Microsoft to give out development tools to students | Markets | Markets News | Reuters

john.mullinax — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:02:45 GMT

Historically, Microsoft's free development tool software program for students has been controlled by computer science departments. This has probably been one of multiple reasons that comp sci students have disproportionately taken advantage of Microsoft's previous free software program for students. Now, there's a new program, called DreamSpark, that seems like it will reduce the administrative burden for schools and students while also effectively extending the opportunity to get free development software to students in all types of college and university programs (something that was already allowed, but didn't get used as much as you might expect).

If you've read my posts on computing as a liberal art, you can guess I think this is a great thing! :-)

As a coincidence, I happen to sit right next to one of the guys on Microsoft's "academic team" who is intimate with this program. We've chatted about it a couple of times over the course of the last few months, and one of the challenges he's mentioned to me revolves around the student verification process -- that is, how to verify who is a student eligible for the free software. As with any ambitious program there may be some hiccups in the beginning -- especially around the student verification process since there's no real repository of "all students" -- but for most folks, the process should "just work". Just in case, consider packing an extra helping of patience if you're planning to go get your software today. :-)

Also, you can see BillG talk about DreamSpark in this video here.

Technorati Tags: Computing is a liberal art,education,Microsoft,software development,billg

Share the Robot Love! Toyota's violin playing bot and the GM FIRST Robot Challenge

john.mullinax — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 05:46:18 GMT

I'm a fan of robots. As such, two things caught my attention recently -- one far from home and one very near. First, on Thursday Toyota unveiled a white, 5 foot tall, violin playing robot that bowed with its right arm and pressed strings with its left. Perhaps the performance lacked "soul", but it was far better than I could do!

Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe said he expects robots to be a major business for Toyota in the future. Perhaps a little surprising, but it makes sense if you think about it -- for one thing, Toyota uses robots in the automotive assembly process. More importantly, Toyota has always been an engineering and manufacturing firm, and started out as a loom company (that's loom, as in weaving). In fact, Toyoda (as it was spelled back then) had already been in the loom business for more than 40 years when the "Automobile Department" was formed as part of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd.

Physorg.com has more on the violin playing robot here.

Also, last week I learned of a robotics competition that GM is sponsoring, and that students at the Golightly Academy of IT are entering. If you're not familiar with Golightly, it's affiliated with two more well-known organizations you might be familiar with: Detroit Public Schools (DPS) and the National Academies Foundation (NAF). High School students accepted at the Golightly Academy of IT spend half their day following a "traditional" curriculum and half their day learning professional IT skills based on a NAF-sponsored IT curriculum. The program is hugely successful with graduation rates of 90%, and 80% of students going on to college.

The Golightly Academy of IT is looking for some help with their robotics team. If there are any folks out there who love robots, and also love helping kids discover the power and beauty of technology, please reach out to me through this blog. I'll then put you in touch with the faculty at the academy who can give you more details. :-)

The Academy is specifically looking for someone who knows how to develop in C and would like to mentor a team of high school students. The time commitment is somewhat flexible, but not more than a couple hours per week. Ideally, they're looking for someone who would be available most weeks between January - April. Meetings are either at Golightly Academy of IT or the GM Tech Center in Warren, MI.

I look forward to hearing from you all -- let the rush begin!!! :-)

Technorati tags: automotive, toyota, gm, robots, education

Beyond | IT : education

Microsoft to give out development tools to students | Markets | Markets News | Reuters

Share the Robot Love! Toyota's violin playing bot and the GM FIRST Robot Challenge