I have had LEGO Mindstorms on my mind a lot. I spent a couple hours on my front porch this evening talking to Lester, the coach for We Are Robo, the #3 FLL team in the USA and the #10 team in the world! You really should watch this video of the We Are Robo FLL Robot.
This week we started teaching in the two summer camps the team works with. Nell W. and Abby C. are teaching LEGO NXT Mindstorms Robotics for the Mass Preengineering Program at Roxbury Community College. Several BUA students are helping to teach NXT Robotics and Electronics for the BU College of Engineering in the U-Design Summer Workshop. Both of these programs will continue next week and I will be teaching the Flight School workshop.
VEX: We will continue to meet Wednesdays at 5PM and Sundays at 2PM building VEX robots at the lab.
Tech Savvy Workshop July 20th 9am – 12:30 pm. Teach Programming skills to middle school aged girls using Lego Mindstorms NXTs. Doodle (Only fill out the July 20th spot)
Tour of the GE Aviation: We are rescheduling the GE Aviation tour! Please, fill out this doodle so that we know what date works best for everyone. Again, only US citizen (including green card holders) are able to attend. At this plant, we design/assemble/test F404 engine, F414 engine, T700 engine (Apache and Blackhawk), new presidential helicopter, and many more!
In the News:
Lovebirds’ flight skills could inspire Navy drone developers: You have to love the title of that article from the San Franscisco Chronicle. At BU we have been studying the physics of several animals in order to make better airborne robots. It seems that Lovebirds are able to turn their heads in flight faster than anything alive!
New Pictures of Pluto: The New York Times Summer of Science has a great article on Pluto and all the new pictures that Horizon is taking. The same article also has a nice snippit on the Solar Powered Plane. Which that plane just landed in Hawaii according to the AP.
Curiosity’s Wheel Damage: There is a nice article on Space.com about the wheel damage on my favorite Martian robot.
Robotics Taxi Cabs: The Washington Post reports that robot taxi cabs could reduce vehicle emissions. The Post article seemed to imply that people would not want to ride these slower but environmentally conscious cars. But the Christian Science Monitor says they will cost less. Hey, if it can beat Uber, then maybe it is worth it!
