Keeping Austin weird before weird was cool
At the Annual Business Meeting, held on 2024-12-29, the ballots were counted, and the results ratified by the Board of Directors.
Our officers are board members for 2025 are
Thank you for stepping up for service in 2025!
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE THAT a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Corporation will be held on the date and at the time and place stated below. The meeting is a special, annual meeting to elect Officers and Board Members held upon the call of the Corporation’s Board of Directors according to its by-laws.
Place of Meeting : Diogenes Makerspace, 1917 Hydro Drive, Austin, TX 78728
Date of Meeting : Sunday 29 December, 2024
Time of Meeting : 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Date Notice Sent : Friday 13 December, 2024.
The meeting shall consider and act on all matters and business which may come before the Board. Without limitation, you are advised that the meeting may consider any agenda which might be included with this notice.
_____________________________
Secretary
“Hey everyone,
As I discussed at the last meeting, I plan to hold a presentation at the next Robot Group meeting this upcoming Tuesday – 11/05. Here’s a brief blurb on what I plan to present.
MACHINE LEARNING 101: INTRO TO NEURAL NETWORKSHave you heard of Neural Networks but wanted to understand what they are and how they work? This talk will give an introduction to Artificial Neural Networks – their biological inspiration, a brief history, and a general architecture.
Then, we will walk through a hands-on implementation in Python using ANNs to detect a handwritten number from its 28×28 pixel representation (MNIST dataset).
Hope to see you there!
Luke”
The last find in the folder rescued during the move-out from the old Robohut in February 2005 is a postcard advertising RoboFest 7, i.e., seeking additional funding for the event held September 14-15, 1996 at the Dobie Mall.
The gentleman pushing the shopping cart is unknown to me but he was someone known to members, Tom Davidson and Sonia Santana. It would appear that he is ‘dumpster diving’ (a technique to rescue from the municipal waste stream useful electrical, electronic, and mechanical components to repurpose into robots or robotic art).
In his shopping cart of goodies can be seen the Babbling Head (eying the gentlemen pushing the cart), Tai Chi Charlie (articulated arm above and to the left of Babbling Head in the photo), and the torso of a member of the Megabot Army.
On the reverse side of the postcard a small inset photo shows the Babbling Head admiring Tai Chi Charlie. The remainder is a plea for funding.
This will be my penultimate post concerning the folder rescued during the move-out from the old Robohut in February 2005.
This RoboFest 7 bumper-sticker reveals something about a couple of exhibits from the September 14-15, 1996 show. Once again, Brooks Coleman’s Mechanical Pitbull can be seen front-and-center. Around that are sketches of what I first though were bombs being dropped. Actually, those are the remote-control hydrogen-filled Cybernetic Airships that thrilled attendees.
Here is another of the items that I found in an old file folder from The Robot Group, Inc.’s move from the old Robohut in February 2005.
This is a postcard-size flyer advertising RoboFest 6 that was held on April 1-2, 1995. The front side features a photo of Brooks Coleman’s Mechanical Pitbull. The opposite side is a list of sponsors.
That list of sponsors is a fair indication of how Austin has evolved. Aside from the City of Austin and the Austin Circle of Theatres (morphed into the Austin Creative Alliance as of 2011). Motorola became Freescale then NXP. Origin Systems was purchased from the Garriott brothers by Electronic Arts and dissolved. Jon Lebkowsky and Paco Nathan of still around but Fringeware is but a memory. Most of the other sponsors have vanished.
I very recently ran across the postcard below, a souvenir of a visit from Boston-based artist, Ross Miller.
The Robot Group, Inc. had recently vacated the old Robohut and was seeking a new home. In the interim, we were meeting at the Dobie Mall food court. Denise Scioli (who was teaching classes for the Austin Museum of Art at Laguna Gloria), talked Ross into coming over to speak at a gathering of members.
It was nearly a twenty year ago and the details are hazy. Ross was in town under the auspices of Randy Jewett’s Austin Green Art (now-defunct?) organization. He spoke briefly about his own work integrating art into public places then went around the group asking each attendee to explain their interests in art and robotics.
It has long been an inside joke among members that, “If it moves, it is a robot. If it doesn’t, it’s art.”
At the Annual Business Meeting, held virtually on 2021-12-26, the ballots were counted, and the results ratified by the Board of Directors.
Our officers are board members for 2022 are
Thank you for stepping up for service in 2021!
At the Annual Business Meeting, held virtually on 2020-12-06, the ballots were counted, and the results ratified by the Board of Directors.
Our officers are board members for 2021 are
Thank you for your service in 2020. You are hereby sentenced to another year!
F1 in Schools is an international STEM competition for school children, in which groups of 3–6 students have to design and manufacture a miniature car … using CAD/CAM design tools. The cars are powered by CO₂ cartridges and are attached to a track by a nylon wire.
Wikipedia
Some of Christy Williams’ students at the Gateway College Prep School in Georgetown, TX have formed a team to compete in the F1 in Schools program. That team, Aspire TX, sought help from The Robot Group and Brooks Coleman and others have risen to the occasion.
You can see the preliminary results in the YouTube video linked below.
