The Balance of Practicality & Whimsy in Robot-Making

Hey folks! Spring is around the corner and we figured it was time for another exciting meetup. I'd like to change up the format a bit from our usual format and also include our TAD Talks, where we open up the floor to different folks in the creative coding space who are working on cool projects and want to share!

To start off, we're welcoming a longtime friend and very crafty member Samm Cooper back into the mix, to show us some goodies he's been cooking up with the world of robots.

In the first part, he'll chat about his Covid obsession with university rover competitions, and the fun that an international team can have building robot rovers and evaluating them in Mars mission simulations. It'll culminate with photos and report of the Canadian competition in Drumheller, Alberta from August 2021.

In the second part, Samm will introduce is "DogBot," an experimental, plywood mutant rover designed for exploration and fun, one that he built for his nephew.

Afterwards, we'll open up the floor to anybody else who wants to show finished work, or work-in-progress, in the creative tech space. All people welcome! 10-15min per person, and we'll have time for questions afterwards.

Hope to see everyone online! And as always, if you want to present, or know someone interested in presenting their work more formally for a future meetup, please don't hesitate to reach out to one of the organizers and we'll make it happen.