Hello All!
Next year’s Bandits?!…This year’s Bandits? We start our Tech Banditry in January, so I’m going 2020 with it ’cause it sounds cool and futuristic!?
I’m trying a new experiment this time around. I’ve set up a Tech Bandits Patreon page in order to raise donations, rather than just hit up parents, to cover the cost of materials and such. It may be a complete and utter disaster and cost me an arm and a leg, but I really want to see if there’s enough interest out there to expand our Tech Bandits offerings and spread the word! Here’s what I’ve sent out to the school to describe my hopes for this year:
THE TECH BANDITS
Break Stuff…Make stuff…For fun and for the future!
Change the world for the better…with an exciting mix of science, technology, engineering, arts and math. Play minecraft with assistive tech, using only your eyes, or Fortnite with no hands…navigate a room blindfolded. Listen to sounds your ears can’t hear and tell robots to do your bidding!
The Tech Bandits are a kid-driven tech club that promotes analytical thinking, team building, empathy and understanding…and we’re not afraid to make a mess along the way!
This year, the Tech Bandits are hoping to team up with a local school, for kids with developmental and physical disabilities, in order to learn about life with disabilities and how we can make a difference, by creating amazing, assistive, tech solutions with the kids who need them!
The club is free, but we’re always looking for people to give us old tech and donations! In the hopes of raising money for materials, supplies and cool new tech and tools, I’ve set up a Patreon account and would ask parents to consider a 2 month @ $60 donation for having their kids in the mix: http://bit.ly/techbandits
I’ll also start sharing fun Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math things I find in my Internet-ing once again. Here’s a few things that I’m hoping to put to nefarious use throughout the coming season of the Tech Bandits:
I’ve got to start with one of my favourite robots and robot companies, Boston Dynamics. They are light years ahead of just about every other humanoid, and now dogoid?!? robot out there…I actually got the chance to pilot one of these a couple of years ago at the Robotics Conference in Boston and let me tell you…they had to chase me down and pry the controllers from my sweaty little hands!
Robot Operating System
Training is important for dogs and roboticists. And if you want to talk robot this is “language” you’ll need to make sure your robots to do your bidding…https://www.ros.org/ is a treasure trove of robot programming expertise and resources:
And speaking of robots… if you’re having a hard time finding good renovation help for your home renovations…why not put this tireless drywalling fellow to good use?:
And skip all those pesky ladders by having these drones handle the cleaning for you…
Oh, and they can also handle giant wind turbines if you happen to have a couple of those gathering bugs!
And of course you’ll need to get those robot parts delivered…so check this crazy mail sorting dance number out!