Michael Panarisi
Michael “MJA" Panarisi (a.k.a. POP) is a "3rd year-3th year" 2017-2019 tipster who attended multiple TIP campuses over his time at the program. He, Bruce “Elijah” Fleming, and an Undisclosed Person (known by Michael) are some of the only people known to be able to do the “human GPS” trick. His passion for music, engineering, technology, and navigation has made him one of the most well known Tipsters in the Duke TIP Program, both by students and staff.
1st Year: Davidson Term I 2017
Being Michael's first time at Duke TIP, he did not exactly know what to expect from a summer camp environment. However, he had a wonderful time, and made many new friends, as well as exploring many new places and learning new lessons on making new friends, and learning about life away from parents.
Building Designs
Michael's class at Davidson was called Engineering Problem Solving. A few days before the term ended, Michael and the rest of the class were asked to design a building. As a result of this project, Michael soon came up for designs for more than 30 buildings, full aspects and architectural setup.
Star Center Marriott
Though the design was initially for a building of the same name and design in Tampa, Florida, the design idea has been moved to Miami due to Height Proximity. The Sky Center Marriott design shows a 55-story hotel / convention / sky-deck building with many aspects off of multiple Atlanta and New York hotels, including the downtown Marriott and Hilton. It was spoken to have a 48-story atrium with lounges dividing some parts of the atrium every 8 floors. On the roof of the hotel design shows a glass-topped revolving restaurant and lounge made for night-time viewing of the stars. He estimates that the normal nightly rates would be from $250 to $1500 per night in a standard room.
One Park Plaza Destin
Throughout the rest of the day after Star Center Marriott was designed, Michael wondered about some other buildings that he could design. That night, he had a dream about leaving a restaurant in a set of elevators in a tall building, presumably Destin, Florida. According to his knowledge of elevators then, the elevators seemed like a "ThyssenKrupp Fusion / MAD BS". He claimed that something didn't seem right about the elevators in his dream. He said, "There seemed to be more than 2 call buttons, and there was this weird setup and feel." Michael didn't think much about the design until that Christmas, where he read about the "Coda Building" in Georgia tech, with high-level design appeals. He remembered his dream from Duke TiP, and immediately set to work on the design for a 24-Story office and convention plaza in Destin designed as "Tower 14 Offices Destin", "due to the the rarity of high-rise office buildings in Destin." At around the same time, Michael came up with a design for a 14-Story Gaylord Hotel labeled as "Gaylord Emerald". Initially, these 2 designs were separate, but for space and convenience, they were placed together.
Elevators
In Michael's dream, the elevators at One Park Plaza were "different". To follow his dream the closest, he designed a custom "Destination Dispatch" panel, soon to take the design name as AGILE+ / Dynamic ID. In this setup, a floor is selected to an elevator before (a) passenger(s) enter the elevator. They are then directed to an individual elevator car (normally the one used the least that day), which groups the calls by a restricted range of floors. The elevator then automatically takes them to their desired floor(s). Later designs matched that of the GA Tech Coda Building, including that of two independent elevator cabs within a single elevator shaft.
To everyone's surprise, Michael did not perform a music / architectural act in the talent show. Instead, he asked the audience for 2 Major cities, and navigated them around the continental USA. He first started from the local major city a few times, asked for separate major cities a few times, and twice asked for three destinations. From this point forward, he was well known around the Duke TIP program, and planned to remain in the program all 4 years, as well as doing navigation in the talent show every year.
2nd Year: Georgia Tech Term II 2018
While being used to strict rules and regulations, Michael was surprised to see there being multiple fewer rules at GA Tech term II than at Davidson, such as access to all floors and stairwells, and no designated laundry room trips. The staff even let him use the elevator a few times! Unfortunately, this caused confusion for Michael, as he attempted put in many safety systems to help control the somewhat-present unruly tipsters. Much to his dismay, no system worked to its presumed use.
Southeast Stairwell Express
When Michael looked around all the floors on the first week to meet people, he was repeatedly run over by stampede of people going from floors 1-3, whilst limited traffic to floor 4. This also made the South and Southwest stairwells empty. As a result, Michael tried to put in a restriction on the stairwell which traffic can only come to/from floor 4. This worked well at first, but eventually, the system was eliminated.
| Floor | Access Up | Access Down | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 🚫 | 🔻Access to from all floors | Roof level: no higher floors |
| 3 | 🔺To 4th floor only | 🔻No access from 3rd floor: traffic from floor 4 only | No exit from lower floors |
| 2 | 🔺To 4th floor only | 🔻No access from 2nd floor: traffic from floor 4 only | No exit from floors 1 and 3 |
| SR | 🚫 | 🚫 | Emergency Exit Only |
| 1 | 🔺 To 4th floor only | 🚫 | Lowest floor served by stairwell |
| CC | 🚫 | 🚫 | Not served by stairwell |
| 0 | 🚫 | 🚫 | Not served by stairwell |
| CS | 🚫 | 🚫 | Not served by stairwell |
With his new friend Bruce “Elijah” Fleming, he decided to partner up with him and do a second navigation act at the talent show. The procedure followed the same as the previous year, except most of the time Michael and Elijah alternated directions; Michael said the first direction, and Elijah said the next.
3rd Year: Georgia Tech Term II 2019
Help to Returning Students
Though initially planning on attending the TIP camp at Rice University, Michael chose to return to Georgia Tech for his third year due to a new class only available there, conveniently matching his interests. During this term, because he was a returning student, Michael strived to guide new and unfamiliar tipsters to the operations of the Georgia Tech Campus, including activity locations, dorm layout, etc. Similar to the previously mentioned safety systems, Michael received permission to put up directional signs that point unfamiliar tipsters to the right areas of Towers Hall, Georgia Tech's main residence hall used by Duke TIP. Signs included directions to a certain RAG, to services such as water, restrooms, and laundry, between stairwells that served different floors, restricted areas ("NO ADMITTANCE" and "EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY"), checkout procedures, class parent meeting locations, and other minor ones.
Due to short time on the Talent Show that term, Michael had only been able to navigate three total routes, one of each category listed previously. Even with this cut, Michael still managed to surprise many of the Tipsters with his navigation talent!
Post-TIP Related Plans
Due to Coronavirus forcing the cancelation of Duke TIP 2020, Michael has announced his final plans for how he would continue interaction with Duke TIP after his fourth year was cancelled. Michael plans on becoming an RC or TA when he is old enough to do so, and has considered applying for an admin job in the future. For this, he hopes to ensure that every tipster has a fun and safe experience!
Michael stated that he had planned to acknowledge many of his friends and staff members from Duke TIP in some of his future projects, seemingly those who influenced action on the project. This is presumed to be on either a building or expressway plaque, though this has yet to be confirmed.