-Madison, with a certificate in Business. I’m involved in the Institute for Industrial Engineers, as well as intramural basketball, football, softball, hockey, tennis, dodgeball, ultimate frisbee, and of course sports trivia bowl (you might say I’m a fierce competitor). My life essentially revolves around school and sports- if you want to talk Badgers, Packers, White Sox, Bulls, Duke or Kansas basketball, or Allen Iverson, I’m your guy. I also enjoy long walks in Ogg Hall and rap music.

I thought the Nicole quote idea was really good, so I’ll leave you with a few parting words from a certain James Jones:

“I wear a mean dark pair of shades, and you can’t see my eyes unless my head is bent, ya DIG??
We fly high, no lie, you know this- BALLIN
Foreign rides, outside, it’s like showbiz.”

No Comments | Pro Brainstormer profiles | Email Article | Share on Facebook | del.icio.us | digg this

Well hello there. My name is Peter Vila (but my friends call me Pete), and I’ve been in Madison for quite some time. I finished up my double major in Molecular Biology and Philosophy in 2005. After doing some cool work with stem cells as an undergrad, I decided that bench science wasn’t for me (I’m way too social to be stuck in a lab playing with gels and cells all day) and I really don’t know what I learned from my philosophy classes, so I thought I’d change things up a bit.

I decided to go to grad school for public health at the last minute, because I thought this would be a good way to stay in a health-related field (I’m med school-bound) and yet learn some other interesting things about health and our health care system. So I’m working on finishing my Master’s in Population Health in May, and I’ve gotta say that it has been a great two years in grad school. I’m currently waiting to hear back from med schools for this fall, and if all goes according to plan, I will be starting med school in August…ish. I’m also looking for stuff to do this summer…I’ve applied for some public health internships in D.C., but I’m pretty much open to doing anything interesting that will involve learning and will keep me interested for the whole summer.

I’ve been involved with BrainReactions for a couple of years now, and it’s really been a great experience. Being sort of ADD myself, I can’t think of a better way to be productive while totally catering to my creative and spontaneous side. Speaking of creativity (here goes my ADD…what, shiny things? where?) I recently took the Myers-Briggs personality test, and apparently I’m an ENFP. For the uninitiated, the E stands for Extroverted (vs. introverted), the N stands for iNtuition (meaning I interpret the heck out of everything around me…everything has a meaning), the F stands for Feeling (I am rather idealistic and tend choose my words carefully rather than telling people the cold, hard truth), and the P stands for Perceiving (which basically means I am spontaneous and tend to accomplish things in bursts). Anyways, the reason I got off on this tangent is because one bit of advice the Myers-Briggs people offered to my personality type was that I should be in a career where I can exercise my creativity. I’ve never really thought about this before, but I think this is something very important that I need to think about in the future.

Well, you asked, so I told. In addition to school and student organization stuff (I do a bit of everything), I’m really into music. I very much enjoy writing music (as Darin so often likes to point out, yes, I wrote Misdirection, as he’s been known to play before some brainstorms) and have been really into improving my songwriting recently. As with most songwriters, the songs that we tend to write are influenced by the music we listen to, and I’ve currently been on a big discovering-new-bands streak. After my little affair with new music, I’ve decided to settle down and be serious with a few indie artists: Sufjan Stevens, Andrew Bird, and Midlake have been getting some serious airtime on my iPod. So naturally, my songs have taken some influence from these bands, and I’ve been spending a lot of time (perhaps too much) writing new stuff and tweaking it little by little. Perhaps I’ll try my stuff out at an open mic sometime…my friends have been giving me good feedback about my newest stuff.

Still reading, huh? Well, I’m going to have to conclude this endless soliloquy and get back to work. I don’t get paid to write blogs, after all. Happy brainstorming, and I hope to catch you in the storm sometime soon!

