Piper: A Minecraft Toolbox for Anyone to Start Engineering

Attending this meetup means you agree to the waiver (http://files.meetup.com/11434242/Images%2Band%2BVideos%2Bof%2BChildren%2BAgreement.pdf).

Piper is a Minecraft Toolbox that just launched on Kickstarter (http://kck.st/1M3hQcA). It is a box that contains a complete, Raspberry Pi-based computer, and allows children to play the game of Minecraft and to hack the game by adding hardware such as switches, buttons, lights and sensors to attain power-ups. Each hardware add-on gives the player a special power-up.

Want to open hidden doors? Hit the switch you just added.

Want to find hidden diamonds? Make a proximity sensor with a row of LEDs.

Piper is a way for children who love Minecraft to learn about building and engineering off the screen and to engage them with real, physical building and inventing. No prior electronics or engineering experience necessary.

Piper is meant far anyone as young as 5 and as old as 75 to start building!

Parents are required to stay at the facility through the workshop.

About the speaker: Mark was born in Ukraine, and lived in Louisiana, Missouri and Texas before going to Princeton to complete an undergrad in Molecular Biology. He received the OxCam NIH Fellowship to complete his PhD in Oxford, but left after a year. He is the co-founder and CEO of Piper and loves hacking, reading, and making beautiful things.

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