SGarcia's blog

Due to scheduling problems at the Schaumburg Public Library, we found ourselves looking for an alternate place where we could have our April meeting. Triton College came to the rescue, allowing us to have our meeting at their campus in the Technology Building. Although the room was not huge, it was ample enough for our needs, plus Triton provided us with a projector in case we needed one.

May 19, 2011 update: Unfortunately, there weren't enough people to fill the Saturday May 21 session, so it had to be cancelled. If Saturday is the best day for you, Eric mentioned the possibility of having a training session on that day sometime in July. If this interests you please get in touch with us so that Eric knows that there is interest.

The DuPage Engineers Week Expo was held at the Illinois Institute of Technology Rice campus in Wheaton, IL this past February 26. This engineering expo invites associations to come and demonstrate different engineering principles. The expo is attended by a huge number of people, many of them school age children. They have lots of fun trying out different experiments. The associations are always happy to demonstrate something educational to the younger crowd.

What will a city look like in 150 years? Perhaps we can imagine flying cars or human transport systems that use teleportation. Perhaps we can imagine houses suspended up in the air like those featured in the cartoon The Jetsons and energy generated from the wind and sun.

This past Saturday, Dec. 4, 2010 the Snowbotics 2010 event was held at Triton College. Snowbotics is a workshop where young kids build electronic devices from kits. The two  main kits were the Snap Circuits FM radio kit and the Elenco LED robot kit.

Update: Nov. 26, 2010:

Eric G. uploaded a video to his YouTube account, check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3xTW7cqHAc

Also, I put together a short video that shows some of the bots that were on display. Here:

http://www.vimeo.com/17228003

End Nov. 26 update

Nov. 18th, 2010 update: Videos are up!

Check out the videos related to the Heddatron Robotics Project

Stuart's robot head with blinking eyes prototype
http://www.vimeo.com/16986930

Don's mock up of the Critter-Bot. Also gives a glimpse of the Steppenwolf Garage
http://www.vimeo.com/16987095

Sunday was no slouch! Our booth had visitors all day. People asking about the Turing Machine (mostly because they had no idea what it did!), playing against the Marble Maze, trying to hide from the face tracking gun, watching the Monster Chess pieces move and of course, watching the competitions and demonstration. There was also a big crowd awaiting their wooden nickel produced by Mike D.’s Nickel-O-Matic.

This was the first day that iHobby Expo was open to the public. Chibots was busy with the first three Chibotica competitions: Basic Line Following, Racing Line Following and Line Maze. The robotics team from The UNAM competed in these three games. The guest exhibitors had arrived and set up shop- The booth came to life with displays showcasing technology, ingenuity, creativity and a bit of madness.

Master Robotics Exhibitors Chibotica 2010

 The Chibots booth was now mostly populated. Some pictures follow.

Friday was the second of two days in which iHobby Expo was closed to the public. This allowed exhibitors to finish installing their booths and setting up. Also, this allowed time for the exhibitors to wander around and establish business contacts with each other.

Here is a shot of the “front” of the Chibots booth.