-Pete

No Comments | Pro Brainstormer profiles | Email Article | Share on Facebook | del.icio.us | digg this

I’m Alison Readler and will be going into my last year next fall as a double major in Industrial Engineering and Economics. At school I was initiated into Alpha Phi Mu, the industrial engineering honorary society, as well as Theta Tau, a professional engineering fraternity. In Theta Tau, I held offices such as Rush Chair/Pledge Trainer and Academic chair, where I started a computer accessed exam file for the members. Currently, I am not brainstorming as I am on my second session as a co-op for Hamilton Sundstrand in Rockford, Il. My first term, last spring, was as a manufacturing engineer on the plant floor working on constant speed drives. This term I am in Space Land and Sea (SLS) working on safety and ergonomics for many of the products such as the Spearfish Torpedo Engine, Poseiden missile, and the Space Shuttle. I hope to maybe attend a few brain reactions on weekends if able to drive back, but mostly will be back next fall to continue the storms.

No Comments | Pro Brainstormer profiles | Email Article | Share on Facebook | del.icio.us | digg this

Good morning - by way of introduction, I’m Scott Daigger, VP of Operations for BrainReactions. Professional interests of mine include innovation, Gen Y, and human resources. Interestingly, these three factors/groups will be driving forces for organizations for the next 40 years. Innovation is everywhere. If you’re reading this blog, you probably already know this fact. Gen Y, we are seeing, is an emerging powerhouse, and will make up an enormous portion of the workforce in years to come, effectively leapfrogging Gen X within a few years. Human Resources comes into this picture, as organizations will need to adopt effective workplace strategies to both create and foster a culture of innovation, as well as recruit, develop, and retain Gen Y employees.

As a result, along with this blog, I’m dedicating a website and individual blog of my own to exploration of these topics. You can find the website and blog at http://www.YInnovateHR.com and http://yinnovatehr.blogspot.com/

Finally, for introductory purposes, my bio is included below. Looking forward to exploring and learning together!

BIO:
Scott Daigger serves as Vice President of Operations for BrainReactions, LLC. Scott has served in an array of professional leadership and human resources roles, and has received numerous awards and accolades for his leadership experience, including being inducted into the Association of Alumni and Friends of WURHA, nominated for the UW-Madison Excellence in Student Leadership Award, and inducted into the National Residence Hall Honorary. Additionally, Scott has served as president of the UW-Madison Entrepreneurship Association, and UW-Madison chapter of Sigma Iota Epsilon, an honorary professional management organization which won the national chapter of the year award under his tenure. Scott has also worked independently as a speaker for various organizations, presenting on leadership, goal-setting, and interpersonal relationships, earning several international awards for his workshops in the process. Prior to joining BrainReactions, Scott worked to connect entrepreneurs and early-stage investors as part of the Wisconsin Angel Network, and served in leadership and human resources roles at Strong Financial Corporation and the University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation. He is completing his MBA at the University of Wisconsin (anticipated May 2007) with a concentration in entrepreneurship, and holds a BBA from the same institution in management and human resources.

Scott’s resume is available at http://www.yinnovatehr.com/about.html

No Comments | Pro Brainstormer profiles, Managing Generation Y | Email Article | Share on Facebook | del.icio.us | digg this

My name is Nick O’Brien, and I am a student at the University of Wisconsin- Madison trying to conquer the two majors Chemical Engineering and Theatre/ Drama- Acting Specialist as well as a certificate in leadership.
I have been with BrainReactions from the very beginning and have been a top- rated pro for some time. I currently act as Chief Operation Officer of the BrainReactions Entertainment Sub-division.
In addition to BrainReactions, I have received notoriety as an inventor in the University of Wisconsin- Madison Engineering School’s Schoof’s Innovation Competition winning the Grand Prize in 2005 with FireSite, and the Matthew Younkle Best Technical Presentation Award in 2006 with FlexiGobo and Light Target. In business I have placed as runner- up in the UW- Madison Business School’s Steven G. Burrill Competition, and as Honorable Mention in the State of Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Competition.
In the Theatre, I have been in two shows on campus, The Rover and God, as well as in a few small independent movies one of which was seen at the Walker Art Center’s Battle of Underage Film Competition.
Other activities I engage in on campus are playing intramural hockey, football, softball, and soccer as well as being a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity and a writer for the Wisconsin Engineer Magazine.

