Want to win a contest without answering a single question?

Yes, you can do that. You need to pose a simple and interesting question about molecules.

FIRST Teams Sought to Participate in Nobel-Prize-Winners Contest

The Molecular Frontiers Inquiry Prize: Deadline: May 6

http://www.molecularfrontiers.org/pages/programs/molecularfrontiersprize.php

One of the great things about the size and quality of FIRST is that it is draws attention from many other groups. One of these groups, who attended this year's Championship and was particularly impressed, was the sponsor of The Molecular Frontiers Inquiry Prize.

Take their online challenge – which is to pose a simple and interesting question about molecules – and see if you can win one of 10 iPods. Among the Judges who pick the winners are selected Nobel Prize winners.

The contest is for students under the age of 17. Compete by submitting a creative question about molecules and explaining why your question is important. Ten student winners will receive an iPod, a medal, and an invitation to attend a symposium at which the Nobel Prize winners will be in attendance.

2009 FIRST Championship Results

The 2009 FIRST Championship took place April 16-18 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, GA. Over 500 robots competed on six fields while teams met and worked in the pits in this celebration of everything that makes FIRST unique!

Results can be found here: http://www.usfirst.org/who/content.aspx?id=4190

Robots of the future unveiled (from BBC News Channel)

Speaking at the Robo Business 2009 Conference and Expo in Boston, Tandy Trower, the general manager of Microsoft Robotics, noted that in the next 40 years, the number of pensioners - those aged 65 and over - is set to increase by two billion worldwide.

With that ageing will come the need to help families and other caregivers cope with decreased mobility and chronic diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Mr Trower said that robots could have a "profound impact" when it comes to helping seniors communicate with family members and each other, or reminding someone to take their medications.

"Even just having robots do lightweight transport of objects from one room to another, whether it's grandma's knitting or a cup of coffee, could be tremendously valuable."

See the rest of the story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8002850.stm

From ORTOP: Dean Kamen on 60 Minutes

Dear ORTOP Community:

If you didn't watch 60 Minutes last night, please consider looking at the video on this link. It is the first story of the show. .

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4937835n

Dean Kamen, founder of FIRST, is interviewed about his company's (DEKA) revolutionary robotic prosthetic arm being developed for injured veterans. It is a moving and inspirational story.   

FIRST LEGO League has already announced Biomedical as the 2011 FLL theme.

NXTLOG Climate Connections Building Challenge

In honor of the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) World Festival this April 16th -18th in Atlanta Georgia, USA, and Earth Day (April 22nd) NXTLOG, http://mindstorms.lego.com/news/#109513,  is hosting an online FLL Climate Connections Challenge.

Your goal is to design an NXT robot that can complete any of the missions from the FLL Climate Connections Challenge see all missions here.

But... you can add more to your robot!

There's no limit on amount of LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT sensors, motors, NXT programmable bricks, HiTechnic sensors, Codatex RFID sensors, or Bluetooth communication you can use.

If you have not competed in FIRST LEGO League or the Climate Connections Challenge, here is your chance. But, you will need to study the missions and rules of the robot game from the FLL website carefully so you know what to do:

Don't worry if you don't have the official FLL mission mat or LEGO Models, you can make your own!

How will your robot make the right climate connections?

You have until Thursday April 30, 2009

See http://mindstorms.lego.com/nxtlog/ProjectDisplay.aspx?id=b1c98d61-dd7c-49bc-83c7-f77ac83bc062  for details

Message from FIRST: Sharing your experiences

Greetings Teams:

Do you have valuable FIRST experiences to share?  Do you want a FIRST
keychain?  SharingFIRST is a social networking site especially for
girls where FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST Tech Challenge, and
FIRST LEGO League members can all share technical and non-technical
experience with peers as well as with newer and/or younger teams. To
help us complete the grant supporting SharingFIRST, we invite you to
add information to the site.  In late April, we will be contacting you
to help us evaluate the site.

Things you might upload on the site include: lessons on torque, an
explanation of gears, instructions on how to build a robust robot,
advice for recruiting and retaining new team members, how to use a
particular tool, applying to colleges, career information, etc.  We
want YOU to upload documents, presentations, and anything else that
may be of interest to members of the FIRST community.

