RoboParty
I had the immense pleasure of being an invited speaker at Roboparty 2008 in Guimarães, Portugal at the University of Minho. RoboParty is part rock concert, part cultural event, and part old-school homebrew club meeting (and don't tell anyone, but it also manages to teach and to bring families together). It brings close to 400 young enthusiastic students of primary, secondary and early undergraduate ages together for three days of building, customizing, and programming robot kits on-site and then competing with those robots in maze exploring, choreographed dance and on their artistic/creative merit.
RoboParty is is held over a weekend (March 14-16 this year) in a University of Minho gymnasium that has been subdivided into sleeping and construction/competition areas. Not much sleeping appeared to go on as many of the competitors built their robots or programmed through the night.
Fernando Rebeiro, Associate Professor at the University is the organizer and force of nature behind RoboParty. Fernando appeared to run on only oxygen and enthusiasm for the full three days. I never saw him stop, and in between everything, he gave us a great tour of the city.
The image at right shows the mass of teams engaged in building their kits. The teams generally consisted of four people - students or students and a parent.
One of the amazing things to witness was the way so many families worked as a unit to build, decorate and program their robotic creations. Technology is usually such a solitary pursuit, but here it has been used as a remarkably effective venue for families and teams of young people to create something together.
Each team started with a standardized "bot'n roll One" kit from SAR (Soluções de Automação e Robótica) - check out their web mascot. The robot is uses the PICaxe processor and sports DC motors, rechargable batteries, and proximity sensors. Teams could also add line-follower kits and LCD readouts. SAR staff members were on hand to help sort out any construction mishaps. The folks at SAR were kind enough to give us one of these kits, and my wife Petra is going to put it together as soon as we finish relocating to the UK. It'll be her first soldering and programming experience too.
Teams generally arrived with little or no robotics experience - just a desire to learn and have fun. Many soldered and worked with electronics for the first time. For most this was their first experience programming or at least, programming robots. Over three days, they went from no experience and a pile of parts to wildly decorated robots that danced routines choreographed by the teams to music they selected. Teams could also compete in a maze-running exercise. The robot decorations rivaled anything you might find on an art-car or the Burning Man playa.
My role at RoboParty was to give a one-hour introduction to Microsoft Robotics Studio on the morning of the second day. Even under normal circumstances this is a challenging talk to give at TechEd or TechDays. People just want to see robots move. The percentage of the audience who are there to actually learn about robotics or robotics-like problem spaces is very small. But here, I had a full house of young people, parents and teachers who, in spite of being one day into a robot-building sleep-deprivation experiment, not only stayed awake, but asked some of the most insightful questions I've gotten from an audience. They covered everything from technical questions to ethics and philosophy. These young people were engaged and intelligent and I hope they enjoyed the talk because they really energized and inspired me.
It truly was a rock-concert experience. After the talks, I stood for perhaps a dozen photos and signed autographs. Professor Changjiu Zhou, Director, Advanced Robotics and Intelligent Control Centre at Singapore Polytechnic gave an excellent talk with videos and demonstrations of their work in Singapore, much of which is now MSRS-based. He enjoyed a similarly warm reception. I can safely say we were both very impressed with the intelligence and enthusiasm of the whole crowd - not to mention their stamina for staying awake.
RoboParty featured a continuous background thread of alternative activities too. There were sports exhibitions; a folk-dancing demonstration; a Tae Kwon Do demonstration; two movie nights and technical talks, including a very popular, creative and highly approachable programming course taught by Fernando.
In between all of this robo-enthusiasm we were treated to a spectacular tour of Guimarães, led by Fernando. Guimarães is the historic birthplace of Portugal. This tiny town is home to the castle, church and the remains of a medieval wall that together circumscribe much of the founding history of Portugal. We walked some of the wall and as you see at right, climbed to the top of the castle wall - a substantial (and slightly nerve-wracking) climb but a stunning view. I've made myself a promise to make it back to Guimarães. It's a city that deserves to be taken in patiently and appreciated for its beauty and its important place in history.
I am grateful to Fernando, the University of Minho and SAR for inviting me; and to SAR, Microsoft and the other sponsors for having the vision to support RoboParty; and especially to Fernando for being such a gracious and generous host. And, I am grateful to all of the students, teachers and families at RoboParty for being such an enthusiastic and intelligent bunch - I came away from RoboParty energized and inspired about technology and the students who will be bringing forth the next wave.
Photos all (c) 2008 Fernando Rebeiro - Many thanks to Fernando for sharing them.
