Monday 30th April: Makers and Hardware Hacking

[Ross Cooney]

Hi,

This month’s Super Mondays is an insight to the world of the homebrew
makers and “hardware hackers”. The bedrock of today’s computer
industry, this movement is seeing an international comeback and
pushing today’s technology forward and making it accessible to the
masses.

You can book your tickets here:
http://www.supermonday.org

-- 3D Printing
3D prototyping has been available for decades but only in recent years
has the hardware cost has been affordable. Thanks to this, open source
software and sharing on the Internet is it now practical to make a 3D
printer at home. Cay Green will be bringing along a “MakerBot2 3D
printer and will give an introduction to it.

-- The Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi is at sub $25 single-board computer with the aim of
stimulating the teaching of basic computer science in schools and is
often equated to the 1980s BBC Microcomputer. Demaid for the device
has been extraordinary bringing down both the Farnell RS Components
web sites on launch, but luckily Tony Dixon managed to get one of the
initial 10,000 boards produced and will be showing it to us.

-- The Arduino
Arduino is a popular open-source microcontroller board designed to
make using electronics more accessible to everyone. The hardware costs
around £20, is easily programmed by coders and non coders alike from
any computer, and can react to and control all kinds of electronics
devices. We will be looking at what the device can do, what others
have done with it, and have a brief introduction to programming it.

-- Maker show and tell
Several local makers, hardware hackers, and other creative people will
have the opportunity to show off their work. There WILL be lasers. If
you have something you want to show off then please get in touch.

You can book your tickets here:
http://www.supermonday.org

Following on from our recent SuperLearning event, there will be a 30
min get-together before this month’s talks for anyone interested in
having a technical mentoring or workshop scheme in the region. Let’s
meet at 5:45pm next to the sandwiches. For more info see
http://groups.google.com/group/north-east-workshops?hl=en

Finally, this month we launched SuperJobs, a north east focused
technical jobs board for recruiters and job seekers. You can find this
here:
http://jobs.supermondays.org

Thanks,

Ross Cooney
SuperMondays Admin