Because a major goal of the grant is to provide FIRST girls and women
with a place to share their experiences, we ask that you share this
message with the girls and women on your team.  The site is open to
everyone, but we ask you to actively encourage the girls and women on
your team to participate.

You can check out the site at www.sharingfirst.org.  To upload
materials, you will need to request a username and password.  Please
send the following info to ksullivan@usfirst.org:

your name
your preferred username
your chosen password
tell us if you're a student or a coach/mentor
tell us what program you're involved with (FRC, FTC, or FLL).

The first 50 girls and women to upload materials will receive a
limited edition SharingFIRST keychain.  Just be sure to let us know as
soon as you have uploaded your materials (contact
ksullivan@usfirst.org).

Go Teams!

National Pi Day? Congress makes it official

Washington politicians took time from bailouts and earmark-laden spending packages on Wednesday for what might seem like an unusual act: officially designating a National Pi Day.

That's Pi as in ratio-of-a-circle's-circumference-to-diameter, better known as the mathematical constant beginning with 3.14159.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a resolution introduced two days earlier that designates March 14, 2009 (3/14, get it?) as National Pi Day. It urges schools to take the opportunity to teach their students about Pi and "engage them about the study of mathematics."

Please visit http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10194354-38.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5 for the complete article.

Robotics Hands On and Interactive (for grades 7-10) - April 4, 2009

An event for TAG students in grades 7-10 at Portland State University in Portland Oregon - April 4, 2009

The Oregon University System and Johns Hopkins University's Center For Talented Youth are collaborating to bring a day of hands-on robotics to the Portland State University campus on Saturday, April 4, 2009 from 9:00 – 4:00. Faculty and students from several Oregon instituitions of higher education as well as experts from industry will be on hand to lead small-group sessions. The content and pace will be targeted towards high-achieving students. Students are not required to be members of the Center for Talented Youth (CTY) to attend; students must be accompanied by an adult.

For more info, please visit http://oregonspacegrant.wordpress.com/2009/03/13/robotics-hands-on-and-interactive-april-4-2009/

Kohl's Scholarship Opportunity

Message from FIRST LEGO League Headquarters

2,000 outstanding children (ages 6 to 18) will be awarded scholarships
by Kohl's for making a positive impact on their community. We know many
teams actually execute the solutions they develop as part of the FLL
Challenge Project and this is a great opportunity to get further
recognized for those efforts!

Visit http://www.kohlskids.com for official rules and to nominate a
deserving young person. The deadline is March 15th, 2009.

NXT(R) motor internals

One of the best description about test the motor's capabilities and some nice photos about the internal parts.
See it for yourself and let me know what you think by leaving a comment here.

http://www.philohome.com/nxtmotor/nxtmotor.htm

NXT Area and Volume Calculator from nxtprograms.com

As stated on their website, this simple device can be used to calculate length, area, and volume by rolling the wheel along surfaces, similar to an electronic "Rolling Tape" device.  The NXT does the math and displays the results on the screen in both metric and English units.

http://www.nxtprograms.com/volume_calc/index.html

It is really cool and you may want to check it out too!

BTW, have you noticed that the nxtporgrams website has the clearest pictures of their robots? You may want to check out the advice on taking good photos for NXT robots on http://www.nxtprograms.com/help/photos/index.html

Kingsum

RCX Light Sensors vs NXT Light Sensors

Has anybody found any definitive report on comparing the accuracy between RCX and NXT light sensors?

The Nanites did a few studies and found the reproducibility of RCX Light Sensors seems to be better (+/- 1) than NXT Light Sensors (+/- 2). Do you know a similar study has been done somewhere else?

If you like, please do the experiment and share your findings with us by posting it as a comment to the blogsite, or sending me an e-mail. If you like to write up a report, like the report on toeing the line, that is great too! I really like it if you can write up a report and share!

2009 TechStart Spring Conference

Below is an email from the TechStart Foundation, a community partner of  ORTOP. There are two events of interest.
 
