Physical Computing, Hackerspaces and why the DIY movement matters to Engineering
Filed under: Computer, Computing, Events, Robotics, Sensors
Wednesday, 9 March 2011: Carlyn Maw, a co-founder of CrashSpace, a Los Angeles Hackerspace, formerly an instructor and graduate of NYU ITP, presents an introduction to Physical Computing.
Location: Richter Auditorium, Cal Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks (6:30-8:30pm)
Carlyn Maw
Physical Computing is a hands-on multidisciplinary approach to interaction design and systems engineering. It is neither electrical engineering light nor advanced hobby electronics, but rather a holistic approach to invention and problem solving. Practitioners are frequently experts in their fields who want to harness the power of electronics within their own discipline. Past examples included:
- A musician composing a symphonies based on data collected from sensors on the body.
- An occupational therapist working to develop a pressure vest for children with sensory modulation disorders.
- A scientist tracking monkeys.
- A fashion designer creating a dress that unfurls like a flower.
Physical Computing methodologies quickly grab the imagination of beginners by treating electronics and programing as tools which extend what the new-comer already knows rather than as complete separate realms of expertise. With an emphasis on learning by doing and rapid prototyping, Physical Computing provides a quick pay off for those just starting out and for experts making “sketches.”
Additionally, Physical Computing has become a way of life for the communities forming around it. People around the world are working to increase the accessibility of the making things way of life. Carlyn will provide an overview of the conceptual approaches, tools, people and communities that are contributing to Physical Computing today.
Conejo Robotics Team at FIRST Robotics Competition
Filed under: Computer, Events, Programming, Robotics, Robotics and Automation, Sensors
Wednesday, April 14 2009, Charles Seabury and high school students from Newbury Park, Thousand Oaks, and Westlake High show off their robots and discuss their efforts to win the FIRST Robotics Competition in 2010.
Competitive robotics has been gaining popularity nationwide as a supplement to the conventional science, math and engineering curriculum. Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park and Westlake High Schools now have competitive teams using the VEX platform, and the three schools together compete in the FIRST robotics program. We will describe the history of our program, the current activities ideas for the future as well as needs and opportunities for contributions from the engineering community. Examples of the VEX robots as well as our current FRC entry will be demonstrated.
Meeting location and directions.
We hope to see you there.
Heterogeneous Sensor Networks: A Bio-Inspired Overlay Architecture
Wednesday, 10 February 2010, Jerry Burman, Sr. Research Scientist, Teledyne Scientific Company presents a look into sensor networks being developed for the military. The Army currently employs heterogeneous unattended ground sensors (UGSs) using a sparse deployment to maximize coverage, minimize pilferage and to monitor terrain bottlenecks. A team consisting of Teledyne Scientific Company, the University of California at Santa Barbara and the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) is developing technologies in support of automated data exfiltration from heterogeneous battlefield sensor networks as part of a US Army contract with the Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies (ICB).
The ICB program is developing a new system consisting of novel bio-inspired software algorithms for autonomous operations that will leverage proven research to monitor sensor networks from extended ranges, that will collect data in a timely fashion, that will collaboratively control the motion of a sparse network of collectors (e.g. unmanned aerial vehicles) using bio-inspired sampling, that will accurately detect and localize field events and will fuse and classify sensed data. A new bio-inspired event discovery technique will enable fusion of sensor observations at low signal-to-noise ratio without requiring a prior model for the event signature;this is a first step towards sensor networks that are capable of learning.
About the Speaker
Jerry Burman works as a senior research scientist at Teledyne Scientific Company in Thousand Oaks, CA in the Information Science Division. He is the program manager and contributing scientist for a team of researchers in support of the development of advanced bio-inspired systems and sensor networks used to support US Army Research Labs through the Institute of Collaborative Biotechnologies at UCSB. Jerry is a graduate from UCLA with advanced degrees in Mathematics, System Science Engineering and attended a PhD program at Stanford University. He has over a dozen publications and six patents in image and information processing.
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Chapter Info
Buenaventura Section
Chapter C16 Location R6 01 09
Regular Meeting Info
Meets evenings, 2nd Wed of the month. See link above for meeting info.