2012 USA Science & Engineering Festival

[RoboMom]

Lots of information already coming out about the April 2012 Festival and Expo.
http://www.usasciencefestival.org/#

Unfortunately, the final Expo is the same weekend at the FIRST CMP.

But lots of fun activities being held all over the country leading up to the Expo.

Dean Kamen is featured in the latest newsletter.

[Jared Russell]

Unfortunate timing. Last year both VEX and FIRST had a very strong showing at this event.

[LinuxArchitect]

I'm sponsoring an exhibit booth and the festival for Team 53. I'm looking for other teams who are interested in coming. Look for my user announcement to be posted soon, or reply here for more information.

[xitaqua]

Hello All,

I am coordinating a Missouri Robotics Pavillion at the event, it will include at this time BEST,VEX, FIRST FLL and a robot built by adults using FRC donated parts.

If you are in Missouri and would like to be part of the delegation, let me know. We are specially looking for FTC and FRC teams.

Also three teams in Missouri has donated old FRC robots and/or parts. Special thanks goes to Wentzville, Francis Howell and Desmet for their donations. We hope to build a modular robot with parts from these robots, hopefully something we can transport by air as 3-4 separate module and assemble on site.

Cheers,
Marcos
BERSDT (Broad Engagement Spiral Demo Team) -Program Manager.

BERSDT is an alliance member of SCOPE (http://scopemissouri.org/)

[LinuxArchitect]

I'm more than happy to help coordinate activities at the festival. Who else is coming? If you would like to have an exhibit of your own, or would like to share in the one we are setting up, just drop a note and we'll work out the details!

[xitaqua]

We plan to be part of the Missouri STEM Pavilion....I should have a video about it soon uploaded on Vimeo. I am coordinating the robotics portion, and our plan is right now is to have BEST,VEX,FLL.

We are trying to get a FRC Robot with a Quad-copter demo ready for 2012.

Maybe we can have a friendly challenge...who can build a modular robot using the FRC Chassis that can be transported on a standard luggage bags, and have the robot be able to shoot nerf balls to a designated area targeted by a quad-copter.....

Or maybe we can collaborate.....Local FIRST teams build the ground robots, and we will bring the quad-copter. And we would work from now to April to develop a framework for us to be able to have the robots communicate with each other.

Cheers,
Marcos.

[LinuxArchitect]

Did you get explicit permission for a quad-copter? How big is the Missouri STEM pavilion and your flying section of it?

I was thinking about it, but we currently plan a blimp instead, in a 10x20 booth.

George

[xitaqua]

We are still working out the logistics, but the space we have will include more than just robotics. We plan also to bring a mobile tech.....
Here is an example of an Engineering & Science event in Missouri, as you can see our quadcopter still work in progress......
http://vimeo.com/32123664

We are working closelly with http://scopemissouri.org/

[RoboMom]

Attention Festival Fans! Don't miss the chance to be one of 18 winners chosen to march alongside NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the Festival's Mondo Spider and other personalities in the 100th Celebration of the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade, Saturday April 14, 2012 in Washington, DC!

To win a space in this unforgettable festive event, which this year features Buzz Aldrin as Parade Grand Marshall, Katie Couric as co-host and Alex Trebek as parade route correspondent, we're asking Festival fans to submit their BEST creative entries for science- or STEM-related parade costumes or displays (such as marching with your robot, dressing up as an amoeba...). Winners should be ready to show up rain or shine! There is no compensation.
What's more, the parade will be nationally televised with an estimated audience of 72 million viewers and more than 120,000 spectators on site cheering the parade on as it makes its way down historic Constitution Avenue!
In addition to Aldrin and the Mondo Spider, the Festival's 18 winners will have the chance to meet and march alongside such personalities as Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, "Milli Mole" (the mascot of the American Chemical Society), and Life Technologies' "Dream Gene". Other celebrities participating in the event include Marie Osmond, and U.S. Olympians Kristi Yamaguchi and Benita Fitzgerald Mosely.

Don't miss the chance to submit your entry for this unique opportunity! Click on this link https://www.facebook.com/pages/USA-S...07611949261673 for more information to apply to be one of the eighteen people to be in our group. You must apply by April 1, 2012.

Known as the nation's greatest springtime celebration, the Cherry Blossom Parade each year commemorates the arrival of spring in Washington, DC and the incredible gift of 3,000 cherry blossom trees bestowed on Washington by Tokyo, Japan in 1912.

http://www.usasciencefestival.org/

[xitaqua]

It was really neat to see all the FIRST Robots teams at the Washington D.C Engineering and Science Fair.

The Missouri Pavilion was a great success, a special congratulations to the Missouri elementary schools that had an opportunity to show what they have been doing to inspire the youth of today to become the professionals of tomorrow.

One of the great outcomes from the many conversations we had in D.C is that next year we hope to demonstrate a quad-copter build by middle school students at Langston that can communicate with a gardening robot built by the 6 elementary schools (Colombia, Ashland, Mann, Walbridge, Sigel and Hamilton) using the same materials that students use when participating in FRC competition. If you are in the D.C area and would like to collaborate with Missouri elementary students on the gardening robot project to be demo in 2013, send me a PM.

Cheers,
Marcos - Program Manager
BERSDT (Broad Engagement Robotics Spiral Demo Team)

[OZ_341]

Does anyone know if there is a date set for next year?
Does it conflict with Champs again?
Hopefully not.

[xitaqua]

I sent a question to the organizers.

Does anyone know when is FIRST Robotics Championship in St. Louis, next year ?.

I think that it can be good when both events are on the same day, it gives more opportunities for the teams to be involved, and be given leadership opportunities.

Because of the work BERSDT have been doing in St. Louis, we were given a number of passes by one of our community partners to watch the game from a suite, but because me and a couple other leaders were already committed to Engineering and Science Fair we sent 3 others in our places. They had a great time and they made great connections.

Also we took the opportunity to have 3 FIRST robotics teams from SoCal and N.Y to come on Wed to make presentations before we left to D.C, and they shared with us their lessons learned in outreach in which we shared to folks in D.C.

Having both events on the same weekend gave us a lot cross-polinization opportunity.

[Pjohn1959]

Dates can be found here.

April 24-27, 2013

[xitaqua]

Cool, Thanks !.
I sent an e-mail to USEF, and they are still working in locking out the date.

Preparations under way for next year :

This weekend St. Louis University(SLU) did their first night flight for the their quad-copter(Spiral 6):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRs8b...ture=youtu.be/

Still in works : egg hunting robot (spiral 3), gardening robot (spiral 2), and river cleaning robot(spiral 9).

If anyone plans to bring a quad-copter to USEF 2013, let me know, maybe we can have a friendly "demo battle", SLU plans to put a claw on their quad-copter so that it can pick-up an empty soda can.

Cheers,
Marcos - Program Manager
www.bersdtmo.org