[dorkbotpdx-announce] DorkbotPDX 0x01, Sunday, March 30th, 6PM @ PNCA Graduate Studios

[Thomas Lockney]

DorkbotPDX 0x01 will be taking place on March 30th at the PNCA  
Graduate Studios building (1432 NW Johnson St.). Doors will be opening  
up around 6 -- show up early if you want to meet other dorks or find  
out what makes us tick.

The lineup of speakers is:

* Cathy Swider - Using LEGO Mindstorm NXT robots with students to  
create art
* Ward Cunningham - What If Bacteria Designed Computers?
* David Frech - Bootstrap yourself into conviviality by writing your  
own Forth

Talk Descriptions:

Using LEGO Mindstorm NXT robots with students to create art. As  
alternative to competitive competitions or skill challenges, LEGO  
ArtBots facilitates students to learn basic programming and robotic  
mechanical design for the purpose of creating line drawings or  
watercolor paintings. Students write short programs and attach sub- 
assemblies to hold brushes and markers to create the art. The robot  
moves autonomously with the assistance of light, touch and rotation  
sensors creating interesting and sometimes unpredictable results. It  
is hoped this approach will generate interest in engineering and  
computer science among new groups of students.

What If Bacteria Designed Computers? This talk explores Bynase, the  
biologically inspired protocol that Cybord computers use to signal  
values amongst themselves. The primary value of Bynase is that it  
drives system designers into novel tradeoffs with analogies in  
biological systems. A second value of Bynase is that it encourages  
casual small-scale hardware/software projects suitable for one-off art  
or educational projects.

Bootstrap yourself into conviviality by writing your own Forth. Forth  
is a simple language that yet has enormous expressive power. This  
paradox invites investigation. In this talk David proposes to explain  
- abstractly at first by talking about some philosophical ideals that  
Forth embodies, and then concretely by giving a short tutorial of the  
language that I implemented, muForth - how Forth can be both simple  
and powerful.

Speaker Bios:

Cathy Swider is the Project Administrator for the Oregon Robotics  
Tournament & Outreach Program (ORTOP), a program of Industry Affairs,  
Oregon University System. She has been involved with LEGO Robotics for  
seven years as a FIRST LEGO League Coach, co-founder of the LEGO  
Robotics Day Camp for Girls and Girl Scouts-ArtBot Camp. She is  
currently working with Saturday Academy and Grant High School to  
introduce LEGO ArtBots to more students.

Ward Cunningham, best known as the inventor of the Wiki, is a computer  
programmer who takes inspiration from life's processes ranging from  
cell signaling to cultural evolution. His day jobs include serving as  
Chief Technology Officer of AboutUs.org, a growth company hosting the  
communities formed by organizations and their constituents. Ward also  
co-founded the consultancy, Cunningham & Cunningham, Inc., has served  
as a Director of the Eclipse Foundation, an Architect in Microsoft's  
Patterns & Practices Group, the Director of R&D at Wyatt Software and  
as Principle Engineer in the Tektronix Computer Research Laboratory.

David has been tinkering with computing devices since the mid-70s,  
starting with a Motorola 6800 evaluation kit and an Altair 8800. He  
was introduced to Forth in 1980; didn't understand it completely until  
about 1990; and since then has implemented Forth at least four times.  
He is currently interested in using modern functional languages (such  
as Haskell and OCaml) as target compilers.