Best contact for these programs: Dianna Bancke at dianna.bancke@techstart.org

It's Not To Late! Register Today and be Our Guest
Saturday, February 28, 2009
If you haven't registered for our Annual Spring Conference yet, now is the time! Please join us at the TechStart and Oregon Computer Science Teacher Association Annual Spring Conference at Willamette University in Salem. Lunch will be provided.
 
2009 TechStart Spring Conference for Teachers
Workshops being offered:
Game Maker - Beginning and Advanced Levels
Robotics - Levels 1 and 2
Other Game Engines
Web 2.0 Tools for the Classroom
Intro to CS4HS

Free registration at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=e_2bKbOM1MALMc_2fDPweSJ3Pw_3d_3d

and
 
ogpc 2.0 Registration closes March 16th. Challenge release February 21st.  Oregon Game Project Challenge is a video game design challenge for middle and high school students. There is a middle school and a high school division. Teams can be school based or formed at community centers,  friend teams teams or kids from FLL/FTC/FRC teams wanting a different challenge focused on programming skills. The Game Maker software is free and tournament registration is only $50. Teams are comprised of four to seven students.
More details here: http://techstart.org/ogpc.html

Invitation to view Kingsum's Picasa Web Album - 2009-FTC

You are invited to view Kingsum's photo album: 2009-FTC 2009-FTC Feb 2, 2009 by Kingsum View Album Play slideshow Message from Kingsum: Today I brought two kids to OMSI to watch the FTC scrimmage. I took a few photos. Nothing much to add. Enjoy. If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=kingsum.chow&target=ALBUM&id=5300290966218676913&authkey=-b2AjsWil98&invite=CJ3o1vcP&feat=email To share your photos or receive notification when your friends share photos, get your own free Picasa Web Albums account.

Portland Teams in Oregon State Championship

15 teams were announced in the 2008 FIRST Lego League Season

Link is updated. Thanks to the anonymous person pointing out the problem.
http://www.ous.edu/news_and_information/news/ORTOP%20Portland%2020092.pdf

PPS students earn awards in Lego contest

Students from six PPS schools and programs were honored in a recent competition in which participants ages 9-14 build and program working Lego robots.

http://cms9.pps.k12.or.us/.docs/pg/12886

Perfect FLL and FTC performance

Perfect score in FLL - http://thenxtstep.blogspot.com/2009/02/climate-connections-perfect-run-400.html
Heroic performance in FTC - http://thenxtstep.blogspot.com/2009/02/ftc-delaware-regional-part-2.html

Lego Nanites Blogsite has been redesigned...

among other things, a section on FIRST Tech Challenge on the right...

Robot programming without a physical robot

I found RoboCode from a Saturday Academy catalog. Perhaps students find it more exciting to learn math and programming (in Java) by shooting each other's tanks.

http://testwiki.roborumble.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page

Can't wait for college? Free courses from MIT and Berkeley

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php

Their lists are impressive. Lecture notes, assigments, study materials are all there.

I checked out a source on mechanical engineering. It is pretty good too.

LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 launches in UK

Not a lot of details but color detection is mentioned.

http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/01/28/lego.mindstorms.nxt.2/

http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/21837/22861/lego-mindstorms-nxt-20-launches.phtml

It hasn't said if NXT 2.0 will be available in US.

If you find out more, please drop me a note, i.e., leave a comment here

FLL Season is Over for the Nanites

Well the season is over for the Nanites. The team had a go run in the state championship but the robot performance fell short. Despite the disappointment with the robot, the team did very well in teamwork and research and took first place in the research project.

We talked to Plastic Mini Figures' mentor, Kevin, and learned a lot from his insight into building reliable robots, in particular, the machanics of doing that. No wonder their robot is so robust!

The Nanites shared their robot and programming with dozens of teams visiting our table. We also learned a lot from other teams. The atmosphere was great.

Something for me to ponder - mixing 3rd and 7th graders turn out to be very tough for coaching. I will not do it again. Perhaps the 7th graders (going to be 8th graders in the fall) can move on to FTC while the little ones can stay on FLL. I don't know yet. But that is something to think about.