No Comments | Pro Brainstormer profiles | Email Article | Share on Facebook | del.icio.us | digg this

Hi all! My name is Nicole Rybeck and I’m a third year student at the University double majoring in Industrial Engineering and French as well as pursuing two certificates- leadership and technical communications. I am currently serving as the President of our engineering student council (my picture can be viewed here! and as a writing editor for Wisconsin Engineer Magazine. You should definitely check out both websites! WE Magazine has a lot to offer online. We have some amazing archived articles that give readers a glimpse into the history of UW-Madison and how engineering gradually established it’s niche within it’s structure.

I first came to discover what BrainReactions was after attending the LeaderShape Institute with Anand (who was our on-site coordinator at the time) and Nick O’Brien. Nick and I kept in touch and he told me all about BrainReactions and eventually helped convince me to be a part of it. I’ve been a member of the team since late spring/early summer of last year and have loved every minute of it! I even was part of the infamous rafting trip that took place in August of last summer. If you are curious, please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email (rybeck@wisc.edu). It was definitely one of the top ten most exhilarating and scary times of my life!

With classes back in session shortly, I’ll be trying to gear up for an amazing semester! I’m hoping to find a great life balance for the semester and manage to find time for the things I love (painting and sketching, figure skating, snowboarding, visiting my friends out of state and baking to name a few!)

Hopefully, I’ll be putting in a lot of time at BrainReactions before I move to Milwaukee for the summer and fall of 2007. I’ll be on co-op with Harley Davidson there for the months of June-December following a three week backpacking adventure through southern Europe! After that, you can bet that I’ll be back in action with BRxns.

This is getting a little long-winded so I’ll leave you with this quote that always makes me think of the BrainReactions experience:

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.
-Edward De Bono

No Comments | Pro Brainstormer profiles | Email Article | Share on Facebook | del.icio.us | digg this

Hi, I’m Mark Supanich and I’m a Pro Brainstormer. Aside from that illustrious heading on my CV, there are many other things about me that I’ll describe here in my profile.

I’m a third year graduate student in the Department of Medical Physics at UW-Madison focusing on dose reduction techniques for X-Ray imaging. My background is in experimental astrophysics. I spent over 6 years in that area including 3.5 years at UW-Madison as an Undergrad in the Physics department, from which I graduated with comprehensive honors in 2001. If you ever need a cryogenic system designed to get you down to 250 mK, I’m your man.

Aside from doing the physics and brainstorming thing though, I’m a compulsive reader of the news, literature and philosophy. I also consume vast amounts of music (particularly jazz), movies, and pop culture tidbits. Basically, I’m a force to be reckoned with when it comes to Trivial Pursuit.

No Comments | Pro Brainstormer profiles | Email Article | Share on Facebook | del.icio.us | digg this

My name is Dan Larson. I am a BrainReactions veteran. I’ve known Anand and Co. since 2002. I have participated in live brainstorms, I produced the BrainReactions DVDs when that was part of the product offering, and now I look forward to participating in the blog. I graduated in May 2005 with a degree in Consumer Science. I worked for GE Healthcare as an IT Project Manager after college and now I am a consultant for the data security company SafeBoot Inc.

No Comments | Pro Brainstormer profiles | Email Article | Share on Facebook | del.icio.us | digg this

Before I begin writing regularly, I thought I would take Anand’s advice and post up a little bit about myself.

My name’s Brian, and I’m going into my second semester at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where I’m currently studying Math with an emphasis in Economics. In my spare time, I enjoy cycling, baseball, video games, reading, writing, and anything having to do with computers and the internet. I also write for my own blog and administrate a popular Metal Gear message board. I heard about BrainReactions through one of my S.A.s first semester, the one and the only Tim Miller, and have really enjoyed my experiences brainstorming thus far. This blog is a great idea, and I look forward to contributing!

No Comments | Pro Brainstormer profiles | Email Article | Share on Facebook | del.icio.us | digg this